I love comics that stand out from the rack, and I particularly love them when they make me laugh. Out. Loud. M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1 is one of those comics and Ryan Dunlavey is my new favorite Marvel creator. Pitched as a tie-in to Marvel’s Dark Reign event, this one-shot is only tangentially but humorously connected through an opening sequence of phone messages from MODOK to Norman Osborn. I suspect someone in marketing needed a reason to slap a Dark Reign logo on the cover to boost sales. Well, I’m all in favor of anything that’ll sell more copies of things I like.

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby over 40 years ago, MODOK is a great choice for this kind of comic. He combines two great comic book archetypes: the character with the big head (like Steve Ditko’s The Leader), and the chair based being (like Kirby’s Metron).

And here he’s used for great comic effect in a story that has Osborn sending him to Erie, Pennsylvania to get him out of the way although MODOK thinks that “surely, Erie is the linchpin in the path of total world domination!” It’s also where his family lives and he’s just in time for his high school reunion. Dunlavey also manages to weave in MODOK’s high school backstory, a giant robot fight and abused minions who long for a better life.

Even though this is a humorous comic - a very humorous comic - Dunlavey manages to create a well-rounded tragi-comic character that we can all feel for. MODOK isn’t just a vessel for snappy one-liners. Peel away the comedy and he’s as deep and emotional as a dozen Bendis comics.

I’ll be very curious to see how Dunlavey follows this effort. Marvel would be foolish to let him sit idle for too long. And with any luck, they won’t give him something dark and gritty. The Marvel Universe could definitely use some laughs.

More Dunlavey: Robot 6 has a nice interview.

More Erie: And here’s a nice article from the local Erie media about MODOK’s hometown journey.

[Artwork: Cover to M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1 by Ryan Dunlavey, © Marvel Comics]