\n
Retro Review:<\/h3>\nAztek: The Ultimate Man #1-10 (August 1996 – May 1997)<\/span><\/h2>\n![](\"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek.jpg\")
Written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar<\/span><\/p>\nPencils by N. Steven Harris<\/span><\/p>\nInks by Keith Champagne<\/span><\/p>\nColoured by Mike Danza<\/span><\/p>\nSpoilers (from twenty-one to twenty-two years ago)<\/span><\/p>\nThe next series I was going to write about in this column was going to be Aquaman, but when I went into my longbox vaults, and was grabbing up issues of Peter David\u2019s run of that title (which is still going to be my next set of columns), I pulled out an issue of Aztek, the unique DC title that was as short-lived as the partnership between its writers, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, I changed my mind. \u00a0Aztek, as a property if not the same character, just made a return in DC\u2019s Justice League of America title, and I realized that the town that Ray is from in that book, Vanity, was the setting of this title. \u00a0I figured it was an opportune time to revisit this gem from the dark 90s.<\/span><\/p>\nI remember liking this book a lot when it came out, but I\u2019m hard pressed to remember many of the details. \u00a0I liked Aztek\u2019s look, and N. Steven Harris\u2019s art a lot. \u00a0I was very familiar with Grant Morrison at that time, but think this might have been my first exposure to Mark Millar\u2019s writing. \u00a0I remember being intrigued by the high-tech Aztec concept, and irritated that Lex Luthor became involved at some point. \u00a0Beyond that, there\u2019s very little I recall.<\/span><\/p>\nTo provide some context, this book came before Morrison took over JLA, by a few months. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLet\u2019s look at who turned up in the title:<\/span><\/p>\nVillains<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Piper (#1)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Synth (#1-2)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Mister F (#1-2)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Mister B (#1-2)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Other unnamed gangster types (#1-2)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Mindy Falconer (#2)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Death Doll (#3)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Fixit (#3, 6-7)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Lizard King (#4-5)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Scrappers (#4)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Joker (#6-7)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Heatsnap (#7)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Bloodhound (Dial V for Villain; #8)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Tattoo (Dial V for Villain; #8)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Deathgrip (Dial V for Villain; #8)<\/span><\/li>\n
- AWOL (Dial V for Villain; #8)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Lex Luthor (#8-9)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Doc Parasite (#9)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Professor Ivo (#10)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Amazo (#10)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![](\"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-1.jpg\")
Guest Stars<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Bloodtype (#1)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner; #2, 10)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Batman (#6-7)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Alfred Pennyworth (#7)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Superman (#9)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Maggie Sawyer (#9)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Flash (Wally West; #10)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Wonder Woman (#10)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Aquaman (#10)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Martian Manhunter (#10)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Supporting Characters<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Hector (one of the Q Foundation; #1, 8, 10)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Joy Page (nurse; #2-5, 9)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Wally Mosely (doctor; #2-6)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Julia Frosticks (hospital administrator; #2-10)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Helena Perrier (police chief; #2, 6-7)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Forbes Cleveden (doctor; #3-9)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Curt\u2019s unnamed potential replacement (#8, 10)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Let\u2019s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- The first issue opens on Piper, a rather odd looking villain whose ridiculousness is being pointed out to him by a gangster type whose name we don\u2019t learn. \u00a0What we do learn is that this gangster has Piper\u2019s daughter, and he introduces Synth, a former corporate superhero whose brain is undergoing constant change, explaining this guy is looking after Piper\u2019s daughter, until Piper does a job for the gangster. \u00a0The hero who will become known as Aztek (we don\u2019t learn his real or superhero name in the first issue) is flying around Vanity, the rough city where this series takes place, narrating an initial report. \u00a0From it, we learn that he\u2019s new to the hero game, having undergone extensive training in virtual environments. \u00a0We also learn a bit about his abilities – density control for example, and that his abilities are given to him through his armor. \u00a0He\u2019s having a hard time establishing a life for himself in town, lacking money, identification, and a job. \u00a0When he goes to a bank, he jumps the line, not knowing proper banking etiquette. \u00a0While he\u2019s there, the Piper arrives, accompanied by little black creatures that later get referred to as \u201cpipes\u201d. \u00a0They don\u2019t look like robots, and they speak, and are kind of confusing. \u00a0Vanity\u2019s 90s exxxxtreme superhero, Bloodtype, intervenes, and gives Piper a beating. \u00a0He is about to kill him, after uttering his catchphrase, but our hero steps in and tells Bloodtype to stand down. \u00a090s posturing ensues, but since Morrison and Millar are kind of pointing fun at 90s posturing, it\u2019s all good. \u00a0When Piper tries to run away, Bloodtype shoots him in the back, so our hero starts to fight him. \u00a0This lasts for a bit, but our hero brings him down. \u00a0When he goes to check on Piper, the dying reluctant villain tells him that his name is Curtis Falconer and that he was supposed to start a new job as a doctor. \u00a0He also tells him that his daughter is in the Urthona Tower, and that \u2018they\u2019 are planning something. \u00a0At this point, one of the Pipe things, which Piper claims is not his, explodes. \u00a0Our hero is not harmed in the explosion, but is taken to the hospital with the other victims. \u00a0There, we see that Bloodtype lost a leg and arm (he dies off-panel on the next page), and that lot of other people are badly injured. \u00a0Our hero goes to a woman named Sheree who is hurt, and heals her with his abilities. \u00a0This is seen by a lot of people around him, so he identifies himself as Curtis Falconer, and tells them that he\u2019s their new doctor (which, of course, doesn\u2019t explain how he healed open wounds). \u00a0He finishes his report by talking about how he plans to spend his time while in Vanity, and we learn that these reports are being listened to by some people in a mountain somewhere, and that they have prepared him to deal with a \u2018shadow god\u2019. \u00a0We learn that one of the at least three people there is named Hector, and that the extinction of life on Earth is a possibility if our hero fails. \u00a0In all, an effective first issue.<\/span><\/li>\n
![](\"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-2.jpg\")
A group of thieves rob a department store after gassing everyone in it. \u00a0As they run outside, the run right into Major Force, who has crushed their getaway car into a cube. \u00a0The group of gangsters we saw last issue discuss the fact that Major Force is making a play for Vanity now that Bloodtype is dead. \u00a0These gangsters seem to call each other by the first letter of their names (Mr. B and Mr. F are the only ones named so far), I guess because this is not long after Reservoir Dogs came out? \u00a0They suspect that our as-yet unnamed hero is also a new supervillain. \u00a0They also decide, since Piper is dead, that they should just have Synth kill his daughter. \u00a0At the hospital, our hero, who has assumed Falconer\u2019s identity, watches a news broadcast about the fact that Falconer\u2019s daughter is missing. \u00a0He talks to a nurse, Joy Page, who flirts with him, and a doctor, Walley Mosely, who lets him know that the hospital administrator, Julia Frostick, wants to talk to him. \u00a0Mosely gives Curt a map of Vanity, mentioning how the city is always changing, after Curt asks for directions to Urthona Towers. \u00a0He ducks into a supply room and flies out the window. \u00a0At the police station, the chief talks to Green Lantern Kyle Rayner about Major Force being in town, although he is supposed to be dead. \u00a0They also show GL our hero\u2019s photo, as they think he might be a villain as well. \u00a0Our hero flies around, and asks some construction workers for directions, but finds himself trapped in a green bubble. \u00a0GL has caught him, but our hero fakes him out and escapes, after pretending to teleport away. \u00a0They talk to each other, and quickly establish that they are both heroes, and Curt explains he is looking for the kidnapped girl. \u00a0They talk about how Curt doesn\u2019t have a superhero name yet, and how the city seems to be affecting Kyle\u2019s power ring. \u00a0They go to Urthona tower, where they see that Major Force has brought Mindy Falconer to a meeting with the crime bosses. \u00a0Kyle wants to jump into the fight, but Curt insists they wait. \u00a0As it turns out, Mindy has convinced Synth to shapeshift into Major Force\u2019s identity, and she explains that she is taking over their business. \u00a0She has been manipulating things all along, and had wanted her father killed. \u00a0Our hero jumps in, and Synth takes on his form and begins to fight him. \u00a0GL brings the police, and tries to help our hero in his fight. \u00a0He uses the four-dimensional energy that powers his suit to take down Synth. \u00a0Curt starts to lecture Mindy, and Synth, recovering but now stupid (his intelligence fluctuates at midnight) shoots Mindy dead by mistake. \u00a0Later, Green Lantern and our hero talk, and Kyle recommends he pick a name before the press does. \u00a0At the newspaper offices of Vanity Press (awesome name), two reporters come up with names for our hero, and settle on Aztek. \u00a0The gangsters, having got out of jail already, see Aztek\u2019s name in the paper.<\/span><\/li>\n- A number of local supervillains have turned out for Bloodtype\u2019s funeral, as has his sometime girlfriend Death Doll, who has been working in black ops for a while. \u00a0One villain talks to her about trying to get some work, but she is only interested in tracking down Aztek. \u00a0We see Aztek interrupt a mugging in an alleyway, and when the muggers argue that heroes never do anything to help them, Aztek gives them all of his money. \u00a0One of them tags him with a type of green spray before they run off. \u00a0Curt heads to meet Joy for their date, and realizes he\u2019s given all of his money away. \u00a0When he meets her, he says he left his wallet at the hospital, and she agrees to cover him. \u00a0Death Doll goes to a guy named Fixit – a Tinkerer like character, who we realize was the mugging victim a few pages earlier. \u00a0The spray that the muggers, who were part of a set-up, sprayed on Aztek is actually a tracker, and Death Doll gears up to come after him. \u00a0We also learn that Bloodtype and Death Doll were once known as Mr. America and Liberty Lass, and we are left with the impression that Vanity just ruins people. \u00a0Death Doll, who was covered with experimental CIA plastic after a mission went bad, stiffs Fixit for his expenses. \u00a0Curt and Joy eat at a Western-themed restaurant, and Curt talks about how it\u2019s his first time ever eating out. \u00a0They spot the hospital\u2019s administrator, Julia Frostick, eating with her fianc\u00e9e, Forbes Cleveden. \u00a0It turns out that Forbes knows the real Curt Falconer, and tells Julia that that\u2019s not who is in the restaurant. \u00a0At that moment, Death Doll teleports into the place, and in the craziness that follows, Aztek flies her out of there. \u00a0He drops her into a cemetery where she\u2019s arranged all of Fixit\u2019s men to blind him with bright lights when he uses his infrared lenses. \u00a0Death Doll gets Aztek down, and is about to kill him but one of the goons steps in and stops her, because Aztek had given him money earlier and shown him some compassion. \u00a0Aztek catches Death Doll in a net, but she teleports away. \u00a0The thing is, the goon had damaged her teleporter, and she gets stuck in Bloodtype\u2019s gravestone. \u00a0Joy calls Wally to complain about her date, and says some mean things that Curt, sitting outside her apartment, overhears before flying away.<\/span><\/li>\n
![](\"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-3.jpg\")
A man is strapped to a number of machines that are extracting the goodness from him. \u00a0An shadowy figure talks to him about how he is using the man and his daughter as \u201cpilots\u201d to help him get a job that he wants, even though it is already occupied. \u00a0Aztek finds a lizard in a decrepit area. \u00a0He\u2019s spent the entire night looking for it, even though the press thought he should be looking for stolen goods. \u00a0When he returns the lizard to its elderly owner, he finds that she\u2019s slit her wrists in the bathtub, although she\u2019s still alive. \u00a0At St. Bart\u2019s, Wally talks to Joy, who is still upset about her date with Curt the night before. \u00a0Curt is looking after the old woman when he is confronted by Julia. \u00a0She accuses him of not being who he says he is, and he refuses to explain. \u00a0Inexplicably, she gives him the choice of explaining or quitting by the next morning, and then storms off, leaving him to CONTINUE BEING A DOCTOR under false pretenses. \u00a0Seriously. \u00a0Wally tries to convince Curt to ask Joy out again, even though he knows she\u2019s not the least bit interested. \u00a0Curt thinks about things, and is suddenly confronted by two robotic figures put together with scrap metal, who tell him that the Lizard King wants him dead. \u00a0Julia and Forbes talk about Falconer, and then Julia sees him fall out of a window below her, put on his helmet, and turn into Aztek. \u00a0Aztek fights the robot things, which we realize are the man and daughter from the first pages. \u00a0He stops them, and then realizes that there were people inside their shells. \u00a0Later, he finishes the report that has served as narration for this issue, revealing that whoever made the robot things was trained by the same people who trained him, although he can\u2019t tell if that person serves the Shadow God or not. \u00a0Four people listen to his report, and talk about how they believe it\u2019s their \u201cbrightest pupil\u201d who sent the robot things. \u00a0Curt receives a phone call at home. \u00a0His caller tells him that he won\u2019t need to face the Shadow God, although Curt has a hard time hearing over the shouting in the background. \u00a0It turns out that the Lizard King has kidnapped Joy and is using her as bait.<\/span><\/li>\n- The Lizard King tells Aztek that he\u2019s prepared a death trap for him, and that he has an hour to come to him or he will kill Joy. \u00a0The LK tells him he wants his helmet, and while he talks, Aztek uses the tech in his suit to track him down, showing up in his lair in minutes. \u00a0The LK tells him that Joy is in the next room, but that if he enters it with his helmet on, a bomb will go off killing her. \u00a0As he talks, he keeps mentioning the Shadow God, and talks about how he is the champion of the god Quetzalcoatl, and that the Shadow God is Tezcatlipoca. \u00a0The LK wants to stop the Shadow God, and doesn\u2019t think Aztek is up to the job. \u00a0Curt takes off his helmet, but uses his suit to blow a hole in the wall, revealing that Joy is not there. \u00a0The Lizard King attacks him and they fight, with the LK going out the window temporarily. \u00a0He begins to talk about the Q Foundation, the people who trained Curt. \u00a0Catching his interest, he has Curt look through his eyeball tuning fork VR contraption (ah, Morrison), and we finally get an info dump explaining the concept of this series. \u00a0The Lizard King was trained to be the second to Aztek\u2019s father by the Q Foundation, a group that has been preparing warriors to protect against Tezcatlipoca\u2019s return for generations, using the helmet that Aztek wears. \u00a0Aztek\u2019s father and LK were sent to Vanity, where the Shadow God is prophesied to return, but once there, Aztek\u2019s father fell in love with his mother. \u00a0The Q Foundation, then called the Q Group, wanted the father killed, and when the Lizard King refused, they attacked him mentally. \u00a0As he talks, the Lizard King puts on the helmet, and then starts hitting Curt, and mocking him for his lack of experience. \u00a0Curt keeps asking him to take off the helmet, while he knocks over machinery spilling weird fluids all over the place, that LK says taste like Joy. \u00a0As they fight, the LK keeps telling Curt that the Q Foundation is corrupt and can\u2019t be trusted. \u00a0LK starts bleeding out of the helmet, and Curt explains that the experiences and minds of all the warriors who wore the helmet before him are contained within it. \u00a0LK burns up, and Curt explains that he was given a mental puzzle to occupy the previous warriors, allowing him to wear the helmet safely. \u00a0He starts wondering about Joy again. \u00a0At the hospital, Wally is talking nonsense with a nurse when Aztek collapses in front of them, clutching a bundle. \u00a0He is rushed into the hospital on a gurney, and we learn that he\u2019s clutching a shrunken Joy, on a page that\u2019s a little hard to fully understand. \u00a0Somewhere else in Vanity a man named Lawrence Rodman says goodbye to his wife, squashes a bug, and starts smiling and crying, while convinced that everything in the world is wrong.<\/span><\/li>\n
![](\"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-4.jpg\")
The Joker arrives in Vanity, trailing destruction and hysterical laughter via his gas behind him. \u00a0At the hospital, Aztek freaks out when the doctors want to remove his mask. \u00a0Julia takes him to a room where they are alone, and tells him that they\u2019ve taken Shrunken Joy to their special wing. \u00a0He reveals his identity, and she reveals that she knew that. \u00a0They start to talk when they hear that the Joker is in town. \u00a0Aztek, despite being in rough shape, leaves to find him. \u00a0The Joker\u2019s gone to see Fixit, who has built him robot crickets. \u00a0This is Grant Morrison\u2019s Joker, of the shifting personality and indeterminate gender identity. \u00a0We learn that Joker\u2019s gone to Vanity on vacation. \u00a0Aztek checks in with Chief Perrier, and they can see that the locations of the Joker\u2019s attacks so far make up the letter A on the map. \u00a0Aztek patrols. \u00a0Julia checks in on the patients from the Joker\u2019s attacks, and finds Forbes, who is supposed to be making an antitoxin, sipping champagne. \u00a0Aztek finds Joker and some of his dancing crickets, and just before they begin to fight, Aztek experiences some kind of weird vision. \u00a0Joker explains that the crickets can affect people\u2019s mental state, and gives Aztek the choice of finding all the crickets in the city, or stopping him. \u00a0Aztek flies off, just stopping a woman from hurting her daughter in a cricket-induced dementia. \u00a0The woman, once stable, reveals that the Joker came and wrote or branded the letter S on her shoulder. \u00a0Forbes also experiences cricket-induced dementia (CID), but Aztek helps him too. \u00a0He has the antitoxin already prepared somehow. \u00a0Word comes that the Joker\u2019s been caught, so Aztek flies off again, in time to see Joker being loaded into a paddy-wagon. \u00a0He cryptically announces this is part of his plan. \u00a0Aztek flies around, and sees that city lights spell out \u201cHa ha.\u201d \u00a0Batman surprises Aztek.<\/span><\/li>\n- Issue seven might just be the most Grant Morrison issue of this series yet. \u00a0Fixit is selling a combination freeze gun flamethrower to a villain called Heatsnap, who is an amalgam of two people, not quite properly merged. \u00a0Batman and Aztek show up looking for information about the Joker, and after Heatsnap tries to fight them off, unsuccessfully, they have a chat. \u00a0The Joker has left a book of children\u2019s poems and an envelope of words cut from the newspaper. \u00a0Batman references William S. Burroughs\u2019s cut-up method, and Heatsnap explains that he used to be two villains – Heatstroke and Coldsnap – who loved each other and wanted to be fused into one body, although it went terribly wrong. \u00a0Fixit explains that at sunup, the Joker toxin already infecting many people in Vanity will mutate and kill them. \u00a0Batman and Aztek ride in the Batmobile, and Batman schools him on the Joker, his shifting personality, and how his crimes are about patterns, not details. \u00a0A poster on a wall gives Batman a hunch. \u00a0At Arkham, the guards beat on the Joker. \u00a0Arriving at an abandoned theatre, Batman asks Aztek to step out so he can call Alfred. \u00a0Alfred tells him that his father had met with the Q Group when they came looking for funding. \u00a0As they talk about things, including how Batman wants to fund treatment for Heatsnap, a computer virus infects the Batmobile. \u00a0Aztek finds Chief Perrier in the theatre, entranced by one of the robot crickets. \u00a0He frees her. \u00a0The virus affecting Batman\u2019s car allows him to track the Joker\u2019s transmission. \u00a0Aztek joins him, warning that a blimp over the city will rain down more toxin on the populace when it explodes. \u00a0Batman uses an anti-gravity field generator he got from Fixit (a little too convenient, that), and Aztek starts to two the blimp away. \u00a0It explodes way above the city, but I guess things are fine now. \u00a0Aztek, exhausted, goes to the hospital where we find that Forbes has neutralized the Joker toxin in people. \u00a0Julia tries to speak to Aztek, but he goes to check in with Batman instead, where they talk about the Joker again, who we see is laughing and bloodied in Arkham. \u00a0Aztek returns to Julia, who is upset that he\u2019s been posing as a doctor. \u00a0When he takes his helmet off, he collapses.<\/span><\/li>\n
![](\"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-5.jpg\")
Issue eight begins with a recap of how the first vessel of Quetzalcoatl defeated Tezcatlipoca centuries ago, and how after the light god left, the Q-Society (working under different names) maintained his helmet and prepared for the eventual return of Tezcatlipoca, in an apocalypse. \u00a0Curt, revealing that his name is Uno, is narrating this while being operated on back at the Q Foundation\u2019s headquarters, while Julia watches. \u00a0She is being talked to by a couple of the Foundation\u2019s leaders, including Hector, the only one to be given a name as yet. \u00a0He says that Uno\/Curt is about to be removed from his mission because he hasn\u2019t been very successful. \u00a0Uno\/Curt starts to freak out when he realizes he\u2019s returned home, yelling to Julia about how they murdered his father. \u00a0A woman who hasn\u2019t been named puts the Aztek armor through its paces, while talking to someone about how she\u2019s ready to replace Uno. \u00a0Uno\/Curt reviews the Foundation\u2019s files on his armor, and is met by Julia, Hector, his wannabe replacement, and others. \u00a0Julia tells him that he is to continue being a superhero, and Curt insists on flying Julia back to the States himself, since he doesn\u2019t trust the Foundation. \u00a0They\u2019ve given Julia instructions but fear she won\u2019t follow them, so they call in some of their supporters. \u00a0Curt drops Julia off at the hospital, and she tells him that he can\u2019t continue working there. \u00a0He goes home, but finds other people in his apartment. \u00a0They give him keys to his new place, and say that a benefactor gave them his place. \u00a0He goes to the new spot, and discovers it\u2019s been outfitted by Lexcorp. \u00a0On the TV, he learns that a group of villains have taken some disabled children hostage at Vanity\u2019s Wax Museum. \u00a0These villains, four typical 90s villain types that are part of Dial V for Villain, are sitting around talking, revealing that Lexcorp has paid them to take the kids hostage, just so Aztek could stop them. \u00a0He shows up and does that, along the way finding a statue of him near the JLA exhibit, with a note saying it shouldn\u2019t be added there for two months. \u00a0Aztek behaves humbly with the media, but they report the incident with great hyperbole. \u00a0At the hospital, Julia discovers that her employee records have been changed to make it seem that Curt is the real Dr. Falconer. \u00a0Forbes has no clue what she\u2019s talking about, and we see that he may have had his mind altered through some form of surgery or something. \u00a0In Metropolis, Lex Luthor orders the Dial V group assassinated, and enters into a secret meeting with Q-Foundation affiliated people, to announce that their plans are underway.<\/span><\/li>\n- A teenager named Mickey is in a coma in St. Bart\u2019s hospital after being hit by a truck on a Superman-themed tourist trip to Metropolis. \u00a0Julia Frostick comforts the mother, and suggests that they find a superhero to speak to him (which she thinks will bring him out of his coma – clearly this is her medical opinion). \u00a0Curt is a little disturbed to find that he is getting calls reminding him to go to work, breakfast made for him, and that he has a car and driver at his disposal, thanks to the Q Foundation\u2019s allies. \u00a0In Metropolis, Lex Luthor addresses this gathering of allies, and tells them that he is sending Doc Parasite out into Metropolis, to help manipulate a meeting between Aztek and Superman. \u00a0\u00a0Curt is upset to see that while Joy is recovering, she\u2019s doing so slowly. \u00a0Julia tells him that she thinks the Q Foundation is controlling the minds of everyone around her, so that they\u2019ve forgotten the questions around Curt\u2019s identity. \u00a0She also asks him if he can get in touch with Superman, because of the Mickey situation. \u00a0Aztek flies to Metropolis, and once there, comes across Doc Parasite (who is two people merged into one again, kind of like Heatsnap – it\u2019s a weird theme to this series). \u00a0They fight, and while they\u2019re fighting a woman gives Aztek a pair of her underwear \u201cfor luck.\u201d \u00a0Aztek uses his power battery to disable Parasite, and he gets captured by the SCU. \u00a0Maggie Sawyer warns Aztek to stay away from Patty Celeste, the underwear lady. \u00a0He asks Sawyer to get in touch with Superman for him. \u00a0Later, at St. Bart\u2019s, Superman arrives, and manages to wake Mickey up, although he\u2019s freaked out by the fact that energy is pouring out of Supe\u2019s eyes (this is just before he turns electric blue, because it is the 90s). \u00a0Luthor gloats to the others that he\u2019s probably managed to make Aztek and Superman friends, which he figures helps line him up for membership in the JLA. \u00a0Their meeting adjourns, and they agree to meet again in twelve months. \u00a0In the Vanity suburbs, the wife of Lawrence Rodman, who we last saw before the Joker showed up, is talking to his mother about how strange he\u2019s been lately. \u00a0Rodman\u2019s mother is distracted by an image of Aztek on the TV.<\/span><\/li>\n
![](\"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-6.jpg\")
Aztek is at the JLA Watchtower, auditioning for membership by participating in a virtual reality simulation that has him the only member of the League standing after a fight with Darkseid. \u00a0Green Lantern gives him hope for membership. \u00a0A few weeks later, Curt is working at the hospital when Professor Ivo is brought in – he\u2019s been incarcerated without access to his immortality serum, and as a consequence, is dying. \u00a0Julia and Curt talk about the morality of not saving a super villain, but it\u2019s idle talk. \u00a0They also talk about how Curt now has bodyguards provided by the Q Foundation, and how the JLA hasn\u2019t gotten back to him yet. \u00a0Just then, the JLA (Flash, Wonder Woman, GL, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter) are meeting to discuss Aztek\u2019s potential for membership. \u00a0Their meeting is interrupted by a hologram of Amazo, who explains that he\u2019s encased the Watchtower in a plasma bubble powered by Hal Jordan\u2019s ring and his immense willpower. \u00a0Amazo shows up in Vanity, looking for Ivo, and Aztek suits up. \u00a0The League is stuck in the Tower still, until Wonder Woman uses her lasso to take advantage of Hal\u2019s ring\u2019s weakness to the colour yellow. \u00a0Amazo is making short work of Aztek, but he fights back, and fries a number of his circuits. \u00a0The JLA shows up, and Amazo explains that his reason for coming to Vanity is to give Ivo some of his serum, stating that he wouldn\u2019t want him to die, as he is Jerry to his Tom. \u00a0Later, we see that Ivo is recovering, and Curt weirdly tries to kiss Julia, feeling caught up in the moment. \u00a0She gets angry, reminds him she\u2019s engaged, and storms off. \u00a0In a bit of a montage, we see that Patty Celeste, super-groupie, is talking to herself about targeting Aztek. \u00a0Lawrence Rodman is talking with his mother about the fact that Aztek is his brother. \u00a0Someone named the Quizler is planning on attending an upcoming supervillain convention in Vanity. \u00a0The woman set to be Aztek\u2019s potential replacement tells Hector that she\u2019s going to go to Vanity. \u00a0At the JLA Watchtower again, Kyle talks to J\u2019onn about how the JLA uses the costume of the Crimson Avenger in their initiation rites, while Flash prepares Aztek to join the team. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAnd that\u2019s the end of that series. \u00a0In the letters page, there is a discussion of how the sales numbers just weren\u2019t there to support this book, and references are made to the problems the industry was facing in 1997, which is probably kind of laughable compared to the sales figures of today. \u00a0It\u2019s too bad that DC books never seemed to publish average press runs, like Marvel books did.<\/span><\/p>\nAnyway, this was a great series. \u00a0I love the way that Morrison and Millar laid the groundwork for a long-running storyline, and slowly started building a strong cast and set of interpersonal relationships for Curt to work through. \u00a0The Q Foundation and the threat of the Shadow God was interesting, but working in the likes of Lex Luthor, and making the Foundation an Illuminati-like organization gave it so much more potential. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCurt, as an innocent and outsider, while mildly clich\u00e9d, still gave him a lot of potential as a character. \u00a0I was a little confused as to what kind of doctor he was, as we didn\u2019t really see any evidence that he had training or knowledge, especially considering he\u2019s supposed to be 19 or 20 years old. \u00a0Still, leaving that aside, I liked his feelings of guilt around what happened to Joy, and his curiosity about Julia. \u00a0I was also interested in learning about his mother and (presumably) half-brother, although that story was stillborn when the book was canceled. <\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-7.jpg\")
I enjoyed reading the work of Morrison and Millar in this setting. \u00a0It\u2019s weird to think that at the same time that he was launching JLA, which was a giant of a title at this time, this other Morrison title was struggling for attention and sales. \u00a0It\u2019s also interesting to look for anything that feels like Millar in this book, as I never got a sense of his humour or typical storytelling twitches in this book at all. \u00a0It felt like a Morrison title from start to finish, albeit a more conventional one.<\/span><\/p>\nSteven Harris is a great artist, but it seems like he never did as long a run as he did on this book again. \u00a0I know his name pops up from time to time still, but I\u2019ve never felt his work had the same energy it did here again. \u00a0He reminds me a little of a very restrained Larry Stroman, and I like that about his stuff.<\/p>\n
Aztek as a character only appeared in nine issues of JLA (I’m tempted to read those again – that might be a future column soon), so the initiation sequence at the end of issue ten feels a little premature. \u00a0He did show up from time to time again in the DCU, but never in a sustained role. \u00a0He\u2019s a good guy to stick in the background of some scenes when there are a lot of heroes gathering. \u00a0I feel like Steve Orlando\u2019s current Justice League of America series is going to perhaps finally get around to the Shadow God stuff, but that series, as part of DC\u2019s post-Rebirth universe, is featuring a female Aztek. \u00a0Is she the replacement character that Morrison and Millar never named here? \u00a0Orlando is pulling out a lot of forgotten or rarely seen DC-owned characters (I\u2019m writing this the same week that Prometha showed up in that title for reasons I don\u2019t understand), but I\u2019m not sure he\u2019s planning on doing a whole lot with them.<\/span><\/p>\nAnyway, I distinctly remember liking this book a lot when it came out (at a time when I was reading Starman, JLA, and not much else from DC that didn\u2019t have a Vertigo logo on it), and twenty-one years later, I still think these are fine comics. \u00a0They are, of course, diminished by the fact that no storylines were ever resolved, but anyone who loves comics to the core of their being are used to that.<\/span><\/p>\nNow it\u2019s time to dive in (do you see what I did there?) to the books I\u2019d originally intended my next column to be about.<\/span><\/p>\nIf you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nIf you want to read Aztek, there is a trade that collects the whole run.\u00a0 You can get it here:<\/span>
\nJLA Presents: Aztek – the Ultimate Man<\/a>![\"\"](\"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=thi026-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1401216889\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aztek rises<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":5387684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2977,2082,23],"tags":[126208,298,10145],"zone":[121886],"series":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-9.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/feed\/podcast\/inside-pulse","embedCode":"
Retro Review: Aztek The Ultimate Man By Morrison, Millar & Harris For DC Comics<\/a><\/blockquote>
Pencils by N. Steven Harris<\/span><\/p>\n Inks by Keith Champagne<\/span><\/p>\n Coloured by Mike Danza<\/span><\/p>\n Spoilers (from twenty-one to twenty-two years ago)<\/span><\/p>\n The next series I was going to write about in this column was going to be Aquaman, but when I went into my longbox vaults, and was grabbing up issues of Peter David\u2019s run of that title (which is still going to be my next set of columns), I pulled out an issue of Aztek, the unique DC title that was as short-lived as the partnership between its writers, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, I changed my mind. \u00a0Aztek, as a property if not the same character, just made a return in DC\u2019s Justice League of America title, and I realized that the town that Ray is from in that book, Vanity, was the setting of this title. \u00a0I figured it was an opportune time to revisit this gem from the dark 90s.<\/span><\/p>\n I remember liking this book a lot when it came out, but I\u2019m hard pressed to remember many of the details. \u00a0I liked Aztek\u2019s look, and N. Steven Harris\u2019s art a lot. \u00a0I was very familiar with Grant Morrison at that time, but think this might have been my first exposure to Mark Millar\u2019s writing. \u00a0I remember being intrigued by the high-tech Aztec concept, and irritated that Lex Luthor became involved at some point. \u00a0Beyond that, there\u2019s very little I recall.<\/span><\/p>\n To provide some context, this book came before Morrison took over JLA, by a few months. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at who turned up in the title:<\/span><\/p>\n Villains<\/span><\/p>\n Supporting Characters<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:<\/span><\/p>\n And that\u2019s the end of that series. \u00a0In the letters page, there is a discussion of how the sales numbers just weren\u2019t there to support this book, and references are made to the problems the industry was facing in 1997, which is probably kind of laughable compared to the sales figures of today. \u00a0It\u2019s too bad that DC books never seemed to publish average press runs, like Marvel books did.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, this was a great series. \u00a0I love the way that Morrison and Millar laid the groundwork for a long-running storyline, and slowly started building a strong cast and set of interpersonal relationships for Curt to work through. \u00a0The Q Foundation and the threat of the Shadow God was interesting, but working in the likes of Lex Luthor, and making the Foundation an Illuminati-like organization gave it so much more potential. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Curt, as an innocent and outsider, while mildly clich\u00e9d, still gave him a lot of potential as a character. \u00a0I was a little confused as to what kind of doctor he was, as we didn\u2019t really see any evidence that he had training or knowledge, especially considering he\u2019s supposed to be 19 or 20 years old. \u00a0Still, leaving that aside, I liked his feelings of guilt around what happened to Joy, and his curiosity about Julia. \u00a0I was also interested in learning about his mother and (presumably) half-brother, although that story was stillborn when the book was canceled. <\/span><\/p>\n Steven Harris is a great artist, but it seems like he never did as long a run as he did on this book again. \u00a0I know his name pops up from time to time still, but I\u2019ve never felt his work had the same energy it did here again. \u00a0He reminds me a little of a very restrained Larry Stroman, and I like that about his stuff.<\/p>\n Aztek as a character only appeared in nine issues of JLA (I’m tempted to read those again – that might be a future column soon), so the initiation sequence at the end of issue ten feels a little premature. \u00a0He did show up from time to time again in the DCU, but never in a sustained role. \u00a0He\u2019s a good guy to stick in the background of some scenes when there are a lot of heroes gathering. \u00a0I feel like Steve Orlando\u2019s current Justice League of America series is going to perhaps finally get around to the Shadow God stuff, but that series, as part of DC\u2019s post-Rebirth universe, is featuring a female Aztek. \u00a0Is she the replacement character that Morrison and Millar never named here? \u00a0Orlando is pulling out a lot of forgotten or rarely seen DC-owned characters (I\u2019m writing this the same week that Prometha showed up in that title for reasons I don\u2019t understand), but I\u2019m not sure he\u2019s planning on doing a whole lot with them.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, I distinctly remember liking this book a lot when it came out (at a time when I was reading Starman, JLA, and not much else from DC that didn\u2019t have a Vertigo logo on it), and twenty-one years later, I still think these are fine comics. \u00a0They are, of course, diminished by the fact that no storylines were ever resolved, but anyone who loves comics to the core of their being are used to that.<\/span><\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to dive in (do you see what I did there?) to the books I\u2019d originally intended my next column to be about.<\/span><\/p>\n If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n If you want to read Aztek, there is a trade that collects the whole run.\u00a0 You can get it here:<\/span> Aztek rises<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":5387684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2977,2082,23],"tags":[126208,298,10145],"zone":[121886],"series":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Aztek-9.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/feed\/podcast\/inside-pulse","embedCode":"Written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Guest Stars<\/span><\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
A group of thieves rob a department store after gassing everyone in it. \u00a0As they run outside, the run right into Major Force, who has crushed their getaway car into a cube. \u00a0The group of gangsters we saw last issue discuss the fact that Major Force is making a play for Vanity now that Bloodtype is dead. \u00a0These gangsters seem to call each other by the first letter of their names (Mr. B and Mr. F are the only ones named so far), I guess because this is not long after Reservoir Dogs came out? \u00a0They suspect that our as-yet unnamed hero is also a new supervillain. \u00a0They also decide, since Piper is dead, that they should just have Synth kill his daughter. \u00a0At the hospital, our hero, who has assumed Falconer\u2019s identity, watches a news broadcast about the fact that Falconer\u2019s daughter is missing. \u00a0He talks to a nurse, Joy Page, who flirts with him, and a doctor, Walley Mosely, who lets him know that the hospital administrator, Julia Frostick, wants to talk to him. \u00a0Mosely gives Curt a map of Vanity, mentioning how the city is always changing, after Curt asks for directions to Urthona Towers. \u00a0He ducks into a supply room and flies out the window. \u00a0At the police station, the chief talks to Green Lantern Kyle Rayner about Major Force being in town, although he is supposed to be dead. \u00a0They also show GL our hero\u2019s photo, as they think he might be a villain as well. \u00a0Our hero flies around, and asks some construction workers for directions, but finds himself trapped in a green bubble. \u00a0GL has caught him, but our hero fakes him out and escapes, after pretending to teleport away. \u00a0They talk to each other, and quickly establish that they are both heroes, and Curt explains he is looking for the kidnapped girl. \u00a0They talk about how Curt doesn\u2019t have a superhero name yet, and how the city seems to be affecting Kyle\u2019s power ring. \u00a0They go to Urthona tower, where they see that Major Force has brought Mindy Falconer to a meeting with the crime bosses. \u00a0Kyle wants to jump into the fight, but Curt insists they wait. \u00a0As it turns out, Mindy has convinced Synth to shapeshift into Major Force\u2019s identity, and she explains that she is taking over their business. \u00a0She has been manipulating things all along, and had wanted her father killed. \u00a0Our hero jumps in, and Synth takes on his form and begins to fight him. \u00a0GL brings the police, and tries to help our hero in his fight. \u00a0He uses the four-dimensional energy that powers his suit to take down Synth. \u00a0Curt starts to lecture Mindy, and Synth, recovering but now stupid (his intelligence fluctuates at midnight) shoots Mindy dead by mistake. \u00a0Later, Green Lantern and our hero talk, and Kyle recommends he pick a name before the press does. \u00a0At the newspaper offices of Vanity Press (awesome name), two reporters come up with names for our hero, and settle on Aztek. \u00a0The gangsters, having got out of jail already, see Aztek\u2019s name in the paper.<\/span><\/li>\nA man is strapped to a number of machines that are extracting the goodness from him. \u00a0An shadowy figure talks to him about how he is using the man and his daughter as \u201cpilots\u201d to help him get a job that he wants, even though it is already occupied. \u00a0Aztek finds a lizard in a decrepit area. \u00a0He\u2019s spent the entire night looking for it, even though the press thought he should be looking for stolen goods. \u00a0When he returns the lizard to its elderly owner, he finds that she\u2019s slit her wrists in the bathtub, although she\u2019s still alive. \u00a0At St. Bart\u2019s, Wally talks to Joy, who is still upset about her date with Curt the night before. \u00a0Curt is looking after the old woman when he is confronted by Julia. \u00a0She accuses him of not being who he says he is, and he refuses to explain. \u00a0Inexplicably, she gives him the choice of explaining or quitting by the next morning, and then storms off, leaving him to CONTINUE BEING A DOCTOR under false pretenses. \u00a0Seriously. \u00a0Wally tries to convince Curt to ask Joy out again, even though he knows she\u2019s not the least bit interested. \u00a0Curt thinks about things, and is suddenly confronted by two robotic figures put together with scrap metal, who tell him that the Lizard King wants him dead. \u00a0Julia and Forbes talk about Falconer, and then Julia sees him fall out of a window below her, put on his helmet, and turn into Aztek. \u00a0Aztek fights the robot things, which we realize are the man and daughter from the first pages. \u00a0He stops them, and then realizes that there were people inside their shells. \u00a0Later, he finishes the report that has served as narration for this issue, revealing that whoever made the robot things was trained by the same people who trained him, although he can\u2019t tell if that person serves the Shadow God or not. \u00a0Four people listen to his report, and talk about how they believe it\u2019s their \u201cbrightest pupil\u201d who sent the robot things. \u00a0Curt receives a phone call at home. \u00a0His caller tells him that he won\u2019t need to face the Shadow God, although Curt has a hard time hearing over the shouting in the background. \u00a0It turns out that the Lizard King has kidnapped Joy and is using her as bait.<\/span><\/li>\nThe Joker arrives in Vanity, trailing destruction and hysterical laughter via his gas behind him. \u00a0At the hospital, Aztek freaks out when the doctors want to remove his mask. \u00a0Julia takes him to a room where they are alone, and tells him that they\u2019ve taken Shrunken Joy to their special wing. \u00a0He reveals his identity, and she reveals that she knew that. \u00a0They start to talk when they hear that the Joker is in town. \u00a0Aztek, despite being in rough shape, leaves to find him. \u00a0The Joker\u2019s gone to see Fixit, who has built him robot crickets. \u00a0This is Grant Morrison\u2019s Joker, of the shifting personality and indeterminate gender identity. \u00a0We learn that Joker\u2019s gone to Vanity on vacation. \u00a0Aztek checks in with Chief Perrier, and they can see that the locations of the Joker\u2019s attacks so far make up the letter A on the map. \u00a0Aztek patrols. \u00a0Julia checks in on the patients from the Joker\u2019s attacks, and finds Forbes, who is supposed to be making an antitoxin, sipping champagne. \u00a0Aztek finds Joker and some of his dancing crickets, and just before they begin to fight, Aztek experiences some kind of weird vision. \u00a0Joker explains that the crickets can affect people\u2019s mental state, and gives Aztek the choice of finding all the crickets in the city, or stopping him. \u00a0Aztek flies off, just stopping a woman from hurting her daughter in a cricket-induced dementia. \u00a0The woman, once stable, reveals that the Joker came and wrote or branded the letter S on her shoulder. \u00a0Forbes also experiences cricket-induced dementia (CID), but Aztek helps him too. \u00a0He has the antitoxin already prepared somehow. \u00a0Word comes that the Joker\u2019s been caught, so Aztek flies off again, in time to see Joker being loaded into a paddy-wagon. \u00a0He cryptically announces this is part of his plan. \u00a0Aztek flies around, and sees that city lights spell out \u201cHa ha.\u201d \u00a0Batman surprises Aztek.<\/span><\/li>\nIssue eight begins with a recap of how the first vessel of Quetzalcoatl defeated Tezcatlipoca centuries ago, and how after the light god left, the Q-Society (working under different names) maintained his helmet and prepared for the eventual return of Tezcatlipoca, in an apocalypse. \u00a0Curt, revealing that his name is Uno, is narrating this while being operated on back at the Q Foundation\u2019s headquarters, while Julia watches. \u00a0She is being talked to by a couple of the Foundation\u2019s leaders, including Hector, the only one to be given a name as yet. \u00a0He says that Uno\/Curt is about to be removed from his mission because he hasn\u2019t been very successful. \u00a0Uno\/Curt starts to freak out when he realizes he\u2019s returned home, yelling to Julia about how they murdered his father. \u00a0A woman who hasn\u2019t been named puts the Aztek armor through its paces, while talking to someone about how she\u2019s ready to replace Uno. \u00a0Uno\/Curt reviews the Foundation\u2019s files on his armor, and is met by Julia, Hector, his wannabe replacement, and others. \u00a0Julia tells him that he is to continue being a superhero, and Curt insists on flying Julia back to the States himself, since he doesn\u2019t trust the Foundation. \u00a0They\u2019ve given Julia instructions but fear she won\u2019t follow them, so they call in some of their supporters. \u00a0Curt drops Julia off at the hospital, and she tells him that he can\u2019t continue working there. \u00a0He goes home, but finds other people in his apartment. \u00a0They give him keys to his new place, and say that a benefactor gave them his place. \u00a0He goes to the new spot, and discovers it\u2019s been outfitted by Lexcorp. \u00a0On the TV, he learns that a group of villains have taken some disabled children hostage at Vanity\u2019s Wax Museum. \u00a0These villains, four typical 90s villain types that are part of Dial V for Villain, are sitting around talking, revealing that Lexcorp has paid them to take the kids hostage, just so Aztek could stop them. \u00a0He shows up and does that, along the way finding a statue of him near the JLA exhibit, with a note saying it shouldn\u2019t be added there for two months. \u00a0Aztek behaves humbly with the media, but they report the incident with great hyperbole. \u00a0At the hospital, Julia discovers that her employee records have been changed to make it seem that Curt is the real Dr. Falconer. \u00a0Forbes has no clue what she\u2019s talking about, and we see that he may have had his mind altered through some form of surgery or something. \u00a0In Metropolis, Lex Luthor orders the Dial V group assassinated, and enters into a secret meeting with Q-Foundation affiliated people, to announce that their plans are underway.<\/span><\/li>\nAztek is at the JLA Watchtower, auditioning for membership by participating in a virtual reality simulation that has him the only member of the League standing after a fight with Darkseid. \u00a0Green Lantern gives him hope for membership. \u00a0A few weeks later, Curt is working at the hospital when Professor Ivo is brought in – he\u2019s been incarcerated without access to his immortality serum, and as a consequence, is dying. \u00a0Julia and Curt talk about the morality of not saving a super villain, but it\u2019s idle talk. \u00a0They also talk about how Curt now has bodyguards provided by the Q Foundation, and how the JLA hasn\u2019t gotten back to him yet. \u00a0Just then, the JLA (Flash, Wonder Woman, GL, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter) are meeting to discuss Aztek\u2019s potential for membership. \u00a0Their meeting is interrupted by a hologram of Amazo, who explains that he\u2019s encased the Watchtower in a plasma bubble powered by Hal Jordan\u2019s ring and his immense willpower. \u00a0Amazo shows up in Vanity, looking for Ivo, and Aztek suits up. \u00a0The League is stuck in the Tower still, until Wonder Woman uses her lasso to take advantage of Hal\u2019s ring\u2019s weakness to the colour yellow. \u00a0Amazo is making short work of Aztek, but he fights back, and fries a number of his circuits. \u00a0The JLA shows up, and Amazo explains that his reason for coming to Vanity is to give Ivo some of his serum, stating that he wouldn\u2019t want him to die, as he is Jerry to his Tom. \u00a0Later, we see that Ivo is recovering, and Curt weirdly tries to kiss Julia, feeling caught up in the moment. \u00a0She gets angry, reminds him she\u2019s engaged, and storms off. \u00a0In a bit of a montage, we see that Patty Celeste, super-groupie, is talking to herself about targeting Aztek. \u00a0Lawrence Rodman is talking with his mother about the fact that Aztek is his brother. \u00a0Someone named the Quizler is planning on attending an upcoming supervillain convention in Vanity. \u00a0The woman set to be Aztek\u2019s potential replacement tells Hector that she\u2019s going to go to Vanity. \u00a0At the JLA Watchtower again, Kyle talks to J\u2019onn about how the JLA uses the costume of the Crimson Avenger in their initiation rites, while Flash prepares Aztek to join the team. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nI enjoyed reading the work of Morrison and Millar in this setting. \u00a0It\u2019s weird to think that at the same time that he was launching JLA, which was a giant of a title at this time, this other Morrison title was struggling for attention and sales. \u00a0It\u2019s also interesting to look for anything that feels like Millar in this book, as I never got a sense of his humour or typical storytelling twitches in this book at all. \u00a0It felt like a Morrison title from start to finish, albeit a more conventional one.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nJLA Presents: Aztek – the Ultimate Man<\/a>Retro Review: Aztek The Ultimate Man By Morrison, Millar & Harris For DC Comics<\/a><\/blockquote>