Issue(s): Ms. Marvel #6, Ms. Marvel #7
Cover Date: June-Jul 77
Title: "...And Grotesk shall slay thee!" / "Nightmare!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Jim Mooney - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
Ms. Marvel gets a premonition about a catastrophic fire. Her Seventh Sense power is as much a mechanism to get plots moving as it is a Spider-Sense type of battle warning power. She investigates and finds an obscure X-Men villain raising a ruckus.

She gets into a fight with him and loses.

She is captured by AIM, and her suit is examined and given to an AIM agent.

Meanwhile, MODOK tried to mentally dominate her, putting images into her head of MODOK with a strong manly body that she is unable to resist.

It doesn't work, though, and furthermore it turns out that her powers are most definitely a part of her and not just something transferred by her costume.

She manages to fight off MODOK and the AIM agents, and escapes through a wall into an area occupied by a rival AIM offshoot that isn't aware of MODOK's group (the rivals wear the traditional yellow costumes, whereas MODOK's wear blue).

Carol escapes in the confusion.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Grotesk previously appeared in Uncanny X-Men #41-42.
  
• MODOK was deposed from AIM in the War of the Super-Villains in Iron Man, which took place in Iron Man #74-75,77,80-81.
  
• He regained control of a portion of AIM in Iron Man annual #4.
  
• It was Ms. Marvel's second exposure to the Psyche-Magnetron in Ms. Marvel #4 that transferred her powers from her costume to her directly.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

At a Chicago comic convention that year, Claremont was noted as carrying a Ms. Marvel "screen treatment", but it wasn't explained who wrote it, or if Claremont later used it as a story in the book.

Would that screen treatment have been for the proposed TV pilot ? Following the "success" of the live action Spider-Man show from Columbia and the successful Hulk series from Universal, Universal were planning another five live action Marvel shows: Doctor Strange, Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch (!) and Ms. Marvel.

When is it revealed that MODOK is actually an acronym for Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing, rather than just a name ?
Is this first mentioned in Ms Marvel #7 ? (Is my memory correct in thinking it is mentioned at all in Ms Marvel #7 ?).
I've long been of the understanding that the acronym came about long after MODOK had made his first appearance, but have never been sure whether it only started to appear as late as Ms Marvel #7, nearly a decade after he first appeared.

The explanation of the name comes from the flashback MODOK's origin in Captain America (1968 series) #133.

Thank you for your very quick reply Omar and apologies for only just noticing it ! I have been wondering that question for forty years, so I guess an extra month won't make much difference !
I had read Cap #133, but only once and as part of the respective Essential volume and I clearly missed that bit. I blame reading issues back to back and especially in that 30+ issue period that is crying out for Englehart to come along and give the title a hefty kick up the backside, so by the time I came to #133 I suspect I had fallen into a coma !
But there it is, on page 4, panel 4, although here he is described as a Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, not a Mobile one, nevertheless this is where it becomes an acronym rather than a name.