BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
The fate of Damocles Rivas and the M.O.D.O.K. virus is uncertain, but M.O.D.O.K.’s physiology 
soon began failing him. M.O.D.O.K.’s signs of weakness led to growing unrest in A.I.M. as different factions vied to seize power of the organization. Monica Rappaccini, in particular, resurfaced as the self-proclaimed Scientist Supreme, in direct opposition to M.O.D.O.K. To save himself, M.O.D.O.K. sought out the G-TAC Scrambler, in the possession of one of the regional A.I.M. offices recently attacked by Ms. Marvel and Operation: Lightning Storm. The gene-rearranging effects of this DNA bomb could be used to stabilize his unique condition. M.O.D.O.K.’s agents were intercepted at the regional office, though, and killed by a third party within A.I.M. who wanted the G-TAC Scrambler for himself.
M.O.D.O.K.’s unclaimed son Sean Madigan joined A.I.M. sometime prior and was intent on taking revenge on his biological father while also imposing his own dream of A.I.M. on the organization. Madigan was working directly under M.O.D.O.K., one of his few confidants as his disease spread, but also contracted to a council of six A.I.M. scientists who wanted the organization in more stable hands. The council thought Madigan would deliver M.O.D.O.K. to them, but instead he lured M.O.D.O.K., Monica’s forces, and Lightning Storm to the council’s offices in order to ensure maximum chaos. M.O.D.O.K. thought nothing of his good fortune at first and used his mind control powers to make Wonder Man fight Ms. Marvel before turning on his old rival, Monica. 
Before M.O.D.O.K. could take his vengeance, he was teleported away by Sean Madigan, with the G-TAC Scrambler in tow.
M.O.D.O.K. put up little fight when Sean captured him, as his disease was progressing at an accelerated pace. Madigan loaded the core of the G-TAC Scrambler into M.O.D.O.K.’s Doomsday Chair and teleported him to Times Square, a living DNA bomb to mark the end of this era of A.I.M. The weakened M.O.D.O.K. revealed he knew Sean Madigan’s origins and seemed almost proud of his son. He even attempted to fight off Operation: Lightning Storm when they tried to prevent the Scrambler burst from going off. As the DNA bomb erupted, Ms. Marvel grabbed M.O.D.O.K. and began flying him away from the city. No one else was harmed, but M.O.D.O.K. vanished in an explosion as the G-TAC sequence completed itself.
It’s unknown if M.O.D.O.K.’s disease was also arrested by the G-TAC Scrambler burst, but he lost control of A.I.M. Sean Madigan got his wish, pressing A.I.M. into a series of independent cells untethered by any central leadership. Monica shot Madigan in the head just after his announcement and claimed control of the largest remaining A.I.M. cell as Scientist Supreme, but the damage was done. [Ms. Marvel (2nd series) #14-17]
M.O.D.O.K. recovered physically but he was left on the run from A.I.M., unable to claim any forces of his own. Instead of rebuilding his loyalists in A.I.M., M.O.D.O.K. chose to renew his alliance with the Leader and work towards reconstructing the Intelligenica, even without Doom and the full Alexandrian texts. M.O.D.O.K. explained he had progressed with ideas the Leader conceived of before the Intel disbanded. They would construct a multi-phased plan to overthrow the government of the United States and eliminate their intellectual rivals from outside the Intelligencia. With the Leader’s help regarding gamma radiation and his own work on cosmic energy from the Wakandan scrolls, M.O.D.O.K. theorized a combined gamma-cosmic process. Though the Hulk had been blasted into space by the Illuminati, M.O.D.O.K. agreed with the Leader’s assessment that he would eventually return, and so they would use the gamma-cosmic process to create their own Hulk, a Red Hulk, using a more intelligent, more pliable ally. [Fall of the Hulks: Alpha]
The full Intelligencia reformed, with M.O.D.O.K. and Leader joined by the Wizard and his Frightful Four, the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, and the Mad Thinker with a new Gammadroid. M.O.D.O.K. recruited Doc Samson, calling upon the old favors regarding the Cathexis-Ray, and succeeded in suborning Doctor Leonard Samson into working with them, even creating a new 
gamma persona within him as a sleeper agent, answering to simply “Samson.” [Hulk (2nd series) #18] M.O.D.O.K. and Leader also reached out to General “Thunderbolt” Ross at a vulnerable moment, shortly after the assassination of Captain America hit the news following the Superhuman Civil War. The Intelligencia phrased it as the way to save this country, a military coup with Ross positioned as its figurehead and their great minds behind the work involved. As a bonus, they also offered to restore his daughter Betty to life, and to make Ross into their Red Hulk, powerful enough to personally face his old foe when he inevitably returned. Given the circumstances, General Ross was relatively easily persuaded into going along with their plans. [Hulk (2nd series) #23]
Much of the Intelligencia’s plans would take time to develop, and so M.O.D.O.K. focused his 
attention in the meantime on his other woes. In order to secure what he most desired, M.O.D.O.K.’s mighty brain computed the perfect strategy. He detected the existence of the Infinicide, temporal cartographers who represented a possible evolutionary development for the human race that made them eerily similar to his own form. The Infinicide mapped the timeline by appearing after key moments in history (like the recent Superhuman Civil War and alien invasion led by the returning Hulk) and activating a beacon fortress. This immense ship telepathically drew witnesses to a remote region of the planet where their memories could be scanned for the Chrono-Map. M.O.D.O.K.’s target was the fortress’s hypernova power source, an exploding star in a temporal bottle that put it through an infinite loop as the ultimate source of energy. To acquire the hypernova, though, M.O.D.O.K. needed help. He needed… minions.
Using a telepathic signal, M.O.D.O.K. attracted the attention of several parties who could aid his scheme: Mentallo, Rocket Racer, Deadly Nightshade, Puma, Armadillo, Spot, Living Laser and the Chameleon. The heist was simplicity itself to a mind as brilliant as M.O.D.O.K.:
- Chameleon would use his powers of disguise to pose as one of the many witnesses lured to the Taklamakhan Salt Wastes in China for testimony to the Infinicide
- Mentallo would telepathically implant false memories in Chameleon to satisfy the Infinicide’s surface scans and allow him entrance
- Nightshade would provide Chameleon what he needed to beat the genetic keypad lock to the hypernova chamber
- Armadillo would tunnel under the Salt Wastes to get M.O.D.O.K.’s minions within range so that
- Spot could use his teleportation portals to provide Chameleon with support retrieving the hypernova
- Puma’s acrobatic prowess would quickly retrieve the hypernova and return it to Spot’s portal as
- Living Laser used his command of the electromagnetic spectrum to scramble the security detection in the hypernova chamber, and finally
- Rocket Racer was waiting at the other end of Armadillo’s tunnel as the getaway driver.
Despite this simple plan, complications arose in M.O.D.O.K.’s scheme. Chameleon was actually an Ultra-Adaptoid sent in his place by Monica Rappaccini. Mentallo realized Chameleon was an imposter after installing his artificial memories and was disposed of by the adaptoid. Monica’s Ultra-Adaptoid had a layer of false memories of its own and she believed this was enough to fool M.O.D.O.K. She believed M.O.D.O.K. intended to use the hypernova to recreate the Cosmic Cube, and wanted to steal it first.
During the heist, everything was going according to plan until Puma passed the hypernova to Spot through his Darkforce Dimension portal. Spot betrayed the minions to the Mandarin’s son, Temugin. He left Chameleon, Puma and Living Laser stranded inside the fortress and took the hypernova to rendezvous with Temugin. “Chameleon” used his Adaptoid powers to surreptitiously help the away team escape as the Infinicide fortress collapsed without its power source. They met up with the others and pursued Temugin but, in the commotion, the hypernova was stolen again by Rocket Racer, who was betraying the minions to S.H.I.E.L.D. The Ultra-Adaptoid abandoned all pretenses and pursued the Racer, only to discover their hypernova was a solid-light construct. The Living Laser had the real hypernova and opened it in an attempt to transform himself back into a being of living matter, seemingly annihilating them both in the process.
Puma, Armadillo and Nightshade limped back to M.O.D.O.K. to explain why things all went so wrong. M.O.D.O.K. then rendered his minions speechless by revealing he already had the hypernova. M.O.D.O.K.’s calculations had accounted for the probability of betrayal during his schemes and he had placed himself in the Darkforce Dimension during the heist so he could intercept the real hypernova as Puma passed it to Spot, leaving his betrayers chasing a replica after that. As his minions were processing all this, M.O.D.O.K. also mentioned he e-mailed his exact location to Monica Rappaccini. The Scientist Supreme reluctantly agreed to his one-billion-dollar price for the hypernova, as well as calling off A.I.M.’s bounty on M.O.D.O.K.’s head. M.O.D.O.K. mocked his ex-girlfriend for agreeing to his terms (even as she continued to scream they were never dating!!!), and paid his minions far more than they were promised by dividing the remaining shares between them.
Back at A.I.M. headquarters, Monica was already planning to betray her word to M.O.D.O.K. and begin hunting him once more after they tested the hypernova. As it turned out, the hypernova was violently unstable when kept in the main timestream. The temporal bottle which preserved the exploding star was intended for use outside of time and space. M.O.D.O.K.’s calculations determined precisely how long the bottle would last in regular space before breaking down and releasing the power of an exploding star on whoever happened to be holding the hypernova at the time. And so, M.O.D.O.K.’s full scheme was finally revealed. He never wanted to have the hypernova. He wanted to screw Monica. And getting her to pay him $1,000,000,000.00 to deliver the bomb to herself was exactly what a mind Designed Only for Computing/Killing was engineered to come up with. [Super-Villain Team-Up: M.O.D.O.K.’s 11 #1-5]
[Note: For those counting along at home, M.O.D.O.K. only recruited 9 villains, including himself. Temugin and Monica were considered part of “M.O.D.O.K.’s 11” on the recap pages because he accounted and planned for their interference in his scheme.]