M.O.D.O.K. and Monica reluctantly team up to defeat GRUMBL’s bureaucratic frustrations of their mutual plans.

After the tragic death of The Melter last week, M.O.D.O.K. drags his kids along to the funeral (because of course he does) and manages to disrupt proceedings entirely and make it all about him as he elects to use the death of this low tier henchman as the motivation he needs to make his mark on the world by… killing Tony Stark obviously.

One small problem – GRUMBL has full control of A.I.M. and he faces a bureaucratic mountain to climb in order to gain access to his favoured weapon for the task. And every time he thinks he’s got to the top of that mountain, he finds himself foiled. There’s only one solution – he needs help.

And he finds that help in the unlikeliest of places, as Monica also finds herself being hamstrung by A.I.M.’s new corporate overlords who are trying to make her take all her accrued vacation days at once. This will interfere with her *ahem* important work of developing Manatee Super Soldiers, and so the two unlikeliest of allies agree to team up to achieve their mutual goals.

What follows is, as usual crude, crass and amusing. The deployment of some… primitive body doubles is a particularly delicious part of the proceedings and the flashback scenes of young Monica preparing for her interview and starting her first day at A.I.M. are all revealing and funny. Finally we start to get some idea of exactly why Monica hates her evil genius boss so much – spoiler alert, yes it was his fault.

While it doesn’t really have the same sort of heart to it as last week’s instalment, it’s still a fun half hour, and whereas the alliance of convenience ends up pretty much as you might expect, there’s a hint there of a somewhat more complex relationship between the two, as well as some more hints at the evil agenda of GRUMBL itself.

Verdict: Continues to be every bit as big and clever as it shouldn’t be. 8/10

Greg D. Smith