Head on over to The Pulse to check out an article they’re running there by me all about MODOK, in which I examine the character’s newound semi-ironic poplarity among mainstream readers and indie hipsters alike. Also included are some excerpts from James Sturm’s super-rare tribute to “The Rhino,” a few tidbits from The Journal of Modok Studies, and interviews with both J.O.M.S. author Robert Newsome and Kirby scholar Dr. Craig Fischer. Here’s a bit of the article–link at the bottom goes to the full thing posted at The Pulse:
There’s a whole lot of M.O.D.O.K. going on.
George Bush’s approval ratings may be in the pits, but M.O.D.O.K.’s cultural cache has never been better. Ten years ago, if you’d asked your average fanboy who M.O.D.O.K. was, you’d have been met with a blank stare, but these days you can’t swing a dead cat in your local comics shop without hitting some kind of M.O.D.O.K.ery. This once obscure Marvel villain, spawn of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee from a 1967 issue of Tales of Suspense, is now the cock of the walk in the Marvel universe, featured in the recent All-M.O.D.O.K. Ultimate Avengers issue, in which the entire Avengers team become “M.O.D.O.K.s”; starring in his own miniseries, M.O.D.O.K.’s Eleven; getting off one of the bawdiest gags in Marvel’s history in their recent holiday special; and even appearing as a Marvel Legends “build-a-figure,” available only as a piece-by-piece collectable, packed in, one appendage at a time, with other figures.
M.O.D.O.K.’s newfound stardom isn’t confined to the hallowed halls of your local “Android’s Dungeon” comics shop, though. Wandering the isles of indy comics festivals like SPX or MoCCA these days, it’s not unusual to overhear alt-comics hipsters expound upon the virtues of M.O.D.O.K. with the same studied reverence with which they discuss the latest offerings from Top Shelf, Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly. M.O.D.O.K.ery has even oozed out of the seedy world of comics nerddom into the (relatively) mainstream world of animation: The Toonami series Megas XLR features an obvious M.O.D.O.K. homage (albeit one with the face of Bruce Campbell) and Disney has even gotten in on the act with their own faux-DOC., Technor, from their series Teamo Supremo.
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