Originally Posted by
John Venus
Pey, ti steg reisae eht reom uoy od ti.
She's not really a horror character though. Her stories can be dark but she's not a horror character.
It can work if the conceit is that she is the light in a dark world.
Magic doesn't necessarily have to 'dark' or horror based in order for it to have consequences though. That's on the writing. The old Sabrina: The Animated Series showed consequences for misusing magic without being dark. It also bugs me that DC seems to think that 'dark' stories are the only valid ones worth telling and that stories that are lighter or more comedic are lacking in verisimilitude. That's not true at all. Darkness is just an indicator of atmosphere, not a determination of whether a story is good or not. Comedy can be just as enlightening and expose hidden truths just as as well as any dark and dreary story can.
Back in the 70's, fans literally voted her in to the JLA, there has always been interest around the character, its DC's fault that it took them 40 years to consider giving her an ongoing. I haven't seen people claim that they couldn't take her seriously before JLD, it's just that the latter was the only place for people to read her in. There is still a great deal of love towards Dini's ongoing.
JLD deserves some applause for having Zatanna defeat a cosmic entity twice but that's something she did even before the Nu52. I like the relationship between Zee and Diana as well as Detective Chimp but the primary dynamic is still her being Constantine's girlfriend who constantly rolls her eyes at his antics. Even though it's the 'magic book', JLD doesn't bother diving into Zatanna's own history or lore, there is no Zachary, there is no Vegas crew, Zee's relationships and history with characters like Barry Allen, Batman and Ray Palmer are mostly non existent, nobody's revisited Sindella or the Hidden City, nobody's touched Arella or bothered to update her rogues gallery. Instead most writers seem to be mostly drawing from Alan Moore's 'American Gothic' Neil Gaiman's Sandman for inspiration. I like Ram V and Tynion IV's work, JLD Vol 2 is a cut above JLD Vol 1 but Zee and the magical world deserves more, imo.
Paul Dini didn't make her light hearted, she has always been a light hearted character from her first appearance up through JLA to her feature in World's Finest. She can work in darker stories but there was a reason why Zatara's death in Swamp Thing was so shocking.
IC damaged Zatanna's character. Mind wiping just became a gimmick for writers to exploit for cheap thrills and none of them could make up their mind; was Zatanna gleefully and very willingly participating in the mind wipe? Was she a rookie with great power who was cajoled by the senior members to do it? Does she truly regret her actions or does she consider it a 'necessary evil'?
I think Dini was right in trying to explore new avenues of story telling. Him and Grant Morrison saved the character are IC tainted her.
Dini does show her regretting the mind wipes but he just didn't have her dwell on it.
I found that jarring too but given that she was performer and artist, I now see it as her dealing with her issues through her performances.
That's a shallow reading of that story arc and your take is missing several details.
For one thing, Zee wasn't clueless about why Bruce was mad at her. In fact, she states that she has apologized and is remorseful for her actions. The problem was Bruce still holding it against her and even forbid her from using magic. It's like how Lin from Legend of Korra was still holding in her anger at Suyin for the incident that scarred Lin 30 years ago.
As for the rescue scene: Joker shoots her in the throat then dumps her in a water tank after strapping Bruce to an electric chair. She only had time for one spell; either heal her wound or to escape the tank and risk facing the Joker again. She chose to heal her wound and trust Batman to save her. At that point, she had more faith in him that he did in her which made Bruce feel guilty and later they both rekindled their friendship. Yes, she got saved but there was a lot more to that story. She wasn't taken out to make Bruce look cool (in fact it did the opposite) nor because her powers were an inconvenience to the writer. It also established that Zatanna wasn't helpless just because she can't speak.
As for the relationship, she asks him about it, he turns her down, she moves on. He is not mentioned in the ongoing and there is no pining for each other. It was all very clean and uncomplicated.
As for Selina, the latter already got her revenge on Zee in her ongoing. Dini had them interact much more cordially in his 'Tec run. First Selina beats at a card game called Zatanna Shuffle and then later gives her an ointment to heal the scarring on her chest after Selina underwent surgery.
Zatanna talking to her father's ghost happened in an issue of Gotham City Sirens and that was not Dini. In her own ongoing, she did encounter his ghost when Brother Night tried to weaponize it against her. The ghost moved on. Dini did however have her casually talk to her fathers ghost in the Zatanna/Black Canary: OGN and yeah, I wasn't a fan of that moment either.