AHOY Comics made waves in 2024 by reviving cult hero The Toxic Crusader in comic book form. This year, they’re celebrating an event dubbed “Toxic Mess Summer” by having Toxie team up with the heroes of the AHOY Universe. And that includes Jesus Christ.
Toxic Mess Summer kicks off in May with the release of The Toxic Avenger Pinup Special, featuring various artists lending their own takes on Toxie and the gang. From there, AHOY will release the miniseries Toxie Team-Up, which pairs Toxie with Project: Cryptid’s Jersey Devil, My Bad’s Acid Chimp, The Wrong Earth’s Dragonflyman and Stinger, Justice Warriors’ Swamp Cop and Schitt, and, yes, Second Coming’s Jesus Christ.
For those not familiar with this satirical superhero series, Second Coming sees Jesus return to Earth and become roommates with a superhero named Sunstar. Second Coming has garnered its fair share of both acclaim and controversy since the original series launched, and we doubt that’s going to change as Jesus and Toxie join forces.
Toxie Team-Up #1 is written and drawn by Second Coming’s Mark Russell and Richard Pace.
“Toxic Avenger and Jesus Christ is the team-up that everybody has been clamoring for and I am not one to stand in the way,” said Russell in Ahoy’s press release. “Just as in Second Coming, Christ shows that there are more tools in the box than just violence and that Tromaville, as strange as it is, is still a place that someone who grew up bullied by the jocks in the Roman Empire would recognize.”
“Having already spawned five films, a cartoon, action figures, a musical, and a Marvel comic book series, the Toxic Avenger is a pop culture icon,” said AHOY Comics Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer. “The only question is: why doesn’t he have a church of his own?”
The Toxic Avenger Pinup Special will be released on May 14, followed by Toxie Team-Up #1 on June 11. Matt Bors and Fred Harper’s The Toxic Avenger miniseries will also be collected in a trade paperback edition on April 1. You can preorder The Toxic Avenger on Amazon.
Toxie will also be reutrning to the big screen in 2025. In IGN’s review of The Toxic Avenger, Amelia Emberwing writes, “Troma and Legendary’s partnership on The Toxic Avenger’s 2023 ‘not remake’ delivers a mixed bag. Director Macon Blair and the rest of the creative team may have more money to play with than Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman’s 1984 original, but it struggles to deliver on the schlocky goodness of Troma’s stronger films. Still, what it lacks in so-bad-it’s-good silliness it makes up for with its heart and mostly practical slaughterfests. Kevin Bacon and Peter Dinklage having an absolute blast in their roles doesn’t hurt, either.”
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
