John Leguizamo and Al Madrigal on Their Fight for Latino Superheroes
“We’re brothers in the same struggle,” explains John Leguizamo.
I’m speaking with Leguizamo, the Emmy and Tony Award-winning Encanto star, and Al Madrigal, stand-up comic, ex-Daily Show correspondent, and actor in the upcoming Morbius, about their new comic books about Latino superheroes.
The two celebrated comedians from opposite ends of the country—Leguizamo is Colombian and grew up in Queens; Madrigal is Mexican-Italian and was raised in San Francisco’s Sunset District—became so frustrated with the lack of Latino representation in the comic-book world that they made their own. Leguizamo reunited with Spawn’s Todd McFarlane for PhenomX, featuring Max Gomez, who’s given superpowers after a government experiment and navigates a war on the streets of New York City; Madrigal, meanwhile, joined forces with former Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Axel Alonso on Primos, a book about three young descendants of warring Mayan god-brothers scattered across Central and North America who must put a stop to one of the brothers’ plans of global destruction.