The new trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has confirmed the MCU debut of the classic villain MODOK, complete with his freakishly large head. Traditionally a creation of the evil science think tank known as AIM, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing became so powerful that he took over the organization as its leader. However, it seems the MCU’s MODOK will have a different origin and reason for his ginormous cranium.
In the new trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Scott Lang’s Ant-Man and his family are inadvertently transported to the Quantum Realm where they’ll encounter beings of all shapes and sizes. This includes the villain Kang the Conqueror who apparently wants to make a deal with Ant-Man. However, the trailer also features the classic villain MODOK, though the MCU’s version looks to be a disturbing evolution of Darren Cross, the former Yellowjacket and primary villain from the first Ant-Man film.
AIM Gave Marvel Comics’ MODOK His Enlarged Head
In the original comics, MODOK was a man named George Tarleton, a simple man who happened to be the son of one of AIM’s core founders. Disappointed with his son’s lack of intelligence, Alvin Tarleton eventually decided to forcibly use George as his test subject in the hopes of making him the super-intelligent living computer known as MODOC, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing. However, George became so powerful and crazed following the experiment that “Computing” became “Killing.” MODOK then took over AIM as one of the most intelligent beings on the planet.
The side effects of the experiment help explain MODOK’s massive head size. In the comics, it’s confirmed that George’s cranium needed to greatly expand to house his huge brain and superhuman intellect. The process also granted him psychic abilities, a useful power seeing as how his head is so physically large that he needs a hovering apparatus known as a “Doomsday Chair” for mobility. However, the origins of the MCU’s MODOK look to be much different.
In The MCU, Pym Particles May Have Disfigured MODOK
While the exact details have yet to be revealed, the new Ant-Man 3 trailer does confirm Corey Stoll’s Darren Cross has become MODOK in the MCU. When audiences last saw Cross, Scott Lang had shrunken down to damage the villain’s Yellowjacket suit in the first Ant-Man movie. Its systems compromised, the armor crushed and mangled Cross as he was violently shrunken down to the subatomic level. As such, it stands to reason that Darren ended up incredibly disfigured in the Quantum Realm with the Pym Particles from the suit being responsible for his now-massive head, causing him to similarly need a hover chair just like the comics’ MODOK.
At any rate, it does seem as though Darren’s MODOK will be working for Kang in Ant-Man 3. Likewise, there’s also an exciting action shot teasing a rematch between Lang and Cross who’s now evolved as this brand-new Marvel villain. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will likely explain what happened to Cross as well as introduce the new big bad for the MCU’s Multiverse Saga.