The story
The MAX Comics imprint was not Marvel's first effort to feature explicit content in their titles. The company's Epic Comics imprint in the 1980s and early 1990s often featured stronger content than their mainstream imprint. However, the MAX Comics imprint was the first time Marvel has specifically produced comics with uncensored content.
The first series to be published under the MAX imprint was Alias, written by Brian Michael Bendis. Several limited series were then created specially for the MAX imprint, such as Apache Skies and Haunt of Horror, but the majority of its publications were based around existing Marvel characters, such as Howard the Duck and Devil-Slayer.
One Marvel character who was revived by MAX was Rawhide Kid who in 2002 became the first openly homosexual Marvel comic book character to star in his own magazine. The first edition of the Rawhide Kid's saga was called Slap Leather. According to a CNN.com article, "The new series pairs the original artist, John Severin, now 86, with Ron Zimmerman, a television writer. Making the Rawhide Kid gay was Zimmerman's idea." The character's homosexuality is conveyed indirectly, through euphemisms and puns, and the comic's style is campy. Conservative groups protested the homosexual take on the character, which they claimed would corrupt children, though the covers carried an "Adults only" label.
Since 2012, the new works under the MAX imprint have been limited to the Punisher series. Marvel now portrays MAX as a rating indicating mature content, rather than a separate brand. The latest MAX issue (Get Fury #6) was published in October 2024 (cover date).
From Wikipedia’s article on Max (comics), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4