SummarySupervillain M.O.D.O.K. (voiced by Patton Oswalt) has been kicked out as leader of his evil organization A.I.M. and struggles with family life in this animated adult comedy series based on the Marvel comic characters.
SummarySupervillain M.O.D.O.K. (voiced by Patton Oswalt) has been kicked out as leader of his evil organization A.I.M. and struggles with family life in this animated adult comedy series based on the Marvel comic characters.
If you’re a fan of Adult Swim-esque humor and have always wondered what that might look like in the Marvel Universe, “M.O.D.O.K.” is going to make you laugh and maybe make you feel sympathy for a megalomaniacal C-list supervillain.
The show is just a really solid piece of comedy, from the writing, to the animation of the toy-like characters, to the (naturally) Easter egg-filled background gags, and it shows how malleable the superhero genre is once you accept the fact that people don’t need to be carefully guided through a comic book universe anymore.
I had never read much of MODOK in the comics, until the recent "Head Games" series which was excellent, but strictly as a viewer of this show, I found it to be hilarious and tons of fun. Perhaps MODOK was never meant to be funny, but I like that Marvel is getting playful with some of their characters. I don't want all their movies and shows to look exactly alike or have the same tone. This is a bit like the recent animated Harley Quinn show. It packs tons of jokes into each episode as well as some fantastic easter eggs geared towards those who know the deep history and lore of these Marvel characters. To me, this is one of the most unique and interesting takes on a Marvel property in years and a huge win for creators Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt. Patton and the rest of the supporting cast is excellent, with Jon Daly being a real standout. Everything he says makes me laugh. This show is a total blast if you don't take it too seriously, and why would you?
It has a consistent cleverness that makes its flaws easy to overlook, especially when the lines are delivered by such talented voice actors. It's just a fun world to hang out in with talented comedians in every scene.
By the middle of its 10-episode first season, the series becomes genuinely funny in its own peculiar way. Unlikable characters start to grow on you. And the insane plots, subplots and narrative issues — many of them inspired distortions of what goes on in the serious Marvel Cinematic Universe — grab one’s imagination. In other words, this one is worth watching too.
The voices and pell-mell references are the biggest reason why a 10-episode weekend binge of Marvel’s MODOK amounted to such easy, quickly digested entertainment. Whether or not you think the series wants to amount to more than that — and I feel like it really does, and perhaps someday could — depends on you.
Marvel dives big head first into the Adult Swim sandbox with "M.O.D.O.K.," a stop-motion animation series that seeks hilarity in exploring the lighter side of one of the more ridiculous denizens of the comics. While the show -- decidedly not for kids -- should amuse those steeped in comic-book trivia, the kick of doing something different is offset by the sheer weirdness of the effort.
Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. suffers from not only being not as funny as it should be, but it also pumps the fan service gags instead of actually developing the world around its star supervillain.
MODOK's strengths are the obvious talent of actors and joke writers who clearly enjoy going full ham over the course of this season. It's filled to the brim with punchlines, metahumor, and send-ups of the superhero drama. And does a fairly decent job of navigating real heartfelt drama of the family sitcom variety while regularly engaging in the over-the-top gore and nonsensical dramatics of its comic source material.
Very few series will ever get made where the protagonist's biggest success is capturing his archenemy's boot by getting it stuck while literally getting his ass kicked. If anything, MODOK is a little too dependent on these kind of "clever" gags that probably made everyone in the writer's room laugh but don't always track as well on screen. It also suffers a little from pacing issues and the frenetic nature of balancing A and B stories that reach a little too far in 23'ish minute episodes.
Also, MODOK will inevitably get comparisons to Harley Quinn by being irreverent, animated, and centering villains turned anti-hero. Unfortunately, it just can't quite stack up against the incredible writing, voice talent, and tightly executed episodes of the HBO Max series. Even so, MODOK stands on it's own as a clever, hilarious, heartfelt exploration of aging, dealing with life's disappointments, family, career setbacks, and even love.
Who knew a little animated b-list villain head in a wheelchair could be so good?
Lost its pace only a few episodes in and never really gave characters their full development that they should’ve had. Hopefully they can salvage it with a good season 2, but regardless of that it just feels like a Robot Chicken “Best of M.O.D.O.K.” compilation on their YouTube channel with a ton of filler.
Bo-ring. Yeah there are a lot of subtle callouts to other movies and media, but it doesn't make an ENTERTAINING whole. Lots of stuff happens, but I didn't really care about it because it was just a jumble of ideas that didn't have any cohesive link, which makes sense as the skit comedy robot chicken crew were powering this and they don't seem to know how to do a non-skit show. MODOK confirmed that I'm robot-chickened out. Seth green needs to find a new horizon and set a course for THAT. MODOK would have been better as a 3D animated cartoon or a traditional animation show with much better writing. I had no interest in finishing the series and went back to catching up on the infinitely better show Mythic Quest. I gave this a 5 strictly because of Patton Oswalt leaving it all on the (virtual) stage, but the SHOW deserved a 3 or so if judged on its meager merits.
Normally, I find Patton Oswalt to be a hilarious actor. But after watching the first episode, I find his latest M.O.D.O.K. to be annoying and childish.
Compared to other superhero/villain comedies, such as Harley Quin and Venture Bros., this show comes off uninspired and incoherent. It is a shame because the concept of the show seems to be interesting at first. But the creators wasted its potential.
OK, the origin story for MODOK starts off wrong right from the start so I knew I was in trouble. This is yet another attempt to treat MODOK as a comic relief. Why does Marvel do this to MODOK all the time? When they do this they reduce AIM to a pathetic group. So now I know I'm in trouble and it doesn't get much better from there. Stop making MODOK a joke Marvel !