Confused hulking homeless superhero The Maxx tries to protect his social worker and friend Julie from an omniscient serial killer Mr. Gone both in the real world, which may or may not actually be real, and the subconscious fantasy world.

The comic book series was adapted into an animated series as part of the MTV program Oddities. It covered Darker Image #1, The Maxx #1/2, and issues #1–11 of the regular series and depicted the introduction of Julie, the original Maxx, Mr. Gone, and, later, Sara. Therefore, the TV series did not go into the same depth (e.g. revealing the origins of all the characters).

The animation frequently changes style: in one scene, characters may be rendered in detail, but in the next, they may be simplified cartoons. Often, this is done to show a change in perspective. CGI and even live-action film are sometimes integrated or interspersed with the hand-drawn animation. Critics such as Richard Matthes have noted how much of the animation is based directly on panels from the comic.