If I didn’t already make it clear, The Toxic Avenger is rather near and dear to me. It’s the very piece of medium that caused me to “log on,” as it were, and has informed everything I’ve come to be both as a person and an enthusiastic consumer of media. And even if it ain’t that serious for you, it’s the gold standard of ’80s shlock cinema, a snapshot of how horror, comedy, and Cinemax-ian softcore could come together to say something dumb but equally brilliant.
But could this love survive an adaptation? Even one with mega talent like writer Matt Bors (The Nib) and artist Fred Harper (Highball) attached? Because if there’s anything other people can to, it’s ruin your childhood faves with their own big ideas. Luckily, The Toxic Avenger isn’t just a damn good comic, but it very much exceeds my kooky, totally awkward expectations.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
If you haven’t seen the original Toxic Avenger flick, the best way I can describe it is that it’s shot on a filthy camera by college dropouts in the worst part of New Jersey. (And I mean that all as a deep compliment.) It was, in short, gross, sweaty, and everything wonderfully terrible about ’80s indie flicks.
Harper’s art, then, is very much a continuation of that but then also something different. He touches on the same kinds of energies, giving this version of Tromaville similarly dreary undertones, Mayberry-meats-East Berlin vibes, and outlandish, exaggerated tendencies. Only it’s sort of filtered through MAD Magazine or Heavy Metal, and Harper very much has his own sensibilities on full display. It’s fully seen not just in the world but the design of “monsters” like Toxic Avenger and others — they’re just as gross and unsettling, but there’s something else informing it. Maybe that’s greater comedy or cheesy comics a la Tales from The Crypt — an approach that’s about fun as much as it is the shock value, and in that space Toxic Avenger just feels brand new.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
It’s revitalized, maybe, but it’s just a version that’s entirely itself, able to churn your stomach with the confidence and intensity that’s entirely this book’s unique vision. It’s updated, yeah, and maybe it’s lost some super obvious ’80s energy that might be a touch mournful for some. But it’s still got this rich, timeless quality, and that does a lot to ground and shape the mix of body horror, action, and comedy in a way that it makes the story feel more universal in scope. As if this whole affair isn’t just a Troma production but something older and grander, married to a larger storytelling tradition of bloody misfits saving the day from schlubby jerks. It’s subtle enough, too, that that dueling newness and familiarity make you want to read even more attentively. Just don’t get any sludge on your face, dear reader.
And Bors’ own storyline very much facilitates that same kind of experience. When we spoke, he made several great points about updating this book for a new audience. Toxic Avenger is, and I say this with ample love, sort of a terrible movie for its racist humor, sexism and misogyny, and views on the working class. Yes, it trends toward satirizing terrible ’80s excess and stupidity, but it’s a film that very much wouldn’t be made today. (And, sadly, I mean that in a few different ways.)
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
And Bors clearly recognizes that, and he does his best to “tone down” Toxic Avenger as much as possible. So, sure, the lovable loser Marvin isn’t a janitor who meets a terrible accident, but a young, plucky kid who seems oddly idealistic (who still meets a terrible accident). And that distinction — which fits more with the eco-friendly cartoon from 1991 — updates Marvin for a new generation just as much as it still keeps him locked into that space of “he’s a dweeb and we still want to cheer him on” (even as he’s much cooler and, like, 100 times more punk rock.) Beyond that, he’s dealing with the same kind of feckless idiots in charge, the wanton destruction caused by human greed and continued stupidity, and endless bullying and violence.
Because, dear reader, time is a flat circle, and the mid- to late ’80s is pretty much the same as our own dumb existence in 2024. The trick, then, is to update it in a way that feels modern (not only our upgraded hero but bringing in technology like drones and connecting it to recent environmental tragedies) and let that universality resonate in everything else. And so what Bors’ narrative has really done is speak to the audience in a way that feels more familiar: to tone down some of the language and rhetoric for a more discerning readership, but keep it extreme in all the right ways, like the sheer absurd vibes that inform the town and its people. Because life in 2024 is strange enough, and fiction can’t always outdo the 24-hours news cycle. The aim, then, is to show a mirror of our life (exaggerated just enough) with a precision and enough familiarity that our own bizarre ideas and decisions are made wonderfully, painfully clear. In the age of post-truth, the bravest thing a story like this can do is be sharp, funny, endearing, and totally dedicated to its mission.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
I’d also like to take a quick second to talk about something else that’s maybe a touch spoiler-y, but it’s my favorite part of this debut issue of The Toxic Avenger. Namely, that we go in reverse order, starting a few days out and leading into the event that caused the town’s quarantine. It’s a brilliant and jarring decision, and one that makes perfect sense if The Toxic Avenger has to pull back and emphasize a touch more subtlety and still leave readers feeling like they just got blitzed by a wide receiver from Amorosa High. It tends to give you the horror right away and then pull back toward the more nuanced humanity (while also leaving space for even more stomach-smashing gore). That’s exactly the way this book is going to excel: be inventive in every way to make this story ever more lively and robust.
It’s just another way the creative team have understood their subject matter and mission statement and tried to honor this beloved franchise and do something new. And so far, that “newness” is a similarly crazy and unsettling story that is updated just enough with new insights and politics without ruining the kind of underdog, deliberately bizarre energies of Toxic Avenger.
To paraphrase some great warriors, this book already has my mop and bucket.
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