Even if I were way better at math, I wouldn’t dare and actually quantify what makes Toxic Avenger Comics really work.
Matt Bors and Fred Harper have spent the previous four issues of this arc marrying a tale of mutants and monsters with this increasingly cutting political satire. And while the monstrous state of our current political landscape is heaps more terrifying than Toxie could ever be, Bors and Harper have balanced so many competing ideas, themes, energies, goals, etc. to make Toxic Avenger Comics unlike any other book on shelves right now. The last issue alone was a veritable smorgasbord, referencing all that cutting wit, gory hijinks, and general mayhem that defines this book and its value as a pure artifact of life in 2026.
Only as we’ve reached the finale of “Toxie Goes to Washington,” something about the old formula just ain’t working like it oughta.
Coming into Toxic Avenger Comics #10, Toxie and Yvonne had been framed for the death of President Young. The two responsible — former VP Karns and his wife, Senator Karns — were actually Smogulans who’d been hatching a coup to take over the Earth. With Mrs. Karns assuming the presidency following the deeply gross but extra satisfying death of her hubby, the world was ready to be thrown into nuclear hell. Hey, who said comics can’t be relevant AF?!
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
On a number of fronts, issue #10 gives us basically what we want from any grand finale. A lot of the issue revolves around Toxie and Karns battling it out over the nuclear football. As much as Harper (alongside colorist Lee Loughridge) is a pro at expertly depicting generally monstrous horrors, there’s something about these creatures in action that’s even more stomach-churning.
It’s the flattening of Toxie’s face by an insectoid appendage, the dirt and chaos of their inherent struggle, the random appearance of a severed arm — all of it this precise balance between hella cool and spiritually disgusting. And that distinction matters (beyond the immaculately awful vibes); we’re supposed to feel a sense of relief when good battles evil. Here, though, it’s all unsettling and depressive, and that feels like a thematic extension of how Toxic Avenger Comics handles political satire. Which is to say, it’s all gross and dumb and deeply effective, and that mostly encapsulates how I feel about a lot of our current discourse.
If there’s actual hope these days, it’s from rational, thoughtful adults stepping up. In the case of this issue, that’s Yvonne, who supports her man by playing a big role in the Smogulan Smackdown. (I love that it emphasizes skills and strengths that aren’t mutant but that push this world closer to the madcap levels of true Troma properties.) Mostly, though, I just loved having Yvonne involved even a little more — across the other titles, she has regularly felt a little underdeveloped and one note-ish.
But not only does she have some sick moves and even sicker quips, but she represents the best of us in a way, showing Toxie how he’s got to act/operate if he’ll ever be an effective hero and how one should really fight when the moment demands our engagement. And having her in a more prominent role feels like the Toxie-verse is still developing and growing in all the very best ways, and further proof that endings can also be new beginnings.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
Similarly, the relationship between Toxie and Yvonne feels more substantial after Toxic Avenger Comics #10. For one, they have maybe one of the best scenes of this entire Toxie-starring run — it’s a moment that is equal parts hilarious, oddly intimate, bizarre, and deeply relevant to a key theme of the book (which is, sometimes we only have each other to survive this mess). The moment manages to give us an inventive future for Toxie’s adventures while personalizing a lot of the satire here.
The team have always done a great job of that personalizing function, and they’ve brought home our current socio-political moment in such a way that there’s as much this deep understanding as there is a profound emotionality that makes this dissection ring true deep, deep into your marrow. After his issue, it feels so much more than about just “right now,” and it’s this pervasive suffering that connects all of us under the tyrannical might of idiots everywhere. In part, this finale makes good on the true nature of these stories by making it this grand, massively human saga.
Still, I can’t deny that I left this issue feeling some odd tinge of disappointment that I don’t normally associate with Toxic Avenger anything. I think some of that has to do with the remaining satire across this issue, and how it played out in the context of a conclusion. A lot of the material and conversation is stuff we’ve already seen so far — the corruption, fecklessness, and idiocy of right now, and how the Smogulans are idiots trying to ruin the world for their own sake (and how many of us are actually helping them out).
That criticism is 1,000% right, but I couldn’t escape that as much as that dynamic remains painfully true of our own world, the point has been made already with extreme effectiveness. Instead, this should’ve been the moment where we got some new insight or a new framework to consume. Yet that never really came to be — you can probably guess that someone got their comeuppance in this issue, and while that was visually appealing and certainly emotionally satisfying, it also rang a bit hollow.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
That’s not to say that Bors and Harper actually owe us anything — politics ain’t a Toxic Avenger comic. Still, we should feel the sting of discourse amid the flow of fantasy, and not the other way around for truly meaningful satire. Because, yes, the creators did make some semi-grand statement toward the issue’s end — while Toxie and Yvonne’s victory isn’t total (hilariously represented with a new president who is both cowardly and a physical amalgamation of so many other world leaders), tomorrow is another day.
It’s a sentiment expertly married to their mid-issue “collaboration,” and that we can plan for a better day with brutal class war today. Yes, one day the pain can truly stop and these systems can fall and we can rebuild our world anew. And, hey…that’s cool? I mean, anyone knows that America’s just waiting for the Boomers to eventually die off so we can remold our country. (Mostly remold, I mean.) We’re just playing the waiting game, folks — a very, very long waiting game where hope is a fleeting commodity.
Perhaps Bors and Harper have done too good of a job in capturing the crushing weight of right now, and there’s no way to really celebrate despite any corresponding, extra bloody release? Or, they’ve merely trained us to be savvy consumers, and we can’t really pull joy from some dead jerks because we know the moment’s actually fleeting. Either way, I think I wanted something more — an explanation into not only how this happened but maybe even a way out of this mess and perhaps how to avoid future suffering.
The deeply human nature of this specific satire means I was on board all along, but rather then getting my “reward,” what we got was a fleeting surge of bloody revenge before it all settled that nothing really changed, nothing mattered but some new level of awareness. Not only that, but we know and have seen too much to ever feel trust and hope the same way, which complicates the “maybe later?!” aspect. I can appreciate the unwavering honesty, but part of these books should be some level of wish fulfillment.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
But so much else across Toxic Avenger Comics has been the best combination of fantastical and grounded — this issue alone featured a body of legal text used as a literal weapon in a moment that’s so wonderfully gross and also the right kind of relevant messaging. (It made me think of the ending of Death Proof as this sharp, sudden declaration of intent.) This more pie in the sky tone/messaging from the creators may be decidedly accurate, but accuracy be damned when our lead is a toxic monster and there’s dead Nazis posing as former Senators (in a robot body).
It’s something you really see with the fate of Doctor Planet: Whereas he was once a nasty foe who had a change of heart, ultimately his best case scenario is a slightly empty gesture in the long run. It might feel good enough, yeah, but that feeling doesn’t reach the top of your head. I’d go so far as to say that “keep hope alive, folks!” isn’t just empty, but almost forces us have to buy more books down the line in what’s ultimately an irksome gesture. Wait, is that another layer to it?!
And, don’t get me wrong, I’m going to buy any and all Toxie stories going forward (including his forthcoming clash with Noxie). I just feel irked that this arc more than did its job — until the very, very end. And what could have been a more satisfying ending (one that gave us more than the half-cocked hope we’ve already collectively clung to forever) instead felt empty and also put it out of step with the book at large. Hope is good, but progress is better. (I call that the Mamdani Effect.)
And given this book’s heart, integrity, and wit, I expected something more real/tangible, a balance of the truth and absurdity with the real promise of Toxic Avenger — that you can smash many, many heads into an actively better future. The math here mostly maths, but in a genuinely better world, this formula would’ve unlocked supreme existential joy.
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