Zatanna Zatara (New Earth)

Zatanna Zatara

Real Name: Zatanna Zatara
Nicknames: The Princess of Prestidigitation; Zee
Former Aliases: No known former aliases
Other Current Aliases: No other known current aliases

Status

Occupation: Defender against mystical threats and evil, stage magician.

Legal Status: Citizen of the United States

Identity: Secret

Marital Status: Single

Group Affiliation: Seven Soldiers; Formerly Justice League of America; Formerly Sentinels of Magic

Base of Operations: Mobile

Origin

Zatanna is a wizard, the daughter of two other very powerful magic users.

Place of Birth: Place of birth unknown

Known Relatives: Giovanni “John” Zatara (father, deceased), Sindella Zatara (mother, deceased), Leonardo da Vinci, Cagliostro, Nicholas Flamel, and Nostradamus (all paternal ancestors)

First Appearance: HAWKMAN Vol. 1 #4 (1964)

History

Zatanna was a stage illusionist before she discovered her true magic powers when investigating the disappearance of her father. The story of this search was the subject of the first major comic book crossover story arc as she meets various superheroes like Batman, Hawkman and Hawkgirl and Green Lantern.

Her father, Giovanni Zatara, is a descendant of a long line of powerful magicians and wizards, while her mother is a homo magi, a species of human with innate magical powers. Unfortunately, both died on separate occasions to save her life.

She assisted the Justice League of America on a number of cases before finally being elected to membership in Justice League of America #161. During her tenure with that group, her power level was briefly reduced to having control of the four elements of Empedocles (earth, air, fire, and water); this limitation was reversed in World's Finest Comics #277.

File:ZatannaVS1.jpg

Showstopper

While she was a member of the group, the villain Doctor Light (Arthur Light) brutally raped the Elongated Man's wife Sue Dibny and threatened to come after the other JLA members' loved ones as well. After erasing Light's memories of the event, a small sect of the JLA that included Zatanna decided to also tamper with his mind so he wouldn't pose a threat to their loved ones anymore. Still reeling from her mother's death, and in order to protect the JLA, who she considered her new family, Zatanna used her magic to alter his personality, accidentally lowering his intellect as a result. She also had to erase Batman's memories of the event, after he tried to stop them altering Light. This was all revealed in the 2004 miniseries Identity Crisis.

After her departure from the team, she regained her full power and she continues her stage career with the additional calling as a sentinel against mystical threats.

In 2005 Zatanna is one of the main 7 in Grant Morrison's 30-issue mini-series Seven Soldiers. Here, it was revealed that the reaction of her peers to the mindwipes was so extreme as to make her lose her self-confidence, and with it, her magic. However, with the help of Etta Candy and the news of an impending apocalyptic battle, she regains her powers. Although it has been made clear that one of the Seven Soldiers will die in the final battle, due to several recent and recurring appearances before the final issue's release, it has been speculated that Zatanna will be one of the survivors.

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. An alternate version of Zatanna with blonde hair was seen in Books of Magick: Life During Wartime. The world depicted there is populated by both humans(known there as the Bred) and by races of the Faerie (known as the Born). A war is going on between the the Born ruling elite and a coalition of Born and Bred who intend to overthrow the current dictatorial regime. The version of Zatanna that exist on this world fights for this Coalition.

Characteristics

Height: 5'7"
Weight: 127 lbs (xx kg)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Unusual Features: No unusual features

Powers

File:Zee1.jpg

tegrof! (JLA #118. Cover by by Rags Morales & Mark Farmer)

Known Powers: Zatanna is skilled in using magic.

Sorcery: Zatanna says her spells backward as a aid to concentrate. For example, saying "tegrof" would cause the target of the spell to forget something. The limits of Zatanna's powers are unknown, and are far from concrete. For example, she was once able to resurrect the entire city of Metropolis using the memories of the Justice League members, yet during the Sins of Youth arc was unable to reverse the age-switching spell placed on Batman and Robin by Klarion.

Weaknesses: The only known limit to Zatanna's magic is the time it takes for her to say the spell, including figuring out how to pronounce a phrase in backspeech. In Identity Crisis, she was crippled from speaking her spells when Deathstroke gave a direct blow to her liver, initiating a regurgitation reaction. This, despite the fact that it has been resolved that she doesn't need to speak to cast spells.

Known Abilities: Zatanna is skilled in stage magic, performing simple illusions. She has also been taught conventional fighting skills by the Justice League, but favors using magic in place of them.

Strength Level: As a magician, she is considered among the most powerful and knowledgeable in the world, working alongside the likes of Madame Xanadu, Phantom Stranger, and Doctor Fate. However, the actual extent of her powers was never formally explicated, and thus remains unknown. In the JLA series "Identity Crisis," it was stated that she was the most powerful member of the Justice League.

Miscellaneous

Equipment: Often depicted with a magic wand, although whether it is a stage prop or an actual focus for her powers remains unknown.

Transportation: No known transportation.

Weapons: No known weapons.

Notes

Created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson.

Trivia

Zatanna has the reputation of being DC's "greatest minor" hero, due to her continuous appearances in many frontline comics, although never starring in her own title, save for the Seven Soldiers miniseries (whose premise was based on lesser-known or less popular characters).

In Earth-97 continuity, Zatanna was an initiate to a coven known as the Dark Circle. Circle leader Etrigan promised Zatanna a place within the coven if she could acquire an artifact known as the Green Lantern. After searching for three years, she eventually found the lantern in the possession of a former pirate named Jason Blood. She attempted to fight Blood, but her spell mis-fired killing her, but trapping her soul within her dead body. Blood promised to set Zatanna's soul free, if she agreed to take up his position as Keeper of the Lantern. Zatanna agreed, and became the new Green Lantern. ^[1]

Appearances In Other Media

Television

File:Zatanna TV.jpg

As seen on the animated series Justice League

The animated version of Zatanna first appeared in Batman: The Animated Series (voiced by Julie Brown) where she was depicted as simply being an illusionist with no apparent magic powers. She developed a close friendship with Bruce Wayne during the years in which Bruce was travelling the globe, learning skills that would later serve him as Batman. He came to Zatara as "John Smith" to learn to be an escape artist, but also found his young daughter growing attracted to him. Later in life, she came to Gotham with her magic show, but found herself being framed by a cynical and criminal magic debunker, Montague Kane. Her efforts to restore her name and stop Kane put her side-by-side with the Batman, whom she ended up recognizing as "John Smith".

Since then, further depictions both on online Flash animation shorts and in Justice League Unlimited (voiced by Jennifer Hale) have shown her with powers. Somewhere between Batman and JLU, she gained both significant magical powers and knowledge of the real secret identity of Batman. This granted her membership to the expanded 57-member superhero group, which helped Batman when Circe transformed Wonder Woman into a pig. Zatanna led Batman on a chase of the goddess, culminating in Batman having to sing "Am I Blue?" (thus exposing a hidden part of himself) to get Circe to reverse the spell.

Zatanna is shown in the final episode of Justice League Unlimited during the fight scene and as one of the many heroes running after the Legion of Doom.

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.") Paul recently 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.

In addition, there were also two episodes of a Cartoon Monsoon contest entry where Zatanna was a teenage hero who was more like a cross between Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Video Games

ZeeJLH — Zee from the Justice League Heroes video game

Zatanna is the seventh main character featured in the Justice League Heroes video game released in November 2006. She edged other more famous leaguers such as Power Girl, Black Canary, and Hawkgirl to be included in the video game line-up. Aside from wanting a female character to round up the team, according to Jason Ades, producer of JLH, Zatanna was chosen because they wanted an extremely game-able character fit for the game's engine and unique to the other six heroes. He also adds that "DC gave us a little nudge towards Zatanna" due to the character's increasing popularity as she was popping everywhere in the DC Universe from Identity Crisis to Seven Soldiers of Victory to Infinite Crisis and other titles.

Her special powers in the video game are:

Fire Bolt: Conjures a ball of fire that can be hurled at enemies.
Polymorph: A spell that changes enemies to rabbits.
Heal: Heals her and her partner hero.
Time Shift: Slows time temporarily bringing her enemies to a crawl.
Protect: Protects her and her team from damage.

Merchandise

There are several statues/busts and action figures representing Zatanna.

Zatanna’s first introduction into the world of limited edition statuary was in the form of a mini-bust, she is wearing the costume made famous by her appearance in “Identity Crisis”.

A statue was created to commemorate her appearance in the animated Batman series. Zatanna is shown emerging triumphantly from a locked trunk, chains and locks scattered about her feet.

Most recently Zatanna appeared in mini-bust form as part of Adam Hughes' "Women of the DC Universe" line. Hers is the first to incorporate soft goods in the design - using real cloth for her fishnet stockings.

External Links

References

Wikipedia:Zatanna
Justice League Heroes Manual

Footnotes

↑ Tangent Comics: Tales of the Green Lantern #1

[1] Tangent Comics: Tales of the Green Lantern #1

[1]