From Toxic Waste To Cult Legend

Maybe the unlikeliest superhero franchise of all is “The Poisonous Avenger,” a low-budget flick produced by Troma Leisure within the ’80s. Because the cult basic steadily discovered its viewers, it spawned a line of sequels, a wave of merchandising, even its personal broadly forgotten animated series. Mixing gory horror with low cost superhero motion, typically with an undercurrent of social commentary, the Poisonous Avenger was the final word underdog hero for the late ’80s and early ’90s. However slightly than falling into obscurity, the Poisonous Avenger has risen from the cinematic grave a number of occasions since his debut, together with with the property’s Peter Dinklage-led revival in 2025.

For individuals who missed out on Toxie, as followers discuss with him, and are curious concerning the mutated crusader, there’s a complete historical past to the franchise’s stunning development. The affect of the Poisonous Avenger collection has a formidable span, together with with “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Superman” filmmaker James Gunn, who once worked at Troma Entertainment earlier than main DC Studios. However because the occasions change, the Poisonous Avenger stays a relentless, retaining the acquainted hallmarks that made him the favourite of so many social misfits. 

Right here is the Poisonous Avenger’s historical past defined, tracing the property from poisonous waste to a cult legend.

The beginnings of the Poisonous Avenger are inextricably linked to these of Troma Leisure, which was based by producers Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974. Just like most of the exploitation grindhouse films being produced by different low-budget indie studios on the time, Troma’s preliminary output was raunchy intercourse comedies. To assist make ends meet in Troma’s early days, Kaufman labored in varied capacities for different film productions, most notably working as a production manager on 1976’s “Rocky.” It was in the course of the making of “Rocky” that Kaufman started to develop the concepts that will ultimately coalesce into “The Poisonous Avenger.”

Kaufman considered setting a horror film in a spa, tentatively titling his concept “Well being Membership Horror,” however turned his main focus to Troma’s sexploitation films that launched the studio. After producing the foremost studio film “The Closing Countdown” in 1980, Kaufman grew disillusioned with the large studio system, deciding to return to indie cinema. Within the wake of the shock success of 1981’s “Porky’s,” the raunchy comedy paved the best way for different main studio intercourse comedies (as well as “A Christmas Story”). Quite than compete with larger studios within the style, Troma determined to pivot to horror as that style gained low-budget recognition, with Kaufman revisiting and retooling his earlier concept.

Produced on a price range of $500,000, Kaufman retitled his revamped story concept to “The Poisonous Avenger,” directing the film underneath the alias Samuel Weil and producing it alongside Herz. The film launched scrawny, meek protagonist Melvin Ferd (Mark Torgl), who works as a janitor at a well being membership within the fictional New Jersey city of Tromaville. Relentlessly bullied by the membership’s clientele, a humiliated Melvin falls into industrial waste, remodeling him into the Poisonous Avenger, bodily portrayed by Mitch Cohen and voiced by Kenneth Kessler. Now with superhuman energy and talent to detect individuals’s evil natures, Melvin dismantles the crime ring secretly operating his city.

Filmed round New Jersey, the film leaned into low cost gore and goofy, sometimes sex-fueled humor, drawing from Troma’s previous strengths. Because the Poisonous Avenger, Melvin takes on corrupt metropolis officers and crooks preying on the downtrodden, with victims typically focused by race and gender. For all of the gory kills, together with a public disemboweling of the film’s massive unhealthy, the Poisonous Avenger is an harmless social crusader. For an period stuffed with masked slashers like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, the Poisonous Avenger flipped the script by making its killer an excellent man, grotesque murders however.

Neglected by the general public commercially and critically throughout its preliminary theatrical launch, “The Poisonous Avenger” obtained a lengthy midnight run release at New York’s Bleecker Road Theater. This led to the film creating a cult following and constructive word-of-mouth that unfold nationwide resulting in its dwelling video launch in 1986 on VHS and Betamax. It was on dwelling video and the appearance of cable tv, with its laxer content material restrictions, that “The Poisonous Avenger” discovered its wider viewers. A theatrical re-release in April 1986 earned $140,000 in its opening weekend, catapulting Troma Leisure to ranges of success it hadn’t loved earlier than.

Within the wake of the film’s success, Troma pivoted its tasks to primarily be horror films, like 1986’s “Class of Nuke’em Excessive.” Nonetheless, by 1989, “The Poisonous Avenger” had earned over $15 million from field workplace receipts, dwelling video gross sales and leases, and tv licensing. This made a sequel one thing of an inevitability, with Kaufman and Herz once more directing and producing, with the screenplay written by Kaufman and Homosexual Partington Terry. Nonetheless, whereas the manufacturing proved considerably extra formidable than the primary film, it additionally proved significantly extra difficult.

Boasting a production budget of $2.5 million, 1989’s “The Poisonous Avenger Half II” has the mutated superhero tackle company America earlier than going world. The New York-based chemical conglomerate Apocalypse Inc. decides to provoke a hostile takeover of Tromaville, killing anybody who opposes them. Melvin, now performed by John Altamura and Ron Fazio, is distracted from his hometown by looking for his long-lost father in Tokyo. Battling by the yakuza, Toxie ultimately returns dwelling to thwart Apocalypse Inc’s plans after coaching within the methods of sumo wrestling.

According to Fazio’s biography on IMDb (that he apparently wrote himself), Altamura was fired throughout filming on “The Poisonous Avenger Half II,” with Fazio finishing his efficiency, although a good portion of each sequels retains Altamura’s scenes. Filming places included New York Metropolis and Tokyo, showcasing how far Troma had come for the reason that first film, although these lengths would go unappreciated. “The Poisonous Avenger Half II” solely earned $792,966 on the field workplace, with fan response extra muted than its predecessor on dwelling video. Regardless of these setbacks, Kaufman and Herz found that they had filmed sufficient materials for an additional film, resulting in fast improvement at a 3rd installment.

Repurposing the unused footage initially meant for “The Poisonous Avenger Half II,” Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz created the sequel “The Poisonous Avenger Half III: The Final Temptation of Toxie.” Additionally launched in 1989, 9 months after its predecessor, the film has Toxie struggling to pay the payments after cleansing up Tromaville. Agreeing to grow to be spokesman for Apocalypse Inc., Toxie discovers the company’s chairman is definitely Devil (Rick Collins) in disguise. In a grand contest between Toxie and the Satan, the 2 have interaction in a collection of video game-inspired challenges for the destiny of Tromaville and Toxie’s soul.

Just like the previous film, “The Poisonous Avenger Half III” did not recapture the magic of the primary film and was met with a lukewarm reception. Throughout its theatrical run, the film earned $363,561 on the field workplace, cementing a legislation of diminishing returns for the franchise. With the followers not turning out for the sequels as a lot as Troma had hoped, it selected alternate avenues to maintain the franchise alive. Throughout an period when a lot of its fashionable contemporaries obtained animated reveals, it was time for Toxie to go cartoonishly family-friendly.

Because the franchise’s recognition diminished in theaters, Troma determined to reposition the Poisonous Avenger for wider audiences by animation. Troma had some expertise working with animated tasks, which later included handling the animated masterpiece “My Neighbor Totoro” for its North American distribution in 1993. However 1991’s “Poisonous Crusaders” was primarily a Troma challenge slightly than licensing a pre-existing property, adapting the Poisonous Avenger as a family-friendly aspirational determine. Toxie’s origins have been reimagined in a far much less grotesque method for the 13-episode collection, whereas the intercourse and violence from the films have been clearly excised fully.

Like many of the socially acutely aware cartoons of its period, together with the previous yr’s “Captain Planet and the Planeteers,” “Poisonous Crusaders” carried a robust environmental message. Toxie (Roger Bumpass) led a group of equally mutated heroes, every with their very own powers, in opposition to a rotating roster of supervillains threatening Tromaville. These sinister plans typically contain unleashing heavy air pollution all through the city, with Toxie and his mates prepared to scrub issues up. Although solely lasting a single season, “Poisonous Crusaders” helped maintain the franchise alive into the ’90s, introducing it to youthful audiences, whereas its impression can be explored elsewhere.

With “Poisonous Crusaders” opening the Poisonous Avenger franchise to a youthful era, Troma capitalized on this closely by merchandising. Troma licensed “Poisonous Crusaders” to Marvel Comics for an eight-issue comedian collection as a tie-in to the animated collection, conserving in step with the tone and content material from the present. Given the perceived cross-brand enchantment because the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Playmates Toys, which additionally dealt with the TMNT motion figures on the time, gained the toy license for “Poisonous Crusaders.” A side-scrolling beat’em-up sport revealed by Bandai was launched for the Nintendo Leisure System and Recreation Boy in 1992, together with a Sega Genesis port revealed by Sega.

Like many animated properties of its time, “Poisonous Crusaders” noticed its merchandising prolong to every thing from buying and selling playing cards to a board sport, broadening the model’s wider consciousness. Whereas this merchandising push saved the Poisonous Avenger franchise lively past the top of “Poisonous Crusaders,” its momentum was short-lived. A second line of “Poisonous Crusaders” motion figures was planned by Playmates Toys, however quietly canceled when it grew to become clear the present would not obtain a second season. This led to a lull in franchise exercise for the primary time in its historical past that subsisted for almost all of the ’90s.

Over a decade after “The Poisonous Avenger Half III,” Troma produced 2000’s “Citizen Toxie: The Poisonous Avenger IV,” co-written by Kaufman and Herz, with Kaufman directing. The film has Toxie (David Mattey) transported to a morally inverted model of Tromaville (Amortville), whereas his evil double, the Noxious Offender, replaces him. As Toxie searches for a approach to return dwelling, Noxie terrorizes Tromaville, killing the mayor and battling a brand new group of heroes on the town. This leads Toxie’s spouse Sarah (Heidi Sjursen) to grow to be pregnant with Toxie and Noxie’s twins because the destiny of Tromaville hangs within the stability.

Actually an enchancment over the previous two sequels, “Citizen Toxie” can also be the franchise at its most mean-spirited when it comes to its subject material. The film opens with a faculty taking pictures, comparatively performed for laughs, whereas the next lowbrow gags really feel particularly sadistic this time round. The sequel contains James Gunn in a supporting function at a time when he was nonetheless working at Troma whereas making an attempt to remake horror classics and adapt Scooby-Doo in live-action. Like the unique film, “Citizen Toxie” would discover its success with the house video market, giving the Poisonous Avenger its second wind.

Quickly after the discharge of “Citizen Toxie,” Kaufman hinted at plans for a sequel, tentatively titled “Poisonous Twins: The Poisonous Avenger V.” Because the working title advised, the film would’ve centered on Toxie and Sarah’s twins transferring ahead. After years of being caught in varied phases of improvement, Troma introduced screenwriter Collyn McCoy would write the sequel’s script in 2010. Within the accompanying press launch, Kaufman gave McCoy his blessing to put in writing the screenplay, expressing pleasure in what the author might carry to the franchise.

Nonetheless, plans for a direct sequel to “Citizen Toxie” started to stall out because the franchise started exploring the potential of a full cinematic reboot. Through the years, Kaufman maintained hope {that a} direct follow-up would nonetheless happen, claiming the script was full as not too long ago as Might 2018. Kaufman supplied extra particulars concerning the deliberate sequel, elaborating that it could happen 20 years after “Citizen Toxie,” with Toxie and his mutant household touring to Chernobyl. The proposed sequel was quietly shelved because the franchise reboot gained extra momentum and the backing of bigger studios.

One unlikely side of the Poisonous Avenger franchise that has seen surprisingly strong success is a stage musical adapting the unique 1984 movie. Written by David Bryan, with the songs written by Bryan and Joe DePietro, the musical reimagines Melvin as an ecologist making an attempt to avoid wasting Tromaville from air pollution. Reborn after being dumped in poisonous waste because the Poisonous Avenger, Melvin fights the Mayor and her military of polluters from trashing Tromaville. Melvin’s ascension right into a superhero function is coupled along with his budding romance with the city’s librarian Sarah, who’s drawn to Melvin’s earnest idealism.

Debuting in New Jersey in October 2008, the Poisonous Avenger musical premiered Off-Broadway six months later the place it loved crucial success. This led to productions of the musical across the nation, ultimately spreading to productions in Canada, Australia, and the UK. Critics praised the present for capturing the goofy sensibilities of the films, whereas making the story and its gags palatable for theater-going regulars with an curiosity in one thing zany. Given its inherently campy qualities, maybe the Poisonous Avenger was greatest suited as a musical all alongside, we simply did not make the connection.

A decade after “Citizen Toxie,” a deliberate Poisonous Avenger remake was introduced as being in improvement by Authentic Media, with prolific screenwriter and producer Akiva Goldsman among the many producing companions. Proposed to have a extra family-friendly tone than its cinematic predecessors, Arnold Schwarzenegger was approached to star as a mentor to Toxie, however dropped out to look in “Terminator Genisys.” By 2016, Conrad Vernon signed on to direct the remake after directing that yr’s grownup animated film “Sausage Get together.” Nonetheless, this model additionally fell into improvement hell because the remake challenge quietly misplaced its momentum as soon as once more.

It wasn’t till Legendary Entertainment scooped up the rights to the Poisonous Avenger in late 2018 that the challenge started to realize traction once more. The change in studios additionally noticed the welcome return of Kaufman and Herz, who had their producer positions on the remake restored. Filmmaker Macon Blair landed the directorial gig three months later, signing on to each write and direct the remake. After over a decade of delays and artistic modifications behind-the-scenes, principal images on the Poisonous Avenger remake started in June 2021 and wrapped filming the following August.

The remake premiered in September 2023 at Incredible Fest, with Peter Dinklage’s performance as the new Toxic Avenger praised by critics. Dinklage performs Winston Gooze, a single father and janitor who’s summarily dunked in poisonous waste created by a sinister company. Reworked into the Poisonous Avenger and armed along with his trusty mop, Winston takes on nefarious company bosses with no ethical qualms about trashing the Earth. Honoring the sooner films, the remake is not family-friendly in any respect, celebrating the gore that made the franchise a cult basic, proper all the way down to guts being pulled out of a butthole.

However even in completion, the Poisonous Avenger remake ran right into a contemporary set of issues, particularly with reference to its large distribution. Potential distributors have been reportedly involved that the movie was too deliriously gory to assist a considerable sufficient theatrical launch. It wasn’t till March 2025 that Cineverse and Iconic Events Releasing teamed up for an unrated theatrical run for “The Poisonous Avenger” that very same yr. Given the studio and distributor’s previous success releasing the “Terrifier” films, “The Poisonous Avenger” was one other collaboration that made good sense.

For over 40 years, the Poisonous Avenger has embodied the social misfit spirit not of its mutated superhero however the inventive minds that introduced him into existence. As grindhouse cinema died out in theaters throughout the US within the ’80s, it was Troma’s grotesque crusader that saved these sensibilities alive and effectively. Past sleeper field workplace success, the Poisonous Avenger signaled that films might thrive within the dwelling video market and join with the audiences that eluded them theatrically. Simply because the meek Melvin grew to become a powerhouse outmatching the favored youngsters, the Poisonous Avenger proved not all superhero films wanted to come back from main studios.

The Poisonous Avenger gave Troma Leisure the enhance it wanted to remain alive into the twenty first century as its contemporaries closed store. The studio gave loads of younger actors and filmmakers their very own begin within the business, together with launching James Gunn’s career. The Poisonous Avenger is the quintessential schlock superhero underdog and it is one thing that has endeared the franchise to followers for generations. With a contemporary remake lastly getting the broader highlight it deserves, hopefully its legacy will proceed to develop.