Customer Reviews

JLA Presents: Aztek - the Ultimate Man

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm not really going to review the book but I will say I thought the story was great and its a good prequel to Morrison's JLA. Also I really liked the art, it felt gritty, had a lot of movement and a great sense of pacing. After I ordered my copy I'll admit I was worried my book would arrive with issues missing but it came whole and I couldn't recommend it higher. If you're reading Morrison's JLA and want to know more about that guy Aztek who keeps showing up, get this. Oh yeah, the Joker makes a pretty awesome appearance as well.

First off, I don't actually own this book - I have the comics in their single issue format. If what the previous reviewer wrote is true (that 40 pages of the original 10-issue run of Aztek comics wasn't printed in this book), then I should have given this book only 1 star for being such a disappointing let-down. For those who don't know, this series (in addition to Morrison's work on Animal Man after the original Crisis on Infinite Earths) really put Grant Morrison on the map as a true inovator in the world of comic book literature. Although it's a shame DC waited over 10 years to reprint this awesome series, I was very pleased to see it's finally here. If you enjoyed the raw, dark, gritty style of DC comics from the early and mid-90's (ie the death of Superman, the crippling of Batman, Hal Jordan (as Green Lantern)'s psychological melt-down and killing spree upon his fellow Green Lantern Corps, etc.) then you will definately appreciate this book. If you enjoy Grant Morrison's intelligent and page-turning style, here's a look at some of his most creative and original material. Aztek is truly one of DC's best titles of all time, and it would be a real crime against their company's heritage and one of their most important authors to not reprint every page of this story - but it should also include the issue of JLA where Aztek sacrifices himself to save Earth shortly after this series ended.

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.

Created by superstar writers Mark Millar and Grant Morrison Aztek could have been a great comic but it came at the wrong time. A victim of the collapse of the comics industry in the late 90s it was cancelled after less than a year.

Reading it you can see there was a long-term plan. But the final issue ends with literally a dozen storylines unfinished. The hero joins the Justice League and is killed off soon after.

If Morrison or Millar were to ever return to Aztek I'd raise my rating but as it stands the reader is left frustrated.

Having greatly enjoyed almost everything Grant Morrison has put out lately, and Mark Millar's older DC stuff, I had high hopes for Aztek, hopes that it didn't live up to. Just for starters, there's a significant misprint. Almost 40 pages are missing with other pages printed twice. However, even excluding that, it reads less like Morrison at his most imaginative as Mark Millar at his very hackiest. Sounds harsh, I was expecting more. It's not terrible, it's just not very good, either and I don't think there could be anything so brilliant in those missing pages that it'd change my opinion. Pick up 7 Soldiers or Morrison's JLA instead.