First appearance: Aztek: The Ultimate Man #1 (August, 1996)
Appearance Of Death: JLA #41 (May, 2000)
History[]
There are legends and there are prophecies that found the very lives and actions of many people across the universe, some tell of last judgments, others of divine creators and yet others still of the second coming of gods long departed. One such group of legends that originated in the Mexican area tell of two gods Tezcatlipoca the shadow god and Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent. Whether these beings exists as true gods as we have seen in the DCU is unknown.
What is known is that sometime in the ancient to near-historic past two beings fought, one named Quetzalcoatl defeated the other allegedly darker force named Tezcatlipoca. In the aftermath of the battle Quetzalcoatl departed to parts unknown leaving behind his battle helmet and a prophecy that Tezcatlipoca would return to destroy the world and that a chosen champion prepared and ready would become the vessel for the return of Quetzalcoatl. With their battle concluded the followers of Quetzalcoatl strayed from the teaching and he destroyed his human vessel as a gesture to them. Since that day an organization has existed in order to prepare and train the next vessel for the feathered serpent god on the day of his return, they are the custodians of his original battle helmet and have built up an elaborate conspiracy of influential figures and business men across the world. They failed unsuccessfully to recruit the father of Bruce Wayne and have multi-billionaire businessman and criminal mastermind Lex Luthor as one of their principal U.S. contacts (Luthor albeit with his own agenda). They have been called many things, the Q Foundation, the Q Brotherhood, the Q-Society - they are all names each as meaningful or as meaningless as the next. They wait for the return of the ancient gods to an area of the American Pacific Northwest that is today home to the city of Vanity.
It could be said that all cities have a soul - Gotham's is dark and threatening and Metropolis' is welcoming and light, where as the city of Vanity's soul is depressive and hopeless. Constructed largely by Clarence Vane, its unique architecture is said to be based on several bizarre European art movements - the effect has been likened to "sick building syndrome" by some. What is known however is that Vanity eats people with a suicide rate that is five times the U.S. average. It was into this dark hole that the champions of the Q-Society are send to wait, they each have a back up equally trained and are closely monitored and supported by the Society's agents. The champions are bred and trained to be the perfect vessels for the returning entity. But they are not perfect.
The last champion, a man by the name of Emilio, arrived in Vanity some twenty years ago, but unfortunately fell in love with a woman. His backup was ordered to execute Emilio, but refused (he was then psychically maimed as punishment) and the Society killed Emilio themselves, hurriedly raising his son Uno to be his successor. Uno was raised to the peak of physical and mental perfection perhaps rivaling the Batman (minus the experience and sheer determination) and initiated into the Society to be the next champion and potential vessel for Quetzalcoatl. He started off an innocent in the dark city of Vanity. He helped stop a bank robbery by a has-been criminal called the Piper (in secret, Doctor Curt Falconer) who was being blackmailed by a criminal gang that held his daughter; the complication arose when the city's psychopathic hero Bloodtype arrived on the scene. Uno was forced to stop Bloodtype and indirectly blamed himself for the death of the violent hero. With Bloodtype gone, the media and citizens of Vanity looked for a new hero, a new protector and they chose the unwitting Uno, who the media dubbed Aztek due to his stylized helmet.
With the death of Falconer, Uno took up almost by accident the dead man’s identity as a doctor at the local hospital, but he started to arouse the suspicions of engaged couple Forbes Cleveden and Julia Frostick both doctors as the hospital. Over time, Julia would come to be closer to Uno and would come to trust him after she found out the truth about him, but she still remained loyal to Forbes, despite his weird acting as if nothing was ever wrong about the new Dr. Falconer (Forbes is an agent for the Q-Society). The new hero Aztek faced a shape-shifting hitman impersonating Major Force with the help of Green Lantern, worked alongside the Batman against the Joker and took down Doc Parasite by himself.
On a more personal level, he had to face the death of a potential girlfriend at the hands of the insane Lizard King (Emilio's old number two who believed that only he was the true champion) who was killed when he tried on the Helmet, only to have his mind scrambled. He has also faced the ex-partner of Bloodtype, the equally violent Death-Doll (once patriotic heroes Mr. America and Liberty Lass); she ended up accidentally impaled on Bloodtype's tombstone.
The new Curt Falconer tries to maintain his true course, but like his father, is secretly doubting the actions of the Q-Society. He has seen too much in the dark of Vanity, too much death that he blames himself for he knows that he is being manipulated groomed by the Q-Society and helped by the financial backing of LexCorp. Luthor is out to play Aztek, the Q-Society and anybody who gets in the way as instruments to destroy the Justice League. Stage one was to get him onto the team, an action that Aztek managed all by himself; he passed the tests, the initiation scans and managed to battle Amazo while the League were trapped in the Watchtower.
After finishing the JLA's testing procedure, Aztek was admitted in to the League shortly before the events of the Godwave Incident. He proved to be capable member and helped bring J’onn back from the dead during the rebellion of Asmodel in Heaven. However, he found his position as part of the JLA compromised by his relationship with Lex Luthor, particularly when Luthor put together an "Injustice Gang" in an attempt to stage a "corporate take-over" of the JLA. Aztek was to have been his man inside the League, but Curt refused to cooperate and resigned from the League at the end of the case. He was later blinded helping the League save the Earth in a battle against the planet-destroying machine Mageddon, which, apparently, was the 'Tezcatlipoca' that the cult was referring to all along. Finally, he sacrificed himself to try to stop the Warbringer and give Superman the chance to destroy Mageddon/Tezcatlipoca, during the World War III.
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