Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s final trailer has given Marvel fans plenty to be excited about – but nobody can agree on one particular villain’s design.
The teaser, which debuted online on January 9, gave us our best look yet at the Marvel Phase 5 movie, which arrives in theaters worldwide on February 17. From Kang the Conqueror looking suitably menacing to more hints at what the film’s plot entails, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s official trailer delivered a masterclass in how to increase hype within a fanbase. You can read more about what’s shown off in our Ant-Man 3 trailer breakdown article.
While Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans agree that the film’s final teaser makes it look absolutely brilliant, there is one thing nobody can agree on: MODOK’s design.
The iconic supervillain, who’ll make his MCU debut in Quantumania, is one of Marvel’s most uniquely designed bad guys. In short: MODOK is a giant head, with tiny limbs and a small torso, who sits in a floating gold chair. In the comics, his look is down to an experiment gone wrong, with AIM scientist George Tarleton turned into the bloodthirsty, intellectual villain due to the cosmic cube.
In the MCU, though, MODOK’s origin story has been altered. Instead of Tarleton, MODOK is a mutated version of Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket, the villain of 2015’s Ant-Man. In that movie, it appears Scott Lang killed Cross when he destroyed his suit, causing him to shrink uncontrollably. However, Cross has clearly survived and, whether it was Kang who saved him or not, Cross is now known as MODOK.
This was confirmed in Ant-Man 3’s final trailer, with the face of Corey Stoll – who played Yellowjacket and will play MODOK – clearly visible at the 0:57 mark of the teaser:
Unfortunately, not everyone is on board with MODOK’s final MCU design. While many can agree that he looks a lot closer to his comic book counterpart than many expected, Marvel fans haven’t held back in their roasting of MODOK’s aesthetic.
One of the more common (but no less mocking) comparisons fans have made is that MODOK looks like Mr. Electric from maligned 2005 3D superhero film Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Yes, that’s a real movie that really came out in the early 21st century:
I said it hella long ago when the #Modok show on Hulu came out that if they ever had a live action Modok, he would look like Mr. Electric from Sharkboy & Lavagirl… looks like I was right lmao pic.twitter.com/vvMXBnNMlPJanuary 10, 2023
But wait, there’s more. Given how stretched Stoll’s face looks in MODOK’s final design, other fans have suggested he wouldn’t look out of place in another 3D movie, such as Spy Kids:
Oh M.O.D.O.K, looking like something outta Spy Kids. You’ll probably be played as a joke and die anyways. #AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania #MODOK https://t.co/c3dDOugWOS pic.twitter.com/Rtp1gKjokjJanuary 10, 2023
We didn’t think we’d see MODOK resemble the baby-faced Sun from Teletubbies, a UK-based kids TV show, either, but here we are:
Other MCU fans weren’t so joke-y with their criticisms. Twitter user Colerful_lol (opens in new tab) simply called MODOK “ugly AF”, painfulgamer1 (opens in new tab) said the design was “worse than I thought”, and BoxKingKevin stated that Marvel should have looked to Crystal Dynamics’ Marvel Avengers videogame to understand what fans want from a CGI-based MODOK design:
Should we bully @Kevfeige @AntMan just like we did with Sonic to fix #MODOK to look how he does in the @PlayAvengers game? 🤔(I’M JOKING YOU SHOULDN’T BULLY NO ONE YOU DUMBS. But seriously, Modok in the MCU looks like George Lopez and I hate it😭) #AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania pic.twitter.com/l1iwFTqbpZJanuary 10, 2023
Things aren’t much better over on Reddit. XNightCrawlerBAMF (opens in new tab) joked that MODOK “is the sexiest thing I’ve seen today”, TheOwl1991 (opens in new tab) commented on how goofy he looks, adding “it feels like it just photoshopped in and not in a way to fit the helmet”, and CityHog (opens in new tab) and MysteriousCommon6876 (opens in new tab) mocked the design for looking like “online pre made animations where you upload a photo of your face onto a character and send it to people” or a “JibJab card”.
when i wanted to go to bed early but my friends make me stay out at the club past midnight #MODOK pic.twitter.com/hnWKGlKlXgJanuary 10, 2023
There are some fans who think MODOK’s design is as good as it could be. You know, considering what he’s been through.
On Twitter, Creepstar409 (opens in new tab) asked their fellow MCU fanatics how possible it would be to convert MODOK’s comics-accurate look into a believable, live-action supervillain, while JustinDunton (opens in new tab) described MODOK’s design as “perfect”. Over on Reddit, send_me_pineapples (opens in new tab) defended Marvel for “how they didn’t shy away from making him look weird”. Meanwhile, TheRealMichaelGarcia (opens in new tab) added “[I] can’t wait to see people complain about how silly and goofy he looks, after complaining for months about how marvel made him a robot and not a giant floating head because they were easily fooled by fan art”.
There’s still time for Marvel to tweak MODOK’s design before Quantumania lands in theaters, so there’s every chance that he could look better than he does in the trailer. Fans who have mocked his live-action depiction, then, might end up eating their words if that proves to be the case. If not, you should applaud Marvel for retaining MODOK’s surreal aesthetic, regardless of whether you deem it good or not. If you don’t, MODOK might take you out with those energy cannons attached to his chair. Just saying.
For more MCU-based content, find out how to watch the Marvel movies in order. Additionally, read our Marvel movies ranked piece to see what we think of Ant-Man’s other two solo MCU outings.
