So, wait… Toxie is teaming up with WHOM??? Your Major Spoilers review of Toxie Team-Up #1 from Ahoy Comics awaits!

TOXIE TEAM-UP #1

Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Richard Pace
Colorist: Casbri Studios
Letterer: Rob Steen
Editor: Sarah Litt
Publisher: Ahoy Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 18, 2025

Previously in Toxic Avenger Team-Up: Spinning straight out of his acclaimed solo title, the Toxic Avenger battles alongside some of comics’ greatest and most controversial superstars in this surprise limited series. First up, from AHOY’s own Second Coming: Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

NOT SURE WHY I’M DOING THIS

Toxie Team-Up #1 opens in a courtroom in Tromaville, as a rabble-rouser is sentenced for recent activities that were deemed as “violating anti-Christian bias statutes.” When asked his name, he responds truthfully that it’s Jesus H. Christ, and he is sentenced to community service. We join him a few days later at the local soup kitchen, where he meets Melvin Ferd Jenko III, a young man who was once pranked and exposed to toxic waste… I mean, his name is on the proverbial water tower here, right? We all know The Toxic Avenger. As JC makes a name for himself by turning a loaf of bread and three cans of tuna into a banquet for hundreds, he also encounters Toxie and finds that he doesn’t approve of Melvin’s violent ways. Most of the evil in the world can be cured with a parable or a sandwich, opines Jesus, but he hasn’t quite come to terms with the true evils of Tromaville, where toxic waste is a beverage and profit is the only God. A realization comes to him, that injustice is like violence, and that the only way to truly experience it is… firsthand.

Fortunately, he also knows a super-strong, radioactive brute with a mean streak.

ALL THE SUBTLETY OF A PIANO ON THE HEAD 

I have never read Second Coming, a book whose premise led to it being cancelled by DC/Vertigo Comics before a single issue ever saw print, partly because of my distaste for the religious aspects of The Flintstones, a previous Mark Russell book. As a child of the ’80s and the movies thereof, the presence of Toxie in these pages was the wild card that made me waver in that conviction. From the very first page, I found everything that I worried about. The fact that the Jesus character is actually arrested for doing things that are literally part of the stories in the Bible could have been successfully satirical, but the execution overexplains it, hitting every would-be comedic note HARD. As someone who appreciates a callout and believes that you can successfully put “a hat on a hat,” it’s unusual for me to encounter a story that pushes those buttons too hard, even for me. Richard Pace’s art has a looseness that reminds me a bit of Kyle Baker, but it’s scratchier and less finished, which oddly enough works better for Toxie than it does for the character he co-created. The coloring is perhaps the most successful part of the issue for me, with a bright green Toxic Avenger and Christ’s dried-blood-red shawl standing out in a world of grays and browns.

BOTTOM LINE: NOT FOR ME

There are a couple of really successful visual moments in Toxie Team-Up #1, as well as a few bits of dialogue that I actually enjoy, but the hammering home of the absurdity of using the Jesus character in this context really cut into my enjoyment, with indistinct art pulling together a slightly-below-average 2 out of 5 stars overall. The fact that the star of Second Coming actually spends part of this issue second-guessing and mocking HIS OWN WORDS, then resorts to using Melvin’s penchant for ultraviolence makes it clear that this isn’t a story about hypocrisy or religion so much as a chance for the creators to mock belief systems they think are dumb.

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TOXIE TEAM-UP #1

40%

40%

And They Say Comedy Is Easy...

Jesus comes to Tromaville, and boy it is it a tough read. The art has it's moments, but there's a scratchiness to things that makes the awkward bits of the script feel that much more disturbing.

• Writing

  1
• Art

  5
• Coloring

  6
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
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