Zatanna
| Zatanna | |
|---|---|
| File:Zatanna-hughes.png Zatanna by Adam Hughes. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics/Vertigo |
| First appearance | Hawkman #4 (October-November, 1964) |
| Created by | Gardner Fox Murphy Anderson |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Zatanna Zatara |
| Team affiliations | Misty Kilgore, Seven Soldiers of Victory, Justice League, Sentinels of Magic |
| Abilities | Can use magic with commands spoken backwards. |
Zatanna Zatara is a fictional wizard and a superheroine in the DC universe. She is a longtime member of the Justice League. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman #4 (October-November 1964). Other supeheroes often refer to her as “Zee.”
Zatanna is the daughter of magician John Zatara (who appears in Golden Age comic books) and Sindella, a member of the mystical “Homo Magi” race.
Zatanna usually dresses in the garb of a female illusionist, with tuxedo jacket, white vest and gloves, top hat, leotard and fishnet stockings. She has inherited her family's ability to cast powerful spells. Like her father, Zatanna does this by describing the desired effect in backwards speech (e.g., sdrawkcab hceeps or hceeps sdrawkcab), similar to Rechtub klat, the backwards slang of Australian butchers.
Rarely a headlining character, Zatanna is a prominent consultant on paranormal matters for DC superheroes, and has been a longtime member of the Justice League. (Her immense power worries some Leaguers.) She has been featured in the animated series Justice League Unlimited and the flash animation series Gotham Girls.
Character biography
Origins
Zatanna made her living as a stage illusionist prior to discovering her magical abilities while investigating the disappearance of her father. Zatanna's search for her father was the subject of the first major comic book crossover in 1964, and in it, Zatanna interacts with Batman, Hawkman and Hawkwoman, and Green Lantern.
Justice League member
Zatanna assisted the Justice League of America on a number of cases before being elected to membership in Justice League of America #161. During her tenure with the group, her power level diminished briefly, so that she could only control the four elements of Empedocles (earth, air, fire, and water); this limitation was reversed in World's Finest Comics #277.
Come Together
In the 1993 limited series Zatanna: Come Together, Zatanna is worried about her lack of focus in using her magic. She decides that her father's style of magic is wrong for her, and explores her mother's mystical heritage.
Identity Crisis
The 2004 limited series Identity Crisis reveals that while Zatanna was a member of the Justice League, the villain Dr. Light brutally raped the Elongated Man's wife Sue Dibny and, when captured, went so far as to threaten the other JLA members' family members as well. The JLAers present voted to have Zatanna erase Light's memory of the rape as she had erased the memories of other villains in the past; however, it was also agreed that she should tamper with Light's mind so that he wouldn't pose a threat to their loved ones. Zatanna used her magic on Light, accidentally lowering his intellect as a result. In the midst of this spell, Batman appeared and tried to stop the group; consequently, Zatanna erased Batman's memories of the event as well.
Batman and Zatanna's relationship does not improve after he finds out about the alteration to his memory. When Zatanna helps Batman with reconnaisance at a Lazarus Pit, she asks him why he came to her. "I needed someone I can trust," Batman says. "I had to settle for you."
After departing from the team, Zatanna regains her full power and continues her stage career with the additional calling as a sentinel against mystical threats.
Catwoman
Zatanna's mind-wipe of Dr. Light in Identity Crisis was not an isolated occurrence. Selina Kyle (Catwoman) learns to her dismay that her journey from villain to hero, and the steps she has recently taken to lead a moral life, were in fact the result of Zatanna's mental intervention. Selina comes to distrust her memories, motives, and the choices she has made since that incident. Zatanna appears in several issues of Catwoman and, at Selina's behest, mind-wipes Film Freak and Angle Man, two villains who had deduced Catwoman's secret identity.
Seven Soldiers
A 2005 four-issue Zatanna limited series was published as part of Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory event. Zatanna reveals that the reaction of her peers to the mindwipes, as well as the inadvertent deaths of several people in a failed magic ritual she conducted, were so extreme that she lost her self-confidence and magical abilities. With the help of her new apprentice Misty Kilgore and the news of an impending apocalyptic battle, she regains her powers. Her continued solicited appearances imply that she will be one of the Seven Soldiers to survive.
Vertigo
Zatanna also appears in DC's Vertigo imprint. She appears several times in The Books of Magic, typically to counsel Timothy Hunter, the main character. In Hellblazer she was the tantric partner of John Constantine at one point in the past. She was one of the guests at Constantine's 1999/2000 New Year's Eve party in Tom Peyer's Totems.
An alternate version of Zatanna with blonde hair is seen in Books of Magick: Life During Wartime. In the series, Zatanna fights for a coalition of human and faeries against the dictatorial class of faerie ruling elite.
Possible relatives
In addition to John Zatara and Sindella, it is implied that Zatara was a relative of the artist Leonardo da Vinci (who was secretly a magician in the DC universe); Nostradamus; the Freemason Cagliostro; alchemists Nicholas Flamel and Evan Fulcanelli; and King Arion of Atlantis.
Depictions in other media
Animation
Zatanna first appears in a Batman: The Animated Series episode (voiced by Julie Brown) as an illusionist with no apparent magic powers. She developed a close friendship with Bruce Wayne during the years in which Wayne was travelling the globe, learning skills that later serve him as Batman. Wayne came to Zatara as "John Smith" to learn to be an escape artist but also found his young daughter to be growing attracted to him. Zatanna later comes to Gotham with her magic show, but finds herself being framed by a criminal magic debunker. Her efforts to restore her name and stop the villain put her side-by-side with the Batman, whom she recognizes as John Smith.
Further DC Animated Universe depictions, both on online Flash animation shorts and Justice League Unlimited (voiced by Jennifer Hale) episodes, show her with real magical abilities. In Justice League Unlimited, Zatanna is aware of Batman's secret identity and knows that he has romantic feelings for Wonder Woman. A member of the expanded Justice League team, her most prominent JLU episode is "This Little Piggy", in which she helps Batman recover Wonder Woman after the latter is turned into a pig by Circe. The episode culminates with Batman singing "Am I Blue?" as Circe and Zatanna swoon over his rich singing voice. The original ending of This Little Piggy reveals that Zatanna lost no time in gossiping with her fellow Leaguers: she shows them images in her crystal ball of Batman singing[1]. In the revised ending, she merely tells Wonder Woman behind the scenes in a "girl talk".
DCAU fan-favorite writer Paul Dini wrote both of Zatanna's major appearances as chronicled above, and apparently likes the character quite a lot. (In 1998, Alan Burnett told Wizard Magazine: "Paul Dini wanted to use Zatanna because he’s secretly in love with her. It’s something we try not to talk about too much.") Dini later married magician Misty Lee, who has been cited by Zatanna fans as a real-life version of the character, so the last laugh may indeed be his.
Zatanna makes two appearances in the Gotham Girls flash animation episodes. In "A Little Night Magic", Zatanna walks home on her own after doing a magic show and has some adventures on the way: She turns a robber's gun into a snake, splits a truck in half when it almost runs her over, and turns some street thugs into toads after they take her hat. In "Hold the Tiger", Zatanna stops Catwoman from stealing the Cat's Eye Opals from a jewelry store. Zatanna doesn't arrest Catwoman but instead asks Catwoman for help in finding her white tiger.
Two episodes of a Cartoon Monsoon contest entry feature Zatanna a teenage hero who is a cross between Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Parodies
Zatanna was spoofed in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Just-Us League of Supertoons" (a spoof of the Justice League of America) as Fifi Le Fume's alter-ego, Scentanna, the mystical maiden of musk. Scentanna's costume bears a stiking resemblance to Zatanna's costume for when she joined the Justice League.
Video Games
Zatanna will appear in the upcoming video game Justice League Heroes played by Kari Wahlgren.
External link
- DCDP: Zatanna - DC Database Project
- Index to Zee's Earth-1 adventures