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Max Steel
Format	Action, Sci-Fi, Series, CGI Series.
Created by	Patrick Carroll Andre Clavel Sean Frewer Sam Liu Bob Richardson Henry Tucker Brandon Vietti
Written by	Katherine Fugate Lydia Marano Steven Melching David Slack Jon Weisman
Starring	Christian Campbell Chi McBride Keith Szarabajka Jacob Vargas Debi Mae West Ed Asner Mae Whitman
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	35. Excluding the movies Endangered Species, Forces of Nature, Countdown, Dark Rival, and Bio Crisis. (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Kids WB Season 1 and 2 . Cartoon Network Season 3.
Original run	February 25, 2000 – January 15, 2002

Max Steel is a Sci-Fi–action, CGI, animated series which originally aired on February 25, 2000 - January 15, 2002. Season 3's airdates have been difficult to find, but according to "Crackle", the last episode "Truth Be Told" aired January 15, 2002. Max Steel ran for three seasons totaling thirty-five episodes with a predicted audience of young males from the ages of eight to twelve, but a series of Direct to Television movies have kept constant the presence of the main character since it's initial creation up to 2009. The voice acting cast for the series included such people as Chi McBride and Christian Campbell, the older brother of Neve Campbell.

After the bankruptcy of Netter Digital and Foundation Imaging, Mainframe Entertainment took over the productions of 3rd television season and the movies. It has also been made into Six movies, as well as a 12-inch toyline by Mattel. While little known in continental United States, Max Steel is one of the products of major commercial success of Mattel around the globe. This figure is often collected without regard to its backstory; see Playscale Miniaturism.

Josh McGrath was a 19 years fictional extreme sports teen star, whose parents died some time ago. He was later adopted by his father's best friend and partner, Jefferson Smith, who works in an extreme sports articles manufacturing company which is in reality a facade for a secret counter-intelligence agency known as N-Tek.^[1]

While Josh was visiting his stepfather at work, a group of rival enemy agents attacked the facility commanded by Psycho. The young McGrath faced him and battled against this superpowered cyborg, but in the middle of the fight, he was severely injured and exposed to a swarm of microscopic nanomachines, known to the company as "Nano Tech Max", which entering Josh's body and, as they ran out of energy, dying and causing Josh to die too. In order to save Josh's life, his foster father, Jefferson Smith, agrees to submit Josh to a high proportion of the transphasic energy (nicknamed "t-juice"), which the machines need to survive. This saves his life and also gives him superpowers. As a result, Josh takes on the identity of Max Steel and fights against superpowered villains, mainly Mr. Dread, Psycho's evil boss, the members of his Spy organization, and later, mutants, robots, mad scientists and monsters.

Contents 1 Characters 1.1 N-Tek/Civilians 1.2 DREAD/Other organizations and enemies 2 Max Steel Alter Ego 3 Going Turbo! VS Adrenalink 4 Action figures 5 Comic Books 6 TV series 7 Episodes 8 Guests 9 Movies 9.1 Endangered Species 9.2 Forces of Nature 9.3 Countdown 9.4 Dark Rival 9.5 Bio Crisis 9.6 Mutant Menace 9.7 2010-11 Live Action Movie 10 Turbo Missions 10.1 Season One (2008) 10.2 Season Two (2009) 11 Video Games 12 References 13 External links

[edit] Characters

[edit] N-Tek/Civilians

• Max Steel - Josh McGrath — As Josh McGrath, he is a college student and an extreme sports star, working for his adoptive father, Jefferson Smith of N-Tek which supplies such equipment. He later discovered that N-Tek is a front for a secret anti-terrorist organization. In the course of this discovery he suffered an accident with Nanoprobes while battling Psycho. These probes gave him the ability to alter his appearance, turn invisible ("Stealth mode !") and become super-strong ("Going turbo !"). He used this to take on the appearance of Max Steel, who looks very different from Josh McGrath, and join the fight against crime. His work in extremes sports and as a crime-buster often conflicts with college and his relationship with his girlfriend Laura Chen. In the movies, Josh McGrath does not exist, only Max. He is voiced by Christian Campbell who is the only one to still be voicing his character, everyone else (Kat, Berto, Jeff, etc.) being voiced by other actors.

• Big Jim McGrath – Josh's biological father who vanished long ago, during a secret mission whose details where never revealed. In several different episodes, he is named as "Big Jim", making Max Steel the son of Mattel's 1970s action figure hero. Episode 12 "Scions" is entirely dedicated to his memory, and it is stated that Max is Jim's greatest legacy. In this episode, which consists of flashbacks of the Cold War, Big Jim's face is identical as the action figure of the same name.

• Molly – Josh's mother died when he was just a toddler, in a shipwreck during a storm at sea while the family was on a pleasure trip. Molly makes a brief appearance only once when the incident is remembered by Jefferson at the beginning of season 1, and then she's never mentioned again. Besides being a lovely mother, there's no other information about her.

• Jefferson Smith — The CEO of N-Tek, both the sports and spy sides. He inherited this position from Marco Nathanson, the previous and first CEO of N-Tek. He is the adopted father of Max after his father died. Jefferson might be based on "Big Jeff" from Mattel's 1970's Big Jim toy line, though Jeff was white, while it was "Big Jack" who was the main African-American character. Being an international counter-terrorism agency, N-Tek answers to the UN and includes a number of other non-US citizens on its staff. Voiced by Chi McBride.

• Dr. Roberto Martinez – A technical genius in his late teen years, Best known as 'Berto (a diminutive of his name), is the main expert on Nano-Tek Max, the microscopic machines which gave Max Steel his superhuman abilities. 'Berto is usually based at the HQ of the secret intelligence service N-Tek where he monitors Max's missions via a computer screen, but he also often takes a more active part in the missions himself. He has family in Colombia, although how many relatives is unknown. From the moment they met, he and Josh became very close: Josh would call Roberto "Bro", who would respond with the Spanish version "Hermano". Voiced by Jacob Vargas.

• Rachel Leeds — Max's first partner at N-Tek. Although her country of origin is not specified, her accent indicates that she may be a British national. Rachel has a rather bossy personality but is very attractive in her own way. Much of season 1 focused on her relationship with Max: from one of constant squabbling to increasing attraction on his part, which affected Josh's relationship with his girlfriend Laura Chen. At one stage Rachel did kiss Max as a way of calming him down when he was getting particularly agitated, but seemed to think that he ought to stick to Laura: one episode concludes with Rachel smiling and saying "Blessings on your union" in Chinese as Josh and Laura leave arm-in-arm. After the second series, Rachel was promoted and disappeared after three episodes. There is speculation that she has a brief, non-speaking appearance in season two, episode four, but it is also likely that it was just a reused model. She can normally handle herself in a fight even against multiple opponents bare handed, hence the reason why she was assigned to train and tutor Max as a new N-Tek Agent. Voiced by Shannon Kenny.

• Kat Ryan — After Rachel's promotion in season two, Kat, another of her protégés, became Max's new partner. At first they didn't get along, but, after Jefferson Smith forced them to work together, they developed a little mutual respect. About the same age as Josh and Roberto, her relationship with the two boys is like that of a sister, much like they see each other as brothers. Kat was never given a surname until season three, and it was revealed in the second-to-last episode that, when she was younger, she was part of a street gang. Voiced by Debi Mae West.

• Laura Chen and Pete Costas — Two of Josh's college friends, Pete referring to themselves as "the Three Musketeers" given that they used to be very close, until Josh's life as Max Steel started to interfere. Laura Chen was Josh's girlfriend but she soon broke up with him due in part to his increasingly close relationship with Rachel Leeds. He also kept his activities as Max Steel a secret from her and this would affect dates and other commitments which made him somewhat unreliable. Pete, in the season two premiere, found out about Josh's dual identity after being captured by John Dread and agreed to keep it secret. He was not seen in season 3.

• Jean Mairot — Smith's second-in-command at N-Tek in season one and head of operations, briefing agents on their missions and coordinating their progress. A soft-spoken man, he is cool and calculating and a good judge of character — putting Max in charge of a major rescue operation even though the boy himself did not feel up to it. At the end of season one, Mairot turned out to be a spy working for villain John Dread. His fate in unknown, though it is presumed that he was caught in the explosion of Dread's base. His treachery was a bitter blow to the N-Tek staff since he had been a popular figure. Season 1 story editor Greg Weisman has stated that Mairot was actually on N-Tek's side and in the final episode of Season 1, was going undercover into Dread's organization on Jefferson Smith's orders. Weisman also stated that Mairot did survive the explosion of Dread's base. Weisman was not involved in Season 2, and thus this storyline never was revealed in an actual episode. Mairot spoke in a French accent, voiced by Keith Szarabajka.

• Charles Marshack — An N-Tek division chief who's in charge of Behemoth, the massive flying fortress used as a mobile base to support Max in the TV series. He's a senior, probably around 60 years old, who assists N-Tek with his expertise. He was a close friend of Big Jim and acts a bit fatherly with Max. Despite his age and butler-like appearance, he can move extremely fast, and is an experienced hand-to-hand combatant. He does not appears on the movies, where his support role was substituted by Kat's.

• Jake Nez — N-Tek agent and astronaut, formerly from NASA. He was also once a love interest of Rachel's but was dumped by her when she started training Max. He does not come across as the jealous type, ably assisting Max and Rachel on missions.

• Rocket — A wounded hawk rescued by Max in Endangered Species. Due to the extension of his injuries, 'Berto reconstructed him using N-Tek technology. Now he has a bionic leg and a cybernetic eye which has a camera with recorder, night vision and zoom. What Rocket can see, can be transmitted to other N-Tek members. The hawk is supposed to be a companion for Max, but most of the time is in 'Berto's custody.

• Cytro — This battle android is a mechanic version of Dr. Jekyll & Mister Hyde. Created by Doctor Grigor Rendell, Cytro's directives states he must destroy N-Tek, but as a result of a major battle damage, his programming fails and sees Max Steel as a friend instead. A curious thing to note, no matter if he is evil or good, his voice and attitude are more of an attentive and reflexive butler than a berserk warrior. Cytro's robotic body is expendable, and he cannot really be destroyed as long as a backup of his programming exists. The program which contains his personality just needs to be inserted into a new cybernetic body. Cytro is not just a tool. He can learn and take decisions on his own, despite his programming, and eventually develops a strange sense of humor: makes a human-like pose and then questions the purposes and utility of such behavior, which he finds pretty much useless.

• Faron Ferro — Very little is know about N-Tek's field commander. With a bossy, rude and secretive attitude, Ferro insists the mission always comes first, no questions, no doubts, no more information than the strictly amount needed to complete the task. Ferro's attitude often collides with Max's free spirit, but in the end, both knows how to make a successful teamwork. While Ferro's abilities have not been revealed yet, there are a couple of hints that demonstrates he can challenge Max's training with no major effort.

[edit] DREAD/Other organizations and enemies

• John Dread — the leader of the DREAD organization, and the main antagonist of the early series. He's rarely seen outside of offices and rooms in dark secluded buildings, and only made two known appearances where he was the main or part of a main threat. He was killed in the season 2 finale. There is fandom speculation that John Dread and Marco Nathanson (the N-Tek founder) are the same person, although this has been debunked by Greg Weisman, the story editor of the first season. Voiced by Martin Jarvis.

• L'Etranger — "The Stranger", as his name translates from French into English. He wears a mask over his face, which appears to resemble a skull, with no facial details, and was the first villain Max fought against in the TV show. At the end of that episode Dread mentions that he is not a full-time member of his organization. By the time of his second appearance, he is said to no longer work for Dread. He is a mercenary terrorist armed with electrical charged gloves which can produce an explosive spark. Being an electrical weapon, one hit is more than enough to stun for a large period of time his enemies.

• Psycho — His real name is unknown, although his nickname/DREAD code-name is speculated to come from the fact that he appears to be a psychopath. He's often called "Smiley", mainly by Max but occasionally by other members of N-Tek. Usually he doesn't care about it, but for some reason has very violent reactions when other members of DREAD addresses him with that nickname. He has a metallic face which looks like a human skull, with an unusually large smiling jaw (hence the reason of his nickname), which most of the time is covered up using a mask which gives him the appearance of a normal tough white guy. His main weapon is his right bionic arm, which can change into a claw or a laser gun, presumably by nerve signals. The action figures of Psycho also included bazookas, missile launchers, grappling hooks, chainsaws and many other gadgets for his bionic arm, but those accessories never appeared in the TV show. Psycho also has an army of Psycho-droids, which looks almost like him, except they are silver or copper colored. None of the androids has an armed bionic arm as Psycho does and they are notoriously more fragile. Voiced by Keith Szarabajka.

• Dragonelle — She is the first major female villain shown. The origins of her code-name is unclear, although there is speculation that she comes from China (as that is where the episode which she appeared in for the first time took place). As dragons are a key part of Chinese mythology, it is believed that she took this name for good luck. She's dressed in a golden battle armor, but always runs away from any physical confrontation, since she's more an undercover agent than an active fighter. She has the ability to mimic the actions and appearance of any person she has seen and impersonate them perfectly. Voiced by Mia Korf.

• Vitriol — According to Max, "not the brightest tool in the shed" which explains why he often teams along with Psycho. While they are supposed to be equal members of DREAD, Vitriol usually follows Psycho's orders. His arms are vibrant, translucent green with simple metallic 'bones' visible, and can shoot green energy beams, which can be very destructive. At the end of season one, he realizes he's an expendable pawn, and decides to cooperate with N-Tek in an effort to obtain a reduced sentence.

• Woody and Annabelle Barkowski — Two siblings who are intent on bringing down N-Tek: Woody because he believes that they gave him a faulty mountain bike to cause him to break his leg and thus retire from the extreme sports world. Woody considers himself to be Max Steel's arch-nemesis, but Max mentions that he "barely qualifies as comic relief." Annabelle collaborates with her brother in the first season and seeks revenge for her brother in the second season. In series two, Annabelle suffers an accident in her laboratory and her body is never found. It is later revealed that Annabelle's body using electrical currents and sources as an energy supply, much like how the nanoprobes in Max's body uses transphasic energy.

• Bio-Constrictor — His full name is "Biologically Altered Constricting Serpent", having been given this name by 'Berto. He is usually addressed as "Bio-Con" in the series and movies, but in the toy's packages is named Bio-constrictor instead. Dr. Klimo was involved in an accident what is thought to be injected with electrified snake venom, and thus mutated into a half-human, half reptile with the abilities to turn into a snake, poison people with highly-toxic venom or use his venom to transform other people into copies of his mutated self. Bio-Con looks more like a leather mummy than a snake, mostly because his body is composed of several serpents twisted around what seems to be his base skeleton. Before his accident, he was an employee fired for erratic behavior, mainly due to the use of turning poisonous animals, such as scorpions and snakes, into biological weapons, which appears to form a basis of the plotline of the Endangered Species movie. He initially meet Josh when he was younger, and they used to play baseball together. He was voiced by Rene Auberjonois, who also played the equally bad-tempered, shape-shifting Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

• Elementor — Probably the most versatile of all Max's enemies, Elementor originally started just as a Bio-Con clone who went mad. The reptile like creature enhances his natural abilities with the use of different isotopes which grants him the capacity to mimic different basic elements. Elementor can transform himself into a mass of rock(earth), water, air, lava (fire) or metal, and adopts the natural physics of those materials. He also seems to be capable to mix some elements to create new states of his own body, hence, water+earth produces a mud-like creature, while water+(cold)air produces an Ice version. Being a clone of Bio-Con, Elementor remembers everything Dr. Klimo knew up to the date of his creation. Despite having the memories of a scientist, Elementor does not shows any talent for science. He prefers the pure brute force approach.

• Warren Hunter — And old friend and partner of Jefferson Smith. Long ago, their different points of view forced a business separation. While Jefferson was worried about the technology uses for betterment of mankind, Hunter was mostly worried about profits. Hunter is now the founder and CEO of Eclipse, a high tech development company which rivals N-Tek.

• Iago — In his initial presentation, it is a character so insignificant that nobody noticed his constant presence flying around, but later plays a major role as a double agent. Iago can only be described as a "floating PALM device with a laser" who in his first appearance is Warren Hunter's assistant. Initially, he does mostly nothing except floating all over the place, but shows some potential as a weapon when takes custody of several hostages. In the movie Bio Crisis it is revealed that he has been secretly working for Dr. Grigor Rendel stealing technology and copying files from N-Tek and Eclipse. He helps in the construction of Cytro and has been powered up himself, using Warren and Rendel for his own purposes, posing as an innocent assistant. It is not clear if he really serves an unknown master or has an agenda on his own. Also it is unknown if "Iago" is the code name of the floating device or the program. In some scenes, several "Iagos" appears at the same time working as a team. Destroying one only causes the apparition of a new one to substitute the previous one. All shares the same voice and personality, and acts mostly as different drones sharing the same mind. However, in Bio Crisis movie, 'Berto arrests "him". The imprisoned device is exactly the same model as all other Iagos, with no difference at all.

• Extroyer — Troy Winter, a special agent and mercenary hired by Eclipse who can match Max's enhanced abilities without effort. Troy suffers a chemical mutation with a crystal fragment from Morphosos Comet which transforms him into a crystal like creature who can absorb other people's life force and identity, and in the particular case of super human entities, their respective powers. Once he absorbs a living being, he can reuse its appearance as needed. When in Extroyer form, the left half of his head is often missing, and the interior of his empty skull can be seen as a formation of rock crystals. Sometimes he only has the right eye, but when he takes another person's identity his head is complete and the impersonation is perfect. However, when copying other creatures he still has half head only.

• Dr. Grigor Rendell — A twisted scientist who tries to found a way to synthesize Morphosos Comet's crystals to recreate their energy in his particular laboratory for his own twisted purposes. He has developed a gadget that can revert Elementor to his original state as just a reptile clone, with no powers at all, and constructed several battle robots and advanced weapons. The doctor himself is not a major threat, and has no fighting skills at all, but most of his inventions are lethal. He does not care about the secondary effects of his experiments, which often are extremely dangerous for the environment or animals.

• ToxZon — Titus Octavius Xander, once a former N-Tek Agent who due to his scorn for rules, forced a toxic waste disposal machine to run at full capacity before testing it, without any safety measures on, resulting in a major explosion which contaminated and mutated his own body. ToxZon requires chemical contaminants to feed and power up his bio-armor. Being an ex-agent, he's familiar with all techniques, methods and procedures of N-Tek. Using different kinds of chemical waste, he can bring to life little creepy creatures known as "toxoids" which he can command as a little army of his own. The form and abilities of these creatures varies depending of the chemical used to create them.

[edit] Max Steel Alter Ego

In the TV show's initial run, Josh McGrath was a white, blond 19-year-old. After the accident in which the N-Tek nanoprobes infected his body, he gained the ability to transform himself into a dark-haired athletic adult, older and stronger than Josh. This grown-up alter ego is Max Steel. [1]

Contrary to most heroes with secret identities, Josh's wasn't an issue except with his personal relations, mostly with his girlfriend and fans from the Extreme Sports Circuit. At different times, both Psycho and Dread witnessed Josh's transformation into Max from a remote location and don't show any surprise about it. In at least one episode, Josh transforms in Psycho's presence. In other episode, Psycho chases Josh, forces him to separate from his friends and obligates him to transform into Max Steel. It is not clear how many of Max's enemies knows about his secret identity, but presumably all DREAD members were informed about it. At the end of the first series, it is revealed that one of the must trusted Directors of N-Tek, Jean Mariot, was really a DREAD mole, which explains how their members knew about Max's true identity, but does not explain why Max himself never cares about keeping his identity a secret.

In the Third series, due to a combination of factors- the change of the creative design team, a change in the animation company, and the lack of market in the US- all companies involved in the production of Max Steel gradually dropped the secret identity concept. The movies, released after the TV show ended, take a different approach: Officially, his Josh identity was dropped and Max does not transforms at all. This decision wasn't difficult to take, since all Max Steel merchandising and licensed products, promos and advertising campaigns always portrayed him as a brunette. The "Josh" concept was present only on the TV show and briefly in the first movie, Endangered Species.

By 2005, "Josh McGrath" was almost forgotten, and all references to him and his personal life were removed. Even in normal situations the character was still referred to as Max. Apparently, Josh was slowly phased out until he was simply eliminated from the story continuity, which was readjusted to eliminate any trace of him. Any mention of Josh was removed from action figure boxes and all other licensed merchandising. The 2005 movie Forces of Nature shows Josh for the final time in a flashback in which the origin of Max Steel is briefly explained, but he's called "Max" even in events depicted before he receives the nanoprobes transfusion that transforms him into a superhero. The 2008 movie Bio Crisis recreates the same scene when Psycho infects Max with the N-Tek's nanoprobes, followed with a brief explanation of the process used to save his life, but this time, it is stated that Max Steel (not Josh) is the victim. The character in scene is Max Steel indeed, with his exact appearance. In the movies current continuity, Josh never existed.

[edit] Going Turbo! VS Adrenalink

The initial concept used by Mattel to explain Max's enhanced abilities was named "Going Turbo!". It was present in all episodes of the TV series and the first two movies, and all Max Steel's merchandising and advertisements.

The basis of Going Turbo! was explained as thus: Josh McGrath's body has two bracelets grafted onto it, one on his left wrist, the other on his left ankle. These devices are named Bio-Links and can be used as a communications device, a way to record and broadcast Max's activities. Max also uses them to manipulate the nanoprobes inside his body, which grants him his superpowers. By activating the Bio-Link, Max can become invisible or receive an instant rush of energy, which allows him to move faster and be stronger than any other human for a short period of time. It is not clear for how long the rush lasts, but after it, Max seems unaffected, and can reuse it over and over, receiving new bursts of sudden power every time he activates the Bio-Link.

The use of the "Going Turbo!" power caused some controversy. Max Steel detractors stated that the temporal "injection" of power could be interpreted as a metaphor for the use of steroids or other illegal substances, and that the TV show was inadvertently promoting drugs consumption. This idea was reinforced by the fact that Max Steel is an extreme sports athlete, at a time when the use of drugs among sportsmen was a constant public issue.

To remove the negative connotations of "Going Turbo!," in 2006 Mattel made the decision to impose major changes on Max Steel. In the 2007 movie Countdown, Max's body starts to reject the nanoprobes. The nanomachines can no longer feed from external chemical resources and a new source of natural energy must be found before Max dies.

Taking advantage of the same concept which initially caused the problem, it was stated that since Max is a sportsman, he generates a lot of adrenaline, particularly when participating in a challenging sport. The natural adrenaline of Max's body is then redirected to the nanoprobes, creating the Adrenalink. The major difference between this and "Going Turbo!" is that Max does not receive a sudden burst of infinite energy. Instead, since the probes use the natural adrenaline generated by Max' body while making a physical effort, the more challenging the task, the more adrenaline is generated, so the probes are capable to boost Max's energy only as a result of exhaustive and constant exertion. The energy boost takes time to charge, since it draws from Max's physical activity. If he stops or pauses, the adrenaline levels of his body return to normal.

The 2007 advertising campaign was totally based on the Adrenalink concept. Mattel included a Thumbs-up! ecological green logo in the front of the toy's packages, accompanied by the slogan "More courage equals more power!". This logo was present from the beginning on all N-Tek related characters, scenarios and accessories, but its meaning was not explained until it was adopted as the Adrenalink image. The main Max Steel logo was also changed from yellow to green, and retains that color today. The TV ads also included the catch phrases: "Max Steel's power does not comes from an external source, but from within!" and "The bigger the risk, more adrenaline Max generates!". In the end, Adrenalink works in the same fashion as "Going Turbo!," but makes clear that no questionable substances are used, and insists that Max's healthy workout is the source of his power.

For 2009, the company decided to return to the initial "Going Turbo!" concept, but combined it with certain aspects of Adrenalink. Simply called Turbo! this time, the Bio-Link is used to activate the Turbo state by voice commands. The nanoprobes act as rechargeable batteries, holding the energy inside Max's body until needed. When activated, Max receives a sudden rush of power for a few seconds. After exhausting the energy, Max needs to recharge again connecting the Bio-Link to a recharge device.

[edit] Action figures

Since 1999, Max Steel has had a series of Action Figures, with new waves of toys released twice a year. The Year's Preview is usually released in March, showing only a fraction of the upcoming figures. The main release usually happens in August, and the year's series is gradually distributed along October. The figures are very similar to the original 12-inch G.I.Joe toys, consisting almost entirely of different versions of Max Steel, the main character, and one or two of his enemies, a couple of vehicles and 2 or 3 special packages. After Mainframe took control of the TV series, every new toy makes a brief appearance in the series or the movies. Also after the Endangered Species movie plot was included in the toy line, every new set of toys includes at least a couple of wild animals too. Waves 1 and 2 included exactly the same Psycho figure, with only minor changes in the box. Wave 3 changed Psycho's mechanic arm, while the rest of the body remained mostly the same.

• All the first Max figures were quite different from the TV character. Most earlier Max Steel toys had military, adventure or sport clothes not related to the series in any way, but quite similar to the 70's and 80's Mattel's action figure Big Jim. Some models wears exactly the same clothes, colors and accessories as Big Jim, and seems to be updated versions of this classical toy. In Latin American market, many Big Jim toys were sold in the 70's under the name "Kid Acero", which literally translates as "Kid Steel". Most Max Steel vehicles used to be blue, with yellow accents, as the early 80's Big Jim sport and spy series. This particular combination of colors was widely used on Max Steel toys despite the fact that the character in the series wears a blue, silver and brown uniform. In fact, the first Max Steel action figure to wear the same costume as in the series was "Going Turbo!", released a year, or so, after the initial debut of Max Steel,^{[citation needed]} as part of the Urban Siege sub line.

• Urban Siege line — At the end of 2000, Mattel took the decision to separate the sport themed figures from the military ones. All sport related toys remained in the main line, while the rest were grouped in a sub line named "Urban Siege". Looks like Mattel wasn't very interested in developing the toy line beyond, 'cause the Urban Siege line started as a reissue of previous figures, only changing some accessories and the package colors. While most Max Steel boxes used to be intense blue, the Urban Siege series has black and red decorations. When finally Vitriol, a new villain arrived as the main villain in the sub line, the molds used to produce him were almost identical to those used to produce Psycho. At first sight, Vitriol and Psycho wears the same clothes, have the same colors, and even their faces were extremely similar (when Psycho wears a human face mask). In fact, the main characteristic of both villains were strange, enhanced artificial arms. The only difference is, while Psycho's arms are supposed to be bionic, huge mechanic constructions, Vitriol's arms were green, with light up features. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Vitriol action figure was recalled 'cause the package mentioned in the back: "The diabolical villain Vitriol is blasting urban buildings to pieces". Rumors says the real reason of this act of empathy were the low popularity and poor sales of the toy, specially 'cause it is the only Max Steel action figure never produced again. Vitriol was available only from April to September 2001. Also the "Urban Mission" Trading Cards included earlier that same year in several boxed figures from the Urban Siege sub line were retired from the packages. Each Urban Mission card contained clues and plots about a fictional persecution of terrorists in American soil. Children were supposed to use the cards to be informed of their next mission and stop the terrorists before they could demolish a building, spread a deadly virus and detonated a nuke bomb among other tasks. Vitriol's card's text was: "Vitriol is on top of the World Trade Center ready to blast the city with his deadly energy waves! Your Mission: Stop Vitriol before he destroys New York City!". This same text could be found in at least two other toys. Once any mention of terrorism in New York was eliminated, the toys returned to the shelves, but as part of the main line this time. The Urban Siege series ended immediately after the recall.

• Endangered Species — In 2004, the release of Endangered Species, the first movie, also marked a completely new direction of the toy line. Since then, every new set of Max Steel toys appears in the latest movie. As a result of this decision, several iconic characters and vehicles were removed from the market. The N-Tek minijet and the Sport Coupe which were Max's primary ways of transportation in the series didn't make the cut into the movies, so the respective toys were discontinued before the movie's premiere. Many other elements from the series were also removed from the toys, including any mention of Max' alter ego, Josh McGrath.

• World of Elements — Since the main character of this sub-line, Elementor, has the ability to emulates 5 different elements (water, fire, air, earth and metal), all new sets released includes at least 10 different Elementor variations, 2 for each element. Max figures were re-assigned to a specific "World of...", with arms, equip and accessories designed to challenge each Elementor's version. Thus, in the "World of Water", Max is dressed as a diver or surfer, uses a surf board, a boat and battles Water Elementor. In "World of Air", he has a parachute, a jet pack, and battles Air Elementor, and so goes on...

• Max Gear — In mid 2007, Mattel released for the first time "Max gear" to be dressed by kids. The toys included a retractile Ninja Sword, Max's communicator, Max's suit with battle sounds and light, night vision glasses, binoculars and other stuff alike.

• Adrenalink line — In 2007 Mattel dropped the Going Turbo! concept from the toys for the Adrenalink one. The most notorious change in the packages it is that the Max Steel logo was changed from yellow to green. The Adrenalink subline includes almost all sport and adventure versions of Max not related to Elementor.

• Extroyed line — The first Extroyer figure was announced as a special event, released only a couple of weeks before the movie premiered on Cartoon Network Philippines in late 2007. The original package contained both Max and Extroyer action figures, but Extroyer's face and body were mostly covered with the package's artwork, so no one could tell for sure how he looked like. Some time later the same Extroyer was available as a stand alone figure, this time uncovered. Action figures related to Dark Rival movie and this new villain are often denoted by the word "Extroyed" in front of the package.

• Turbo Missions — These three different series separated the main toyline into themed missions, in a similar way as the Urban Siege lien intended to separate the military themed figures from the sport ones. The Animal Encounter subset grouped all animal and wildlife related toys with Extroyer as the main villain, while the High Voltage subset was mostly focused in water and lightning versions of Elementor. A third subset named N-Tek Invasion virtually grouped all other items which do not belong to the previous two. The Turbo Missions packages had large set numbers (1, 2, 3) in reference to their respective mission.

Several large vehicles, including a mini jet, a boat and a couple of sport cars were released some time ago, at the beginning of the series. The jet is by far the largest toy ever produced on the line, followed a giant child-size Elementor figure. Despite of the constant presence of women in the series as main or supporting characters, no female figures were ever produced.

[edit] Comic Books

When the first Max Steel toys were released in 1999, Mattel distributed a free 12 page comic titled "Take it to the Max" to introduce the character to children. The comic was written by Richard Bruning based on Handy Hartnell's Max Steel's Sourcebook, and penciled by Scott Benefiel with Tom McWeeney and Tommy Yune. Inkers were Jasen Rodriguez, Tom McWeeney and Lucian Rizzo. There are two language versions of this comic, one in English, the other in Spanish. The English version was distributed mostly in America and United Kingdom, while the Spanish version was largely distributed on Latin America and Spain.

The comic consists mostly of two different briefing presentations which are supposed to happen at the same time in DREAD and N-Tek headquarters respectively, in which each CEO explains Max's abilities, powers and capacities from their opposite points of view. While Jefferson Smith presents Max as a great tool to counter terrorism, John Dread considers Max as a Major threat. In the background, while hearing Jefferson's presentation, Josh remembers the accident which transformed him into Max Steel and adds complementary information about his personal life not mentioned by Jefferson or Dread in the briefings. Laura Chen also makes her first public presentation in the comic.

In the last pages, the comic also contains biographies of all main characters: Max, Jefferson, Dread, Psycho, Rachel and 'Berto.

Most of the facts mentioned in the comic are present and developed in the TV series first season. There are some details which are slightly different though. The comic it is supposed to be based on Mattel's Max Steel Sourcebook and since the creative control of the TV series changed three times due to the bankruptcy of the two initial animation studios, it is possible that few of the hints mentioned in the comic never had a chance to be developed in the series, or maybe they were discarded in favor of further development of the characters.

Among the most notorious differences, it is mentioned that N-Tek's founder and original CEO was Jim McGrath, -Max's father-, instead of Marco Nathanson. John Dread does not wear glasses as he always does in the series, and it is mentioned that 'Berto is a traditional die hard computer nerd with no experience with girls or real life at all, (in the series he does has a life, and he is even a regular skilled fighter). The comic also insinuates the possibility that Psycho is Max's biological father, and they may have a relationship similar as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader from Star Wars. This plot in particular was never mentioned in the TV series or movies, but the 2004 movie Endangered Species includes a scene in which Psycho defeats Max, and offers him join forces to rule mankind together. This scene is extremely similar as the one represented by Luke and Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.

No other Max Steel comic books have been produced after.

[edit] TV series

Max Steel started as a 12" toy line in 1999 but later "Netter Digital" produced a TV series based on a 19-year-old college student named "Josh McGrath" who has super powers and can transform into the powerful "Max Steel". The series starts with the episode "Strangers" where at the beginning Max and his partner "Rachel Leeds" are at a "UN" meeting when Rachel and all attendants—except Max because he was on the roof watching—disappear. Later "Dr. Roberto Martinez" finds out that the floor rotated sending everyone in the room into a chamber under the floor and a new floor spun into place. "L'Etranger" has taken the UN representatives as hostages and he's escaping on a train with them. Max and 'Berto finds out that Rachel's ear ring has a tracking signal in it, so they follow it. Max fights L'Etranger on top of the train, but in the middle of the confrontation, his enemy vanishes.

The first episode doesn't give much background on who Max Steel or what he does. Until the third episode "Shadows" it is revealed through a series of flashbacks how Josh became "Max Steel". Josh apparently fell asleep outside "N-Tek" when he hears someone break down the door into N-Tek, and then follows the man down an elevator. Both of them are caught by N-Tek security agents but the intruder, who is no other than "Psycho" in human disguise, defeats the agents. Josh then follows Psycho into a room where he's stealing N-Teks Nanoprobes. Josh jumps and kicks Psycho in the face revealing his metal skull-like face beneath the mask. Psycho fires his laser at Josh, but hits the glass holding the nanoprobes instead, causing the container to burst, sending the probes onto Josh's body. Jefferson founds Josh in an extremely weak condition, infected by the probes. Berto tells them that the probes need transphasic energy to survive, so they put Josh inside the transphasic rejuvenator. This procedure saves Josh's life, but also gives him powers boosted by the probes, now in synchrony with his body. Josh confronts Jefferson to let him work at N-Tek but his stepfather refuses. Then Josh tells him that "Josh is out of the picture", and transforms into "Max Steel".

The first season lasted 13 episodes. After that, Netter Digital had gone bankrupt so Foundation Imaging took over Season 2. For similar reasons, Season 3 was developed by Mainframe Entertainment. The third TV series also took a different approach: following the bankruptcy of the counter-terrorism section of N-Tek, the main characters became extreme sports stars following a similar plot to that of A.T.O.M. The enemies also changed. While the first and second series focused in chasing terrorists and secret agents, the movie's plots were focused on fighting superpowered mutants and monsters.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Guests

• Tony Hawk starred as himself in the episode "Extreme"
• Kevin Michael Richardson various characters
• Matt Hoffman starred as himself in the episode "Special Delivery"
• Jeremy McGrath starred as himself in the episodes "The Race" and "Truth Be Told"

[edit] Movies

Currently, the movies are only available in Latin America, with an English release unknown. Endangered Species is the only one so far to have been released in the United States. The movies offer a different perspective on N-Tek and the creation of Max Steel. Through this, the world has been retconed. Usually, Max Steel movies are offered as bonus gifts with the purchase of other products, and are not available in other ways. In 2003, in the United States, if you selected Max Steel action figures you would get a free Max Steel: Endangered Species DVD. Countdown was included free in the largest playsets of the toy line in the '06 Christmas and as a free gift by buying a Happy Meal during November in Latin America only. In Mexico, Dark Rival was available inside an ActII Popcorn special promo pack at the end of 2007 and early 2008. For some as yet unknown reason, Bio Crisis premiered with no advertising at all, except a brief announcement to the press in a particular interview in Mattel's regional headquarters. The movie was immediately available as a bonus gift with the purchase of different products, but only at very specific locations, since at the same time, Dark Rival and Forces of Nature were relaunched, as part of the countdown to Max Steel's Tenth Anniversary Celebration.

[edit] Endangered Species

Released: 2004

Length: 66 minutes

Bio-Con escapes prison and returns to his secret lab to continue his cloning experiments, while it's intercepted by Psycho, who offers him join forces to transform humanity into mutants who will be ruled by them. However, Psycho betrays Bio-Con, making him be trapped by a Psycho-droid who immediately self-destructs. Bio-con is supposed to be dead in the explosion, but before it can be confirmed, Max fights Psycho and launches him into his own mutating device, which explodes. This movie marks the last appearances of Psycho and Bio-Con, along with the last time that figures of them are made. The last Psycho figure is a silver repaint of the first Psycho figure which represents the Psycho-droid. The last Bio-Constrictor figure is a copper repaint of the Bio-Constrictor first figure (Bio-Constrictor's skin changes to copper color in some scenes of the movie). At the end of the movie, Elementor, a clone of Bio-Con, awakens, for later be the villain of the second movie and the new villain of the toyline.

[edit] Forces of Nature

Released: 2005

Length: 52 minutes

Forces of Nature is the only movie whose title was changed in Latin America. It was released under the name "El dominio de los elementos" (Element's Dominion). All other movies kept their respective names, even translated in different languages. In this movie, Jefferson Smith gets to Bio-Con's base. There he finds several Bio-Con's clones in stasis, most of them failed experiments, with one exception: one of them, Elementor, wakes up and looks up for five different Elementium isotopes. Each isotope grants hims the power to control and mimic one specific element: Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire. Once in possession of this 4 ones, the power to control metal is granted as an extra bonus. One by one, Elementor absorbs the isotopes and gains new powers. Then Jefferson puts Max under arrest, but Max is able to break free, while Elementor attacks N-Tek. Max and Jeff find a way to escape but before they success, Jefferson reveals Max that years ago when he was transformed into "Max Steel" in order to save his life the fifth isotope was placed inside Max's body, and that is why he put him under house arrest. After a brief confrontation with Elementor, Berto and Kat discovers that the fifth Isotope makes the others go haywire, so Max decides to confront Elementor instead of running away. At the final battle, Max releases the power of the fifth isotope until its overcharge destroys Elementor.

[edit] Countdown

Released: 2006

Length: 51 minutes

This is the first time we see Psycho after his death in Endangered Species. He comes back as a Hologram laughing at Max when commanding his android army. After a battle against Psycho's remaining androids, Max discovers that Elementor (after having been destroyed over a year ago) has survived as an unstable energy form. Elementor invades N-Tek and goes to the machine that powers up Max Steel in an attempt to use it to reconstitute his physical body. 'Berto reverses the power forcing Elementor to divide himself into his different versions (water, fire, earth, air and metal), so instead of one, Max has to face 5 different monsters, each one with a different power. Each Elementor has a mind of its own, and controls only its respective element, but they work as a team, trying to take over the planet. Max tricks Elementor telling him that, if the world is gonna be controlled by the monsters, he prefers to destroy the planet instead, and manages to reunite them all in a desert wasteland. The same device used to divide Elementor is reconstructed and adapted to join the parts into one again. The process nukes Elementor and stripes all isotopes from his body, leaving him in his original Bio-Con clone state.

[edit] Dark Rival

Released: 2007

Length: 51 mins

Unknown thefts of N-Tek property have Max Steel on the tail of a new super agent, Troy Winter, who claims to be superior to Max in every sense. The chase is on when Team Steel realize Troy's goal is to obtain a piece of a comet named Morphosos using the stolen N-Tek technology and deliver it into enemy hands. During a battle with Max, Troy falls into a volcano with a piece of the comet. The chemical reaction between the extreme heat and the comet's components transforms Troy into a sharped dark mineral crystal like creature, with the power of "extrude" other living being's life force and abilities. Troy then adopts the name of Extroyer and attacks N-Tek headquarters. In the middle of confusion, Elementor is once again released. Extremely weak, Elementor chases Extroyer seeking the comet fragments as a new source of power, but he is "extruded" and defeated. Troy takes 'Berto, Kat and Jefferson as hostages and forces Max to obey him. Extroyer uses N-Tek's stolen magnets powered by Max to redirect the comet Morphosos near earth, so he can take as much crystal fragments as he wants, but too late he realizes it is all a setup, and he's sent into deep space instead, stuck in the comet's surface.

[edit] Bio Crisis

Released: 2008

Length: 47 minutes

Max has to investigate a contaminated jungle, and travels from outer space to the center of the earth in his quest to unveil this mystery. At the beginning of the story it is mentioned that the last battle against Extroyer has permanently crippled the Adrenalink system, forcing Max to go back to an updated version of Going Turbo!, (A complete explanation of this new energy system appears in Turbo Missions Episode 12: Relaunch). In this movie, a new enemy, the nefarious Doctor Grigor Rendel makes his first presentation, and it is revealed that Iago has been working for him from the beginning, secretly stealing technology from Eclipse. Rendel has constructed an android named Cytro, who's prime directive is help him in his plans to take control of the contaminated jungle and destroy Max in the process. Accidentally, the programming of Cytro is scrambled and for a couple of hours thinks he must protect Max instead of fighting him. However, he is aware of the malfunction, and constantly mentions how much time is left until he will be "autorized" again to kill Max. Thanks to the information retrieved by Iago, Dr. Rendel located Elementor immediately after the battle in Dark Rival, and taking advantage of his unconsciousness, takes him prisoner to perform new experiments. In an effort to synthesize Morphosos Crystals, Dr. Rendel uses fragments recovered from Extroyer's body partially contaminated with Troy Winter's DNA. As a result, creates an Extroyer clone instead by accident. Taking his opportunity while Max is busy fighting Elementor, the clone absorbs the comet fragment into his body, and becomes a giant monster. Despite the fact he is currently in "evil mode", Cytro makes one last supreme effort to stop him and reverts the effect of the crystals, causing an explosion which reduces both to smithereens.

[edit] Mutant Menace

Released: 2009

Length: 47 minutes

After being reconstructed, Cytro becomes Max's mission partner, but now both are placed under the direct orders of Faron Ferro, a new N-Tek field commander instead of Jefferson. This new boss is a freak control with an aggressive and all-for-the-team attitude which contrasts with Max's free spirit, causing several conflicts among them. In response to an emergency call, Max and Cytro are sent to an Antarctica's subterranean lab which is also a prison for an unstable N-Tek agent who suffers some kind of mutation due to heavy exposure to chemical contamination. After fighting several "toxoids" (little creatures made form chemical waste), and directly disobeying Ferro's orders, Max gets into the prison level thinking he can save the injured agent, just to discover it's just a scheme plotted to free him. The agent is then revealed as ToxZon, a mutant who feeds on chemical waste with the ability to create and control the little toxoids, powered with a nanotech armor similar to Max's nanosuit, but way more primitive and bulky. Due to his vast knowledge of N-Tek fighting techniques, ToxZon defeats Max and Cytro and escapes, trying to locate and destroy N-Tek headquarters. During the final battle, it is revealed the same machine which caused ToxZon's mutation is still working, packing hazardous material. While trying to make Max fall into the device, ToxZon falls instead, being trapped in an unbreakable container.

[edit] 2010-11 Live Action Movie

Release:2010

Paramount Pictures have stated plans to remake Max Steel as motion picture. Taylor Lautner has been confirmed to star in the lead role as Josh McGrath ^[2]. Lautner has trained in martial arts and is likely to bring these skills to the picture.^[3]

[edit] Turbo Missions

Max Steel's Turbo Missions is a series of 1 minute length mini clips produced in partnership by Mattel, Sony Family Pictures Entertainment and Mainframe Entertainment (now Rainmaker Animation) which premiered on Cartoon Network on the first half of 2008 in Latin America. Each clip usually presents Max challenging one of his enemies. There's no moral lessons to be learned or advertising as usually happens in this kind of TV commercials. The main purpose of the Turbo Mission series is to keep Max's presence alive among his fans, and slowly reintroduce previous plots and situations from the series and movies. The clips are not intended to be viewed in a specific order, and are independent of each other. You don't need to watch one in particular to understand others. Also the chronology of the events depicted varies from clip to clip. Some shows present situations, while others are denoted to be memories or flashbacks.

Turbo Missions are also used to retcon the story, and give additional hints and backgrounds of the characters. In the movie Dark Rival it is mentioned that Troy Winter and Max are old rivals with no further explanations. Many Turbo Missions show several past confrontations between Max and Troy, providing a more wide and credible background for both characters. A curious thing to note is that despite it is stated several times in Dark Rival that Max never defeated Troy in the Extreme Sports Circuit, he usually surpasses him in Turbo Missions. Hence, the reason why Troy hates Max so much in the movie. Also Max fights several Psycho-robots, but it is not clear if these fights in particular are present or past, specially 'cause in this mini series Max always wears his newest Adrenalink uniform and the '09 Going Turbo Upgrade, even when the events depicted in the flashback episodes are supposed to happen years before this date.

For merchandising reasons, the complete Season One was randomly packed with the 2008 Bio Crisis DVD as an extra bonus. Other versions of this same DVD contained a Barbie My Scene movie instead. The external package of Bio Crisis does not mentions anything about bonus content, or which one is included, but the My Scene version was initially intended to be a Wal-Mart exclusive.

[edit] Season One (2008)

Season One premiered on Latin America on June 2008. Has a total of 14 episodes, 1 minute length each. Episode 12:"Relaunch" is a complete description of how Max Steel's new '09 Going Turbo Upgrade will work for upcoming movies and series episodes.

• Boiling Point - Pilot
• Relax
• Black Hawk down
• The Duel
• Gorilla attack
• Handle with care
• Enemy in home
• Hurricane
• Catch the prey
• The race
• The right gadget
• Relaunch
• Turbulence
• Warming up

[edit] Season Two (2009)

The Second Season of Turbo Missions was launched on June 2009, a year after the first one. Has twelve episodes. The main difference with Season One is it was divided into three separated themes: Animal Encounter, High Voltage and N-Tek Invasion. While (same as previous season) the episodes are independent and have no specific order or continuity, each one showcases only those elements related to their theme.

Animal Encounter Mostly wilderness and animal adventures, often focused on Extroyer or extroyed animals.

• All Teed Up
• Entangled mission
• Wildbat

High Voltage Big city, race and water themed adventures, with Elementor as the main villain.

• Powersurge
• Labyrinth
• Twister
• Desert Storm

N-Tek Invasion A "anything goes" series of episodes, all taking place in N-Tek headquarters, featuring several enemies focused on technology.

• Uninvited
• N-Tek Armor
• Outerspace
• Critic Mission Equipment
• Ascension

[edit] Video Games

• Mattel Interactive made a Max Steel video game Max Steel: Covert Missions for the Dreamcast.
• Each new Max Steel toy released starting in 2007 and later contains a "credit card". Depending of the toy's value, the cards contains a specific amount of credits named "Max Points" that can be used to log in and unlock and play different missions in Max Steel online video game. The online videogame can be accessed trough Max Steel Official Website only.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Max Steel at the Internet Movie Database
• Max Steel at TV.com
• Max Steel at YouTube

v • d • e Max Steel Television series: Max Steel • (Episodes) Films: Max Steel: Endangered Species • Max Steel: Forces of Nature • Max Steel: Countdown • Max Steel: Dark Rival •Max Steel: Bio Crisis Video games: Max Steel: Covert Missions Related Big Jim