Max Steel
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Max Steel is a TV show which originally aired on February 2000 and ran for three series totalling thirty-five episodes with a predicted audience of young males from the ages of eight to twelve. The voice acting cast for the series included such people as Chi McBride and Christian Campbell, the older brother of Neve Campbell.
It has also been made into two movies, Endangered Species and Forces of Nature, as well as a 12-inch toyline by Mattel.
Story
The first wave of Max Steel figures was very similar to the original 12-inch G.I.Joe toys, consisting almost entirely on different versions of Max Steel, the main character. The difference was that there was also an enemy to Max, the evil cyborg Psycho. According to the TV series, Psycho fought and injured Josh McGrath, a fictional extreme sports star. This injury consisted of microscopic machines, known to the company as "Nano Tech Max", entering Josh's body and, as they ran out of energy, dying and causing Josh's body to die too. In order to save Josh's life, his foster father, Jefferson Smith (who leads an intelligence agency called N-Tek), agrees to submit Josh to a high proportion of the transphasic energy (nicknamed "t-juice"), which the machines need to survive. This saves his live, but also gives him superpowers. As a result, Josh takes on the identity of Max Steel and fights against superpowered villans, mainly Mr. Dread, Psycho's evil boss.Each toy wave included various Max figures and one Psycho, until a new villain was created for the toyline: Bio-Constrictor, a snake-like villain. A later wave, mainly based on the TV series, featured a toy version of the TV villain Vitriol. There were no more Vitriol figures, but Psycho and Bio-Constrictor had new toy versions each two waves (i.e. wave:various Max, one Psycho; next wave:various Max, one Bio-Con; next: various Max, one Psycho; etc).
Endangered Species
In this movie, Psycho and Bio-Con join forces to transform humanity into mutants who will be ruled by them. At one point, Psycho betrays Bio-Con, making him be trapped by a Psycho-robot (who looks like a silver-colored Psycho) who later self-destructs. 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-robot instead to represent Psycho. The last Bio-Con figure is a copper repaint of the Bio-Con first figure (Bio-Con'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.
Characters
N-Tek/Civilians
- Josh McGrath a.k.a Max Steel - The nineteen year old main protagonist in the series, gaining the ability, after an accident, to alter his appearance to change into Max Steel, turn invisible and become super-strong, for example. As Josh McGrath, he is a college student and an extreme sports star, working for his adopted father, Jefferson Smith, at N-Tek.
- Dr. Roberto Martinez - A technical genius in his late teen years, 'Berto (his nickname) was the main expert on Nano-Tek Max, the microscopic machines which gave Josh his superhuman abilities. He has family in Colombia, although how many relatives is unknown.
- Rachel Leeds - Josh's partner at N-Tek, and also a love interest mid-way through the first series. Thought to be a British national, it is unclear why she moved to the United States. After the second series, she 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.
- Laura Chen and Pete Costas - Two of Josh's college friends, Pete referring to all three as "The Three Musketeers", although the reason why is unknown. Laura Chen is Josh's girlfriend; however, after hearing about his affair with Rachel, she quickly broke up with him. Pete, in season two, found out about Josh's dual identity after being captured by John Dread, and agreed to keep it secret.
- Jefferson Smith - The CEO of N-Tek, both the sports and spy sides. He inherrited this position from Marco Nathanson, the previous and first CEO of N-Tek. He is the adopted father of Josh McGrather after his mother, Molly, and father, Jim, both died.
- Kat Ryan - After Rachel's promotion in season two, Kat becomes his new partner. At first, they don't get along, but after Jefferson forces them to work together, they develop a respect for each other. 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.
DREAD/Other organizations
- Josh Dread - the leader of the DREAD organization, and the main antagonist of the series. He's rarely seen outside of offices and rooms in secluded buildings, and only made two known appearances where he was the main or part of a main threat. There is fandom speculation that Josh Dread and Marco Nathanson are the same person.
- 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, and was the first villan Max fought against in the TV show. After his second appearance, he is said to no longer works for Dread.
- 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 has a metallic face, which is covered up using a mask, and a bionic arm, which can change into a claw or a laser gun, presumably by nerve signals.
- Dragonelle - She is the first major female villan 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 took place). As dragons are a key part of Chinese mythology, it is believed that she took this name for good luck. Her ability is to mimic the actions and appearance of any person she has seen, and uses this ability to almost trick Max into giving up a vital disc to her.
- Vitriol - According to Max, "not the brightest tool in the shed" and appeared in a space-related episode, along with Psycho. His arms are a vibrant, translucent green with simple metallic 'bones' visible, and can shoot green energy beams, which can be very destructive.
- 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; Annabelle because, in the first series, she follows her brother and, in the second series, to get revenge for her brother. In series two, Annabelle suffers an accident in her laboratory and her body is never found. It's 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 was involved in an accident with what is thought to be electrified snake venom, and thus mutated into a half-human, half snake with the abilities to turn into a snake, poison people with highly-toxic venom or, in the third series, use his venom to mutate people into copies of his mutated self. 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 bio-weapons, which appears to form a basis of the plotline of the Endangered Species movie. He knew Josh when he was younger, and they used to play baseball together.
External links
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