If This Be MODOK, Then Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania's Second Trailer Has The Marvel Faithful Divided

When one has the ability to shrink down to a quantum level, all manner of things become possible. When an individual, creature, or extra-planar creature becomes smaller than the smallest thing imaginable, a whole new world becomes accessible, and the confines of time begin to warp and become malleable. This is part of the reason why the Avengers were able to finally defeat Thanos and bring back the world's population in "Avengers: Endgame," and why the power of the Quantum Realm has barely been touched or understood by many.

However, it seems like audiences around the world will soon get an up-close and personal look at the Quantum Realm in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." As the trailer for the movie on YouTube illustrates, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and the rest of his family consisting of Hope (Evangeline Lilly), Cassie (Kathryn Newton), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) are whisked once again into this bizarre and fascinating pocket dimension where they are greeted by alien landscapes and interesting new characters, or at least new iterations of said characters.

The major villain of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), but eagle-eyed fans have noticed another famous Marvel villain lurking in the background — MODOK, who has long been speculated to have a role in the movie (per Inverse).

For comic book aficionados or those that have seen the show, MODOK stands for the "Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing," and he has a rather distinct look that is essentially a giant head wrapped in advanced robotics with tiny, almost vestigial limbs. By no means does that make MODOK a pushover, and although his physical form is peculiar, his mental prowess is more than capable of giving superheroes a run for their money. As noted by Marvel, MODOK was originally a human named George Tarleton who is transformed by the villainous organization known as A.I.M., or Advanced Idea Mechanics. However, it seems as if "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is taking a slightly different approach to the source material, and bringing back Ant-Man's original movie foe.

Although A.I.M. has already been brought up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in "Iron Man 3" as the think-tank for Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), and Tarleton hasn't really shown up, it seems as if MODOK will instead be Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), or at least some variation of the character. When audiences last saw Cross, he was battling Ant-Man at the end of the first "Ant-Man" movie, but Cross was eventually defeated and shrunk down to nothingness — or at least it was assumed. Now that the second trailer for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is out, it seems as if fans finally know what happened to Cross after that battle as he is spotted hovering behind Kang as the iconic villain.

Wasting no time, both Marvel fans and publications noticed MODOK in the brand new trailer for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," with Den of Geek pointing out that Darren Cross has returned to the MCU — well, at least some variation of them, considering the complexities of the ever-expanding multiverse. When it comes to the nature and look of MODOK, it looks like fans are already fiercely divided in opinions of the big-screen version of this famous villain, and have converged on Twitter to let loose a mighty deluge of thoughts and comments.

On the negative side of opinions, @RaFe_Pt wrote, "I hate MODOK's design with a passion, look at him, I can't stop laughing He's giving frog face unmasked." Another fan named @BoxKingKevin also had some fairly strong words, and said, "WHY did you give us the ugly a** George Lopez Modok instead of the @PlayAvengers cooler version of Modok?!" This statement references Lopez's villainous character Mr. Electric from "The Adventures Of Sharkboy And Lavagirl" who also sports a bulbous head, and was noted several times in fan comments. User @painfulgamer1 couldn't hide their disappointment either, and stated, "DEAR GOD, ITS WORSE THAN I THOUGHT."

On the flip side, there are some fans that absolutely love the MODOK in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," so what are their thoughts?

As mentioned earlier, MODOK has long been a staple in the Marvel Comics, which means that long-time fans can have some rather strong opinions on the character. The above comments illustrate how some aren't exactly enthusiastic about how MODOK looks, though others are actually big proponents of the look and design. User @joe_fayant tweeted, "Idc I love what [they're] doing with #modok in #AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania. These movies are adaptations. Let them adapt stuff. Not everything needs to be comic accurate."

@Marvh3ll was also a big fan of this version of MODOK, and posted a screen-grab from the trailer, saying that they think MODOK looks amazing. User @allhailanorak expressed their thoughts in all capital letters, and said that they are ultimately very excited to see MODOK in the MCU, punctuating their statement with several uses of "OMG." Marvel fan @creepstar409 defended this new MODOK as well, posting two side-by-side images of the character from the movie and comics, and added, "All y'all mfs who are dogging on marvel for modoks design I just have one question...how the hell were marvel supposed to make THIS DESIGN not look strange in live action?"

With the deluge of comments that are both for and against this new version of MODOK, it will be interesting to see what opinions look like when "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" finally premiers and the dust settles on the divisive giant floating head.