Hello once again and welcome to Multiversity’s coverage of Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. on Hulu! Twice a week, we’ll take a T.O.U.R. (Trip Outside Ur Reality) into the realm of Marvel’s resident headcase, M.O.D.O.K.! This time, M.O.D.O.K. finally spends some quality bonding time with his son, which yields some mixed results and leads to a muddied episode. So, let’s get on with the show and dive into “Tales from the Great Bar Mitzvah War!”
1. I.C.K.Y.
Trying to explain a joke will almost always ruin it, but I’m going to try and explain how truly ridiculous this episode’s opening sequence is. The show starts with M.O.D.O.K. opening a portal over Asgard that connects to the bottom of his garbage can on Earth. So whenever M.O.D.O.K. wants to get rid of something, he throws it into Asgard. As Balder the Brave prepares a battalion of soldiers to take revenge against this mysterious portal, a paper shredder lands on his face, brutally killing him. The show then cuts to the real world where it is revealed that M.O.D.O.K. not only has a garbage portal, but a portal that leads to his stomach, so he can eat more efficiently. Unfortunately, using it upsets his stomach, and he throws up on Gary, agent of A.I.M. Gary, disgusted, tries to throw up into the garbage portal but accidentally hurls into M.O.D.O.K.’s stomach portal as the show cuts away to the intro. It is one of the most disgusting sequences I’ve seen in this show, but I’ll admit it was pretty great in its originality.
2. H.I.M.B.O.
In this episode, M.O.D.O.K. travels to Asgard and teams up with a platoon of Asgardian soldiers to track down and eventually wage war with his son. Conveniently, the soldiers in question are the same group that was originally led by Balder, who are admittedly not particularly smart or thoroughly characterized. Given that I have enjoyed how this show used anonymous characters thus far and inserted generic representations of classic Marvel properties, I was surprised by how uninteresting this approach was. The Asgardian soldiers didn’t have any purpose other than fleshing out the scenery and they felt underwhelming.
3. G.O.A.T.
That being said, M.O.D.O.K.’s newly acquired pet goats were really delightful. When M.O.D.O.K. arrives through the portal he needs transport and since it’s Asgard, he decides to use goats. Much in the same way Thor has Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder (however infrequently they appear in the comics), M.O.D.O.K. finds himself carted around by Billy the Kid and Goatye. They don’t do much other than scream a lot and cart M.O.D.O.K. around, but I’m a sucker for ridiculous pets, so I loved it. Plus, they eventually turn into a tank, which was a great bit.
4. L.O.U.S.E.R.
Unfortunately, the main plot involving M.O.D.O.K. and Lou was the weakest of the series to date. If you have read any of my previous articles, you might recall that I’ve been critical of how bland Lou has been, so I should have been excited to finally dive into his character a bit more. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear to me that I just don’t actually like Lou. He seems to get some of the show’s most derivative jokes and his characterization feels like something I’ve seen a thousand times before. Even the emotional pathos that he brings out in M.O.D.O.K. feels bland, with M.O.D.O.K. trying to prevent Lou from suffering the same embarrassment that he felt as a child. I get what the writers are trying to do, but it was the weakest emotional connection of the series to date and unfortunately this episode suffered greatly because of it.
5. P.R.O.G.R.E.S.S.
Similarly, this installment felt like it was hardly connected to the overall plot of the M.O.D.O.K. Every episode has ended on a tease towards the larger narrative, with some key element of the story connecting to the lingering threat in the shadows. However, while there was a scene at the end that continued to build that up, it had nothing to do with the plot of this episode. It felt weirdly detached from the previous 20-something minutes and it wasn’t particularly substantial. I hate to end on a downer, but if you’re pressed for time and just want to focus on the major plot beats, “Tales from the Great Bar Mitzvah War!” feels like an episode that you can just skip over.
