Axel Braun’s Barbarella XXX may hold the distinction of being the first porn parody ever to boast better special effects than the original. And while one might actually expect as much given how many light years effects have come since 1968, Braun and company don’t go so slick as to betray the cheese factor that makes Roger Vadim’s classic so charming. There’s plenty of Velveeta to be found here.

More significantly, however, Barbarella XXX marks the debut of the new Wicked Comix imprint, under which Braun will continue to make the comic book/superhero parodies with which his name has become synonymous over the past several years. And what a delightful way to kick the line off.

How nobody has thought to use Barbarella as source material for a XXX spoof prior to the past year (director/performer Lorelei Lee made her own version that was released by Kink.com last fall) is almost impossible to fathom. The original has long been regarded as just shy of a softcore porn film as it is, and so much of its plot revolves around sex. Jane Fonda’s opening zero gravity striptease remains one of the most universally revered bits of spank bank material in the history of cinema, and the character herself one of its biggest sexual icons. A hardcore incarnation is quite literally a no-brainer.

Of course, such a legendary role demands just the right gal to fill the accompanying space boots, and it would be tough to come up with anyone more fitting than Axel Braun Productions contract girl Riley Steele—it’s almost as though this is the part she was plopped into Porn Valley to play.

Wicked girl Asa Akira gets a plenty plum role as well, as the Great Tyrant, whose shades of lesbian leanings in the original are brought to full fruition here; she has a terrific girl/girl romp about midway through the picture with Rachael Madori as three other gals fondle each other before them, and then for the grand finale, she and Steele have at each other in a truly epic lick-a-thon that will almost surely be a frontrunner for Best Girl/Girl Sex Scene come AVN Awards 2016.

Another noteworthy, if contextually rather extraneous, sex scene is the boy/girl between Kurt Lockwood and 2015 AVN Best New Starlet nominee Chanell Heart, the latter getting her first well-deserved crack at the big league feature arena.

Barbarella XXX is sure to be an instant classic in its own right for so many reasons, including but not limited to its guest appearances by both Ron Jeremy and Tera Patrick, its hysterical riff on the original’s theme song performed by Braun (yes, you read that right), and its wry in-jokes about the film and the ‘80s pop band whose name it inspired, Duran Duran.

In short, this is a timeless entry in the XXX canon, and we expect demand for it will have a corresponding lifespan.