WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Men Unlimited #1, available now from Marvel.
All-powerful villains such as Thanos and Kang have dominated the ranks of Marvel's rogues recently thanks to their power and influence. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe allowing many villains to shine, some of Marvel's most ridiculous rogues have lacked that special something that would allow them to compete with the heavy hitters. Now one absurd villain has found a new lease of life - and it turns him into a serious threat.
This transformation takes place in the free X-Men Unlimited #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Declan Shalvey and VC's Joe Sabino, available through Marvel Unlimited. This new adventure in the Marvel Universe takes the X-Men to space, specifically to S.W.O.R.D.'s space station home - the Peak. This mutant haven has been overrun by A.I.M. with some mutants even being taken hostage by the insane scientists. It's up to Wolverine to pursue the kidnappers but he finds something odd when he gets to the computers of A.I.M.'s getaway ship.
As Wolverine looks on at the ship's vast computer banks, he sees the true architect of this space-faring mission appear - M.O.D.O.K. Not just any M.O.D.O.K. though, the bizarre villain has now taken the form of an A.I. At first, it seems to be just a basic operating system that runs the spacecraft, however, it turns out to be much more.
M.O.D.O.K. was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as an antagonist to Captain America and first appeared in Tales of Suspense #94. Before becoming the monstrosity he is today, George Tarleton was a regular engineer working for A.I.M. When the twisted organization experimented on him, he mutated into the large murderous head in a chair fans know so well. Recently, Tarleton was turned back into a regular human with no memories of his life as M.O.D.O.K., however, before this transformation, his deadlier self had made various clones of his enhanced brain. Though all were seemingly destroyed, one found its way into a new body, allowing the murderous menace to live on once more.
Now it looks like M.O.D.O.K. has gained an entirely new kind of upgrade, one which is sure to make him even more deadly. It seems that M.O.D.O.K.'s consciousness has become entirely cybernetic thanks to his A.I. upgrade. In the past, his body has been a limiting factor for him. His overwhelmingly large head meant that he needed a chair to help him move about. Now that he's no longer contained to that chair, he can move about much more freely and finally make full use of his most deadly asset - his mind.
It makes sense why previously he only cloned his mind and not his entire body. It's the most powerful thing about him and any enhancement to that makes him a substantially greater threat. Now that he's an A.I., he can add to that asset with technology. He can think faster, improve his memory, and access information from other sources far more quickly and with ease. Being an A.I. also means he can easily transfer himself to any other computer around the globe (or in outer space, as is the case here). This is one of the things that makes major Avengers antagonist Ultron such a dangerous threat. The fact that he can very imply move from one body to the other, even escape into the internet, means he's near-indestructible and incredibly unpredictable.
The new A.I. version of M.O.D.O.K. has the same potential then. As well as that, he has all of A.I.M. at his disposal. Breaking into S.W.O.R.D.'s space station headquarters and abducting mutants stationed there proves how dangerous he already is. Wolverine will have a tough time defeating him, and even if he does, there's no telling who this upgraded villain could menace next.
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