The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1441: Aztec Ace #13, May 1985

I have actually managed to find the final issue of the series, so I'm rapidly approaching the end. Things are a bit strange, though that's not saying a lot in the context of this series. It's a very strange series. But it may also be one of my favourite series I've read. There's so much here that prefigures a lot of the Morrison stuff I glommed onto in the 90s, mixed with a nice dash of pulp adventure. I feel like Ace's adventures in time would be somewhat similar to the adventures of the 20s Invisibles in Morrison's epic.

Today's issue was a lovely metatext, both a love letter and a deconstruction of superheroes. This is a little while before Watchmen, and manages to both demonstrate the problems with the superhero, a la Watchmen, but also manages to show why they're such beloved characters: they offer us a site of belief. That's really all it is. Superheroes replace the more flawed religious constructions upon which our culture is built, refining away the bad ideas (I don't know too many hateful superheroes), and keeping the good stuff.

Many say that it's time that humanity outgrew the numerous faith traditions we've clung to for millennia, but we still need something to believe in. I think that's something very human. So why not superheroes, a myth that we ourselves can contribute to?

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1422: Aztec Ace #1, March 1984

I've set myself something of a clock in reading this issue today. Aztec Ace runs 15 issues, and I was fortunate enough to nab the first fourteen for very, very cheap one fine day. I have, of course, since been unable to find the 15th issue at any of the comic shops in Calgary. And if I keep reading the series, I've 14 days to find it.

*sigh*

Though, really, of all the stressors in my life, that's the most pleasant one.

Another thought that occurs is that the cover date for this comic is  when I turned 10 years old.

I like this comic a lot. It reminds me of Grant Morrison, in the weird trippy multiple time lines and non-linear understandings of reality, and comes from a writer (Doug Moench) whose work I've always found to be really solid. I'm excited to see a series in which he's given free reign over the story he's telling. And to be telling that story using an Indigenous South American man as the focal character is pretty great. Regardless of whether or not I manage to find the final issue, I think I'm going to enjoy this story.

More to come...(really, this time.)