Just like in the pages of Marvel Comics, the Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing is a ruthless villain in the MCU. However, a few details have changed in this adaptation. Despite that, Reed and company still managed to nail the right vibe for the character. Instead of George Tarleton, the scientist who became MODOK after experimenting on himself, this version is Darren Cross.
First introduced in the 2015 film “Ant-Man,” the villain played by Corey Stoll was the former protege of Dr. Pym. But when the former S.H.I.E.L.D. operative refused to share his Pym Particle research with his mentee, Cross set out to replicate the work himself in order to create the ultimate weapon. The “son that Hank never had” started his journey by usurping Pym’s company out from under him and using the resources to create the Yellowjacket, a suit with similar capabilities to Hank’s Ant-Man technology. However, the knockoff particles created by Cross were affecting his mind and slowly driving him mad. In the end, Scott Lang defeated Yellowjacket and banished him to the Quantum Realm.
As we find out in “Quantumania,” the fall into the microverse left Cross horribly disfigured. He now possesses an oversized head with a tiny body and short limbs, as well as an overwhelming need for revenge. That’s when he was discovered by Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, who offered the thwarted rogue futuristic armor that also doubles as a mechanized hover chair to assist the newly dubbed MODOK get around. From that point onward, he served as Kang’s primary henchman in the Quantum Realm… Until he came face to face with Lang and Pym once again.
