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Derek's
Continuity Corner: "I Am Legion"
This episode
marks the first speaking role for one of the great strange
heroes from the mind of Grant Morrison: Aztek the Ultimate
Man.
Aztek
ran for ten issues in his own title, co-writtten by Morrison
and Mark Millar, with pencils by N. Steven Harris and inks
by JSA's current writer Keith Champagne. Sent to
a city called Vanity (in his first story, "A Town Called
Vanity") by a super-secret society, Aztek had been
raised and trained to be the ultimate weapon against an
ancient world-destroying enemy, assumed to be from Aztec
mythology.
In his
first adventure, Aztek got caught between a grim and gritty
"hero" named Bloodtype and an unwilling villain
named The Piper. Though both characters died in their struggle
involving the Vanity mob, Piper gave Aztek the right to
use his secret identity: Dr. Curt Falconer. Luckily, among
the strangely armored hero's many abilities was the gift
of medicinal knowledge.
It was
a bizarre series, as readers of Morrison's more popular
JLA should have expected. At the end of the run,
it turned out that Aztek's masters were in league with Lex
Luthor, who bought Aztek a membership in the Justice League.
That plot thread lay low for a while, until Morrison's final
arc on JLA in which it turned out that the world-devouring
menace was the same thing that this incarnation of the Justice
League had been formed to fight. The entire world's population
became super-powered and defeated it, but not before Aztek
got blinded, burned and was left floating in space.
He died
a hero full of wasted potential. Thanks to the JLU
guys, though, he's getting another shot -- and an action
figure.
The
Brazilian heroine Fire comes from the Keith Giffen-J.M.
DeMatteis-Kevin Maguire era Justice League recently revived
as Formerly Known as the Justice League and its
sequel, I Can't Believe It's Not Justice League.
Beatriz Da Costa was a fashion model with the power to burst
into green flame, recruited by Maxwell Lord to join "his"
League. There she bonded with Ice, a Nordic ice goddess
naively walking among men.
When
Ice was killed, a former supervillain with the same powers
assumed her identity and heroism, but the relationship was
not the same. The second Ice developed a crush on Fire,
and she couldn't handle it. (Hawkgirl alludes to this in
"I Am Legion" by taunting Flash that Fire and
Ice are ...you know...)
Recently,
Fire has been dating Booster Gold, and they and the surviving
members of their League have taken a major role in The
O.M.A.C. Project as they seek justice for the murder
of Blue Beetle.
Finally,
the little item that Grodd sends Lex Luthor after on Blackhawk
Island gets used as a macguffin, but in comics it's pretty
dangerous: the Spear of Destiny. Hitler believed that whoever
held it could control the world, and in the DC Universe,
it came close.
DC needed
a plausible explanation for why the JSA didn't just head
over to Europe and kick all the Nazis back to Berlin. The
Spear of Destiny is why. Because of its influence, any hero
with magical powers would turn to the side of the Nazis
if he ventured into European territory. This knocked Green
Lantern, Dr. Fate, Hawkman (because of his being reincarnated)
and The Spectre out of the war effort. Pre-Crisis, this
also kept Superman out, as he is vulnerable to magic.
The
Spear of Destiny reappeared in modern continuity in the
pages of John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake's brilliant Spectre
revival -- where the Spirit of Vengeance got ahold of it
and nearly brought about the Apocalypse.
It's
also the artifact that gets the plot of Constantine
rolling -- but that's another story and a different rant.
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