Hulu to advertise comics at end of MODOK episodes for Marvel Comics

(Image credit: Cully Hamner (Marvel Comics))

Marvel has worked out a deal with Hulu for the upcoming MODOK: Head Games comic book series to be promoted at the end of every episode of the stop-motion animation MODOK series currently in development.

Here's the graphic planned to be featured at the end of each episode:

While that idea - a comic book being advertised in the body of a show based on a comic - sounds like a no-brainer, in practice it's been a rarity. So much so that DC and Marvel have at certain times paid for a workaround where they reimburse comic book shops when they buy advertising in the pre-rolls when comic book movies are being shown.

Neither Marvel nor Hulu have given an explanation of how it's worked out to be changed here, but we're not complaining.

Another possible reason for this synergy between the Disney-owned Hulu and the Disney-owned Marvel is that the MODOK show and MODOK: Head Games comic have a big thing in common: writer/actor Patton Oswalt.

Oswalt voices MODOK in the Hulu stop-motion show and is co-writing Marvel's Head Games comic with the showrunner Jordan Blum.

Depending on how the timing works out, MODOK: Head Games may already be out in collection by the time the show airs. The four-issue comic series is scheduled to run December 2020-March 2021, and the show is aiming to debut early next year.

"The episodes have been written. They've been recorded. Now they're being animated," Oswalt told Collider. "And because we committed very hard to the stop-motion aspect to it and we're really packing every frame with crazy detail. It's looking like it’ll be early next year, but I don’t know the exact date yet."

MODOK: Head Games #1 (of 4) goes on sale December 2.

Get up to speed on all the new Marvel TV shows coming in 2020 and beyond. We've also rounded up the latest Hulu prices and deals.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)