That really is a comically large head. (Courtesy Marvel.com)
By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. is so preposterous, one might assume that most of the silliness is invented for the show. Amazingly, most of the nonsense has actually seen print in Marvel Comics.
Which calls for a quick round of “This a Real Thing in Marvel Comics, True or False,” a game I just made up. Here we go:
ADAPTOID: True.
The Adaptoid is an android that can replicate whatever it encounters, from ordinary objects to super-powers. It’s not quite as needy in the comics as on TV, and is usually referred to as the Super-Adaptoid.
First appearance: Tales of Suspense #82 (October 1966).
ANGAR THE SCREAMER: True.
Angar was invented in the ‘70s — and still dresses that way. His power is hallucinogenic screaming. Seriously.
First appearance: Daredevil #100 (June, 1973).
ARMADILLO: True.
Antonio Rodriguez was an ordinary Texan before his wife took ill, and he volunteered for [Colin Clive voice] scientific experiments [/Colin Clive voice] to pay for her care. His benefactor is Dr. Karl Malus, a biologist who is fascinated with paranormal powers and is often the author of same. In this case, he turned Antonio into a hideous half-man, half-cingulata. Malus is not a nice man.
First appearance: Captain America #308 (1985).
BAR WITH NO NAME: True.
There are lots of hole-in-the-wall taverns with that non-name, where supervillains drink beer, throw darts and complain about superheroes. These pubs aren’t formally named Bar With No Name, they simply don’t have names. And they tend to move around.
First Appearance: Captain America #318 (June 1986).
BALDER THE BRAVE: True.
Balder, Baldr in the Norse myths, was the God of Light, Poetry and a bunch of other stuff, as well as Thor’s half-brother. He’s most of that in Marvel Comics, too … and is dead everywhere. In the Norse myths, he was killed by a blind archer who had been goaded by Loki. In Marvel Comics, he was killed in some Ragnarok or other. In M.O.D.O.K., he was killed by an A.I.M. paper shredder. He should be named Balder the Unlucky.
First appearance: Journey into Mystery #85 (October 1962).
BILLY THE KID, GOATEYE, GOATIS REDDING: False.
M.O.D.O.K.’s goats don’t exist in Marvel Comics. But there are Asgardian flying goats who do — famously, Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, who pull Thor’s chariot. They’re lifted from Norse myths, where their original names are Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr.
First Marvel Comics appearance: Thor Annual #5 (September 1976).
FIN FANG FOOM: True.
Foom is an alien from Kakaranthara (a.k.a. Maklu IV), trapped on Earth and periodically waking up from drug-induced hibernation to inspire dragon legends. The Chinese named him Fin Fang Foom, which roughly translates to “He whose limbs shatter mountains and whose back scrapes the sun." He’s usually pretty cranky.
First appearance: Strange Tales #89 (October, 1961).
HEXUS THE LIVING CORPORATION: True.
Created by the legendary Grant Morrison, Hexus is a sentient alien being who happens to be a perfect metaphor for unchecked corporate greed. Hexus travels from planet to planet, extracts all its natural resources, and leaves the few natives who survive to deal with horrible pollution and a collapsing ecosphere. Nothing familiar about that, right?
First appearance: Marvel Boy #3 (October 2000)
The battle is on with Monica Rappaccini (left) to determine who will be Scientist Supreme in Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. This scene mirrors several in the comics, where the two are often in conflict. (Courtesy Marvel.com)
LOAF KNIGHT: False.
There is no Loaf Knight in Marvel Comics. But he looks like (and talks like) the Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So he’s got that going for him.
MASTER PANDEMONIUM: True.
Martin Preston made a deal with Mephisto to replace a missing limb, because he apparently hasn’t read any comics, seen any movies or heard any country songs that emphasize what a bad idea it is to make a deal with the devil. So, yes, his hands really are demons who are part of his fragmented soul, demons which briefly served as Wanda Maximoff’s imaginary children, Billy and Tommy. Brrr.
First appearance: West Coast Avengers #4 (Jan 1986)
MANDRILL: True.
Jerome Beechman is a mutant who is covered in brown fur, has the face of a mandrill and emits pheromones that make women fall hopelessly in love with him. Armadillo never stood a chance.
First appearance: Shanna the She-Devil #4 (June 1973).
M.E.L.I.S.S.A.: False.
This anacronym isn’t a real thing in comics or on TV. Melissa likes to say her name means “Mental Entity Living to Induce Seriously Sinister Anarchy,” but she was named for Melissa Etheridge.
MENA SUVARI: False.
Suvari doesn’t appear in Marvel Comics (yet). But she is a real actress, who appeared — as M.O.D.O.K. notes — in both American Pie and American Beauty in the same year (1999).
M.O.D.O.K.: True, obviously.
A.I.M flunky George Tarleton was experimented on until he became M.O.D.O.C., the Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing. But he broke free of his captors, changed his name (“Computing” became “Killing”) and took over the organization.
First appearance: Tales of Suspense #94 (October 1967).
M.O.D.O.K. first appeared in the Captain America strip in Tales of Suspense in 1967, and as you can see, co-creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby didn’t do anything by half-measures. And yes, the blonde is Sharon Carter. (Courtesy Marvel.com)
JODIE, MELISSA, LOU MODOK: False.
M.O.D.O.K. never had a wife or kids until this year, when Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. showrunners Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt introduced them in the M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games miniseries, which ended last month. Spoiler, the comics versions aren’t human.
THE ORB: True.
The guy with the giant eyeball for a head could be either of two characters. One wears an eyeball helmet to cover a disfigured face, and the other was born with an eyeball head. I refuse to discuss either, as I can feel my brain cells dying horribly when I do.
First appearance: Marvel Team-Up #15 (helmet guy, November 1973) and Ghost Rider #26 (giant eyeball guy, October 2008).
POUNDCAKES: True.
Marian Pouncey was a member of the all-female wrestling group The Grapplers, who were dissatisfied with how little money they made compared to their male counterparts. They received super-strength from the Power Broker (who is not Sharon Carter in the comics) and became supervillains. The real villain here is inequitable pay for women.
First appearance: Marvel Two-In-One #54 (August, 1979).
SOHO LAIR: False (ish).
The Soho Lair doesn’t exist in the comics, but the three supervillains we saw there do. The green guy is The Leader (Sam Sterns, first appearance 1964), who gained super-intelligence and a big head from gamma rays. Mister Sinister (Nathaniel Essex, 1987) is a flamboyant X-Men villain who has lived since the Victorian Era, loves capes and likes to tinker with genetics. Madame Masque (Whitney Frost, 1968) is a rich gal who doesn’t have any super-powers, but likes to wear that mask ‘cause it’s cool.
Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. showrunners Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum have introduced a family for our big-headed supervillain in the comics, but they’re note quite the same. (Courtesy Marvel Comics)
SWEETLEG: False.
Angar’s band was invented for the show. He was a social activist in Daredevil comics, not a musician, before becoming a supervillain.
TENPIN: True.
Alvin Healey throws weighted bowling pins at people as part of a juggling supervillain team, the Death-Throws. Let that sink in for a minute.
First appearance: Captain America #317 (May 1986).
WHIRLWIND: True.
The guy in green in the Bar With No Name is Davey Cannon, who has the mutant ability to spin at 400 mph. To turn that into something actually dangerous, he wears saw blades on his wrists. And, why yes, he did stalk The Wasp, thank you for asking.
First appearance: Tales to Astonish #50 (December 1963).
That concludes today’s episode of “This a Real Thing in Marvel Comics, True or False, M.O.D.O.K. edition.” If you have a perfect score, congratulations! But get a life! As for everyone else, tune in next time we cover Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., where I will once again refuse to discuss The Orb.
Seriously, how does a giant eyeball head even breathe? Aiee, there goes another brain cell.
Find Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), on his website (captaincomics.ning.com), on Facebook (Andrew Alan Smith) or on Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
I thought Whitney Frost wore the mask because her face had been damaged a la Dr. Doom. I'll have to look that up.
Here's the scoop on the Silver-Age Whitney Frost.
She débuted in a brief scene in "The Warrior and the Whip", from Tales of Suspense # 98 (Feb., 1968). That's the beginning of an arc that shows the Big M, the leader of the Maggia, attempting to take over Stark Industries. In "Alone Against A.I.M.", from Iron Man # 1 (May, 1968), we learn that the Big M is actually the sophisticated, beauteous Whitney.
In "A Duel Must End," from Iron Man # 8 (Dec., 1968), the Golden Avenger and Jasper Sitwell thwart the Maggia's operation against Stark Industries, but Whitney escapes in a small heli-carrier.
"The Beginning of the End", Iron Man # 17 (Sep., 1969) introduces Madame Masque, a lieutenant for the villain Midas, who's attempting to take control of Tony Stark's holdings.
In "Even Heroes Die", Iron Man # 18 (Oct., 1969), Madame Masque explains, to Tony Stark, the reason she wears a golden mask:
Behind this mask is only horror! Midas' men rescued me from a plane crash . . . a surgeon he hired saved my life . . . but not before chemicals on board played a macabre joke with my features!
It's not until next issue's "What Price Life?", Iron Man # 19 (Nov., 1969), that Tony Stark, and the readers, discover that Madame Masque is Whitney Frost. Presumably, the plane that crashed and destroyed her face was the heli-carrier which took her from Stark Industries back in issue # 8.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Commander. You saved me the trouble of verifying things myself.