MAX

Overview

The MAX imprint of comics for mature readers was launched in 2001, after Marvel broke with the Comics Code Authority and established its own rating system. All MAX titles are rated "M for Mature", and are unique among current Marvel offerings in that they are free to feature explicit content.

The MAX imprint is not the first time Marvel has done comics intended for adult audience; the Epic Comics imprint in the 1980s and early 1990s often featured adult themes and stories. Some series in the Marvel Knights imprint, such as Elektra, are geared towards mature readers, complete with "mature/violent content" warnings. However MAX was the first concentrated effort by Marvel to exploit some of its lesser-known super-hero titles with nudity, sex, profanity, and explicit violence and gore.

For a more complete list of of MAX offerings, see Category:MAX.

Titles in the MAX line

Current

• Punisher: MAX (ongoing)
• Hellstorm: Son of Satan (limited series)
• Wisdom (limited series)
• Foolkiller
• Haunt of Horror: H.P. Lovecraft (limited series)
• Terror Inc., Volume 2 (limited 5 issue series, 2007)

Finished

• Alias
• Apache Skies
• Black Widow: Pale Little Spider
• Blade
• Cage
• Doctor Spectrum
• The Eternals
• Fury
• Howard the Duck
• Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather
• Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu
• Supreme Power (Moved to the Marvel Knights imprint in 2006)
• Supreme Power: Hyperion
• Supreme Power: Nighthawk
• The Hood
• Thor: Vikings
• U.S. War Machine and U.S. War Machine 2.0
• X-Men: Phoenix - Legacy of Fire (see also this link for more info) (issues 2 and 3 of a 3 issue mini-series)
• Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe
• Zombie (limited series)

Ant-Man and Deathlok MAX limited series were solicited, but cancelled before their release.

References

• Wikipedia contributors, "MAX (comics)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed January 16, 2007).