The showrunner and co-creator of Marvel’s adult animated series MODOK compares the show to the likes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and DC’s LEGO Batman. The stop-motion animated show is set to debut on Hulu in early 2021. MODOK is based on Marvel’s floating head villain of the same name, and was created by Jordan Blum (Community, American Dad) and comic Patton Oswalt. Oswalt also provides the voice of MODOK, alongside a stellar voice cast including Ben Schwartz (Lou, MODOK’s son), Melissa Fumero (Melissa, MODOK’s daughter), Aimee Garcia (Jodie, MODOK’s wife) and Wendi McLendon-Covey (Monica, MODOK’s arch-nemesis).
The first MODOK footage debuted during its New York Comic Con panel, revealing that it’s set to be Marvel’s strangest, and funniest, show yet. That footage proved that nothing is off limits, with a joke about knock-off Avengers toys getting thrown into the dialogue just a few seconds in. Given the show’s use of stop-motion animation, and the adult humor, with bad language and bloody cartoon violence, comparisons to Robot Chicken and irreverent animated shows like Family Guy will be inevitable. But, according to Blum, at least, there are a pair of movies that it would be more apt to compare MODOK to.
Speaking during the NYCC panel for MODOK, Blum said that the show is similar to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and LEGO Batman, in that it can satirize the universe it comes from without worrying about affecting it. Blum says that, like the two movies that inspired it, because MODOK is animated there’s more space for it to poke fun at what’s appeared in comics and movies in the wider Marvel universe. You can read his full comments below:
We were lucky because our show is its own animated world. It’s a satire of all the stuff that’s come before it – from the comics, the movies. So we pulled from everything. We took an attitude that was similar to [Into] the Spider-Verse or LEGO Batman where we’re like, “it all counts, let’s pull what we need for the stories, and then carve out our own little section with AIM and MODOK.” And Marvel was great about giving us a lot of the toys.
Clearly, the joke about knockoff Avengers toys won’t be the show’s only instance of poking fun at the MCU. That’s good news for Marvel fans, who will now have a show they can turn to that’s not only allowed to borrow from the MCU, but will actively mock it too. It’s a first for the MCU, and should open the movies up to gentle criticism without fans feeling like their favorite characters are being attacked.
It’s also, of course, a chance for Oswalt and Blum to get creative with some established Marvel stars, with the pair revealing later on in the panel that some mutants might make their MCU debut in MODOK. Clearly, nothing is off the table for the show, meaning that fans are in for a treat when it debuts next year. Hopefully, the wacky antics and off-the-wall characters can sustain enough interest for multiple seasons, but the early signs are good.
