Tezcatlipoca (DC)
Tezcatlipoca is a male comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Tezcatlipoca
Then then struck Circe down by making her witness her own reflection in the Smoky Mirror where she appeared old and decrepit. In anger, she sought to dispel the reflection but was drawn into the mirror and lost. It was then that Tezcatlipoca transformed from his jaguar form and took on a human guise as he revealed his true nature to Wonder Woman. (Wonder Woman v1 #314)
In modern years, Quetzalcoatl manipulated the U.S. Government and its intervention in the affairs of the Central American country Tropidor. Lt. Keith Griggs of Air Force Intelligence was sent to investigate possible illegal arms sales from U.S. intelligence officers to Tropidor militants when he crash landed in Circe's hidden jungle lair. Wonder Woman's alter ego, Lt. Diana Prince, was sent to investigate, and waged battle with Circe to free Griggs and the other men enslaved in animal form.
When Circe called upon her unseen lover for aid, a powerful bolt of lightning came down from the sky. Wonder Woman used both her bracelets to deflect the lightning, but they were fused together. As she had just had her bracelets bound by a man, she was rendered powerless until she persuaded Griggs, trapped in the form of a ram/man hybrid, to charge her and use the force of his collision to break the bracelets apart. Wonder Woman deflected more lightning bolts, unwittingly sending the fiery bolts to burn down Circe's patch of immortality-granting herbs. Tezcatlipoca then imprisoned Circe in his obsidian mirror, turned Wonder Woman into a powerless Diana Prince, and revealed himself.
In the ensuing adventure, Wonder Woman discovered a hitherto lost tribe of Amazons under Tezcatlipoca's spell and freed them by releasing an eagle, the symbol of Amazon strength, from a mystical cage. Taunted by the trickster god in a hall of mirrors with various versions of herself, Wonder Woman reclaimed her confidence, smashed his mirror, and reemerged with her powers reclaimed. She sent Tezcatlipoca away by smashing a figurine of the god fused with a man, thus freeing his human host and banishing him to his godly realm, though not before he reminded her that he had already sown the seeds of madness in Tropidor.
When Lt. Griggs and fellow officer Lt. Lauren Haley were sent again to Tropidor a year later, Wonder Woman followed them and rescued them from Tezcatlipoca's clutches, after triumphantly breaking a time loop in which the mad god repeatedly slew Griggs.
Modern
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Tezcatlipoca the shadow-god was an Aztec deity worshipped in ancient times and was a sworn enemy of the god of light Quetzacoatl. It was prophecised that he would emerge on the Earth and bring about an end of days leading to the formation of the Brotherhood of Quetzacoatl who trained champions to oppose the shadow-god's coming. (Aztek: The Ultimate Man v1 #5)
During Underworld Unleashed, the demon lord Neron operated on Earth where he began to offer people their deepest wishes so that he could lay claim to their souls. Among them was a crime lord named Chama Sierra where he offered the man real power and to be made akin to a god. Chama accepted and was given the power to turn into a were-jaguar similar to the jaguar-god and he began to operate under the name of Tezcatlipoca as he believed he was the god made manifest on the Earth. (Green Arrow v2 #102)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Tezcatlipoca was a member of the race of Sky Lords that were a pantheon of gods that were worshipped by the ancient Aztec people. Among these deities who was his twin counterpart Quetzalcoatl with the two long waging a conflict with one another. To defeat the shadow god, Quetzalcoatl established a lineage of heroes that took the name Aztek in order to stop his ancient foe. According to Tezcatlipoca, every Aztek that had ever fought him had died alone. (Wonder Woman v5 #53) At some point, the Amazon Atalanta alongside her Bana warriors came upon the temple of the shadow god in Mexico. They found humans worshipping the coloniser god and sought to oppose his war pilgrims. Years later, Atalanta came to learn that Tezcatlipoca was set to invade the Earth where she journeyed into his temple and battled for years in keeping his forces at bay. In time, Tezcatlipoca was responsible for toppling his fellow Sky Lords and taking control of the Thirteen Heavens where he was ready to unleash his armies against Earth. (Wonder Woman v5 #53) The former Aztek known as Uno had sacrificed himself to kill the shadow god with his armour later being found by Nayeli Constant who became the new champion of Quetzalcoatl. During this time, she came to hear the warnings from former champions from the helmet that told her that Tezcatlipoca had not been vanquished and was moving to impact the mortal world once again. Without the Q-Society to train her, Constant lacked the skill the stop the danger herself and sought out an ally to aid her with Nayeli approaching Wonder Woman for help. (Wonder Woman v5 #52) The heroes journeyed into the temple in Mexico where they battled the shadow gods armies and rescued Atalanta whereupon they confronted Tezcatlipoca himself. Despite their combined strength, the four warriors were unable to match the Smoked Mirror himself until they connected Artemis's Bow of Ra to Aztek's helmet to target his true form. Piercing it, Wonder Woman managed to capture the god in her Golden Lasso and severed him from his god power which was trapping his fellow Sky Lords. Thus, they were freed and decided to take Tezcatlipoca away for judgement. (Wonder Woman v5 #53)
Overview
Personality and attributes
It was said that he had many aspects thus giving him a wide variety of faces over the years. He was known as the Shadow God and the Smoked Mirror. (Wonder Woman v5 #52) To his Aztec worshippers, he was known as the Mad God, the Mocker, the Jaguar Lord and the Master of the Smoky Mirror. (Wonder Woman v1 #314) He was also known as the Jaguar-God by his worshippers. (Green Arrow v2 #102)
It was said that he was the creator and destroyer of all things. Tezcatlipoca said that discord and confusion were his delights with him enjoying the terror felt by mortals. (Wonder Woman v1 #314)
He considered himself a reflection of Quetzalcoatl with both of them being cast on a smoking mirror. According to him, each cycle the two gods swapped rolls between creator and destroyer. (Wonder Woman v5 #53)
Powers and abilities
Tezcatlipoca was one of the Sky Lords and one of the gods of the Thirteen Heavens who were said to be unlike the Olympian Gods or even the New Gods. Those deities were said to be singular and existing laterally across the Multiverse whereas the shadow god and his ilk were gods in Hypertime. Thus, time was not sequential and infinite to them but instead it was all part of one act to them. This meant that he was able to strike across time in a million ways that his enemies were not able to experience. To mortals, the shadow was shown as waging a series of battles against his enemies but from his perspective it was simply one offensive with him always engaged in conflict. As a god, his true form was hidden beneath inside extra-dimensional space where only certain attacks could pierce he veil of visible reality to strike at his true form. He was able to manifest as a giant whose incredible strength was able to overpower superhuman beings. Severing his connection to his higher form was able to weaken him though it was said that this heal in time with Tezcatlipoca eventually reconnecting to his source of power. (Wonder Woman v5 #53)
As a god, he had the ability to take on other forms such as a jaguar. (Wonder Woman v1 #314)
A relic tied to him was the Smoky Mirror where he was able to achieve a variety of feats through its mysteries. (Wonder Woman v1 #314)
Among his warriors were the Nagual that were known as the Hounds of Tezcatlipoca. These skull-faced mechanical beasts were covered in golden armour and could sprout wings where they formed the terror armies of their master the shadow god. (Wonder Woman v5 #52) The Quinametzin Liches were dead giants that had been killed and raised for disrespecting Tezcatlipoca. The Dread Phalanx were an army of warlike appendages that sought to murder their foes and moved with one mind under their masters command. (Wonder Woman v5 #53)
He called the Thirteen Heavens his home whereby its true aspect was hidden from normal perception as it adhered to technology whose rules lay outside earthly physics. It was constructed of Eighth Metal that earthly beings were not equipped to see in its true form. The stone was infused with meteoric dust from Urgrund that was the shattered world of the Old Gods. (Wonder Woman v5 #52)
Notes
- Tezcatlipoca was created by Dan Mishkin and Don Heck where he made his first appearance in Wonder Woman v1 #314 (April, 1984).
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- Wonder Woman v1: (1984)
- Wonder Woman v5: (2018)
External Links
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