Originally Posted by
John Venus
I don't mind the fishnets outfit but I agree it should be saved for stage performances only. It makes more sense that she switches from a stage outfit to a battle outfit to a casual outfit. I can see her having multiple versions of the stage outfit; fishnets, pants, thigh highs, etc and multiple versions of battle and casual outfits too.
As a fan of Dini's run, I didn't find her depiction there to be especially sexualized. Mind you, my bar for 'overly sexualized' is set at stuff like Bendis/Frank Cho's Mighty Avengers which took every opportunity to show it's female characters mighty backside, Ed Benes art which often ruined dramatic character moments by Gail or McDuffie by insisting on having female characters pointing their arse at the camera and of course books like Gen13 and Danger Girl which are meant to cheesecake fests. When the book came out, there was some praise for the artist by female fans for not going too over board but as the series progressed some criticisms did pop up, mainly of Zee getting into bondage situations. However, I admit that my bar may not be the same as everyone else's and that we all have different tastes and preferences.
Earlier in the thread, there was a question about which Zatanna story arc you preferred. Well for me, the best Zatanna would be a synthesis of her characterization in Dini's work but also modernization of her story arcs in the satellite era JLA. IMO, modern Zatanna stories have gotten too fixated on Zatanna or her father doing mind wipes, Zatanna searching for her father, some kind of love interest she obsesses over whether it's John Constantine, Dick Grayson or Bruce Wayne, Zatanna's father being dead and her feelings about it, rinse and repeat.
In the 70's, Gerry Conway threw in some interesting ideas for Zatanna; her mother was named Sindella, she came from the Hidden City which was a city of Homo Magi secluded away somewhere in Turkey, if humans inter marry too much with the Homo Magi then the latter's magical gene would disappear in a few generations which was a fascinating idea, Sindella possessed a gem called the 'Medula Gem' and TPTB of the Hidden City wanted it so they can use her a living power source for their city and thus they faked her death. Sindella eventually sacrifices her life to save her daughter. The story ran from JLA #161-166. However, the execution of this story was lacking but there is interesting stuff that a smart writer could mine.
Also her depiction, from 166 onwards was refreshing; she is powerful, useful and often the key to saving the day. Too many times in modern days, she gets benched too quickly so other characters can shine or she is a glorified red shirt used to show how powerful some magical threat so somebody else can shine. Even when she gets knocked out it's not any more or less than the other League members. In the issue where she is powered down to just using her elements, it's mentioned that she was the second most powerful member after Superman prior to losing her powers but even after that she is still useful as she is the one who figures out the cause behind all the tarot based attacks the League were facing in prior issues. Eventually she gets her full power back but has to fight for it first.
There was also the reason behind her getting her Perez re design (the one with the lobster headdress), it happened in 1980, a few years before Nightwing debuted. The reasoning was that her stage outfit was evocative of her fathers and her black/red costume was evocative of her mothers, so the loose sleeved red headdress costume was meant to represent her coming into her own. The change happened after a talk with Barry. She teamed up with Barry and Hal a lot during that period. There was also some sexual tension between her Barry while the latter was going through a mid life crisis following Iris death but nothing really came of that relationship and they remained friends up until Barry's death. Zatanna debuted not too long after Barry, Hal and Ray Palmer debuted and to my mind she is absolutely in that generation of heroes but isn't considered so because she didn't have an ongoing.
What I'm saying here is that there is an arc here that could be picked up and modernized. Start her off as magician but not really a superhero looking for her missing father and she teams up with a couple of heroes to do so, she finds her father and becomes a full fledged League member and begins learning her ropes while still providing key information on how to deal with magical threats, then she discovers her mother is still alive and in trouble so she starts looking for her alongside her father. However, she starts going through a rough patch, her mother dies tragically, her father dies, she begins losing her powers but later on through bitter hard work she regains them back. Then she begins mentoring Zachary along with helping the JLA on magical threats while also doing Vegas shows alongside the usual solo superheroing. Her characterization should be closer to Dini's, the depiction of magic closer to Morrison's Seven Soldiers and the plot points could be modernized like Mark Waid on JLA: Year One.
Also, I would like to see the character develop a strong bond with another heroine. We know she is tight with Black Canary and Wonder Woman but I would like to see her with another magic based heroine? Maybe Gypsy (although she is going to need a name change)? I also think there is interesting potential in her teaming up with someone like Raven as well.