Actually Essential Storylines: Zatanna

Above: James Jean’s rejected cover for Green Arrow #52, swiped from JamesJean.com

Man was I happy to read Mark Waid and Brian Bolland’s two-page origin story of Zatanna in the latest issue of 52. And not just because interior sequential art by Bolland is so damn gorgeous and so damn rare (this story is even colored by Bolland…the last few times I’ve seen his interior work, it’s been in black and white collections of Judge Dredd), but because I was so spent from writing that last “Actually Essential Storylines” on Martian Manhunter I was dreading a repeat. Seriously, not only have I not yet recovered from the long box spelunking, but neither has my apartment…there are issues of Justice League comics and Martian Manthunter covering every available surface in my living room. (On the plus side, I did re-read much of Ostrander and Mandrake’s monthly, and it was even better than I remembered).

Well, DC did an outstanding job on the “Essential Storylines” portion of the origin (I’m going to ignore the Identity Crisis panel in the story itself, which seems to blame Zatanna for the whole thing; that argument can be made, but she did have the whole Justice League there telling her what to do too). It’s pretty much perfect, recommending important highlights from Zatanna’s fictional history, from her first appearance to her latest miniseries, all of which are easy to find in trade format and none of which contradict one another, as was the case in the Martian Manhunter suggestions. I’m only going to steam ahead with a piece on Zatanna to add to what DC has offered; obviously, my intent with these pieces is to not only bitch about the inadequacies of their suggestions (although it is fun, but to give readers a way too over-detailed roadmap into following the character.

Okay, here’s what DC suggests…

JLA: ZATANNA’S SEARCH: This fairly recent collection compiled the first appearances of Zatanna during her search for her long-lost father Zatara, a Golden Age stage magician who fought crime in a top hat and a tux, speaking his spells backwards (a neat trick that could only really be shown so effectively in comics). Her search consisted of guest appearances in several DC titles of the time, some with questionable relevance (like the appearance in Detective Comics), but the end result is the JLA following her into another dimension to take on that crazy red-skinned wizard guy (who recently reappeared in JSA, crashing the JLA/JSA Thanksgiving dinner) and rescue her dad. The story, by Gardner Fox, is only so-so by today’s standards, but there’s plenty of great art from the likes of Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson, Mike Sekowsky and Carmine Infantino. The trade’s almost worth owning just for the cover (I borrowed it from the library), also by Bolland. That’s it at the top of this post; note how different his Z. looks there as opposed to in the 52 back-up, despite the fact it’s the same character in the same costume. Bolland manages to filter her hairstyle and attitude from the time through his own style (he does the same thing with Green Lantern on that cover) and the result is simply amazing. This story would eventually lead to Z. joining the JLA, trading in her stage costume for more standard (and even sillier looking) superhero clothes. For some reason, that included wearing a limbless lobster in the middle of her head.

SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA: Last year, Grant Morrison banded together with nine different artists to launch an incredibly ambitious epic storyline about a superteam who would never meet, but who’s members’ independent actions would effect one another from across a series of miniseries to defeat an incredible threat and save the world.
I’m still a little in awe of the entire endeavor as an experiment in comic book storytelling, but, ultimately, I think it was a failure, one that was hampered by several factors, some of which were beyond Morrison’s control (the incredible delay before the series wrapped up in Seven Soldiers #1, Infinite Crisis and it’s many tie-ins making use of the Seven Soldiers characters before the story wrapped up and muddying the narrative, and DC’s questionable decision to collect it into trade—quite simply, this was a story constructed in such a way that it must be read in individual issues to fully appreciate).

One thing that was in his control, however, was the characters he chose, and, in hindsight, Zatanna was a poor choice (given how much the rest of DC’s writers used her at about the same time), as was Mr. Miracle, whose inclusion confused a whole corner of the company’s characters.

On the other hand, Morrison and Zatanna artist Ryan Sook reinvented the character in spectacular fashion during their four-issue miniseries, which wrapped up in the aforementioned SS #1. Their Zatanna is a rather unhappy, world-weary stage magician/superhero, one who eventually gets to the point where she can’t work real magic anymore. Into her life comes a new apprentice, Misty, with a magical device that allows Z. to work magic through her, and the pair go off on a crazy adventure involving an undead wizard, a Pegasus and evil fairies from the depths of human past and future.

Sook gives Z.’s wardrobe a much needed overhaul, although she still tends to wear a top hat, tails and fishnets; she just compliments them with a variety of different lingerie, corsets and vests of various hews. Unlike Superman, she doesn’t wear the same clothes every single day of her life.

Much of the miniseries won’t make a whole lot of sense all on it’s own, but DC makes it hard to read it on its own anyway. Rather than collecting Zatanna into a trade of it’s own, the issues are divided up into the various Seven Soldiers trades.

IDENTITY CRISIS: Perhaps DC’s most controversial story to date, this Brad Meltzer-written murder mystery is six-sevenths of a compelling (if rather repulsive) whodunnit, one that completely falls apart at the end, in the process leaving plenty of plot threads for the rest of DC’s writers to try and make sense of for about a year, leading up to Infinite Crisis. Where does Zatanna come in? According to this story, way back during the “Satellite Era” of the League, during the time Zatanna was a member, Dr. Light raped The Elongated Man’s wife Sue Dibny, and several Leaguers arrived in time to beat the hell out of Light. When he promised to do the same again to Sue and all of their loved ones, they decided to intervene magically, having Zatanna alter his personality (This was an extension of a trick she’d done before, making supervillains forget their secret identities).

It comes down to a vote by the so-called Power Pact—Black Canary, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Flash Barry Allen, Green Arrow Oliver Queen, Hawkman and the Atom Ray Palmer, plus Z.—and they end up giving Light the magical equivalent of a lobotomy. When Batman tries to stop them, they erase his memory of the event. And, as is revealed later, they also magically block their own minds from Martian Manhunter’s telepathy.

While Z.’s place in that particular storyline is little more than a plot device (if she was written half as smart as she was powerful, she would have wiped the rest of the Pact’s memories of the event, and then wiped her own), it made her into a plot device plenty of other writers played with at the time, and throughout the year that followed, all of her appearances revolved around magical mind alteration.

In The Flash story arc “The Secret of Barry Allen,” Geoff Johns revisits the era to reveal that Zatanna and the Power Pact tried another tack with mindwipes, turning the villainous Top into a hero for a time. Zatanna appeared in other Identity Crisis fall-out issues in the pages of Green Arrow, Batman, Catwoman, Adventures of Superman and JLA. None of these are terribly essential to Zatanna, and, in fact, she tends to have little to do in the stories, but they’re worth remembering if only because of how despicable they make the actions of Zatanna and the Power Pact seem. I still have a hard time seeing a lot of these characters—particularly Hawkman, Black Canary, Zatanna and Green Lantern—as “heroes” after the cumulative effect of all these logic straining, morality-free stories.

And here’s what they missed…

ZATANNA IN VERTIGO: Like a lot of DC’s mystical characters, Zatanna is one of their stable who straddles the line between DC’s supposedly all-ages DCU line and their mature readers Vertigo line, appearing in books published by both.

Probably the best Zatanna story of them all is the one contained in Vertigo prestige format one-shot Zatanna: Everyday Magic, written by self-avowed Zatanna fan Paul Dini, drawn by Rick Mays and featuring another cover by Brian Bolland (again, note how he gives Z. a completely different look here). It’s a pretty lighthearted tale of a real magician who dabbles in stage magic and gets lonely (and in trouble) on the road. Z.’s former lover John Constantine makes an appearance, perhaps necessitating this being a Vertigo story rather than a DCU story, as it’s certainly less violent and sexual than, say, Identity Crisis.

Z. also appeared in the New Year’s Eve party described in millennial “V2K” special Totems, a one-shot story by Tom Peyer and Duncan Fegredo which posits a superteam made up of Vertigo stars like Animal Man and Swamp Thing. Other Vertigo appearances include Neil Gaiman’s original Books of Magic miniseries (her dad appears as well), Swamp Thing: A Murder of Crows (again, alongside her dad), Hellblazer, the ongoing Books of Magic series and the short-lived alternate dimension Books series, Books of Magick: Life During War Time (in which her extradimensional doppelganger is blonde and close friends with Tim Hunter).

JUSTICE LEAGUER: Zatanna’s time on the Justice League fell during the Satellite Era, which, along with the JLI era, is perhaps the era least represented in DC’s trade paperback program (odd, considering that these are the two eras most commonly referenced in current DC stories). In addition to Zatanna’s Search, the just-released The Justice League of America Hereby Elects… features Zatanna’s induction into the League (dig that horrible costume). Adventures set during this period and featuring Zatanna were also told in JLA: Incarnations.

After serving during the Satellite Era and the short-lived Detroit Era, Z. quit the League (according to this week’s origin, because of guilt over the mindwipes), but she has occasionally appeared in JLA adventures as a magical advisor of some sort. During fifth week event Justice Leagues, in which Justice Leaguers are forced to forget what the “A” in JLA stands for and form their own super-teams, Z. appears in Wonder Woman’s Justice League of Amazons. She and the other Sentinels of Magic appear in lame-ass miniseires about a demonic mafia in JLA: Black Baptism. During the epic “The Obsidian Age” storyline in JLA, Nightwing’s League enlists Zatanna’s help in trying to locate the time-lost (and presumed dead) Justice League. She’s fairly prominently featured in Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s historic JLA/Avengers crossover, which heavily contrasts her with Marvel’s mutant mage, the Scarlet Witch. When Earth is in crisis, Zatanna usually makes the scene at some point, as was certainly the case in The War of the Gods, The Final Night, Day of Judgement and Day of Vengeance Infinite Crisis Special.

SENTINEL OF MAGIC: The Sentinels of Magic is the unofficial name assigned to the loosely organized group of DC magic heroes that would occasionally align themselves against massive supernatural threats, though the exact line-up would shift from appearance to appearance, and it was never officially used as the title of any book, save an Elseworlds tale. The Sentinels of Magic were essentially the precursors to the team starring in Shadowpact, though they were the DCU’s A-List magical heroes, rather than the B- and D-Listers that make up Shadowpact (and not without good reason, as having Dr. Fate, the Spectre, Zatanna and Phantom Stranger on a team together can make it hard to come up with realistic threats that could worry them).

It was Alan Moore who first popularized the idea of an alliance of DC’s magicians in Swamp Thing. John Constantine checked in with the DCU’s various magical players, eventually rallying Swamp Thing, the Spectre, the Phantom Stranger, Sargon the Sorcerer, Etrigan, Deadman, Dr. Fate, Dr. Occult, Baron Winter and Zataa and Zatanna into a two-pronged assault on the primordial shadow of creation; it’s a battle that costs Zatara his life, in a rather spectacular and gruesome fashion. It’s collected in Swamp Thing Vol. 4: A Murder of Crows and, like the rest of Moore’s Swampy run, it’s the very definition of an essential DC storyline.

Neil Gaiman next played with the concept in his original Books of Magic miniseries, in which “The Trenchcoat Brigade” of the Phantom Stranger, Mister E, Dr. Occult and Constantine unite to walk young Timothy Hunter through the history of magic in the DCU. While the Zataras appear here, they’re not the focus of the story by any means.

The Sentinels would become a more or less formal group during the “Underworld Unleashed” crossover, in the laboriously titled special Underworld Unleashed: The Abyss—Hell’s Sentinel by Scott Peterson, Phil Jimenez, J. H. Williams the III, John Stokes and Mick Gray (now that’s an art team!). The Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott, de-aged and going by the name “Sentinel,” must journey to hell to save the soul of his wife Molly, who sold it to Neron in exchange for her youth. Sentinel finds allies in Zatanna, the Phantom Stranger, Jason Blood, Fate (not a doctor at the time) and Deadman, and together they storm Hell. Things go badly for them, but the makeshift super-team had the makings of a great concept, with Scott playing a superhero ill-at-ease in a world of magicians and monsters, providing a nice bridge between the Vertigo-esque world of the horror characters and the superhero world of DC’s more mainstream characters like Zatanna and Fate. And let me say that bit about the artists again—it was penciled by Phil Jimenez and J. H. Williams III. Wow. If I were in charge of DC in 1995, I would have given Peterson and Jimenez the green light for a Sentinels of Magic monthly as soon as I got done reading that, but I wasn’t, so no dice.

They would also appear in the pages of the Ostrander and Mandrake Spectre series, as they lined up to oppose the spirit of vengeance, who was contemplating destroying all of mankind at once, and in the same creative team’s Martian Manhunter, uniting against Etrigan the Demon. They made a splashy entrance in Day of Judgment, which saw Blue Devil joining their ranks, and they starred in the lead story from Day of Judgement Secret Files and Origins #1, during which the Sentinels hid the Spear of Destiny, the only weapon that can hurt the Spectre, in the sun (And apparently forgot about it, because otherwise Day of Vengeance shouldn’t have gone so badly for the good guys). Finally, during Infinite Crisis, the universe’s magicians all gathered together at Stonehenge for, um, no real reason and in the Day of Vengeance Infinite Crisis Special #1, they lead a veritable army of magical characters into Gotham City to rebuild the Rock of Destiny.

OTHER UNIVERSES: In the Alex Ross-iverse, Zatanna serves with the Justice League, but she wears her pre- and post-League outfit of top hat and fishnets. She appears in JLA: Liberty and Justice and the ongoing Justice maxiseries.

Darwyn Cooke has Zatanna and a few other magical characters discussing whether or not they should intervene in the conflict in DC: The New Fronteir, and he draws a nice Zatanna pin-up in his issue of Solo, the fifth of the sadly cancelled series.

Z.’s among the female heroes who step up as the new, all-female Justice League in weird Elseworlds series JLA: Created Equal.

She’s also a member in good standing of the Justice League in the Johnny DC line’s Justice League Unlimited comic (along with, like, every single other DC superhero). Of those I’ve read, #1 and #14 both feature Z. rather prominently.

OTHER MEDIA: Zatanna was one of the few DC superheroes from outside the Gotham City limits to appear in Batman: The Animated Series. In an episode written by Dini (have you seen a pattern yet?), it’s revealed that one of the men young Bruce Wayne trained with during his time traveling the world to become Batman was Z’s father Zatara, who taught him the fine art of escaping. Flashing back and forth between the past and present, the potential for a romantic relationship emerges.

Later, in Justice League Unlimited, Zatanna would appear in perhaps the most light-hearted episode of the series, again written by Dini. In in, Circe turns Wonder Woman into a pig, and Batman must try to track her down and restore her to human form with the help of Zatanna (the climax is perhaps the creative zenith of the show).