El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie
The character made his first appearance in a xeroxed black-and-white preview comic titled Daze of the Dead: The Numero Uno Edition (February 1998).[1] The initial series of El Muerto was met with critical success and the character's popularity has led to several adaptations in other media[2] including a live-action award-winning independent film starring Wilmer Valderrama.[3][4][5][circular reference][6] El Muerto's beginnings occurred sometime in the early '90s and he was originally intended to be part of a group of Mexican-American superheroes, something along the lines of a "Latino JLA".Hernandez drew many of his influences from the original comics of his youth; particularly the works of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.At the same time, Hernandez brought along his newly printed newsletter "The Border" featuring any news on subsequent issues and short comic strips.Celebrating his twenty-first birthday on the Dia de Los Muertos, Diego tries to have as much fun as possible, despite the fact that Maria Hermosa, his girlfriend of eight months, has just broken up with him.Anticipating a local festival, Diego dons the guise of an undead mariachi, applies traditional facial markings to give himself a ghoulish look, and tattoos his left arm with a skull inspired by an Aztec temple.Being undead, El Muerto possesses extraordinary supernatural powers: he is nearly invulnerable, has a heightened pain threshold, rapid regenerative healing factor, super-strength, and superhuman agility.El Muerto was adapted into a 2007 live-action independent film starring Wilmer Valderrama as the eponymous character, Angie Cepeda as Diego's girlfriend Maria, and Joel David Moore as Zak.The film took a few liberties with El Muerto's origin story, adding scenes of a young orphaned Diego illegally crossing the United States-Mexico border and giving the hero additional powers of telepathy and a calming affect when in physical contact with another person.