Mighty Max - about Mighty Max; the Chosen One & Cap Bearer

The one and only Mighty Max!

Mighty Max has to be, in my humble opinion, the best cartoon series that was ever made. It was about Max, normal 13 year old boy who was to become the 'Cap Bearer', destined since the beginning of time. He was aided by Virgil, an old but wise Lumerian chicken (fowl actually!) and Norman, his huge body guard who, it turns out, was none other than the god Thor in a previous existence.

One of the main reasons why I liked this program so much was that the main character was not a super hero in the Spiderman/Superman/Batman sense; that he was not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, he was not super strong, he was not able to fly; in fact he had no extraordinary powers of his own, hence the need for a guide and a bodyguard. He was always a bit cheeky, and sometimes a bit naughty, and would rather have stayed at home than go to school. He was usually more worried about looking cool than anything else, especially in front of the girls. The only thing that made Max different to any other boy of his age was the Cap that he had to wear. It appeared at first as a normal red baseball cap, with the initial "M" embossed on it above the peak but it was far from that. This cap was the key to many secret, invisible portals that could instantly transport Max to various locations in the world, and beyond. These portals would only become visible once the cap was nearby.

Max's main enemy was Skullmaster, a demented chap who lived in the centre of the earth and was obsessed by one thing; killing the Mighty One in order to get his cap so that he may rule the world. The voice of Skullmaster was provided by none other than Tim Curry himself.

Other characters who appeared in several episodes were Max's mom, Felix (one of his best friends), and Bea (another friend who I personally think was in love with Max, though she would never admit it to him or herself, but some of the ways that she acted toward Max, and some of the things she said to him made me realise that, for Bea at least, there was more than just friendship with Max here).

As far as I am aware Max is an only child, as we saw or heard no evidence of him having any siblings. It would also appear that his mother, an archaeologist, was a single parent; we never saw or heard anything of his father.

There were only ever 40 episodes of Mighty Max made, but whether this was always the intention I am not sure, however, the final episode seemed to suggest that this was the case.

There were some videos released but these have now been discontinued, and were never available on DVD (though I have to confess that I do have all 40 episodes on DVD (cough -cough!))

There were also a number of plastic Mighty Max toys produced by Mattell, but I believe these are not made anymore. There was also a comic produced a few years ago, but this only last for about 6 issues, along with a sticker album (guess who's got all of them!)