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Underground > Comic Books >

Aztek: The Ultimate Man

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14:57 / 25.09.02

Thanks to grant, I now know how to do new topics - wahey! (Don't mock me, I'm short-sighted,and never notced that tiny icon, okay)

Anyway, boringly and predictably enough, I've chosen to start a topic on a 6 year old comic which was cancelled after 10 issues.

I like Aztek, and I think it's shit that he died in WWIII. Anyone else got any insightful commentary? Come on!

And the excellent art team includes an inker by the name of Keith Champagne. Is this his 'inking name'?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

15:59 / 25.09.02

Haven't read it and from what I saw of the character in JLA it looked like fun, if not particularly original. Has Grant said anywhere about how he'd hoped Aztek would have tied in with JLA if it hadn't been cancelled? Presumerably Aztek wouldn't have died?

19:48 / 25.09.02

You've got the same surname as him, or is that the point? read a bit of arsetek at the weekend, and it still stands up tho it seems a bit, i dunno, slight. with more hardcore chains claws and leather it might have gone a bit further, but the only actual bad thing about it is the art. each panel looks lovely, but storytelling sucks. stick 'em together and you have to take some effort to make the story fit. and that ain't no good at all.

22:24 / 25.09.02

I actually forgot he had the same (adopted) surname as me. But that can be a point, if you want. How cool is that? How many superheroes do you share a surname with?

I just was checking through the comics archives, and discovered that no-one had a topic on this one, which I enjoy in a lighter way. The site is called Barbelith, right?

Lada, yeah, all I know is Morrison and Millar wanted to take this naive character, with a shiny suit, and drag him through hell, basically. That was the synopsis (I'm paraphasing, obviously.)

There is that set of panels in #10, where Amazo (btw, does anyone know the correct pronounciation, for the next time I have a conversation about the toughest android supervillains?) hits his head off various street signs, that I didn't get for months, but other than that I really, really like the art.

21:05 / 26.09.02

I read Aztek when I originally went on my Morrison binge a few years ago. I remeber it being pretty clever, at one point instead of 'beating up' some thieves he pays them out of his own wallet. If I remember correctly I think Lex Luther was being set up to be the big baddie.

Superlove Ninja

03:34 / 27.09.02

He would have died in WWIII regardless (that was the purpose of his creation) but it wouldn't have been nearly as jarring if he still had a monthly title when it happened.

06:43 / 28.09.02

I thought it was a nice fun take on superheroes.

and I like that sort of thing.

despite its being shite and short and all t hat (in most's opinion), back-issues are hard to come by in my neck of the woods.

woods got necks!

m.

09:41 / 28.09.02

I always thought there were two big baddies in Aztek - Tezcatlipoca/Mageddon (obviously), and Vanity itself - the whole 'entire city as an experiment in sick building syndrome' idea.

yawn - thing's buddy

19:24 / 30.09.02

the first issue's art seemd a bit 'muddy' to me - despite the linework being interesting in it's own stilted kindov way - so i didn't return for more.

(oh yeah, the story didn't grab me, that was it)

17:21 / 05.10.02

I liked it...

Ther art was muddy, I always thought that do to the color...

some fun stuff, too bad it ended early. It was cool seeing him in the JLA for a bit as well.

22:57 / 05.10.02

I thought, strangely enough, he was underused and not given any real depth in his brief fling with the JLA.

02:54 / 10.12.02

*Bump*

Found a retrospective and interview at Newsarama a coupla days ago.

Quite interesting.

08:28 / 10.12.02

"Two of the pioneers of a technique which would be used later by the likes of James Robinson with Starman’s Opal City among others, Morrison and Millar created a new and unique fictional city within the DCU, Vanity."

Isn't there something majorly wrong here? Starman began life in '94, wouldn't that somehow make it Robinson who pioneered that technique?

A

10:11 / 10.12.02

I've only actually read a couple of issues of Aztek, so I can't really comment as to how good a series it actually was, but I really like the character.

Aztek wasn't created to die in an issue of JLA, from what I can recall. Morrison and Millar had big plans for Aztek which would have shaken the very foundations of the DC universe, or some such thing, but Aztek's cancellation was announced after 4 issues (it ran for 10), so they wrote him into the JLA and made Tetzcatlipoca, the Aztec shadow god that Aztek was trained to fight, and Mageddon in JLA one and the same. I believe that Morrison claimed that Aztek's cancellation had more to do with DC not wanting him on too many books than with sales.

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

21:05 / 17.12.07

JLA PRESENTS: AZTEK — THE ULTIMATE MAN TP
Written by Grant Morrison & Mark Millar
Art by Stephen Harris, Keith Champagne, Drew Geraci and others
Cover by Howard Porter and John Dell
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!
Advance-solicited; on sale April 30 • 240 pg, FC, $19.99 US

21:46 / 17.12.07

Oh God, I would really like to apologise for my posting style in 2002. I was witless at 23(!!!11!1), apparently.

While it's pretty cool that there's an Aztek figurine as a result of his somehow getting onto JLU, and even having a line once, making my bottom produce a small 'squee' likely I'd... I dunno that I'd wholeheartedly recommend the trade of the abortive series. I do still like the art, though it is fair to say it came at a point where the dominant style of superhero panelling was in somewhat of transition and is, separately, quite attractive but very stilted.

It's just the whole Morrison/Millar flavor is like orange juice & lemonade - mixing a realy nice drink with another, decentish one, on a day you might enjoy it (assuming it's not writing its own creator-owned miniseries,) but somehow combined becoming a much lesser refreshment (i.e. Skrull Kill Krew is not worth seeking out.)

...Except when writing the Flash, actually - it's an embarrassment, a fucking disgrace that 'The Human Race' (Flash v. Sonic the Hedgehog, really) about the most humane, romantic and generally wonderful story either will put their names to isn't in trade.

22:12 / 18.12.07

C'mon, Falc, take that orange juice metaphor and RUN WITH IT

02:02 / 19.12.07

cool that they're finally putting this into a trade. Well done DC. (and yes, the Morrison/Millar Flash run should also be traded as well)

Haus of Mystery

19:56 / 20.12.07

I'd love them to collect the whole year of their Flash run into a nice juicy trade... Come on Levitz, we all know Millar's a nob, but then so are you. I WANT MY FLASH!

23:58 / 20.12.07

Aztek is a fun read, and it was nice to have new heroes that weren't legacies or reboots. All we get nowadays is Simon Dark or whatever that thing is.

01:36 / 21.12.07

I've just got in and I'm drunk as a nuneaton savage. I want millarflashage.

Could it be alone?

12:58 / 21.12.07

It could not. Especially when.

Murray Hamhandler

19:44 / 07.05.08

Trade out today! W00T!

(Hello, Barbelith. Long time, no see.)

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:54 / 07.05.08

I picked it up. It's sitting on my bed. I've just started rereading Robinson's Starman, so I'll hit it after that.

20:09 / 07.05.08

#1-10 is the entire run, right? The book was cancelled at #10, if I recall...? so it's the whole run in one trade?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:10 / 07.05.08

Yeah, it's the whole shebang.

12:48 / 08.05.08

Hey thanks for the heads up!

17:59 / 11.05.08

I also just saw somewhere (Comic Shop News) that Aztek might come up or at least be referenced in Final Crisis, and that's an additional reason why they published the Aztek paperback right before FC. Interesting...

Finder elsewhere.

After reading the trade I'm inclined to think that Aztek's promised big bad could well be (substituted for) Darkseid as envisaged here.

Essential Dazzler

18:19 / 11.05.08

Wasn't Mageddon the big bad?

19:15 / 11.05.08

In JLA, Mageddon ended up being Tezcatlipoca the Shadow God, yeah, and Aztek had a fairly charming d-list death doing his part in the fight there.

Reading the trade, I guess I didn't know what to expect, but it's very fucking Millar, violent & mean as hell from the get-go. It's interesting knowing Aztek as just a random JLA character and seeing him in such a radically different tone in an old self-named series about him.

It also feels a bit like Morrison's Animal Man to me, but much of that's the art and the good shitty paper stock.

20:40 / 11.05.08

In JLA, Mageddon ended up being Tezcatlipoca the Shadow God, yeah, and Aztek had a fairly charming d-list death doing his part in the fight there.

Yeah, I know, buuuuut having not read the Mageddon arc for a bit, I'm wondering whether there's room for a retcon. That Aztek got it wrong, or something.

20:50 / 11.05.08

Not quite sure why I'm so hung up on this. Could be because I get the feeling Grant would've liked to have done significantly more with the character (there's a page towards the end of the trade where a bunch of future stories are quite deliberately telegraphed), could also be because of that JLA tryout scene where Aztek's facing virtual Darkseid's virtual apocalypse. Add Finder's rumour to that stuff and my brain gets creative, I suppose.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

23:23 / 11.05.08

I coulda sworn someone asked about this at the Comic Con, and Grant said something like "nope, Aztek was born to kill Mageddon and he did. you won't see him again."

might have heard wrong. I don't translate well from Scottish.

03:08 / 12.05.08

Yeah, I recall the same thing. Maybe it was in a recent interview... There was a new Aztek in the Rock of Ages story though, wasn't there? A woman this time? The story of the last Aztek definitely ended with WW3 in GM's JLA, but it would be cool to have a new Aztek show up in FC.

09:23 / 12.05.08

I seem to remember that quote too, come to think of it.

But maybe more dark gods equals more Azteks. That would be nice.

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