Webcomic / The Legend of Maxx

The Legend of Maxx is a comedic webcomic based on the video game Terraria. It follows the adventures of the highly persistent Idiot Hero Maxx, the under-qualified "chosen one" of half a dozen different prophecies, and his trusty guide Cyril as they meet a cast of colorful characters, including a Jerkass Dryad named June, a kind-hearted nurse named Hannah, an ale-making fairy named Aley, and the long-suffering Arms Dealer Tyrone.

On January 2nd, 2016, Jesse stated the comic would end, with a brief overview of what would have happened to be posted later. However, this turned out to be only a hiatus, and the comic returned on November 2016.

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The Legend of Maxx provides examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Maxx crafts a robe for Cyril, which he dubs "pyjamas". Even June smirks at that. then she finds the sight of Cyril wearing them so dumb that she leaves the group for the next arc.
• Alphabetical Theme Naming: The Naiads' names all start with "X" (Xylan, Xane, Xyvareth...).
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Elder Fungus’ list of all the problems the Dryads face.
  Elder Fungus: the corn in the east field has gingivitis, and the corn in the north field needs to be rotated to the south field! The town’s water supply is full of dirt! We’re in debt sixteen trillion gold pieces thanks to our flawed economic model and I’m out of foot cream!
• Art Evolution: At the beginning of the comic, the author was simply editing screenshots, to the point where he actually had to goat the Guide into where he wanted him to be in order to make a specific slide. However, if you compare that with pages like this one, he's definitely gotten way better.
• Author Avatar: Jesse McMinn (the comic's creator) is a recurring character in the series, mostly just to announce new stuff or during the interview Intermission.
• Ax-Crazy: Xane. Kinda obvious when his nickname is "The Maniac" or described as "one part crazy, two parts insane." Before this is even mentioned it's heavily implied due to the fact that he threatens to or kills people incredibly often, cracking a vicious grin while doing so.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Maxx and June when defeating the jungle cave hornets◊.
• Beat Panel: After June mentions that both her parents died, Maxx says in relief that he don't have to introduce himself to any of June's family members if he were to date her. The gang's reaction to such a comment is a 12-panel beat.
• Big Bad: Xylan at the moment, since Xane is taking orders from him.
• Braids of Action: Xane's single super long braid is this. It's so long that he wears it around his neck like a Scarf of Asskicking.
• Butt-Monkey: Tyrone the Arms Dealer. Nearly every strip he appears in, he dies.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Cyril.
  Jesse: Can you express your true thoughts about Hannah to us without blushing?
  [beat]
  Cyril: [blushing] No.
• Chekhov's Gun: It's becoming increasingly apparent that the Demon Altar Maxx and Cyril found in their earliest adventures will become important once Maxx has all of the required swords to make the Sword of Plot Advancement.
• Christmas Episode: Christmas comics have been released in 2012 and 2013.
• City Guards:
  • The two guards of the Dryad home, Maple and Poa, are the only two guards seen. They have no other job than this.
  • The Demolitionist and Merchant are appointed to this role for Maxx's village.
• Combat Medic: Hannah the Nurse has picked up some pretty good axe and bow techniques.
• Cool Mask: The Angels wear them. This seems to be a nod to a line in the old testament from God to Moses: "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live". Remiel jokes that if a mortal sees an angel's face it would cause The End of the World as We Know It, before offering to take if off, but Cyril declines
• Crazy Enough to Work: The Hellboat, as designed by Sophia and Maxx, is this according to June. She argues that a conventional, normal boat would have to deal with conventional, normal problems at sea. With the Hellboat, all they have to concern themselves with is to give the laws of physics, reality and common sense the slip, and they'll be golden.
• Deadpan Snarker: June, by nature. Cyril has his moments, too.

• Drowning My Sorrows: Maxx does this after Cyril's first death, drinking ale and singing on top of Cyril's grave.
• Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas: Maxx is, according to prophecy, either meant to save the world, destroy it, or is a bowl of two goldfish. Time will tell which one is right.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Maxx's Guide isn't given a name for 129 strips after introducing him. Justified in the case of Aley, who was named by Maxx.
• Evolving Title Screen: The banner at the top shows the swords that have been obtained so far in color, but the future ones are silhouetted.
• Expressive Mask: The hood of Xylan's cape is known to form angry eyebrows.
• Fake Defector: Maxx makes Xylan think he is defecting to the Naiad's side, but he only does it to be close enough to stab him in the chest and get Muramasa.
• Fun with Acronyms: Parodied. J.o.N.A.S. is an acronym for Jonas.
• Faux Affably Evil: Xane can project a veneer of friendliness, but it's obvious he's very unhinged. Something Grog and Cyril found out the hard way.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The main group has this dynamic:
  • Maxx: Sanguine
  • Cyril: Melancholic
  • June: Choleric
  • Hannah: Phlegmatic
  • Aley: Leukine
• Genius Ditz: Sophia. On one hand, she's smart enough to design a cart that can move at very high speeds, but on the other, she's ditzy enough to not include a way to steer it.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Xyvareth, considering that he was king of the Naiads and his actions kickstarted the plot in the present day.
• Halloween Episode: There's one every year (except for the 2016 hiatus), where the gang all dress up as characters from many other works of fiction. Jesse made it a game for the readers to guess who are the gang dressing up as.
• Harmless Villain: Or in this case, villains: the Goblin "Army" (may just be the leading squad) of 5 members, who have trouble even remembering each other's names, plan to attack Maxx and Co until various obstacles come in their way, or they end up bickering in their many arguments. Along with them is the Goblin Tinkerer, who happens to be a prisoner in their group after one of his inventions accidentally erased another goblin from the past, present, future, and all alternate timelines.
• Herr Doktor: Gus, the Goblin Tinkerer who speaks in heavy German-ish accent.
• Hospital Hottie: Apparently Hannah, considering Cyril's mind recited an entire speech about how she was out of his league the moment he saw her. Although in the real world,he was simply standing and staring until the dusk.

• Improvised Weapon: The Mighty Hammush and it’s successor, the Heart-poon.
• Incoming Ham: Maxx's preferred form of entering the fray.
  Maxx: EAT CITRUS-SCENTED DEATH, YOU CYCLOPTIC FREAK!!
• Infinite Canvas: some shenanigans ensue, such as the full-length shot of the eater of worlds, a strip that just scrolls all the way down a hellhole, and the incredibly long Maple and Poa strips.
• In Love with Your Carnage: The first time Maxx saw June, she had just hit him with a massive bat made of dirt. According to him, her violent acts only make her hotter.
• Intermission:
  • Because the artist of the webcomic (Jesse) wanted to play the new version of Terraria before continuing the comic, he decided to have an interview of each member of the main cast from Comic 307 to Comic 319.
  • A new Running Gag is that there will be a comic with Maple and Poa every hundredth strip. They’re always incredibly long and pointless.

• Knight in Sour Armor: June has seen hundreds of Chosen Ones, and seen all of them die, and finds Maxx in particular stupid and expects him to die. But she still helps.
• The Legend of X
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: King Xylan, earning nicknames such as Fabio and Edward Cullen from June.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Xane's nickname is "The Maniac".
• Nigh-Invulnerability: The Skeletal Viking Leader, first seen in this page, And later this one, He (and his crewmates) appear to be cursed undead, allowing them to put themselves back together after death.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Strip 101 Gives us two, Maxx and Cyril apparently fell into a cave of slimes trying to mate with them, and then a skeletal enchanter swapped their livers.
  • The Goblins imprisoned the Goblin Tinkerer because his invention erased another goblin from past, present, future and all alternate timelines.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Between Idiot Hero Maxx, Bumbling Sidekick Aley, Cowardly Lion Cyril and Heroic Comedic Sociopath June, Hannah is this to the main party.
  • Despite being a Mad Scientist, Gus tends to play this part often. Especially around Sophia.
• Our Angels Are Different: They are not so much "holy beings, guardians of light" as they're "hard-partying gamer drunkards".
• Our Genies Are Different: Djinn are humanoid creatures made of fire, and represent the fire element. At least one tribe worshipped a pyramid, and they live in a desert under which the Underworld, which houses the Fire Greatsword, can be found.
• Our Nymphs Are Different: The comic features a race of dryads, expanding on the single dryad present in Terraria. Each dryad is based on a certain plant which she physically resembles, including the wise Elder Willow and the dementia-riddled Elder Fungus.
• Pokémon Speak: The rabbits in the webcomic only say "rabbit". Notable because the other animals sound normal (birds chirp, mice squeak, etc.).
• Pyramid Power: Abdul's Djinn ancestors used to worship a pyramid, under which the entrance to the Underworld could be found. Turns out the pyramid is actually a giant alien Lihzahrd spaceship that crash landed millenia ago.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Played straight and then defied.
  Cyril: ...Oh no. Oh NO. No, no, no, NO, NOOOO!!!
  Remiel: Sorry, in this situation you're only allowed a maximum of 3 horrified 'no's.
• Read the Freaking Manual: The heart crystal had instructions written on its back that said that consumption may lead to attraction of demonic entities. After Maxx used it, demonic entities were actually attracted to him on two separate occasions.
• Running Gag: Several.
  • The Arms Dealer's constant dying in his attempts to introduce himself.
  • Maxx attaching an "ey" to the end of a given character's purpose was this for a while (e.g. Guidey, Aley).
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Played straight with Cyril to the point of becoming a borderline Running Gag.
• Shout-Out:
  • Early on on the comic Maxx puts on a Skull and become Skeledeath, a Skeletor parody.
  • This might be a coincidence but the title might be one to a difficult song in DanceDanceRevolution called "the legend of max". The composer of that song also composed two other boss songs with "Max" in the name, but spelled "Maxx"
  • During Jesse's interview with Maxx, Maxx's story seems like something ripped from the Star Wars prequels. Jesse doesn't buy it one bit.
  • After Cyril's first death, Maxx decides to mourn his loss by drowning his sorrows and signing various songs, the last one is the Goofy Goober song. He also sings the Song "American Pie" but with more context sensitive lyrics.
  • Meanwhile, when Cyril meets Remiel for the first time the latter mentions that Angels sometimes play Call of Duty.
  • The reason Aley left their kind and become an ale fairy is because they're sick of fairies being expected to guide some guy in green and/or spandex.
  • When Remiel is being called while he's drunk, he uses the Esuna spell to make himself sober.
  • During the jungle arc, when Maxx is pretending to be able to speak Pygmy, he drops this line:
    Maxx: Mooby hooby cheeky church tucker mo sup fal!
  • After Xane stabs Cyril and blocks Hannah, he calls his latest victim Fluttershy.
  • When Maxx and Cyril get lost in a desert after traveling too far east, Maxx says they'll have to start traveling weast.
• Shown Their Work: Jesse had to do research on Zen Buddhism, Scottish slang terms, and viking culture for the strip, just to name a few.
• Sprite Comic: The comic uses sprites from Terraria, edited to make expressions for the NPC characters. There are also original sprites created specifically for the comic.
• Take That!: in comic #567, June and Xane get so off-topic in their pre-fight insults that they start making fun of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
• Tempting Fate:
  • "Do you see any demons around?" Cue Eye of Cthulhu.
  • Invoked here.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Tyrone the Arms Dealer. In his first appearance he was BWEEN-ed by Aley, and then he accidentally jumped into a dynamite crossfire, and then he somehow keep respawning into local Ax-Crazy Xane. It's so bad that he's reduced to a mess and begs for Remiel to stay in his purgatory instead of having to respawn again.
• Token Mini-Moe: Among the Elders there is Elder Acorn, a little girl.
• Too Dumb to Live: Maxx. While it is mostly Played for Laughs, this strip has him being unable to read a piece of paper because he is holding it upside down which means he and Cyril have spent close to a year lost in the desert searching for a pyramid while Juniper's condition worsens.
• Unsound Effect:
  • Maxx crashes the wedding of Cyril and Skelerina and uses the Blade of Grass to slice Skelerina's head off, accompanied by a loud sound effect of "George R. R. Martin".
  • The sound of Maxx removing (un-shanking) his blade from Xylan's body is "knahs".
• the sound effect for Maxx fashioning the Heart-poon is “fashion”.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Aley, a fairy that fits through the spout on a beer keg, is capable of doing this to everything he comes across one by one.
• Webcomic of the Game: Of Terraria.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Aley's response after Maxx shoves Aley into a hornet hive with the purpose of blowing the hive up.
• Who's on First?: The goblins get into some of this when forgetting each other’s names.
• Winged Humanoid: The Angels are an entire race of these, complete with masks to hide their real faces from human perception.
• Work Info Title: Not the comic, but one of the many Shows within the show that Remiel watches.
  TV: Join us next week for another exciting episode of: I Married A Moderately Attractive, Middle-class Working Man And Now I’m Stuck In A Marriage That No Longer Thrills Me But Provides Just Enough Stability That I Can’t Risk My Future By Asking For A Divorce!
  Remiel: Wow, TV gets dark after 2020.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In #460, Maxx describes the plot map of the whole “two characters who hate each other forced to work together” Schtick, even saying it would go even better if they were handcuffed together. June responds by jumping off the cliff.

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