John Leguizamo on his Latinx superhero comic, ‘PhenomX’

Ad Age is marking Hispanic Heritage Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package, in which members of the Hispanic community revisit some of their favorite creative projects. (Read the introduction here.) Today, guest editor Pedro Lerma turns the spotlight to John Leguizamo, the actor, comedian and film producer, who writes about his comic-book project “PhenomX.” Before “Blue Beetle,” I wrote my own Latinx superhero because of the crazy dearth of Latinx stories, heroes and just plain protagonists. We Latinos make up 30% of the U.S. box office and 20% of the population, but less than 2 percent of the stories or protagonists. We account for $4 billion in streaming and a whopping $3.4 trillion in buying power in America but are virtually invisible across the whole media content landscape. The silly thing is, if you have great fighters in boxing and UFC, you have natural superheroes—Canelo and Nate, respectively. If you have great baseball and basketball players, then you have homemade superheroes. The synopsis for my comic, “PhenomX,” is as follows. I lived on the Lower East Side when they were dumping particulates from the plants around us into poor Hispanic communities and giving the kids asthma and all kinds of respiratory infections. So I thought, what if this illegal dumping made us stronger, gave us superpowers and made us invincible? That was the catalyst for writing my comic, “PhenomX,” published by Todd MacFarlane at Image Comics—the third-largest comic distributer in the world. The log line goes a little something like this: When the powers that be keep you down, you have a choice—stay down or take the system down first. Years ago, the U.S. government ran an illegal experimental drug trial to “rehabilitate criminals” called The Metamorphosis Project. It failed … or so everyone thought. Now, in present day New York, with radiation levels on the rise and reports of super-powered human beings running rampant through Queens, Metamorphosis is becoming hard to sweep underground. The government needs a solution… We need Max Gomez. After years in prison, Max is one day from parole and ready to have a second chance at fatherhood. But when an unexplained violent riot throws him back in his cell, Max is approached by the cryptic Agent Potter with one way out. FRAMED, DESPERATE and RUNNING OUT OF TIME, Max accepts, enlisting himself in a task force designed to capture the “failed” META experiments the only way they can—fighting fire with fire. As the program alters Max’s body, giving him astonishing abilities, the deal shifts, too. Max is no longer bound by human limits, but still feels locked up and beat down. Secrets are kept, and his top target grows stronger every second. Why Max? Why now? And why does Potter have a file on Max’s dead brother, Mark? If freedom comes at a price, it’s not free. Max will discover he’s more than a statistic … he’s more than an ex-con … he’s more than a pawn … he’s more than a phenomenon … he’s PhenomX! P.S.: Let's make the world a better place together! Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

John Leguizamo on his Latinx superhero comic, ‘PhenomX’

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