Aztek

Though his publication career was short, Aztek the Ultimate Man is a true blue, positive, powerful super-hero who mixes Silver Age  purity with a post-modern plot and atmosphere. He could easily have been a major player in the DC Universe, and could thus occupy such a rank in other fictional worlds.

Terminology note

As routinely happened with Native American names, “Aztec” isn’t correct terminology. It was made up by Europeans to refer to those with ties to a specific political equilibrium of the 1400s and early 1500s, called the Triple Alliance.

The Alliance was forged among several Nahua polities , so Nahua would be more correct for the dominant culture of the “Aztecs”.

Here the mistake is baked into the character’s name. But a simple fix is to assume that it doesn’t refer to the Triple Alliance, but to the Aztlán myths of the Nahua folks. And specifically from the Nahuatl word aztecah, “those people who originated from mythical Aztlán”.

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Aztek is trained to the peak of human perfection. He’s an extraordinarily powerful athlete and martial artist. He was further trained to be extremely intelligent, analytical and resilient to distress. His sobriquet as the “ultimate man” is not exaggerated by much.

Although he initially lacked experience, he proved to be an extremely competent fighter and tactician, and was obviously on his way toward becoming a major hero.

The cure

Uno has manifested various seemingly superhuman abilities, such as the ability to heal and stop bleeding with but a touch, through applied energy.

His abilities as a doctor generally seem to be much higher than what you’d expect. He was able to heal the badly wounded Martian Manhunter. Uno seemed to be on par with, if not slightly more competent than, Batman when it came to tackling this highly unusual medical issue.

Armour up, part 1

Uno’s training also included operating a unique suit of extremely advanced light armour.

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The helmet is the key part of the Aztek armour. With enough training the rest of the armour can be thought into a higher vibrational key and disappear, but the helmet always remains there. The helmet includes a sort of built-in shotgun mike he uses to eavesdrop, as well as various specialized optics.

The armour can deploy a sort of feathered cape to glide or to help guide his flight. Furthermore, it greatly enhances his strength.

It has also various hidden weapons :

• A retractable blade in the bracer very much like the ones used by Azrael (Jean-Paul Valley).
• Plasma beams much like Iron Man’s palm repulsors (though much less powerful).
• A steel net that can be shot from a bracer to capture an opponent.
• Micro-rockets (the size of a short pencil) within the bracers.

The armour can even increase its outer temperature within seconds, for instance to free itself when encased in ice. It also can generate an energy shield in front of itself, though that implies increasing the density of the armour and thus greatly reducing mobility).

The armour, a miracle of occult engineering, occasionally has to be recharged with four-dimensional energy through a specialized ritual. In DC Heroes RPG terms, that has to take place whenever the R# of the helmet is rolled.

Armour up, part 2

By combining the use of several of his audio sensors Aztek can, much like Supergirl or Daredevil, to ’scan’ large volumes from a considerable distance for a specific sound. And while his “X-ray vision” optics aren’t highly penetrative, they’re quite sufficient to see through soft obstacles such as heavy rain, bushes, foliage, etc..

Aztek is cautious and well-trained, and uses those sensory abilities to their full extent. Before going in (say, in an hostage situation) he will carefully, patiently look and listen to gain as much information as he can.

From what we see when Aztek confronts the Lizard King, his armour is much more advanced than even the previous generation. It is heavily implied that this is due to Lex Luthor joining the Q-Society. All the new gadgets, electronics and weapon systems in Aztek’s armour are likely the result of Lexcorp’s best engineering, using the unique source of power within the armour.

Other assets

Aztek is extremely charismatic. He will often leave a strong and lasting impression upon those with whom he interacts, especially when he is kind and positive. His compliments brighten the day and are easily remembered. His acts of support toward those in dire straits will move the heart of both the recipients and most onlookers, if any.

Hospital patients applauded when they saw him relieving the pain of a terrified and bleeding explosion victim. Thugs to whom Aztek had given money so they would not mug people felt more loyalty and respect toward him than toward their own psychotic employer.

At one point he somehow stole the ring off Rayner’s finger. I have no idea of how he did that.

History

2,000 years ago, in what is now Mexico, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl vanquished the shadow god Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl then left Earth. But he warned that Tezcatlipoca would return to destroy the world, and left behind a battle helmet. This helmet was to be donned by a human champion of Quetzalcoatl to battle Tezcatlipoca when the day came.

Tezcatlipoca was later revealed to be a doomsday weapon of the Third World. This is the one of the Old Gods who preceded the modern Fourth World. The Fourth World is the one led by New Gods such as Highfather and Darkseid. It is thus probable that Quetzalcoatl — or at least this Quetzalcoatl — was an Old God living on Earth, or otherwise had strong connections to the Old Gods.

Human followers trained a succession of champions. Thus, one would always be ready to don the helmet when the day came. However they eventually strayed from their path, and Quetzalcoatl destroyed their champion.

The Q-Society

As a result the followers were replaced by a new organisation more clearly devoted to training and arming a succession of champions. Each champion had a backup to prevent any gap in the succession. It was usually called the Q-Society or Q-Brotherhood, among others.

The Q-Society developed weapons based on the best super-technology of each century or decade. It was apparently a global organisation, since some of their champions spoke English or French.

The shadowy Society also built up its temporal power and influence. During the XX^th century they attempted to recruit Thomas Wayne, who turned them down, and Lex Luthor, who agreed. Though Luthor wished to back an organisation that could prevent the Earth’s destruction, he unsurprisingly had his agenda.

Circa 1970, the Q-Society determined that their champion should reside in an awful, terrible city in the US called Vanity (see the Vanitas vanitatum… section below). Things always go wrong in Vanity, and the champion wasn’t spared by this phenomenon.

Looking out for number one

The Q-Society champion back then was named Emilio. He and a local woman fell in love, and they married and had a son. This did not fit the Society’s plans. Thus, the ruthless shadow masters ordered the backup champion to kill Emilio. The man refused this order and was psychically tortured and broken. Then the Society murdered Emilio and kidnapped his son, Uno.

Through its own actions, the Q-Society now had neither a champion nor a backup. Thus, they trained Uno as intensively as they could so he could take the mantle. The child was raised in a Society base in the Andes. He was trained to the peak of physical and mental perfection so he could be Quetzalcoatl’s host if the shadow god returned during his time. He was then sent to Vanity once he was 20.

Soon after arriving, Uno intervened in a bank heist. Retired Silver Age  villain the Piper (Dr. Curt Falconer) had been forced to commit the crime lest his estranged daughter be executed. The situation went bad when Vanity killer vigilante Bloodtype arrived. Despite Uno’s efforts, both Bloodtype and the Piper were killed.

Uno took over Falconer’s identity as his cover. As to Uno’s super hero identity it was nicknamed “Aztek” by the Vanity press due to the design of his helmet. Though for what it’s worth it seems more Quechua-looking than Nahua-looking.

Dr. Curt Falconer :

• Had no close relative.
• Was expected at a new job where nobody knew him.
• Had many of his ID-grade documents expire shortly before his death.
• Was unidentifiable after the explosion.

Thus, his identity was a perfect cover. Nevertheless, Uno’s naiveté and honesty, as well as the discrepancy between his apparent and listed age, made some colleagues suspicious. Dr. Julia Frostick in particular realised that something was off. However, she came to trust Uno even after she discovered that he was Aztek. The Q-Society later recruited her.

The Ultimate Man

In Vanity Aztek fought Synth with the help of Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), though Falconer’s daughter was killed in the fray. He teamed up with Batman to stop the Joker, then took down the Parasite (then known as “Doc Parasite”) and handed him over to Superman.

Though Aztek didn’t realise at first, the later two crises had been engineered by Lex Luthor. Luthor wanted Aztek to network with the Justice League of America ASAP. Luthor later stated that an alliance with the JLA could only help against a return of the shadow god. However, his actual plan was to eventually use Aztek and the vast Q-Society network to destroy Superman and the JLA.

Thanks to Luthor’s machinations, Aztek was considered a potential JLA recruit. After defeating Amazo in Vanity, Uno formally joined. However, most of his time was spent familiarising himself with JLA equipment and procedure rather than in the field.

Uno learned about his father’s fate when he was attacked by the Lizard King. The King was the former backup of Emilio, rendered insane by the Society’s torture. This incident and other bits of information about the Q-Society made Uno increasingly wary about his masters.

As a Justice League member, Aztek fought Metallo at Fort Knox. He later played a key role in saving the life of the Martian Manhunter after J’onn fought the angel Asmodel. Aztek was also on JLA monitor duty when he detected a gigantic, impossibly powerful menace headed toward Earth.

As he would soon learn, this was the shadow god.

Secret Hospital

At this point, Luthor was getting more directly involved with the Q Foundation and Aztek. He had the entire personnel of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital kidnapped and implanted with cerebral chips. These made them forget that they had been operated on and that “Falconer” was Aztek. The chips also made unable to hear or see anything relating to those points.

When somebody shouts “Curt Falconer is Aztek” among them, they simply ignore it. The only exception is his boss and ally, Julia, who has been initiated in the Q-Foundation.

On top of this heavy-handed approach, Luthor also relocated Falconer to a luxurious penthouse home in Vanity. He provided him with professional, heavily-armed bodyguards (one of whom may have been a Bana-Mighdall Amazon, like Luthor’s own bodyguards Hope and Mercy are suspected of being). The monastery-raised Uno was quite uncomfortable with all of this.

(In DC Heroes RPG terms – at this point the Wealth of Aztek becomes a 08 (and he keeps the Rich Friend on top of that), and he acquires an Expansive H.Q. Advantage.)

The shadow god

In late 1997, Luthor’s Injustice Gang attacked the JLA. Luthor also contacted Aztek, who was in the JLA’s moon base. He told Uno that he was behind much of his equipment and training – hoping to tip the odds in his favour.

Aztek refused to betray the JLA, and Luthor teleported 12 armed nuclear missiles into the base. Aztek disarmed all the missiles within less than 3 ½ minutes, saving everyone. He then resigned, considering that he presented a security risk for the League.

Aztek’s activities over 1998/1999 are largely undocumented. But he remained a JLA reservist and was briefly called to reinforce the League against Amazo.

In late 1999 the final day came. The New Gods came to Earth and warned of the coming of Mageddon. This Third World god-killing relic was the object Aztek had seen on the JLA sensors years before.

Its coming as the Anti-Sun had been prophesied in many cultures under many names, including “Tezcatlipoca”. Mageddon soon overwhelmed Wonderworld, where titanic super-heroes stood eternal guard against untold perils from outside time and space

As Mageddon attacked Earth Aztek successfully entered its brain. However, Uno was permanently blinded by one of the Anti-Sun’s thoughts. Meanwhile humans all across Earth were driven to a frenzy by Mageddon’s presence. Super-heroes pooled all their resource together to bring this Word War Three under control. Their resources included the Atlantean military and a host of angels.

Meanwhile, Aztek learned to use his helmet to function whilst blind and attacked Mageddon again. Allying with Superman, Aztek sacrificed himself to detonate his helmet within Mageddon. Only this explosion made it possible for the Man of Steel to prevail.

Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas

Vanity is a city in Oregon. It has a large but run-down downtown area. Vanity has a deserved reputation as a very bad place. It is famous for its squalor, its violence and the highest suicide rate in teens throughout the United States by far, at five times normal.

The hostility of Vanity goes beyond the mundane. The architecture is grey, warped, sprawling, monolithic and extremely dense, with most buildings having odd features. Thus it is not merely completely run down and forsaken, as is Hub City, or twisted and oppressive, like many places in Gotham. Vanity sometimes seems evil, hateful and malicious. It breeds depression and hopelessness.

The neighbourhood names all seem derived from convicted Anglo-Saxon murderers (though this is difficult to realize for a casual observer ; for instance the area of Chapman seems to refer to either Victorian poisoner George Chapman or to Mark Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon). Several spots, such as Urthona Tower, derive their names from near-forgotten sinister, alien comic book villains (though Urthona himself derives from the poetry of William Blake ).

It is impossible to develop an Area Knowledge of Vanity. The place keeps somehow changing with buildings constantly being torn down, built or modified. Even longtime residents will occasionally get lost.

The role of Vanity in corrupting enthusiasm and imagination definitely seems supernatural. For instance, the imagination-powered emerald constructs of Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) were more fragile and prone to unravelling in Vanity. Rayner himself seemed more attracted toward killing than he ever would normally be.

The writers described the city thus: “Everybody always says that a town is worse than Gotham, but it never really is, there are just more back alley muggings. In our plan Vanity is actually much worse, and the evil is built into the city’s architecture. Every priest is a pervert, and there’s a monster in every family. The city was built by [Clarence] Vane, who was a worshiper of the dark, and he wanted to create hell on earth.”

Description

See illustrations.

Personality

Uno is a genuine hero, so good you’d think it’s the Silver Age all over again. He’s innocent, incredibly virtuous, and brilliant. He’s utterly dedicated to helping and protecting people, no matter what the personal cost. He knows endless secret techniques and is highly trained.

He exhibits a strong professionalism as a hero. When his relative inexperience leads him to make small mistakes, he will meditate about it all night long not to repeat them. He’s very nice, mild-mannered and responsible. Well, you get the idea.

Code against killing

He’s very demanding toward himself, considers any death or maiming in his vicinity to be his fault, and generally tries to avoid unnecessary violence. He has been taught to respect all life and only kill as an absolute last resort.

In fact, he was quite willing to give what little money he had to thugs when they pointed out they were only mugging a passerby because they had no money. This struck him as the most rational and effective course of action, even though that would make his everyday life difficult. The thugs, not believing somebody could be that good, maced him instead.

Aztek knows that the little things help. Thus, he actually spends time rescuing kittens from trees. At one point, he spent several hours tracking down an old lady’s pet lizard. Morrison likened him to the “Doogie Howser, M.D. , of the super hero community […], the class nerd of superheroes”.

He’s nice and caring, and always has a nice word or an acknowledgment for other people. Initially, Uno was disoriented by being in a modern town full of people – especially with the tension and fear in Vanity. But he had extensively studied the modern world and his intelligence and resolve allowed him to adapt in record time.

In fact, by issue #2 he already seemed more competent and on the ball than Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner — which, granted, may not be that great a benchmark). Still, in complex interpersonal situations such as flirting, he can be as clueless as his Innocent Drawback implies.

Policy of truth

Uno simply does not lie, and will always state the plain truth even if that is catastrophic? For instance, he *will* explain where he comes from when asked. He *will* say he was raised by warrior monks in the Andes. Of course, most people hearing such weirdness will assume this is a weird joke and change the subject.

Aztek stated that he wanted to return to his people and devote his life to meditation and learning once his mission had been accomplished. While he never was able to, this illustrates his Responsibility for Power Motivation. But admittedly, it would be easy to conclude he’s an Upholding the Good person due to his evidently strong moral code.

Quotes

“I don’t want anything from you. I’m asking you to stop beating that man and I’m hoping you don’t intend to make an issue of it. It would be stupid to start a fight…”

“Don’t move. I can help you.”

“Uh, well, Falconer isn’t really such an unusual name, Nurse Page. There’s 41 of us in the current telephone directory.”

“Good. Well, now that we’ve passed the predictable fight superheroes are obliged to have when they first meet and established the fact that I’m not a villain, maybe we can get down to business here.”

“No. Something’s wrong. This Mindy Falconer doesn’t sound like any hostage I’ve ever studied. Let’s just listen for a minute.”

“You people look smart enough to realize you don’t stand a chance here. Spare yourselves six months physio and surrender while you can.”

“I failed again. I handled the hostage situation carelessly and someone died. I should have been more alert, more aware.”

“I’m not trying to look cool. All I wanted to do was help this man before you injured him.”

(As bystanders just discuss among themselves instead of running from the battle) “Thank you. I’m fine. Now stand back or you might get hurt. This isn’t supposed to be entertainment.”

“That was so strange. I’ve never been encased in ice before…”

“Batman ? I’m using my helmet radio ! Can you hear me ? ‘Way over your head‘, [the Joker] said. [The viral bomb is in] the blimp !”

“To be honest, the kidnappers weren’t psychopaths. These children were never in any real danger. I wouldn’t want what I did here to be blown out of all proportion.”

“Speed’s what counts. Speed and skill. All the power in the world doesn’t make a difference if you can’t land a punch.”

“This isn’t a test, Julia. Go find Ivo and get him as far away from this lunatic as you can ; behind the lead shields in x-ray would probably be safest.”

“I’m a doctor. I might have been able to save him.”

“Martian biology isn’t exactly my area of expertise, but it looks to me like his adaptive system is frozen and he’s lost control of his molecular structure. His body simply shut itself down.”

“I’ve penetrated the dark god’s boiling cosmic shroud… surprised my suit could adapt for space travel… through raging thoughtstorms taller than continents… flying deep into labyrinthine mechanisms. Its brain is like a city, a world in flames… It cannot be argued with. It cannot be threatened. It will simply exterminate us. All of us. I saw one of its thoughts and was blinded in an instant. It’s rising from beneath our solar system. All my life, the Q Foundation trained me for this, to face the dark god, Tezcatlipoca. And I failed.”

“I am in the heart of the shadow-god of my people, Tezcatlipoca — and he’s just an old computer. Just a machine. But for a long time we have had a weapon designed to stop him. This weapon is called ‘Aztek’. Tell them I did my duty.” (Detonates his uniform.)

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Aztek series and JLA (DC Universe).

Helper(s): Roy Cowan, Gareth Lewis — and Alan Kistler’s article for Fanzing (defunct). One of the illos was detoured at rapsheet.co.uk .