Issue Description

Batman comes to Vanity...hot on the trail of the Joker. And the trap the Dark Knight encounters there may prove to be his death and that of Vanity's resident hero, Aztek.

Fixit, the technologist to super-villains, is approached by a villain named Heatsnap. Heatsnap is after a gun that can shoot both hot and cold, but his(?) purchase is interrupted by Aztek and Batman. The duo discovered that Fixit supplied the Joker with his mind-control crickets last issue, and are now here to shut him down. They fight Heatsnap, and defeat him(?) and Fixit. Batman discovers a lead on the Joker, but also discovers that Heatsnap was once the villains Coldsnap and Heatstroke. Lovers that could not touch, they underwent an experimental procedure that accidentally merged them into one being.

Finding a children’s book that Joker left behind, Batman and Joker continue their search for the Joker’s next step of his plan. All the while, Batman investigates more about Aztek. He finds out from Alfred that his father, Thomas Wayne, had been approached by the Q Foundation. He also finds out that Clarence Vale, founder of Vanity, created the city modeled after some occult architecture. As he hangs up with Alfred, Batman discovers that he has lost control of the Batmobile.

Aztek checks in on Vanity City P.D. Chief Perrier, who is under the influence of one of Joker’s crickets. Aztek finds out that the Joker’s master plan involves a blimp over Vanity, which holds his Joker Serum and will spew it all over the city in 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Batman finds out that a Joker electronic virus is infiltrating the various systems all over Vanity City.

Batman uses the Batmobile’s computer systems to purge the electronic virus, while Aztek destroys the blimp before it can explode. At St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, the doctors have created an anti-virus to the Joker Serum. With the Joker’s plans thwarted, Aztek returns to St. Bartholomew’s, where he collapses in Julia Frostick’s office.

Aztek: The Ultimate Man (1996)

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

Aztek: The Ultimate Man was the brainchild of writers Mark Millar and Grant Morrison and artist N. Steven Harris. The ongoing series was designed to debut a new hero of the DC universe. The series followed the anti-hero Aztek; a hero whose big picture mission meant he took unusual solutions to solving the small problems. Aztek: The Ultimate Man featured an unusual city, unusual villains, and the supporting cast of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.
 
Throughout its run, Aztek: The Ultimate Man had counted Millar and Morrison as its writers, and Harris and Keith Champagne as its artists. Famous DC cover artist Steve Lightle lent his pen to the majority of covers of the series.
 
While Aztek: The Ultimate Man was a critical success (it was rated one of the top 10 books of 1996 by Wizard Magazine), it was not a commercial one, and Aztek: The Ultimate Man was cancelled after ten issues. With its cancellation imminent, Aztek creator Morrison brought Aztek into one of the other comics he penned at the time: JLA. The final issue of Aztek has the titular hero joining the Justice League.
 
Over the years, we would never go back to get a glimpse of Vanity City, and Aztek would eventually die at the end of Grant Morrison’s run on JLA, in issue #41. 
  Collections and Reprints The entire series is collected in the JLA Presents: Aztek: The Ultimate Man trade paperback (2008)

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