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 1285: Vortex #9, May 1984

Ty Templeton's "Killing Dragons" has an excellent denouement, which I won't spoil here just in case anyone ever wants to go out and track this issue down. It's a thoroughly satisfying ending to a story.

The other standout for today is Dan Day and Jim Waley's "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust," a grim tale that very nicely encapsulates what it was like to live in the last years of the Cold War. I try to explain to people younger than me that the rhetoric of the day was that we'd all likely die within the decade from a nuclear war. As the 80s grew old, the possibility of it loomed less direly, but it was still there. That was a dark decade, which is perhaps why it's having a bit of a renaissance these days.

No more Vortex, unfortunately, but a couple of other comics from the publisher. More to come...