WARNING: The following contains spoilers for M.O.D.O.K: Head Games #4 by Jordan Blum, Patton Oswalt, Scott Hepburn, Carlos Lopez and VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.
Throughout M.O.D.O.K: Head Games, the titular super-science villain has proven to be an efficient and effective killer -- but has also been constrained by visions of a family he didn't really have. Now, he's found a way to bring them to the material world -- and with some added perks along the way.
MODOK has officially gained a version of his family that will appear in the upcoming animated series M.O.D.O.K. -- only each of them is also a Super-Adaptoid, giving them plenty of combat potential as well.
MODOK has always been one of Marvel's most bizarre but efficient killing machines, with plenty of weapons and tactics that could be used to bring down scores of heroes with relative ease. However, MODOK has recently been suffering some surprising malfunctions. Specifically, he's been seeing visions of surprisingly suburban life for himself, complete with wife and children. The family unit -- Jodie, and their two children Lou and Melissa -- have repeatedly appeared to the villain, despite there being no evidence they ever existed. MODOK's father -- revealed to be the man responsible for putting him through the transformation that resulted in his current form -- explains that they never were real at all.
As it turns out, J-O-D-1-E is a program designed to sedate MODOK while he was powered down. MODOK instead saw visions of the family he wished for himself in these moments. Eventually destroying his father's physical form and wiping out his fellow AIM scientists, MODOK decides to use a device meant to erase his mind to instead extract his visions of his family and deposit them within Super-Adaptoid bodies. Thanks to this device, MODOK is able to effectively create his family and bring them to the material world. Finding the AIM headquarters full of some of his greatest rivals, MODOK launches into an attack with his family by his side, seemingly sharing his destructive capability and murderous intentions.
The upcoming MODOK stop-motion animated series has been teasing the creation of a family for MODOK, portraying him in a new light in a suburban environment. But the family has been teased to be a far more average collection of people than MODOK. But the 616-incarnations of the characters appear to be just as dangerous as the patriarch of the MODOK family, setting them up to become possible villainous wildcards in the future of the Marvel Universe. While Jodie and Lou seem content to shapeshift their appendages into weapons to use against their enemies, Melissa appears to be more like her father, even deploying her own legion of Mini-Melissa's to fight against AIM's forces.
It's a surprisingly hilarious and effective way to introduce MODOK's family to the core Marvel Universe and could be fertile ground for future stories. Having Melissa and Lou as two young villains could make them great figures in future stories that incorporate young heroes like Champions. Jodie could be an interesting counter to MODOK going forward, providing support and potentially even drama for the otherwise simple murdering machine. As Super-Adaptoids, they can each hold their own in a fight -- and could bring new layers to MODOK as a character. Having a family could also radically alter how MODOK operates in fights, even potentially providing him with others that he actually cares about -- and making him more similar to his upcoming animated form.