Zatanna

32 years ago - Zatanna Zatara is born, the daughter of John Zatara.

31 years ago - 1-year-old Zatanna is kept from her father Zatara by a mysterious spell cast by Morgaine Le Fey.

28 years ago - 4-year-old Zatanna finally meets her father Zatara when he breaches the spell keeping them apart. She begins studying his magical technique.

20 years ago - 12-year-old Zatanna meets Bruce Wayne when he studies under her father Zatara under a pseudonym.

15 years ago - 17-year-old Zatanna joins in the 4th Shadowpact and is almost immolated, but her father Zatara intervenes and gives himself in her place.

14 years ago - 18-year-old Zatanna has a brief, ill-advised romance with John Constantine.

12 years ago - 20-year-old Zatanna is approaches by Bruce Wayne for help, and assists him.

10 years ago - 22-year-old Zatanna joins the Justice League.

9 years ago - 23-year-old Zatanna wipes Arthur Light's memory at the insistence of the older members of the Justice League after he attacks Sue Dibny. She leaves the Justice League out of guilt.

7 years ago - 25-year-old Zatanna is approached by Batman for help binding the Silver Banshee within Siobhan McDougal's body again, bringing her out of her self-imposed retirement. She begins adventuring again.

4 years ago - 28-year-old Zatanna & Dan Cassidy venture into hell with Jim Rook's help to complete Dan's bargain with heaven. She finds Zatara's magical journals.

3 years ago - 28-year-old Zatanna helps sever the connection between J'onn J'onzz & Scorch.

2 years ago - 30-year-old Zatanna joins the new Justice League.

The silver-age adorableness of her power's speaking-backward mechanic notwithstanding, Zatanna is probably one of the most indispensable of DC's superheroes that aren't counted among the big seven. There are plenty of magic-users out there, but her history with the Justice League has made her the most traditional superhero of the lot, but also easily the most recognizable. She's actually permeated the popular consciousness to a certain degree. Even though she's never been the star of a movie or TV show, and is in fact often barely even mentioned in the mass market pushes to use DC characters, there's still a decent chance that casual fans will not only know about Zatanna, but will absolutely adore her.

That, in fact, is probably a big part of her appeal. There's an energy to Zatanna that is hard to ignore. While there are some stories that play her up as an innocent that needs to be protected, more often she has a certain kick-ass girl power energy that you just can't fake. There's something about her that just connects with people. For example; Zatanna is my wife's favorite superhero. She hears about superheroes a LOT (poor girl), but this was the one she connected with. If there was ever a sign of the inherent power of Zatanna's personality, that's it.

Zatanna's Comic History

Zatanna first appeared in 1964 in the pages of Hawkman. She was an expansion of an existing character trope as the daughter of golden age hero Zatara. She was essentially used as a supporting character in a series of interconnected stories before she was featured as a regular supporting character in the Justice League, serving as a way to give the team a bridge into more mystical story arcs, eventually becoming a full-fledged member without ever having a series of her own.

She would appear periodically throughout DC comics, often appearing retroactively in stories designed to flesh out DC's mystical storytelling, such as in the pages of Neil Gaiman's the Books of Magic. Over time, it was clear that the character had developed a fanbase. It's hard not to see why, she has a great look, a cool personality, and powers that were so expansive they boggle the mind. She was given more and more to do in the larger tapestry of DC's storytelling; her childhood flirtation with Bruce Wayne was created both in the comics and in the Animated Series, and she developed a pretty inappropriate relationship with John Constantine when she was still a teenager. By the time the story of the much-maligned Identity Crisis story arc revolved almost entirely around Zatanna and her powers, she had essentially become one of the most important characters in the DC universe.

Our Zatanna Story

We didn't invent any new elements within Zatanna's story, everything is built from actual existing in-continuity ideas, we just laid them out in a more ordered way so it feels like an actual life.

First, of course, is her relationship with her father. She's followed his footsteps into his profession and carried on his career as a magician and hero, so clearly this is a huge part of her life. We incorporated the period in her early life when he was magically prevented from seeing her, but more importantly we used his death as part of one of the Shadowpacts. We introduced the idea that a person can only be part of a single Shadowpact, which is why she isn't part of the more recent team by the same name. Her attempt to find her father's work will go on to be a big part of her further adventures.

Next, we've focused her heroic journey on the idea of her learning to accept the responsibility of the roll. Most magic-wielders don't consider themselves superheroes, but she very much does, and that should be a defining characteristic of her career. She originally joined the Justice League as a young woman stepping into a huge role, and allowed herself to be manipulated into altering Doctor Light after his attack of Sue Dibny (one of the few parts of Identity Crisis we're keeping). The guilt of this act kept her from adventuring again for many years. When she decided to come back, she's much more mature, self confidant, and ready to tackle her legacy as a hero on her terms. The groundwork for all of this was in the comics and we think we brought it together in a way that does her justice.

Zatanna's Costume

There is, obviously, a lot to unpack with Zatanna's costume. I mean, this is a pretty clearly sexualized outfit, right? Just googling Zatanna gives you a LOT of cheesecake. How hard could it be to put pants on this woman? Her initial foray into superheroics would definitely feature her purple and white caped costume that looks a lot more like something a superhero would wear, but why would she be wearing fishnets the rest of the time?

Well, the answer is pretty obvious. As we know, this is her stage costume; it's what she wears when she's performing. While it doesn't exactly make a ton of sense practically, there is something kinda fundamentally awesome about watching her kick all sorts of magical butt in this outfit. She's a heavily featured character in the as-of-this-writing current animated series Justice League Action, and she really does come across amazingly. Even in DC's live action series Smallville (where she was played by future Medusa actress Serinda Swan), the character's look just WORKS.

Ultimately, you find yourself approaching her costume in much the same way as Wonder Woman's. Is it the costume itself that's sexualized, or is it the way we USE it? can Zatanna wear this outfit and still be a badass magic superhero? Well, yes, she totally can, and she looks awesome when she does it. If artists would stop using it as an excuse for cheesecake and instead make it the costume she wears while acting as one of the coolest young heroes in the world, then I doubt it would even be a problem.

Zatanna's Future

As we leave our timeline, Zatanna has really come into her own as one of the most sought-after heroes of her generation. She might not be someone with all the answers on everything mystic like Doctor Fate, but she's still one of the most accomplished magicians of her age, and she's certainly the one who has done the best job of taking those magical skills and applying them as a superhero. Other magic-wielding characters like John Constantine don't really translate well into the world of Leagues and Titans and Legions, but she seems to wear it like a glove. That, more than anything else, is the skill that Zatanna brings to the table.

As one of the founding members of the modern Hall of Justice League, Zatanna is poised as one of the most central heroes of the modern era, and this time she has the experience and know-how to really make a difference. She's helping Enchantress reclaim her ownership of her magical skill, and has proven to be one of the most reliable members of her current team.

So what's next for her? With the Shadowpact dissolved, mystic threads to the world will fall more often to the Justice League, and she will likely become the defacto team leader when that happens. Perhaps her role in DC's world of magic is due to expand in ways we can't even imagine.

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