"The End" Week: Aztek #10!

Hey, remember Aztek? Big gold helmet, created by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar with artist N. Steven Harris? Even if you do, you might not recollect his solo series, which despite the creators and guest-spots by Green Lantern, the Joker, and Batman; only made it to issue #10: "a league of their own" Written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, art by N. Steven Harris and Keith Champagne.

Still, Aztek is going out strong, as he's up for membership in the Justice League of America! He's already impressed Kyle and Batman, and seems like a stable, level-headed guy...even if his equipment and training was provided by a mysterious organization...

Meanwhile, at Aztek's day job as Dr. Curt Falconer, Professor Ivo is brought to the hospital in bad shape. Ivo's immortality serum seems to be breaking down, and he's fading fast. Perhaps not fast enough for his creation Amazo (or a Amazo) who pins the JLA in their watchtower with a GL power bubble, then attacks the hospital.

Aztek takes a licking--there's a nice, subtle sequence of Amazo beating his ass from 21st to 281st street--but manages to stall the agitated android until the JLA arrives. Knowing he's beat, the rather-chatty Amazo says he wasn't there for a fight or even to kill Ivo: describing their relationship as like Tom and Jerry, Amazo doesn't want to lose Ivo, and brought a serum to save him. Which is actually poisoned, but Ivo had taken an anti-toxin...Aztek's love interest uninterested doctor friend notes they really are like Tom and Jerry.

Even though this is his last issue, several future plotlines for Aztek were teased, like encounters with the Puzzler and Patti Celeste, the Super-Groupie. With the hat and mask of the Crimson Avenger ("the first of our kind," J'onn J'onzz points out) the JLA initates Aztek onto the team. I wonder how that'll work out for him...oh, right.