M.O.D.O.K.

The humiliation is filed under holiday programming. In GLX-Mas Special #1 (2005), Dan Slott's Christmas one-shot for the Great Lakes team, Squirrel Girl — Doreen Green, a cheerful heroine whose documented powers are squirrel agility, squirrel communication and an unshakeable attitude — defeated M.O.D.O.K. in direct combat, working with her squirrel partner Tippy-Toe. Accounts of the story describe the signature assist plainly: Tippy-Toe was thrown at the giant head as a living projectile, a fastball special with a tail. A.I.M.'s living supercomputer, a mind built to analyse a Cosmic Cube, was undone by rodent ballistics in a festive annual.

He was not even her only trophy that issue. The same special credits Squirrel Girl and Tippy-Toe with defeating Terrax and Thanos as well — and lest anyone file the Thanos result under festive licence, the Watcher Uatu was on hand to confirm the Mad Titan she beat was the genuine article, not a clone, copy or robot. M.O.D.O.K.'s defeat needs no such footnote. His was witnessed, undignified and entirely canonical.

The aftermath stung almost as much as the loss. S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Dum Dum Dugan approached the victor with a recruitment offer, explaining that the organisation had been watching her for some time, impressed by exactly this sort of result. Doreen declined, content with her Great Lakes teammates. Consider the paperwork from M.O.D.O.K.'s side of the desk: beaten by a squirrel-themed teenager and her pet, then informed that the world's largest spy agency had watched it happen, taken notes, and offered the teenager a job. A.I.M. ran no recruitment drive in response. There are defeats a probability engine can model, and then there is Christmas 2005.