‘Toxic Crusaders’ Officially Returns With a New 5-Part Release [Exclusive]

Published Sep 15, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he’s an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, ’70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, ’90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they’re good, and maybe even more when they’re bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed “Canuxploitation.”

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

35 years ago, they were gross, but they still got girls. Now, the Toxic Crusaders are grosser than ever in their own satirical comic book series, which is coming to stores in a collected edition trade paperback later this month. Collider is proud to exclusively present the entire first issue of Toxic Crusaders in advance of the collected edition’s release on September 23.

As a property, Toxic Crusaders has had a history almost as strange as its heroes. It began life as a syndicated kids’ cartoon series from Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, the animation studio behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Premiering in 1991, it was a spin-off of the decidedly R-rated Toxic Avenger movies from Troma Entertainment, with a distinctly environmentalist slant. It starred the title character of those films, mutated janitor turned superhero Toxie, and gave him a team of similarly righteous but disgusting mutants, including the nasal Nozone, the plantlike Major Disaster, and the canine Junkyard; it pitted them against a cabal of evil aliens and mutants determined to pollute the entire world. The series ran for 13 episodes, and like Ninja Turtles, had its own line of action figures from Playmates.

Now, decades after the animated series ended, the Toxic Crusaders are back in a new comic book miniseries from Ahoy Comics, penned by Pulitzer-nominated cartoonist Matt Bors and drawn by newcomer Tristan Wright. The series takes the heroes Toxie, Nozone, Major Disaster, and Junkyard, plus new addition Fungirl, and places them in a very 2020s milieu; however, their battles against evil haven’t changed, as real-life villains are even more cartoonish than ever. Now, all five issues will be collected in a trade paperback; it will hit store shelves on September 23, but before that, you can read the entire first issue for free below.

Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.

You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.

You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.

You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.

You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.

You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.

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