Random Back Issue #40 - Super-Villain Team-Up: Modok's 11 #1

Wow, that is really insensitive, Spot. Also stupid, considering who you're talking to.

From the first issue of a 2008 mini-series, to the first issue of a 2007 mini-series, we've got MODOK's 11. I thought this came out closer to 2010, but apparently not. Although now that I think of it, van Lente wrote an issue of Amazing Spider-Man in 2008 that played off one of the outcomes of this mini-series. I should remember that, since it was one of the few Brand New Day issues I actually bought.

The issue starts with a brief recap of how MODOK came to be. Basically, a mediocre AIM scientist agreed to volunteer for the project to prove something to another AIM scientist who slept with him, once. That'd be future Scientist Supreme of AIM, Monica Rappacini.

The rest of the issue is basically a "get the team together" thing, as we see what four of MODOK's crew are up to. For Armadillo, it's wrestling for crappy pay in Mexico. Puma's in trouble for corporate fraud, and the tribal elders don't approve of him working as a merc to pay his legal bills. Rocket Racer's given up the crime biz, but the bills for his mom's illnesses are piling up. Mentallo's try to beat the house at a casino with his mental powers. Too bad Purple Man's the one running the casino. Quite possibly the least sketchy thing that asshole's ever done with his powers.

(Also, Mentallo keeps calling people "bubbeleh", which is the sort of thing that should get a guy shot in the head.)

The four of them arrive at the destination provided, but when they go inside, find Living Laser, Nightshade, Chameleon, and the Spot entering from the other side, and a table full of money in the middle. Spot makes a grab for the cash, setting off a brawl. The fight ends when MODOK shows up and the Spot makes his impolite comment about the guy's cranium.

MODOK sells them on the idea that he's come up with the perfect scheme to rob the most tightly guarded fortress ever, and that it requires all of them. Mentallo, meanwhile, is wondering why everyone is listening to this, and why they were all fighting over a table with no money on it all. MODOK telepathically assures him he'll learn the true scope of things soon.

From there, it's another four issues of betrayals, double-crosses, schemes within schemes, setbacks and all the other sorts of things you expect from a good heist story. Just with superpowers involved instead of George Clooney, which is a pretty big upgrade from where I'm sitting.

[11th longbox, 69th comic. Super-Villain Team-Up: M.O.D.O.K.'s 11 #1, by Fred van Lente (writer), Francis Portella (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Guru eFX (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer)]