The Maxx Review

In this week’s ABC Challenge M is for The Maxx. This is my first time using the “The” is not the main part of title caveat. The Maxx was a very short-lived adult series. In fact, it was only originally on the air for about 3 months total. It’s originally airing was back when I was still very young and this series is not for children. So obviously I never caught it. Watching this series was a very unique experience. This is a series you kind of have experience yourself. So I won’t spoil everything, but obviously there are spoilers ahead. Without any further ado I bring you my review of The Maxx.

Basic Plot and Commentary

The basic plot of The Maxx is not very easy to follow so bear with me. Your main character is a homeless man from New York City that goes by The Maxx. He believes himself to be some sort of superhero and has the matching purple tights and mask to go with it. The Maxx’s only friend is his social worker by the name of Julie Winters. Maxx and Julie also exist in another plane of existence called the Outback. Within the Outback, Maxx is a superhuman protector of Julie who in the Outback is known as the Jungle Queen. Maxx is constantly being taken back and forth from the “Real World” to the Outback. He is only slightly  aware of what’s going during these flashes back and forth. Julie is initially not aware of the Outback and believes that Maxx is just using it as a coping mechanism for his horrible life. Their foil is a serial rapist by the name of Mr. Gone. Mr. Gone is also aware of and part of the Outback. In fact, Mr. Gone understands the Outback better than either of your protagonists. Mr. Gone believes that he “protecting” Julie in his own strange way and that The Maxx is getting in his way. So Mr. Gone along with his helpers the Iszs try to defeat The Maxx. He fails at every turn. And eventually Mr. Gone is decapitated by Julie after he kidnaps her. Sounds basic enough right? You would be wrong.

What I just told you is just the basic story, however this story is anything but basic. Throughout the story you slowly start to discover that the Outback was actually a coping mechanism for Julie’s life. Basically for any bad event in her life she subconsciously created a parallel world where she had complete control. The initiating event was allegedly tied to her being beaten, raped, and left for dead while in college. Although, it is rather convenient that most of the stuff comes from her as a child. The Outback, the Jungle Queen, and even Mr. Gone are all from her childhood. The only thing not from her childhood is Maxx and he is from a different traumatizing event from her life.

The thing about this series is that it’s almost impossible to tell what’s actually happening. Your Real World stuff is just as unbelievable as the Outback stuff. I mean literally, Maxx fights Iszs in the real world. He also fights a hammerhead shark guy. He also shrinks to less than a foot tall and has an abnormal face, that I won’t spoil, under his mask. In addition, Mr. Gone after losing his head was still telepathically talking to other characters and eventually comes back alive. This series is basically an existentialist’s dream. I mean its main plot basically questions what is reality. In fact, the very end of the series has Maxx questioning whether he will still exist if Julie leaves. The question of which existence is reality is left to the viewer. But the series also acknowledges that reality is what you make it. So in the grand scheme more than likely neither existence was 100% real. That said to Julie the Real World was the real world and to Maxx the Outback was the real world. That is, the existences they personally chose. If you didn’t figure it out this is kind of a thinking man’s series.

I know one of the more common complaints from others about this series is the artwork’s inconsistency. Personally, while their were some points that did not look as good, I never found the artwork to be distracting. In fact, there are points in this series that the art is just gorgeous. Particularly notable is the rooftop pedicure scene is episode 4. It is absolutely beautiful.

Conclusions

The Maxx is dark surreal experience. It is not your basic superhero story. It’s one of the deepest story I have seen in a while. It is a story that some will immediately attach to, like myself, and others will either not understand or just not like. It’s another very preferential story in that regard. If you want a series that will getting you thinking, give this series a watch. It is amazing at getting one to think about one’s own existence. This was honestly a very pleasant surprise because I did not know anything coming in and I enjoyed it. If you can get over the art inconsistencies this is a definitely a series I would highly recommend. Thanks and enjoy.