I'm pretty sure it's Aztek because that isn't actually a real word

Seem to have successfully tired myself out- I'd be in bed even now (just shy of ten pm) but for Castle- tonights episode has them investigating a steampunk society, and the commercial promises SEVERAL Back to the Future references!

So that's happening.

Aztek the Ultimate Man was a series done in '96 by Mark Millar and Grant Morrison. I've already gone on and on about Morrison, but Millar is a new name here. He's actually had several commercial successes while I haven't heard of any Morrison works outside of comics. Millar is responsible for Kick-Ass (I loved the movie, though the film version went through a considerable change from his comic series), he created the comic series Wanted (I think that's what it's called) that became the film with Angelina Jolie, and the upcoming film Red is also one of his properties. With Bruce Willis! Now that's impressive.

I'm not as big a fan though. His work is serviceable, but is generally really cynical, dark, and a little off. For example, one of his most famous lines is from Marvel's The Ultimates where Captain America yells at a guy he's fighting "DO YOU THINK THIS 'A' ON MY HEAD STANDS FOR FRANCE?!?" And yeah, okay, that was pretty hilarious at the time, but hardly something ol' Cap would say. In fact in the main Captain America book (pretty sure that was where this was) the writer, probably Ed Brubaker, told a tale of Captain America in France to express admiration for the people. The writer/Brubaker didn't have to do that, but it was nice and pretty clearly in response to the Ultimates thing.

Aztek is a little too neatly wrapped up together. He goes a few issues before officially getting that name- because who calls themself, well, any super hero sobriquet? All too often it's revealing of the kind of vanity those guys are dealing with. That's why I prefer the stories where Superman doesn't have any suit then gets named Superman by the press. THEn throws up the giant 'S' on the shirt.

He has to create an entire identity, find a place to live; it's an origin story that attempts to start at the very beginning, but they don't go far enough. Once they establish what they want to be their 'status quo' the don't want to let it go.

The status quo itself is a job as a doctor. Aztek takes over this guys identity when he dies, and he was JUST about to accept a new job at the hospital. For some reason no one knew what the guy was going to look like, so cue Aztek to fill in the gaps. And fortunately he's got healing powers or something. And fortunately no one ever checked in on him to see if he was competently following hospital procedures.

What I would have liked to have seen was how all this would have inevitably fallen apart. But because the creators were so enamoured of the doctoring quo they called in the restorative powers of a deus ex machina.

In the end, it's a clever series that lampshades and avoids several cliches of the genre, but in its self satisfaction it falls into other traps.

But the important thing is that I've read it, because it's one of those books that are highly favoured in the community- now I'm cool. Ah, it was a pretty good book.