Hey! This video s sponsored by Surfshark VPN and it s also spoiler-free.
So Ant-Man 3 s coming out any day now, and one real hot-button issue that seems to have
emerged around the film, from the trailers and whatnot, is MODOK, this take on him,
how comics-accurate it is, or isn t, who MODOK should be in the MCU,
yada yada yada. One thing I haven t really seen come up, though, is that MODOK is already in the
MCU and he doesn t look like this. Well, kinda. In this video we re going to talk about MODOK,
we re going to talk about comic-book accuracy, and we re going to talk about the way we ve
actually seen a take of sorts on this villain in this world in Marvel s Agents of SHIELD.
And yes, I know nobody s quite certain how Agents of SHIELD fits into the MCU, canonically speaking
but the characters and stories we re talking about here come from an era when the show was
still trying to tie into this wider world, and given the way Daredevil s been folded in now,
given the heavy rumours we ll be seeing some of the SHIELD cast in mainstream MCU
projects sooner or later that s not a debate I m particularly bothered about for this video.
So point of this video isn t some canonicity gotcha hey everyone, Marvel accidentally
doubled up on MODOKs the intention is rather to ask: how can one adaptation, one quasi-MODOK,
prepare us for another what can the way Agents of SHIELD deploys this quasi-MODOK
tell us about the process of adaptation, and the nature of comic-book accuracy more widely?
Back it up, though. Who is MODOK? Well he s a big ol head, in a small, often robotic body,
sitting in a flying chair-pod thing. He is a Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. The
original MODOK and we ll circle back to what I mean by that was George Tarleton, a lowly
employee of Advanced Idea Mechanics, or AIM, who went through horrific experiments to increase his
mental capacity. They worked, but the side-effect was yeah, freaky big-head-it is. So MODOK is a
weirdo. He s a science experiment gone right and wrong at the same time. Despite the intimidating
acronym, though, this particular mental organism rarely proved to be an Avengers-level threat,
and bounced around as a recurring mid-level villain for a few decades until the 2010s. At
this point, after a few shenanigans, MODOK was replaced by a new version of himself,
dubbed MODOK Superior original recipe MODOK got transformed back into plain old George,
with a clone brain becoming the new and improved big creepy head. There s also been a general
drifting of tone over the past few decades at some point, everyone seemed to realise that Flying Egg
Science Man was an idea more silly than menacing so new MODOK stories slid slowly from kinda
serious to less so. (clip - WASP: Ok, stop what is that? THOR: Tis some kind of . That is a very big
head) MODOK s been used in a lot of ways over the years. He s gone from mutated human menace
to cloned, identityless menace, then cloned, identityless goof, and plenty other variations
besides. Different adaptations, across the Marvel comics multiverse and beyond, to cartoons and
games, have focused on different sides of the character but one tension a lot of takes on
the character, a lot of MODOK stories come back to whether played for drama or for laughs - is
machine vs. man. The meaning of humanity, the limits of humanity. Whether MODOK s was
lost in the process that made him a Big Dumb Head, and if so, whether it can be regained.
In a lot of ways, the MODOK we see in Agents of Shield is unique. He s not George Tarleton. He s
not with Advanced Idea Mechanics. He s not even a big goofy head. He s a Russian spy,
named Anton Ivanov, alias The Superior, who loves Vodka and hates inhumans. Nonetheless,
this is loosely a take on that same character. After a bit of time muddling along behind brighter
minds here not AIM, but Dr. Holden Radcliffe and his AI creation ADIA he finds himself transformed
into a cybernetic being a disembodied head wired into machinery. He uses this new status to menace
the Agents, controlling other bodies, other LMDs and listen to how he describes his new
form (clip SUPERIOR: Destroy this body, sure, it was designed only for killing). The SHIELD writers
even came out and confirmed that this was their take on MODOK, the MCU s take on MODOK initially,
at least because partway through, orders came down from on high that they were to stop, that
Marvel Studios were thinking of using MODOK in the movies, sooner or later. But looking back to
Anton Ivanov, once you become aware of the MODOK connection, you wonder how you ever missed it.
But just before I get into what I mean by that a little PSA. MODOK doesn t exist in the real
world but that doesn t mean you don t need to be careful when it comes to online security,
protecting your data from computerised baddies. Because not every cyber threat is this easy
to spot. But you can encrypt your online data, protecting your information from cyber criminals
and big companies, by signing up to Surfshark. You can use Surfshark s virtual private network
to safely use public wifi which can be pretty risky otherwise or you can use it s CleanWeb
feature to block ads, malware, phishing attempts, and trackers. You can even use it to mask where,
geographically, your connection s coming from which means you can see region-locked content
on streaming services without having to, y know, fly across the world. For instance,
if you live in the US, and this video s given you MODOK fever you can use Surfshark to access the
Hulu MODOK show which is really good, by the way from your existing Disney+ account. Just
switch your location to the UK, and bam, there it is. And I ve got a real heck of a deal for
you use my promo code GARBAGE for 83% off and three extra months for free. They also offer a
30-day money back guarantee, so just trying it out is risk-free. Link s in the description do
go and check it out great product, great deal. Anyway this guy, the Superior, right? He is MODOK
or at least a MODOK. After the real Anton Ivanov s end, he winds up as a disembodied head in a jar,
controlling bodies. And remember what happened after the original MODOK, George Tarleton,
tapped out of big head duty? A new MODOK was born a disembodied head in a jar, controlling bodies,
called MODOK Superior. Indeed, throughout the comic-book existence of MODOK Superior,
head controlling bodies became a sort of recurring motif and that s this guy s whole deal!
This is MODOK. That being said this also isn t MODOK, right? There are a number of
things that Anton Ivanov, the Superior, with his form designed only for killing,
has in common with this comic-book character, but also a pretty big number of very obvious traits
he doesn t share like the fact that he isn t a big dumb floating head and arguably the lack of these
traits is more significant than the presence of those common ones. To some, this counts,
while to others it simply isn t comic accurate . Who s right, though? Is fidelity about visuals,
superficial details? If so, which ones, because over decades of appearances, most long running
characters have changed a fair bit. Is it about something more nebulous? Getting the spirit of
the character right? If so, how do you begin to measure that? The twin elephants in the room
here are that accuracy isn t binary, and that what constitutes accuracy in the first place is rooted
in subjectivity - so I think in cases like this it s more useful to reject that binary,
leave this simple idea of comic accuracy behind in favour of trying to look at the
specific adaptive process at play here. Technically, the Superior is a composite
character that s the name given to characters made from mashing up existing ones. Think Bruce s dad
in Ang Lee s Hulk David Banner plus Absorbing Man. Think Whiplash-slash-Crimson Dynamo in Iron Man 2.
In this case, we ve got a scoop of MODOK alongside one of the lesser-known Red Guardians, Anton. But
I never really liked this term here to me, it suggests a direct mashup, like those Amalgam
heroes, rather than what I think we re seeing with the Superior less one existing character
with another s features grafted on than something new, something clearly drawing on forebears,
taking certain elements, but only what fits the story they re in. Maybe we could term the Superior
a partial adaptation. Maybe we should dispense of this idea altogether, and approach him as a
wholly original character simply inspired by Big Dumb Head Man, and less so, by that Red Guardian.
But either way composite character, partial adaptation, or simply inspired by, referencing
MODOK - I think it s clear that none of these options lead directly to value, to success. We
can get tangled up all we like in which part of this character s drawn from what source but to
answer the question of does it work , of whether this MODOK adaptation effective we have to look at
the Superior not in isolation, not compared merely against MODOK, MODOK Superior, that Red Guardian
but alongside the story he appears in. And when we do that I think success is inarguable.
See, Agents of Shield is a show about many things. Across it s seven seasons,
the focus shifts wildly but there is something which unites all these disparate elements,
the found family, the inhumans, the robots, the Back To The Future-ing. Agents of Shield is a show
about humanity, and what constitutes that, across genetics, cybernetics, across time and space and
choices made, and at times, when this side of the show really came into focus, this exploration was
compelling. (clip ENOCH: this is the nature of family, as I have seen it countless times.
People arrive so we celebrate and people leave us so we grieve. We do what we can
with the time in between but the cycle is always there COULSON-BOT: Which means you re not alone,
you re a part of that cycle DAISY: Like every other living thing)
The Superior, this proto-MODOK wasn t ever the best Agents of Shield villain that surely remains
AIDA, my beloved but he definitely wasn t the worst, either, and most importantly the Superior
helped drive the show s exploration of humanity what it means, and how it s lost. Anton Ivanov
was a purist. He despised inhumans for getting an advantage, having supposedly unearned strength,
and he hated and feared advancements in technology for the same reason. This is how we re introduced
to the guy, the first time we meet him (clip SUPERIOR: the old ways are better, simple / man
is the superior machine). As his story advances, though, as he begins to take advantage after
advantage from the pages of the Darkhold, as he ends up a cybernetic being himself, with his
fanaticism and hatred remaining as strong as ever, we see that like every other guy obsessed with
purity, or every other rich prick crying about other people being privileged, the fanaticism
was less about its ostensible targets than it was about power and insecurity. It turns out the guy
who hates machines while living in a submarine isn t so principled after all. This is a story about
the transferability of zealotry, and the way that letting yourself give in to hatred, fighting to
defend your idea of humanity from those that definition would exclude, ends up stripping
your own humanity away. While robots are becoming human, this human becomes a robot. The Superior
surrenders everything in the name of that hatred, and in the end the hatred s all he has left. Back
when it was airing, I thought that was a neat place to take this character. Now, doubly so and
I think it also taps into a quintessentially MODOK thematic vein that it isn t the robotification of
MODOK that strips away his humanity, it s his actions - that the state of being a lonely,
twisted brain trapped in a cold metal shell is more a reflection than a cause of this.
The best adaptations aren t the ones which look most similar to their source material they re
the ones which best adapt that source material to serve a new story. This near-forgotten character
the MCU s other MODOK did that pretty well. So to just try and ahead of all the post-release MODOK
accuracy discourse that will inevitably follow Ant-Man 3 because, without spoiling anything,
let s just say it looks like the cinematic version will take a few similar liberties with MODOK s
original identity I think the most productive thing to do when comparing the Ant-Man version
with previous MODOKs isn t to simply label it as faithful or unfaithful, well-adapted or poorly,
but to look at how the divergences and overlaps with original recipe MODOK help
or hinder the ideas Quantumania is trying to explore. As the MCU expands ever further,
we may well see more cases like this, where a new project has another go at a previously,
partially adapted character. But if this does happen we shouldn t view this as some oversight,
as a canonicity issue, and we shouldn t use some wrongheaded notion of comic-book accuracy to
approach it. Maybe it is a shame we ll never see anything close to original recipe MODOK, George
Tarleton s Big Weird Heard running AIM, on the big screen. But and I say this as a MODOK lover he was
always a bit of a joke. Maybe this new take on MODOK will use the groundwork laid by the source
material as a springboard to greatness and if so, I think getting caught up in divergences
from the orthodox form of Big Dumb Head Man is kinda missing the forest for the trees.
According to the YouTube bylaws, if you thought this was a cool video, you re legally bound to
give it a like - and again, if you want a great deal on a great VPN, if you wanna watch that
surprisingly great MODOK show on your existing US based Disney+ account then go to Surfshark with
my discount code, GARBAGE. Otherwise cheers for watching, I hope you enjoyed, and huge shoutout
once again to all my Patreon supporters you re seeing now especially Ryan Emerle.