I love the little images that come with the title card of each episode, they have a really cool style to them that makes it look like they're taken straight from the pages of the old-fashioned macabre comic books, and this one features a picture of Max releasing Skullmaster like an evil genie from..well, Pandora's Box! And that is precisely what for all intents and purposes, happens at the end of this excellent two-parter. It begins pretty much where "The Maxnificent Seven" left off, with Skullmaster still seething at the loss of his precious Crystal of Souls, and as an added unexpected consequence of which, the evil Lava Lord, the original ruler of the Hades-like fiery underworld and master of the lava beasts, whom Skullmaster battled and imprisoned millennia ago in a tomb of solid rock with the power of the Crystal, is released and is hellbent on seeking his revenge. Now Lava Lord's character design is quite awesome and powerful-looking, but the voice as provided by Frank Welker, is to me just really dumb and one-dimensional sounding. It's so scratchy, every time he laughs it sounds like he's gagging or something. He's not nearly as interesting a villain as Skullmaster, but he's still kind of different because he uses technology rather than magic to battle his enemies, and the animation of his prized creation, the lava-powered juggernaut Magus, is brilliant and every moment of it is extremely well done. And I'd like to mention that the battle robot is based upon the action figure play-set "Mighty Max Blasts Magus", which I think they brought to life amazingly well and used in a fantastic and thrilling way for the show. Back to the plot, the wise old fowl Virgil has the not-so bright idea of launching a surprise attack on what he foolishly believes will be a weakened Skullmaster, and ends up getting himself captured. If you ask me, they'd have been way better off just leaving Skullmaster down there to rot and duke it out with the vengeful Lava Lord for a while, but they didn't know about him, so whatever.. My favourite parts of this episode are the absorbing scenes where Skullmaster matches wits with a captive Virgil. It soon gets old the way he constantly refers to Virgil as "Old friend." It's scholarly and gothically logical Tony Jay against Tim Curry's deliciously diabolical wrath, and it must have been such a thrill to watch these two voice masters, each an expert of his chosen craft, just play off each other in the recording studio. This show really was character and dialogue driven, and it was voiced by some of the greatest. Love this one, and part two's even better. See ya soon!
2 Reviews
Poor Max Can't Catch a Break
shelbythuylinh22 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Really feel for Max after the Magnificent Seven as the heroes in the first season finale had to sacrifice to help Max, Norman, and Virgil on it.
That Skullmaster needs to be destroyed before he knows that the trio can come up behind him. Max really just wants to be a kid but he needs to destroy the villain if he can do that, he can do so. But no he does not.
Even if Virgil orders him not to even save his and Norman's lives. But Max must had felt some guilt. Virgil gets on my nerves at times. Really he needs to allow Max to have a life and Max and Norman should had given Virgil the reason you suck speech. No wonder he only has two friends in those two luckily.
That Skullmaster needs to be destroyed before he knows that the trio can come up behind him. Max really just wants to be a kid but he needs to destroy the villain if he can do that, he can do so. But no he does not.
Even if Virgil orders him not to even save his and Norman's lives. But Max must had felt some guilt. Virgil gets on my nerves at times. Really he needs to allow Max to have a life and Max and Norman should had given Virgil the reason you suck speech. No wonder he only has two friends in those two luckily.
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