How's Your Head?

Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. Sees the disembodied floating head finally getting the spotlight he thinks he deserves!

- Tara Bennett

AMONG THE GRAB BAG OF THOUSANDS of Marvel Comics characters waiting to get called up to fulfill their TV or cinematic destinies, M.O.D.O.K. has always been a bit of a head-scratcher. The creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the disembodied head/supervillain debuted in Tales Of Suspense (1967). Visually, George Tarleton (who was mutated into M.O.D.O.K., the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) has always been the Kirbiest of creations, and his outsized looks and temperament have always made him a tough fit for any grounded adaptations. He’s never played well with others, in any sense.

It just took 50 years and writers Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum to figure out that M.O.D.O.K. really can’t share the stage. He’s got to be front and centre; when you humiliate him with petty, everyday people problems, that’s when his story gets very interesting, relatable and funny. That’s essentially the premise of Hulu’s new stop-motion animated series, Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K.

“It’s grounded heart with absolute Marvel insanity,” co-creator/showrunner Blum tells SFX, on a call from his office in Los Angeles. The 10-episode first season sets up M.O.D.O.K./George Tarleton as a supervillain who’s run his evil organisation (AIM) into the ground, having to sell it to a tech company to keep it afloat. His home life’s just as messy, with a fed-up wife, Jodi (Aimee Garcia), and their two distanced teens Melissa (Melissa Fumero) and Lou (Ben Schwartz) ready to throw him out too.