Zatanna
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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). Her last name is rarely mentioned; she is generally referred to simply as Zatanna, while other supeheroes often refer to her as Zee or Z.
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. After becoming a full member of the Justice League, she appeared for some time in a more traditionally super-heroic red-and-blue spandex costume but has more recently returned to the tuxedo and fishnets.
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. Though historically her spells are constructed with only the spelling reversed but with the words in the correct order (Ym tfarcrevoh si lluf fo slee!), some writers have been known to reverse both spelling and words (Slee fo lluf si tfarcrevoh ym!). (Translation: My hovercraft is full of eels!)
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, though she has always been featured as a superheroine and never as a supervillainess.) She has been featured in the animated series Justice League Unlimited, Batman, and the Flash animation series Gotham Girls.
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[edit] Character biography
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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. In the new Justice League of America #6, Zatanna was called upon by the League, along with the Phantom Stranger, to undo several spells cast by Felix Faust upon the Red Tornado. No mention was made of her membership status, active or reserve.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Books of Magic
She appeared in the Books of Magic series, first aiding Tim Hunter learn about the hidden world of magic users, then later in the series when he returns to San Francisco.
[edit] 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 reconnaissance at a Lazarus Pit, she asks him why he came to her. "I needed someone I can trust," Batman says. "But I had to settle for you." By Detective Comics #824, however, their relationship appears to have warmed; calling Zatanna for information on a card-counter involved in scamming the Penguin, Batman makes no mention of this incident and refers to her with the informal 'Zee'.
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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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. Zatanna's costume in this series is more overtly sexual than that worn elsewhere, consisting of a bustier, garter belt and nylons.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Possible relatives
In addition to John Zatara and Sindella, it is implied that Zatanna was a direct relative of the artist Leonardo da Vinci (who was secretly a magician in the DC universe); Nostradamus; Alessandro Cagliostro; alchemists Nicholas Flamel and Evan Fulcanelli; and King Arion of Atlantis. She also has a younger cousin, the teenage magician Zachary Zatara.
[edit] Depictions in other media
[edit] 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 relationship 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 City 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 in 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 (she greets him with "Bruce!...I haven't seen you for so long...") and knows that he has romantic feelings for Wonder Woman (she tells him, "No, you and I are just good friends. There's something more between you and Diana"). Her costume closely resembles that of the comics. However, like Black Canary, the signature fishnet stockings were eschewed as it was difficult to animate them using computer graphics. 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 deep, velvety man 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, Wonder Woman teases Batman by starting to hum "Am I Blue?", leaving viewers to speculate as to whether Zatanna had told her about it.
DCAU writer Paul Dini wrote both of Zatanna's major appearances described 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.
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 as a teenage hero who is a cross between Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
[edit] Film
In 2005 screenwriter Hadley Davis ("Ice Princess") announced that she had written a theatrical film that was to feature a preteen-centric action-comedy featuring a teenaged version of Zatanna. Nothing further was ever heard about this project, and it is presumed to have been abandoned.[citation needed]
[edit] 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. Interestingly, Scentanna's costume bears a striking resemblance to Zatanna's costume for when she joined the Justice League.
Zatanna was also spoofed, transexually, in the Fairly Oddparents episode, "The Masked Magician", where Timmy Turner had an alter-ego of the same name.
[edit] Video Games
Zatanna is a playable character in the console videogame Justice League Heroes, voiced by Kari Wahlgren.
[edit] External links
- DCDP: Zatanna - DC Database Project
- Index to Zee's Earth-1 adventures
