Aztek: The Ultimate Man

Aztek: The Ultimate Man #1-10

by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Ed Benes (Artist)

From writers Grant Morrison (52, BATMAN) and Mark Millar (Ultimates, Civil War) comes Aztek, the visionary hero from the 1990s! In these stories from AZTEK: THE ULTIMATE MAN #1-10, Aztek fights the forces of evil in Vanity City, where he meets costumed characters including Green Lantern and The Joker!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Fiction, Comic Book, Comics Manga

241 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

Grant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning their American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then they have written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, they have also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS.

In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.

Reviews

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty fun read!

We get to witness the origins of the new JL-er (at the time) in Aztek and how he came to this city and his powers and origins and right from the get go he faces off against different villains like Blood-type, Synth, Death doll and all and it was fun and then teaming with GL vs Major Force or the big one with Batman vs Joker and that story was so cool seeing how this new hero fights a mad man and how Bruce helps him with it and then how Luthor is involved in his origins and how he ultimately defeats the foes that keep coming and secrets behind his very origins and his membership into JLA and the coming of Amazo maybe...

Its one of those stories that may not be big but I like the way its done and it just shows how new heroes should be introduced, the cameos were cool and it makes you like this character even more and make it relatable for old readers and the art was okay. And it also hints at the larger threat in Morrison's JLA run so there's that! A definite recommend from me!

[Matthew Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was definitely a 90’s era comic book. I’m not sure what or why the need for this character was, but here it is. The points I enjoyed most about this one were how “ground-level” the character got at times dealing with common thugs, but for the most part, this was just like every other average superhero title I’ve read from that era.

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is unreadable. Literally. I mean, the series itself is horrible, yes. But also, somehow, this book has a massive printing error that emits almost the entirety of issue #6, instead printing issue #7 twice. I thought this was possibly only the case with my copy, but after Googling it, it seems like this occurred with the entirety of the print run. So, every single trade paperback of Aztek: The Ultimate Man out there in the wild is missing about 20 pages of content, and DC never bothered to reprint or recall it. Truly one of the most unforgivable publishing mistakes I've ever seen.

Luckily (sort of), I have access to the DC Universe app, which has the missing issue available to read. So, I have read the entire series, and I can also say, even with that issue included, this is one of the sloppiest, most aggravating comics I've ever read. The information they left out of the print book barely matters (as is the case with essentially everything in the entire series).

I've now read three Morrison/Millar team-ups, the others being Marvel's Skrull Kill Krew and their run on Vampirella, and man, they do not make a good team. I can't tell exactly what it is about their collaborations that is so abysmal. Morrison is one of my favorite comic writers of all time, and Millar is... y'know, not. But he can write a damn sight better than this, as can Morrison, so the fact that their mutual efforts are always so scattershot and badly written is very perplexing.

My feeling is, they somehow completely mute each other's most out-there, bizarre impulses, which, for these two, are kind of the thing that makes them great. Rather than brimming with wild ideas, they instead just spew cliches and boring dialogue while also adhering to zero sense of structure or narrative build.

It is borderline impossible to understand what is going on at any point in this book, and not in Morrison's usual trippy, LSD-addled way. Plot threads simply don't connect. There's no cause and affect in this book. No character development. No sense of scale, no definition of setting, no understanding of what's at stake at any given moment. Hell, you can't even visually tell what's going on due to N. Steven Harris's confusing layouts and the muddled, indistinct coloring.

The biggest sin committed here, I believe, is the utter lack of character development. Aztek, a brand-new hero to the DC Universe, is dropped into Vanity, a new city in the DC Universe, and we're expected to just go along with it. We aren't even told what his powers and objectives are until issue #8. That's 7 entire issues of Aztek fighting random villains you've never heard of (minus a completely unearned appearance of The Joker) without having even the most basic understanding of who the hell the hero is.

I genuinely think this is a prime example of how not to write a superhero comic. The creative team does literally everything wrong. I found myself getting genuinely angry at how lazy it was, whereas normally when I don't like something I just kind of give up on it and shrug. Aztek: The Ultimate Man, to put it simply, sucks.

[Darin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now, those of you who remember Aztek can skip this next bit. Those of you who don't, well, here's the skinny: back in the day, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar co-wrote this short-lived series (10 issues) about Aztek, the Ultimate Man!!! (Sorry, got a little carried away there for a second.) The back cover copy has this to tell us about Aztek:

"Trained from birth, he is the pinnacle of human perfection, his unique armor giving him powers and abilities far greater than most of Earth's heroes. Like all those who came before him, his life has been dedicated to guarding against a great and ancient evil bent on the destruction of humankind. Like his predecessors, Axtek does not know when evil will strike...only that he must be ready when it does."

Dramatic and original, no? Alright, to be fair, there's no indication that Morrison and Millar are any more responsible for the cover copy than, say, Marketing, but it certainly points very clearly to one thing: the book trades (no pun intended), as much other work by both Morrison and Millar does, on its relationship to the standard tropes of superhero comics. (As if to underscore the metacomics approach often associated with Morrison, DC has chosen to highlight Morrison's role over Miller's, granting him "top billing" over the title, while Millar is relegated to second banana status down with the penciler [N. Steven Harris] and inker [Keith Champagne]. Further, they've tried to give this a little bit of mainstream cachet by associating it with the JLA -- probably not a bad decision, given the fact that Aztek's own title was unable to wrap up his storylines, leaving much of that burden to be carried by Morrison's run on the JLA, soon to be reprinted in DC's new Deluxe format.)

The book is set in one of the DCU's trademark fictional cities, in this case, Vanity. (Really? They couldn't come up with something a little more, um, believable? I mean, I know "you will believe a man can fly" and all, but my Coleridgean suspension of disbelief was wearing a little thin right away. It just seems a little...well, dopey.) In any event, Vanity is, as you might well surmise, "not a nice place." In fact, it's so "not nice" that new villain-types (most of them mind-numbingly dumb--but that's sort of supposed to be the point, 'cause it's metafictional, you know?--the Piper, Synth, Death-Doll, Fixit, the Lizard King, Deathgrip, Bloodhound, Tattoo, and AWOL) are positively popping out of the proverbial woodwork. This is the sort of nod towards "city-as-character" that was exploited to such good effect in James Robinson's Starman, but here it just feels a little flat.

Likewise, the story itself never seems to gather any real momentum, and it certainly isn't aided by N. Steven Harris' workmanlike pencils. There's some interesting layout work here, but on the whole the facial expressions are awkward and not very expressive. I was getting a sort of poor man's Jackson Guice vibe from the art, but, to be fair, I don't want to sour you on Harris' current work based on this particular trade. Heck, I don't even know what Harris' current work even looks like!

Extras

Well, that'd be a big fat nothing, and in the case of Aztek, a hero many buyers may not be familiar with, it's also too bad. A foreword or editorial note or even a marketing blurb telling a reader where to go for more Aztek-y goodness would have been a great service to the reader.

Recommendation

Borrow a friend's copy, but you can probably safely skip a purchase. Heck, you could probably even find the individual issues for far less than the cost of the trade.

Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, and N. Steven Harris
JLA Presents: Aztek the Ultimate Man
DC Comics, 2008
240 pp.
19.99 (paper)
ISBN 978-1-4012-1688-7

[Camille · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way overrated. This was acclaimed when it was first released as singles.

[Aidan]

Solid start and end, kinda boring in the middle. It was so fun to have a chance to revisit the classic JLA, but Aztek is really barely a character.

Largely a fun chapter in Morrison’s meta-analysis through narrative of the DC superhero archetype, attempting to combine Vanity city’s post-modern self awareness of the genre with classic big idea superhero thrills and modern world building. While this succeeds far better in Morrison’s later Seven Soldiers, it’s interesting to see this earlier development of those ideas, particularly in the first couple issues and the finale. But as Mark Millar (🤮) becomes the headlining writer on this, the fun quality drops into a standard boring superhero narrative.

There’s interesting stuff here though about how Aztek has this quest he’s supposed to set out on and is forced, almost unwillingly, into the role of a classic superhero. While this is partially because of the machinations of Lex Luthor, it’s also partially by chance, as if the very fabric of the DCU requires it. With Aztek coming to accept his role as Vanity’s defender and a spot on the JLA in the final issue, this story’s really about identity and self acceptance. One reading is this is Morrison themself, showing up at DC to write their own wacky shit, and eventually coming to accept the role of a superhero writer there knowing that they can then get the most out of both their work and the material available to them by DC. It also feels like a commentary on the ‘90s Image-type heroes who have no humanity; no secret identities, real jobs, friends, community. This is where Aztek starts and finds himself struggling to get by emotionally. When he practically stumbles into a classic secret identity and job his world suddenly feels complete. I wish more of this personal aspect was explored in the book.

Favorite detail was the Crimson Avenger costume at the JLA initiation. The mythology and depth in these quieter moments are something I wish more writers would follow up on or try out.

[Peter Derk · Rating 3 out of 5]

By Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, I would be willing to put big money on being able to guess who was writing during which parts. At some point, in the copy I have, there was a misprint and it skipped ahead, then went backwards, and the whole affair was already so Morrison-y that I didn't even notice at first. His stuff is so non-linear and difficult to follow that I couldn't tell the difference between it and a misprint.

The first few issues were pretty good. I liked where it was going. Nothing Earth-shattering, but just fine. And then it got super weird, his girlfriend(ish) got turned into a one-foot-tall statue or something? Or mummy? There's this pretty hilarious part later on where he's looking at her in some kind of tank, because as we all know, recovery in weird fiction always happens in a tank, and he's like, "This blows. She was the only woman who ever loved me." And I was like, "Bro, you guys went out for one half of one date. I know this is a tough loss for you, but she was turned into a teeny mummy. That's like 1000 times worse. Have some sense of scale, dude."

[Artur Coelho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grant Morrison encarrega-se do lado weird, Mark Millar da acção cinética. Mesmo com estes talentos, Aztek não passa da tentativa da DC de criar um novo personagem na sua continuidade. Algo que a editora vai fazendo, ainda hoje, testando as águas com novos heróis que após uma série de oito a dez edições regressam ao baú, com aparições fugazes posteriores.

Aztek é o agente de uma sociedade secreta andina, herdeiro do capacete de Quetazlcoatl, um artefacto que lhe concede poderes através de um fato nanotecnológico. No dia a dia assume o papel de um médico falecido. Apesar de bem treinado, Aztek é bastante inepto na forma como combate o crime. A sua inocência torna-o um alvo fácil para armadilhas. Talvez a maior seja a montada por Lex Luthor: manipular os combates do herói, fazendo-o parecer válido e conseguir colocá-lo na Liga da Justiça. Apesar de todo o seu poder, Aztek não se apercebe da manipulação.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of DC's biggest efforts of the '90s was to celebrate the idea of the traditional superhero, at a time when the comics industry was in considerable turmoil. Marvel was becoming known for savage characters like Punisher and Venom, and Image was redefining the game by making it, well, all about the image, with none of the original heart. Grant Morrison came to define these efforts with his JLA, in which the seven most iconic DC superheroes came together to form the Mount Rushmore of Justice Leagues. But parallel to this, he also cowrote, with Mark Millar, Aztek: The Ultimate Man. Where JLA existed in a world that ignored the greater comics landscape, Aztek took it on directly, a critique and an attempt to graft the old days on the new. The results can be disorienting.

The most obvious example of DC's efforts, one that fluctuates in its visibility, was Kingdom Come, in which a violent superhero named Magog has emerged, in the future, as Superman's successor, and leads a whole maniac generation of costumed adventurers apparently free of traditional moral responsibility. Eventually Superman returns to set things right, of course. Magog himself was inspired by Marvel's Cable (since entered the mainstream in Deadpool 2). And like him, Aztek sports a horned mask, as if to say that, at least as far as the '90s were concerned, superheroes now must be warriors. And perhaps that was the whole point.

But Aztek is no Magog. He's an innocent whose trademark gesture is folding his arms across his chest, like Christopher Reeve's Superman. You can't really pinpoint any clearer example of the classic Silver Age superhero than Reeve, whose defining quality was innocence in the face of his great power (in his second movie appearance he gives up his powers for love, just when he's needed most; in his fourth, he solves the nuclear question but in the act unwittingly creates a monster), never fully comprehending the responsibility entrusted in him, despite always doing what he can to help out humanity. Superheroes merely do heroic things. If faced with a true challenge, they merely keep fighting.

Aztek is never so lucky. I don't know if it was always part of the story, but eventually he learns not only was his father, as predecessor behind the mask, murdered because he rebelled against the system that set it all up, but Lex Luthor is ultimately responsible for everything he's become, guiding him along to the grand destiny awaiting him. (This is a Luthor, in the era of The Final Night, in which he actually aides Superman in preventing another apocalypse, somewhere between good and evil.) There's no trace of Luthor until the later issues, which culminate in Aztek joining the Justice League. There might have been a revision; there's certainly no resolution in these pages. Aztek's whole mission was to defeat a great evil, which doesn't happen in the final issue. His story concludes in JLA, just another failed solo series folded into a team book (an old cliché in superhero comics).

But the often bizarre happenings in Aztek itself suggests an experiment intended to operate on its own. Morrison's ideas, perhaps, interpreted by Millar, later fully given over to his more extreme impulses, the more he writes his own ideas. The ideas Morrison brought to Aztek would've been right at home in his Doom Patrol. In execution, Aztek is not really similar to another JLA-era creation, Zauriel, the winged Hawkman stand-in who's an actual angel, tormented, in the end, more by his love for a human than by his fall from paradise. Most of the ideas in Aztek are half-formed, even given time to be explored across ten issues. None of them coalesce so beautifully. In trying to present a Silver Age superhero in more violent times, in constantly tripping up its hero, Aztek never has the time to breathe, never allows the narrative to dwell long enough on itself.

That's turned out to be a trademark of Millar's later comics, the penchant to let the setup give way to a breathless series of cliffhangers, designed to dazzle the reader. In that sense, Aztek is best understood as a Millar project, perhaps the prototypical Millar project. It's a fascinating look at a crossroads in superhero storytelling. Like most Morrison stories, it's meant to open a box that's supposed to be closed in its conclusion, which is why Aztek dies in the pages of JLA. So maybe it is a better ending for his series, for a superhero learning his way in the world merely to find acceptance among his peers.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have long heard about this cult hit from the 90s by Grant Morrison. While I'm no Morrison fan, I did enjoy his JLA run from that time period so I checked out Aztek. It was horrible. Both from a story, dialogue, and art point of view. The plot was all over the place with plot picking up and dropping off without a hint of resolution. I would often have to go back a reread pages because something completely out of left field happened and I thought I missed a page. The art by Steven Harris was a sloppy mess and from a storytelling point of view horrible. A big reveal would happen and the panel was confusing and unclear. Overall, this book, while having an interesting idea is a gigantic failure. Skip it.

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A completely new character created by Morrison, to obviously be inducted into the Justice League, based on all the cameos from major DC heroes. Cool because he's got no idea what he's doing, both socially and as a hero, but he's got the right motivation and great training/powers. This is the only volume of the series, but I would follow up on this by checking the relevant JLA issues he features in. I look forward to seeing how his career/role ends up playing out.

[Eduardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A superhero with ties to Aztec mythology! This sounds right up my alley. And yet…

I found this pretty boring, actually. I almost gave up, because the first few issues are that Aztek shows up in a hopelessly corrupt city called Vanity (subtle!) with his high-tech helmet, and works out a plan to fight the bad guys, who also want him dead. That’s kind of it. It isn’t until later that we establish the mythology connection through a villain named [checks notes] Lizard King. Who disappointingly does not dress like a lizard at all.

And then Joker visits, so Aztek has an excuse to team up with Batman.

(“Ah, Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of light. Now this is starting to make sense,” Batman says. Bats, I’m going to ask you to show your work here, because this makes no sense at all.)

It’s only okay as an introduction to a new superhero–which this was when it came out. The characters aren’t particularly interesting, the secret society behind it all doesn’t do much until about halfway through the volume, and then doesn’t do enough to be interesting, and at times it’s pretty hard to work out what’s going on. Also, seemingly everyone knows his secret identity.

It’s got some entertaining bits which prevent it from being bad, it’s just not good. And it’s not even weird in a way Morrison is famous for, though I suppose there’s a bit of Millar’s edginess in there. For a guy labeled as ‘THE ULTIMATE MAN’, I found “Aztek” a disappointing story.

[Silas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof. This was rough. The art was sketchy and unfinished, and it was often difficult to tell characters apart, and the story may have been worse. On paper, a Quetzalcoatl-themed hero is something I ought to be really excited about, but it really didn't work for me. You only found out about much of any of the character's backstory halfway through the trade, as though it were an afterthought, and by then, I was pretty disinterested and only finishing the trade because of my own stubbornness. There are cameos from various DC superstars, which felt a bit tacked on and only there to ease the transition of this lackluster character into the JLA, I guess. I've seen other books praise this one for the hero having a better heart than other books, but since the villains are all manipulating him because of his naivete, the story still ends up being chock full of ultraviolence, so if you are after something wholesome this isn't it. In addition to being bad, it's entirely too long, and changes tone significantly maybe two thirds of the way through. The writing gets a bit easier to deal with, and the art is a bit more heavy-handed, but if doesn't get any better. With Grant Morrison's name on this, I had hoped for something really mind-bending and thought-provoking, and this was just... not.

[Wilek Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that there is so much to love about Aztek only makes its shortcomings all the more painful. With a fresh and fascinating origin story, a believable cast of side characters, and a smooth integration into Grant Morrison's greater JLA continuity, Aztek puts its best foot forward straight away.

It's unfortunate, then, that the run fails to live up to its early potential. The character of Aztek is hardly developed beyond his origin story and the promises of worldbuilding laid out early on (such as a brilliant in-universe letters written by certain side characters) are never fulfilled.

It will be interesting to see how Aztek is handled in JLA, this really was a fun read. It's just a shame they couldn't tie it up any better.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edición integral con los únicos 10 números del clásico fallido de Morrison y Millar. Una de las subtramas que no llegó a contarse en esta serie terminaría resolviéndose en las páginas de JLA.

[John Chidley-Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas in here, and I would love to read where the story goes next.... but the art was cluttered and confusing.

[José Miguel (TheHudson) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morrison se puede dar el lujo de crear un personaje y darle una serie propia, simplemente para deshacerse de él un par de números más adelante.

Aztek realmente tuvo una vida heroíca.

[Dan Prestwich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, JLA-adjacent series, a collaboration between Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, leading to a curious combination of tones, both an earnest tribute to comic book weirdness and a smartalecky piss-take commentary about how violent modern comic books had gotten. It's a bit of a mess in places, but the high points are special. Hurt by some janky, occasionally confusing artwork.

B-

[Ribrarian Not · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro de historietas con ISBN propio.
Edición tapa dura con sobrecubiertas.

[Zintulo Deyuno · Rating 3 out of 5]

JLA presents:
AZTEK THE ULTIMATE MAN


Tomo único.

[alejandro galvez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good.

It was good. The ending was a bit anticlimactic but it was a fun ride. I would love to see Aztek in future books. But I doubt he is ever coming back.

[Fabio Li Mandri · Rating 3 out of 5]

carino, nulla di più.

[Maxoel Costa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um ingênuo membro de uma antiga seita de incas (que não é índio peruano e sim um caucasiano louro), treinado desse a infância para enfrentar o rival do deus Quetzalcoatl, vira defensor de uma cidade nos EUA (?!?!) onde foi profetizado que esse deus retornaria um dia.

Tirando as idiossincrasias e a oportunidade perdida de introduzir um personagem meso-americano, a série começa muito bem, principalmente nas críticas aos personagens hiper mega violentos nos quadrinhos dos 90's. Porém, a trama acaba se perdendo pela metade e acaba finalizando de modo apressado, deixando um monte de pontas soltas. A arte também não ajuda.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lets start with some context: By the mid 1990's, mainstream comics were full of gritty anti-heroes, and a lot of people were sick of it. Most superhero comics stopped being child friendly in the mid-80s, when suddenly every comic book scribe thought of himself as the next Alan Moore and thus turned around and did their very best impersonation of Swamp Thing (remember that time they made Aquaman into a water elemental? Comedy!).

In response, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar put their heads together to figure out how to break out of the monotony. The result is, well, 1996's AZTEK THE ULTIMATE MAAAN. A comic that attempts to bring fun silver age tropes back to superheroes, i.e., Joker showing up with a bunch of crickets at one point. They dance. At times it can even be a pretty smart comic, making meta-commentary on the ridiculous psycho heroes of the 90's comics scene, with Aztek constantly questioning the morality of the people around him.

But the irony? Despite being made to give fans what they claimed they missed from comics, it was a flop. Even having Green Lantern show up for an issue isn't enough to get superhero nerds to change their buying habits. Anyways, all in all it isn't so bad. Clever commentary, silly plot, standard saturday morning superhero fair. Art isn't great. Good colors though.

[Tomás · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comic bastante desconocido dentro de la bibliografía de Morrison y de Millar que encontré a muy buen precio, resultándome bastante entretenida.

Ya de por sí, la historia de Aztek es bastante particular y también lo es esa sociedad que se encarga de darle una "misión", en particular en esa ciudad llamada Vanidad que parece ser una especie de Gotham con varios secretos y profecías que muy pocos conocen. Hay cierta nostalgia por los superhéroes clásicos, más o menos como si la serie hubiera querido reivindicar a los personajes de antaño antes de que todo se pusiera tan oscuro allá por los años noventa. También hay mucha sátira y doble sentido, lo cual también resulta fresco y bastante actual.

Los dibujos no están para nada mal, me parecieron bastante personales y un poco rupturistas. No conozco a dibujante, no lo vi en ningún otro comic superheroico de la época. Habrá que buscar algún otro trabajo del autor.

Probablemente esta serie hubiera tenido más éxito si su publicación se atrasaba unos años más (porque claramente la entendí como una serie anti-90s) pero creo que resulta interesante leerla y entenderla en su contexto, aparte de que es una verdadera joyita perdida en el tiempo.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

DC just finally released this trade collecting the short lived Aztek series from the mid-nineties, most likely to coincide with Grant Morrison's new plans for the DCU this year. I missed it the first time around, and only new of Aztek from his short-stint in the JLA (also written by Morrison at the time). This series ends (rather abruptly) after ten issues and leads into those JLA issues. Despite Morrison and Mark Millar working on this, I can see why it was canned quickly. Aztek just doesn't have much personality - he's basically a blank doll who knows nothing of the real world, and while it could have been used to some effect, it's only touched upon a few times. The art is also a bit lacking, and not really to my taste (why did everyone need such large crazy hairstyles?) That said, though, I did dig Aztek actual character design (minus the lame feathers under the arms when he flies). This collection does also give us an early look at how Morrison would come to define The Joker, which is to say more insane and rambling than you will ever see him anywhere else (until the current "Batman: R.I.P." storyine).

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have loved to see where this was going had it night died an early death. Grant Morrison did something here that is hard to do in the modern era of comics - he introduces a character with a strong back story that could lead to an epic end-of-the-world fight; he gives us a Capra-esque hero, in the mold of Superman, with a fairly developed sense of how to use his powers,a desire to do the right thing, and a tendency to see the decency in people, without making him seem utterly naive and incapable of fitting in with society; and he creates a likable, solidly strong character that finds himself included integrated into the super-hero community with relatively ease, even getting praise from Batman. When one notes that Aztek was born in the period of DC's 90s editorial push to introduce as many characters as possible, it isn't any surprise he didn't get more notice, but his quirky adventures and unique spin on being a super-hero make him noticeable in the sea of grim-and-grittiness that enveloped the medium at the time.

[Krystl Louwagie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this a high 3 stars. It's refreshing to see Miller taking part in something where the main character is kind hearted (not that that's something he *never* does, but, I wasn't a fan of the promotion of villains like in Wanted.) And overall, this felt refreshing in a nostalgic way to me-reminiscent of "good old days" superheroes, but still somehow in the type of world where "Watchmen" happened. "Aztek" was trained his whole life to defeat a "Shadow God" or something that will be coming to the messed up town of "Vanity", but they're not sure exactly when-so, he just has to hang out and be a superhero until then. He's naive about the world, but is learning and isn't stupid, either. Trying to do his best, making a mess of it sometimes. Unfortunately for him, most of the villains and his life are being orchestrated and not "real". I enjoyed it, and would like to read more, even though I know it wasn't a very popular run.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aztek is sent to Vanity City by the Q Foundation. An organization that has been training warriors to be ready for the return of the Shadow God for generations. Aztek is sweet and trying hard to figure things out. He makes friends with Green Lantern, Batman and Superman which leads to his eventual induction to the Justice League. What Aztek doesn't know is how much he is being manipulated and who's pulling the strings.

It's definitely interesting and a tiny bit cheeseball, then again most '90s comics are a little bit. Aztek is so sweet and you really want everything to work out for him, but you know that isn't going to happen. Debating whether or not to track down the rest of his story which appears in a bunch of different JLA books.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yep, rereading it--the individual issues as opposed to the trade. Always seemed like a good idea cancelled too early. The artwork is good, although slightly dated. Some people like their Grant Morrison (or Mark Millar, for that matter) a little more "reined in" by continuity concerns or the constraints of handling flagship characters. Other prefer those authors unbound, so to speak. This title splits the difference pretty well. Inventive twists to superhero action, but woven effectively into "DC Proper" action. If they had more titles like this, maybe I wouldn't be so miffed at them right now...