Zatanna Zatara: Appreciation 2020

[Robanker]

That’s a pretty nice Bolland piece. Dude should branch out more from Batman, his recent Batman/Joker stuff has been bad.

Agreed. I don't know what was happening on that Joker/Punchline cover. There was a lot of look and none of it good.

[Gaius]

[Hypestyle]

Does Zatanna's magic involve making deals with entities? With marvel, they're trying to make a big deal out of "magic having a cost" and the beings on the other side of the spell-cast looking for some sort of favors, eventually.

[Gaius]

Does Zatanna's magic involve making deals with entities? With marvel, they're trying to make a big deal out of "magic having a cost" and the beings on the other side of the spell-cast looking for some sort of favors, eventually.

For the most part Zatanna can just naturally do magic as she’s a Homo Magi. Though JLD recently retconned this a bit with the reveal that the source of magic in the main DC universe was stolen from extra-dimensional entities.

[Edwin30]

I really hope the tv series doesn't take that dark paranormal activity direction. Deals with demons, witches, blood rituals etc. Its just not Zatanna. For once I'd like magic to not be some dark demonic thing with a price.

I came to love Zatanna because she reminded me of disney style magic with all the fairy godmothers and genies that came to help the protagonist.

I dont want her tv series to be like Constantine. I want a series where everyone knows she has magic but it isn't some abnormal thing. She already lives in a world where such things are common. She uses magic to entertain people and help out the police against supernatural threats. Just like her solo comic.

[Frontier]

I really hope the tv series doesn't take that dark paranormal activity direction. Deals with demons, witches, blood rituals etc. Its just not Zatanna. For once I'd like magic to not be some dark demonic thing with a price.

I came to love Zatanna because she reminded me of disney style magic with all the fairy godmothers and genies that came to help the protagonist.

I dont want her tv series to be like Constantine. I want a series where everyone knows she has magic but it isn't some abnormal thing. She already lives in a world where such things are common. She uses magic to entertain people and help out the police against supernatural threats. Just like her solo comic.

I hope they cater the show to her character rather than from a general Justice League Dark perspective.

[John Venus]

I was also kind of irked at the thought that the woman in that concept art might've been Zatanna.

Yeah, as much as I want to say Zee deserves better...she has a type.

You would think between Nightshade, Black Alice, Raven, Enchantress, that DC has enough dark haired, mentally disturbed magical girls who could easily fit the goth or punk rock aesthetic without turning Zatanna into one.

She does have a type but it would be interesting to see her grow out of it. I would love to see a writer tackle that relationship from a feminist perspective. There was always something wrong with the whole scenario; Constantine roping in all these magician including non magician Mento who didn't even know what he was getting into to fight the Beast, the seance leading to Zatara getting killed, Zatara entrusting Zatanna's safety to Constantine and Zatanna kissing Constantine in Books of Magic and all the 'oh woe is me I need Constantine to fix this, I can't do this by myself even thought I've been with the JL for decades' that stuck with her books ever since. Constantine's tricking people and his actions leading to their death or misfortune but it's somehow for the greater good. I would love to see a writer call out the relationship as inherently toxic and have Zee move on to someone better.

She really does, and as much as I love Zatara, his tendency to disappear and then die when she's young probably has something to do with it. I must be blanking, but did they ever conclusively mention what happened to her mother?

Justice League #161-165 dealt with Zatanna's mother. We talked about it a couple of pages back in this thread. There were some interesting ideas but overall the story itself was very poor and it ends with Sindella (Zatanna's mother dying).

Neat image. It gets me wondering, are there any stories that feature Z using the kind of sleight of hand skills you'd expect of a professional stage magician?

Dini got into this quite a bit when he wrote Zatanna's 'Tec appearances and her ongoing. The main focus was on her skill in escape artistry and she used it to get out of traps where she couldn't rely on magic.

I really hope the tv series doesn't take that dark paranormal activity direction. Deals with demons, witches, blood rituals etc. Its just not Zatanna. For once I'd like magic to not be some dark demonic thing with a price.

I came to love Zatanna because she reminded me of disney style magic with all the fairy godmothers and genies that came to help the protagonist.

I dont want her tv series to be like Constantine. I want a series where everyone knows she has magic but it isn't some abnormal thing. She already lives in a world where such things are common. She uses magic to entertain people and help out the police against supernatural threats. Just like her solo comic.

I agree. I've always said that the DC magic verse is too tonally diverse to be lumped into just the dark, spooky supernatural aspect.

[Edwin30]

Digital Book Platform Serial Box just announced new and original audiobooks centered around Batman and Wonder woman.
https://www.tor.com/2020/10/13/batma...to-serial-box/

Batman's audiobook "Batman: The Blind Cut" will feature Zatanna as a prominent character and here's why I'm worried -

1) Zatanna's magic works by speaking backwards. It works perfectly in a comic book format because people just read the backward spells, the right way in their heads. They don't read it as it is written. Its a unique style that distinguishes Zatanna from other magic based character.
But when it comes to other mediums like cartoons, games and live action, it sounds a little too weird especially when the spell is long and detailed. When she uses backward talk its easy to make her sound silly and cringe worthy. That's why I hope that the spells used are short and the voice actor is good. I would love it if Jennifer Hale from the Justice League animated series voices her again.



2) The audiobook will also deal with some real world issues. The Article says "According to Variety, Batman will also grapple with the fact that he is actually part of the 1%." This has me worried about Zatanna because of the way she financially supports herself.
There have been many iterations of this part of Zatanna's life which changes from author to author but I prefer Paul Dini's version because it makes the most sense. The thing I'm talking about is her use of real magic in her shows. To me its simple - She does both real and fake magic but she isn't some fraud who uses real magic where others use sleight of hand and illusions. She does both and her audience knows that because No mask, No alternate costume and No aliases = No secret identity. She fights crime as Zatanna and entertains her audience as Zatanna. She isn't making it worse for other illusionists in the business. There is separate market for both types of magicians.

Whether it is immoral for her to use her powers and fame as a superhero to make money?
No. I don't think so. She has a gift and she can use it any way she wants as long as its legal. If people come to her show because of some good she has done, then she deserves their attention and money.

I'm saying all this because DC Superhero Girls cartoon made her take up a secret identity to blend in with the other girls. They changed her real name to "Zee Zatara" and gave her the superhero name "Zatanna". Yet they made her use real magic in her shows and at one point berate a street performer who didn't have real magic. I think it was really stupid, mean and it painted her in a bad light. However, the show was meant for children so I gave it a pass.
Its just that I don't want the Audiobook to misrepresent Zatanna because I think it will have a serious tone.
Simply put -
Secret identity = No magic on stage
No Secret identity = Magic on stage.
Zatanna comes under the latter. Its too late for her to adopt a secret identity and hiding her magic will just cause story inconsistencies further down the road.

[Frontier]

I'm just happy for new Zatanna content .

[Artemisfanboy]

So anybody else like Zatanna's costume for Future State and would like her to adopt it in the present? Fishnets/Nylons are what I feel an iconic design element for her to me so the current JLD leather pants hasn't really worked for me for me, so it's nice to see her in a more classic style outfit. The hood instead of a top hat does come off a little odd though.

[WallyWestFlash]

She is the only one that looks any good from this garbage heap.

[Vordan]

So anybody else like Zatanna's costume for Future State and would like her to adopt it in the present? Fishnets/Nylons are what I feel an iconic design element for her to me so the current JLD leather pants hasn't really worked for me for me, so it's nice to see her in a more classic style outfit. The hood instead of a top hat does come off a little odd though.

I thought it looked great! A nice merger of her classic and the caped early New 52 look is how it looks to me.

[Dylan Davison]

I'm not too interested in Future State, but I'll pick up the Justice League title cause it has JLD in it, with Zanata I'm sure. And it has GL Jo. I'm just so lost how this is the future, but some characters are the same age, like Nightwing and Zatanna...

[Frontier]

I'm always down for a return of the classic look .

[HandofPrometheus]

DC is allergic to the top hat.