By Andrew Sanford | TV | February 26, 2021 |
By Andrew Sanford | TV | February 26, 2021 |
M.O.D.O.K. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) is one of Marvel’s strangest villains. An evil scientist that used gene manipulation to become a… floating… head? … That kills!! He is a character that you may not question in a comic book or a cartoon but would look pretty silly if he showed up in an Avengers movie. Which is why it’s perfect that he’s getting his own stop motion comedy on Hulu!
Patton Oswalt will voice the villain and lead an insanely stacked voice cast that features Aimee Garcia, Ben Schwartz, Melissa Fumero, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Beck Bennett, Jon Daly, and Sam Richardson!! Hulu dropped a trailer to celebrate the show’s release date (May 21st), and I’ve watched it several times already. It looks great, Oswalt sounds fantastic, and most importantly it’s funny!
The humor may seem like a low bar, it is a comedy show after all, but therein lies the rub. Since Iron Man, Marvel adaptations have had comedic tones. There may be a cartoon or movie here and there that takes itself seriously, but the comedic stuff is still there, whether you want it or not (I’m looking at you, Falcon and Bucky staring contest).
Because they mostly lean into humor, whenever one of their adaptations is billed as a Comedy, in my opinion, it falls flat. My biggest example being the Ant-Man films. Those movies are just as funny as your run-of-the-mill Marvel movie and yet they’re pushed as comedies. Same with the Deadpool movies. Are there funny parts in those films? Sure. Are they gut-busting comedies? Debatable.
I know that Deadpool is technically not MCU, though that may change with the third installment. I actually thought that the second one was also a huge improvement. I’m also very much aware that M.O.D.O.K. isn’t going to be part of the MCU. I’m just happy to see a comic book property that is supposed to be funny deliver on that promise without relying on sophomoric humor.
I was truly excited by how funny just a minute-long trailer for M.O.D.O.K. was. We’re getting ten episodes, so it’s a game of wait and see. But man, oh man, we’re off to a good start!