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Quote1 I worked for A.I.M.... Didn't know they were bad people. Thought it... exciting science. Then one day... Four of them grabbed me. They injected me, pushed me in a chamber-- It hurt so bad... It hurt! And then, and then... It's all the nightmares after that. Quote2
George Tarleton[src]

George Tarleton aka M.O.D.O.K. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing[3]), formerly M.O.D.O.C. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Computation[1]), was a lowly American technician working for A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics). He joined the team to help develop the Cosmic Cube, but was mutated into a human computer by the Scientist Supreme. They grew his brain to give him a superhuman intellect, but with the side effect of a massive cranium which was too much for his frail body, meaning he needed to be placed inside a life support unit dubbed the "Doomsday Chair".[11] The process also gave him a plethora of psychic powers along with an ego and ambition to match. He went on to use his new found powers to take control of the organization that had experimented on him.[3]

History

Origin[]

Several accounts exist that discuss George Tarleton's life before becoming M.O.D.O.K.. In one George Tarleton was a skilled technician from Erie, Pennsylvania.[11] The second as recounted by his father Alvin said that George lacked intelligence and was hired as a janitor for A.I.M.[12] A third saw him as a smart man, hired by the US Army for weapons research, who took the samples collected from the monsters of Sin-Cong for study.[13]

He joined the radical scientific group A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) and worked with them to create the Cosmic Cube, a device with infinite capabilities. The Scientist Supreme (Lyle Getz) decided they needed a way to study the cube so they created project M.O.D.O.C. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing) to analyze and probe the Cosmic Cube and to improve the organization's productivity in its scientific endeavors, while still being subservient to the higher echelons of the organization. To that end they mutagenically altered George into the super intelligent being, M.O.D.O.C., his massive cranium was too much for his frail body to support so they place in a hoverchair dubbed the Doomsday Chair. These scientists unwisely did not take into consideration the theory that superior ability naturally leads to superior ambition.[11] It did not take long for M.O.D.O.C. to turn on his former masters and overthrow A.I.M. He adopted the new acronym for his title: M.O.D.O.K. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) at this time as he was more of a ruthless killer than a bean counter in his own estimation.[3]

Captain America[]

George Tarleton (Earth-616) from Tales of Suspense Vol 1 94 0001

First appearance

M.O.D.O.K. came into conflict with Captain America when he came to rescue Sharon Carter from an A.I.M. submarine who was undercover as an A.I.M. agent when he cover was blown.[14] He tried to destroy Cap with his mind bolts, but during his fight A.I.M. betrayed its leader and tried to free themselves. As they all tried to escape M.O.D.O.K. detonated the self destruct leaving everyone only moments to get free from the blast.[3]

M.O.D.O.K. was later revealed to be alive and well and learned the Red Skull had stolen the Cosmic Cube and used it to swap minds with Captain America.[15] He survived the explosion of the AIM submarine by creating a mental force-field around him to protect himself from the blast, then using telepathy to call AIM scientists that were still loyal to him to recover him from the ocean.[16] M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. manipulated Captain America as a part of a plot to steal Professor Fosgrave's most recent atomic equations. But he was able to stop them.[11]

M.O.D.O.K. was unimpressed for with this recent failure. He turned one of his assassins into a cyborg and sent him on a test run to rob a bank. On his return M.O.D.O.K. destroyed the money. He was then sent after Captain America, but failed in his mission to kill him.[17]

M.O.D.O.K. created an android duplicate of Bucky and sent him to work with Captain America. When it came down to it, the android's implanted memories of Bucky's loyalty wouldn't allow him to kill Captain America, and it short circuited.[18] He then sent Bulldozer, a giant robot to kill Captain America.[19]

Namor[]

He battled Namor, who he took prisoner with help of his army of androids.[20] Doctor Doom is forced to confront M.O.D.O.K. directly.[21] Namor managed to free himself and reach the Cosmic Cube. Working together Doom and Namor defeat M.O.D.O.K. and flee as the Cosmic Cube's explosion destroyed the A.I.M. base.[22]

Hulk[]

M.O.D.O.K. tried to take out the Hulk. He created a giant robotic body to help in the battled and planned to use gamma radiation to create a creature more powerful than the Hulk and has determined the best subject for it: Betty Talbot. M.O.D.O.K. visited Betty and used his mental powers to amplify her hate and ordered her to kill the Hulk the next time she saw him. However M.O.D.O.K. was confronted by the Hulk and his robotic body was no match for him and was forced to flee.[23]

Later, Dr. Katherine Waynesboro, an associate of Bruce Banner, was briefly transformed into a female M.O.D.O.K. counterpart called Ms. M.O.D.O.K. She nearly married M.O.D.O.K. until he tried to disintegrate the Abomination, which appalled her. Crestfallen, M.O.D.O.K. decided she wasn't the one for him after all, and forcibly returned her to normal.[24]

Death[]

A.I.M. was not happy with M.O.D.O.K.'s megalomaniacal and short-sighted leadership and he was frequently ousted only to return to power again. M.O.D.O.K. was so focused on his personal grudge with various superheroes that he ignored the scientific aspect of the organization and allowed it to become stagnant. The other A.I.M. leaders eventually hired assassins to eliminate him. M.O.D.O.K. was supposedly killed by the Serpent Society during that group's first mission.[25]

Return of M.O.D.O.K.[]

AIM used a Cosmic Cube, and sacrificed M.O.D.A.M., to revive M.O.D.O.K. at Boca Caliente in order for him to repair the damage to reality that the uncontrollable Cosmic Cube had wrought. M.O.D.O.K. first deactivated most of the local Adaptoids and, when he analyzed the dimensional rift opened by the Cube's unleashed energies, he decided to willingly go to the other dimension in a quest for power. The breach at Boca Caliente was later sealed by the sacrifice of an Adaptoid.[26]

In this other dimension, M.O.D.O.K. found himself overwhelmed and stranded. The Headmen inadvertently recovered M.O.D.O.K., who agreed to help them use Orrgo to conquer the world. M.O.D.O.K. took advantage of his unexpected return and once again took control of AIM. However, after battling the Defenders, M.O.D.O.K. withdrew the support of AIM, lest the organization suffer another defeat.[27]

On one occasion, M.O.D.O.K. attempted to use the invention of the brilliant doctor Mark Cushing, who had developed a way to utilize the dormant mental powers of humans to turn the weak, the sickly, the handicapped, into super-people, and had created a Utopian society. AIM of course wanted this discovery, but was thwarted by Captain America and Iron Man. On this occasion, M.O.D.O.K. utilized the pooled psychic power of the super-society to create a giant humanoid body for himself, made up out of pure energy.[28]

Later M.O.D.O.K. had been captured by a US Naval intelligence/drug cartel alliance, who lobotomized him and used him to tap spy satellites and manipulate stock markets. Unknown to them, M.O.D.O.K. regained consciousness and swapped his mind with the human Damocles "The Saint" Rivas as well as developing the ability to convert his original form to data and "e-mail" it around the world. His original body, acting off old instincts, murdered every AIM agent who had created M.O.D.O.K. while M.O.D.O.K. himself battled Captain America, the Falcon and the Anti-Cap in a takeover attempt. He was finally trapped in stasis (by interrupting a teleportation sequence) and taken into SHIELD custody.[9]

M.O.D.O.K. escaped custody and either expelled or subverted the personality of Rivas and took command of an AIM research lab in India. There, he was attacked by Deadpool, who was searching for a sample of the Phalanx.[29] He was later defeated by Squirrel Girl when attempting to take over one of Maelstrom's old labs.[30]

Eventually, the process that turned Tarleton into M.O.D.O.K. proved to be unstable, and his body began breaking down. M.O.D.O.K. wanted a device called a G-TAC sequencer to help stabilize his physiology, but it was being used in a series of shell games by Sean Madigan, another agent of A.I.M. and Tarleton's discarded biological son. A faction within A.I.M. wanted to overthrow M.O.D.O.K. and commissioned Madigan to make it happen, but Madigan turned his employers and M.O.D.O.K. against each other, bringing in Ms. Marvel's Lightning Storm team and Monica Rappaccini's A.I.M. faction for good measure. Eventually, Madigan affixed the G-TAC sequencer to the weakened M.O.D.O.K. as a living "DNA bomb" and dropped him in a major population center. Ms. Marvel flew M.O.D.O.K. into low orbit to safely detonate the bomb, leaving M.O.D.O.K. lost in the explosion. After that, Madigan got his wish and A.I.M. degenerated into a series of splinter cells operating independently, instead of under one overarching leadership.[31]

M.O.D.O.K.'s 11[]

Super-Villain Team-Up MODOK's 11 Vol 1 1 Textless

M.O.D.O.K.'s 11

Left impoverished and isolated after Monica Rappaccini took control of AIM, M.O.D.O.K. came up with a new plan to regain power. Assembling a team of current and former super-villains — Puma, Mentallo, Armadillo, Chameleon, Nightshade, Living Laser, Rocket Racer, and Spot - using a psychic illusion of cash, he plotted to steal a power source called the Hypernova. Able to be used as a power source or ultimate weapon, it belonged to the Infinicide, a race of naturally-evolved M.O.D.O.K.s from the end of time. He repeatedly tried to focus on being Designed Only for Computing, and had to struggle not to say "Killing" instead.

M.O.D.O.K.'s team was infiltrated by Rappaccini's Ultra Adaptoid and two of its members were working for other beings, but M.O.D.O.K. secretly took and replaced the Hypernova while it was being handed to the Spot via the Dark Dimension (M.O.D.O.K. had kept one of Spot's portals around for this). He then sold the Hypernova to AIM for a billion dollars and paid off his minions that remained loyal (with increased cuts due to only three remaining in the end). It turned out the Hypernova was unstable away from the Infinicide — which M.O.D.O.K. had known, and his plan all along had been to get Rappaccini to give him money for something that would destroy her and AIM's HQ (although it bears to be seen whether this was the real Hypernova and not another imitation; an actual hypernova explosion would completely destroy the entire solar system rather than just a single AIM base). M.O.D.O.K. now had a base and an army of minions once more.[32]

A.I.Monkey experiment[]

M.O.D.O.K. fought the Fantastic Four in Puerto Rico alongside his A.I.Monkeys that he was working on at the time.[33]

M.O.D.O.K. was among the nine criminal geniuses that Beast sought out to help him reverse the effects of M-Day. As with many of the others, M.O.D.O.K. rebuffed the Beast.[34]

World Wars Hulks[]

George Tarleton (Earth-616) from Incredible Hulk Vol 1 610 0001
When the Intelligencia used the Cathexis Ray Generator, a device that could transfer radiant energy from one subject to another, Amadeus Cho was affected as well. Cho's mind expanded at certain level that he gained the ability to warp reality within a ten-foot radius. With the use of this power, Amadeus changed M.O.D.O.K. back into George Tarleton again.[35] George Tarleton was taken into custody by the US military and remained confined at the Gamma Base in Death Valley. He began to undergo therapy to overcome the trauma caused by his actions as M.O.D.O.K., which he could barely recall.[36]

Attributes

Power Grid[40]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Poor:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Bulletproof:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Weak:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Warp:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Below Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (25-75 ton):Category:Power Grid/Strength/Weak:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Super-Genius

Powers

None ever since Amadeus Cho depowered M.O.D.O.K and returned to a normal human being.[35]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

See Also

Links and References

References

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