M.O.D.O.K. and his giant head may take a while to grow on you.

How much you liked the visual aesthetic (and juvenile humor) of Robot Chicken may determine how much you enjoy the chaotic charm of M.O.D.O.K., the stop-motion-animation Marvel-sitcom-for-adults that premiered its 10-episode first season on Hulu Friday.

Created by Jordan Blum (American Dad) and Patton Oswalt, M.O.D.O.K. is the story of a megalomaniacal supervillain (Patton Oswalt, A.P. Bio) who pursues his dream of one day conquering the world. But after years of setbacks and failures fighting the Earth’s mightiest heroes, M.O.D.O.K. (it stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) has run his evil organization A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) into the ground. In the first episode, M.O.D.O.K. loses control of his company to tech firm Grumbl and his antics in response cause his wife to leave him, throwing him out of the home they share with their two children.

M.O.D.O.K. was officially announced with a series order at Hulu back in February 2019, and was originally intended as part of a group of series based on Marvel characters that would to lead to a crossover special titled The Offenders. Oversight of the series was moved to Marvel Studios in December 2019 when Marvel Television was folded into that company.

There’s a lot going on in the first episode; we get a basic idea of M.O.D.O.K.’s origin story (his real name is George Tarelton and he’s a robotic engineered head that floats around in a hover-chair) and meet a few of his numerous antagonists like Austin Van Der Sleet (Beck Bennett, Saturday Night Live,) the head of Grumbl, Monica Rappaccini (Wendi McClendon-Covey, The Goldbergs,) the co-worker he butts heads with constantly, and Tony Stark/Iron Man (John Hamm, Mad Men) who foils M.O.D.O.K.’s attempts to wreak havoc on the world.

We also get a look at his dysfunctional home life, with wife Jodie (Melissa Fumero, Brooklyn Nine-Nine,) angsty daughter Melissa (Aimee Garcia, Lucifer) and fabulous son Lou, voiced by Ben Schwartz (DuckTales). The whole thing is almost too much; the chaos surrounding M.O.D.O.K.’s work and home lives distracts from whatever story is there.

Subsequent episodes slow the pace a little, as M.O.D.O.K. adjusts to the recent changes in life by trying to reconcile with his wife via time travel and Third Eye Blind and bonding with his daughter as she teaches him to target the insecurities of his foes, Mean Girls-style over a game of horse golf (a very clever visual gag and probably the show’s funniest moment.)

The stop-motion animation in M.O.D.O.K. comes from Stoopid Buddy Studios, home of the aforementioned Robot Chicken; Eric Towner and Alex Kamer, who directed all the episodes, were respectively producer and animation director of that show. The character was created for the comics by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, and was originally meant as a foe for Captain America, though he managed to plague any number of Avengers over the years.

The animation is definitely a step up from Robot Chicken‘s early years, with the character consistency and attention to detail you can achieve when you have Marvel money. When the story settles down and focuses on only a few characters at a time, it can’t be said to be boring, but it’s also not a laugh riot. Aside from the horse golf scene, which was laugh-out-loud hysterical, this comedy did not deliver the funny. Oswalt along with Blum wrote most of the episodes, but the show rarely rises above bland sitcom banality. Having seen WandaVision, we know Marvel is capable of much more. If M.O.D.O.K. gets a second season, hopefully everyone involved can step of the low bar of season one.