I'm going to try and get through this one quick, largely because I've had little motivation to do it, because I really want to get to issues 6 & 7, the best of the run.
Also, I'm going to try and do less of a play-by-play, since that's boring for both me and the reader. I'm getting the hang of these issue-by-issue analyses.
Nurse Joy's kidnapper, The Lizard King, taunts Aztek via the phone, but Aztek very quickly traces him to his hideout, wherein the Lizard King engages in some very self-aware "villainous" dialogue (including repeated use of the word "deathtrap", as well as commentary on what an odd word it is to be saying). It's a very cleverly written (and long, about half the issue) scene; I suspect that this issue, like the next two, was largely Morrison's work. For one, like I've said in previous posts, his dialogue has a certain cadence to it in all his work that's pretty unmistakeable here. It's fairly clear from TLK's dialogue that he's fairly unstable; but, he does have plenty of interesting info for Aztek and the reader. Liek I said, before, pretty much nothing in this series goes to waste.
He reveals that he wants Aztek's mask - Aztek's mask, of course, contains the combined experiences & knowledge of all previous Azteks. His armor and it's 4-D power source may be the main source of his abilities, but it's his mask that ties him to his heritage & his mission. TLK wants it because he believes it's HIS holy mission to defeat the Shadow God, not an incompetent 19 year old. Given Aztek's performance in most battles thus far, it's hard to blame him. Aztek reveals his deathtrap to be a sham, with Nurse Joy not being around, and they battle.
TLK's exposition here, reveals important info about the Q foundation - their history, and their mission to defeat the Shadow God (Tetzcatlipoca - it's interesting to note, by the way, that Morrison made a lot of references to these two gods warring around this same time in the Invisibles. More hints that this is a very Morrison issue) using Quetzalcoatl's mask, we already knew. TLK was Aztek's father's "second"; the guy that was going to take over should he screw up, basically. They had identified Vanity as the town the Shadow God would return to; but Aztek's dad fell in love with a woman and was apparently deemed unfit to continue the mission. TLK, for refusing to kill him, was "psychically maimed". This is the first indication that the Q Foundation is inherently corrupt and untrustworthy, which Morrison & Millar will come back to in a few issues but only really gets followed through on in JLA a few months after this title is cancelled.
By the way, all of the above info is shown to Aztek by having him look through TLK's little eyeball/tuning fork thingy, which he refers to as a "spying glass". This seems like a very "fairy tale" kind of name for it, which is another theme Morrison liked to play with - using fairy tales & children's toys/stories as items of power. Another standard Morrison theme being used here is the idea of doubling - all of the Azteks have a second, someone else going through there training and waiting in the wings for them. On top of that doubling, we have, as the villain of this issue, Aztek's double, another Q product with the same mission. Very, very Morrison.
TLK again assaults & taunts Aztek, who warns him of the dangers of wearing the helmet without training... as TLK continues to beat Aztek & scream about how untrustworthy the Q Foundation is, his head essentially explodes & his body burns out. Aztek explains that the helmet, containing combined memories & experiences of 100's of warriors, requires that the user have a post-hypnotic puzzle in his mind (the reward for completing the last ordeal of training) to keep the mind in the mask occupied, lest this happen.
We cut back to the hospital where a wounded Aztek shows up with what remains of Nurse Joy. She's been through the same process TLK put his victims through last issue, sucking out the "goodness" from them, leaving a shriveled husk. Nurse Joy now appears to be a tiny, pink little gremlin. This is really the only thing in the series that doesn't quite work, as it just looks kind of goofy on paper.
We finally end the issue with a quick flash to Lawrence Rodman, a seemingly ordinary, middle america guy leaving for work, who slaps a fly dead on his way out and all of a sudden starts grinning maniacally and weeping. It's actually a very, very effective, creepy, and unsettling scene, which screams Morrison, since it reads like it could have come straight out of his Doom Patrol run. This seems to be setting up for the Joker/Batman two-parter, but in fact doesn;t end up having anything to do with that. This is actually a plot that gets dropped once the book gets cancelled, but this guy is Aztek's long-lost brother (we discover this in issue 10, but it doesn't really matter - maybe more doubling, though?).
The next two issues are the really fun ones, and especially relevant since Morrison's just finished a big Batman/Joker story.
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