Zatanna

From Batman Wiki

For the Batman: The Animated Series episode of the same name see Zatanna (BTAS episode)


Zatanna
Real name:	Zatanna Zatara
First Appearance:	Hawkman # 4 (October-November, 1964)
Created by:	Gardner Fox Murphy Anderson
Affiliations:	Seven Soldiers Justice League of America Sentinels of Magic
Abilities:
Portrayed by:	None

[edit] History

Zatanna Zatara is the daughter of famed magician Giovanni “John” Zatara and Sindella, a member of the mystical Homo Magi race. Zatanna is a direct descendant of the artist and magician Leonardo da Vinci, and is related to Nostradamus; Alessandro Cagliostro; the noted alchemists Nicholas Flamel and Evan Fulcanelli; and Lord Arion of Atlantis. Her cousin, Zachary Zatara, is also a magician.

Zatanna was a successful stage illusionist before she discovered her true magical powers while investigating the disappearance of her father. With the help of Batman, The Atom, Elongated Man and others, she was successfully reunited with him. Their time together was short, and unfortunately, both of her parents were killed on separate occasions while saving her life.

Zatanna assisted the Justice League of America on a number of cases before being elected to full membership. During her tenure with the group her power levels diminished briefly, so that she could only control the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. It should be noted that this limitation was only temporary and that her magical ability was fully restored. Later Zatanna was worried about her lack of focus while using magic. She decided that her father's style of magic was wrong for her, and explored her mother's mystical heritage.

While Zatanna was a member of the Justice League, the villain Dr. Light stole aboard the Watch Tower and raped the Elongated Man's wife Sue Dibny. When Zatanna and several others Leaguers returned, they saw what Dr. Light had done. A fight broke out and when they finally managed to subdue him, he began to threaten them and their families. Zatanna was prepared to erase Light's memories of the incident, but his terrible brutality and his promises to do it again sparked a debate amongst the present League members on whether or not to tamper with his personality and prevent him from repeating his crime. Zatanna, Hawkman, and The Atom voted for such action, while Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Green Lantern voted against. The Flash broke the tie and voted to tamper with Light's mind. Zatanna used her magic to do so, but the difficulty of the process resulted in her accidentally lowering his intellect. In the midst of her spell, Batman appeared and tried to stop them. Zatanna froze him, and they voted to have her erase his memories of the incident as well.

Zatanna's mind-wipe of Dr. Light was not an isolated occurrence. Catwoman discovered that her journey from villain to hero and her resulting efforts to lead a moral life were caused by Zatanna's mental intervention. Selina came to distrust her memories, motives, and choices she’d made since that incident. In a fit of rage, Catwoman ties Zatanna up and pushes her through a window. Despite this, Zatanna helps Catwoman and, at Selina's behest, mind-wipes petty villains Film Freak and Angle Man, because they had deduced Catwoman's secret identity.

Zatanna and Batman’s friendship degraded once Batman discovered what she had done. He began to distrust her and his other friends in the super hero community. When Zatanna helped Batman with reconnaissance at a Lazarus Pit, she asks him why he came to her. "I needed someone I can trust," Batman said, "but I had to settle for you." This must have been especially hard for her to hear, seeing that she and Bruce Wayne had been close friends since childhood.

Recently, however, their relationship appears to have warmed; sometime later he called her for information on a card-counter involved in scamming the Penguin. He makes no mention of their conflict, and casually calls her by her nickname, "Zee".

After departing from the League, Zatanna continues her stage career and her vocation as a defender against mystical threats, becoming a member of the Sentinels of Magic. She is also the author of the hugely successful Hex Appeal: The Modern Girl's Guide to Magic.

At a superhero support group run by Etta Candy, she recounted how during a failed magical ritual to search for her father's tomes, one of her past ill-casted spells summoned a shapeshifter named Gwydion, who kills her companions. The trauma of this, combined with her guilt from her mind-wipes, caused her to lose confidence in herself and she lost her powers. With the help of her new apprentice Misty Kilgore, she was able to capture Gwydion to use as her own. She eventually regained her confidence and powers, and used them to defeat Zor, a rogue Time Tailor who released the Sheeda as a plague to infect and degrade the entire universe. As a reward, the other Time Tailors allowed her one last meeting with her father, who reveals that his books were written in her, his greatest spell and gift to the world. In the final battle against the Sheeda, Zatanna cast a spell to move time and space, retroactively positioning the Seven Soldiers to overthrow the Sheeda.

Zatanna is currently a reserve member of the Justice League, aiding them from time to time when her magical expertise is needed, although she declined an offer for full membership, stating her need to take a break from heroics. She is still a regular guardian against mystical threats.

[edit] Powers and Abilities

[edit] Powers

Sorcery: Zatanna is a homo magi, a human born with the affinity to manipulate magic. Her unique genetic structure allows her to use the magic she was born with as well as learned magic. As a tribute to her father, and as a focus for her spells, she casts spells by speaking backwards. For example, saying "pots" would cause the target of the spell to stop in their tracks. Though in actuality she doesn't need to speak at all to cast spells she does so mostly out of psychological habit.

She has been called the most powerful member of the Justice League, and is often works alongside the most powerful magic-users on Earth, including Doctor Fate, Madame Xanadu, and Captain Marvel.

Elemental Magic: With her magic Zatanna has shown a greatest affinity to manipulate the elements.

-Fire Generation -Air Control -Earth Control -Liquid Control -Ice Control -Fire Control -Weather Control

Telepathy: Zatanna can use her magic to manipulate the minds of others. She has displayed the following abilities.

-Read Minds -Wipe Minds -Remove specific memories

Plant Control
Enhanced Strength
Enhanced Durability
Flight
Teleportation
Dimensional Travel
Probability Manipulation
Sense Magic
Telekinesis
Elemental Conversion
Molecular Conversion
Transmutation: Zatanna has the ability to rearrange atoms and molecules in both inorganic and organic matter. She can change an object’s or creature's shape.
Magical Manipulation: Zatanna is also capable of using all personal and universal magic

[edit] Abilities

Stage Magician: Zatanna is skilled in stage magic, performing simple tricks and elaborate illusions.

Combatant: She has also been taught conventional fighting skills by the Justice League, but favors using magic in place of them.

Occultist: as Chronicler of Magic she possesses an extensive understanding of Occult lore due to her Mystic Background

Hypnotist

[edit] Strength level

As a magician, she is considered among the most powerful and knowledgeable in the world. However, the actual extent of her powers is not fully known. According to Green Arrow, she is the most powerful member of the Justice League. Of all the magicians and sorcerers on the planet, the JLA always go to Zantanna when they need magical help.

[edit] Weaknesses

Backwards Incantation: Zatanna casts her spells by saying the words of her incantations backwards. Zatanna must concentrate on her magic to make sure she is using the proper spell. It is at this point where she is most vulnerable. It appears that this is well known to her enemies, On one occasion, the assassin Deadshot delivered a direct blow to her liver, initiating a regurgitation reaction. On a separate occasion The Joker (disguised as the stage magician Loxias) shot Zatanna in the neck, rendering her magic useless. She doesn't need to speak backwards by necessity but doing so for so long and achieving the desired effect from it has made it a psychological effect more then anything.

[edit] Paraphernalia

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

Transportation: Teleportation, Flight
Weapons: None known.

[edit] 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.
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.

[edit] Appearances In Other Media

[edit] Television

The animated version of Zatanna first appeared in DCAU during the run of 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".

Zatanna on DCAU.

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.

Serinda Swan as Zatanna on Smallville
On March 26, 2009, Zatanna appeared in the seventeenth episode of the eighth season of Smallville, titled "Hex", played by actress Serinda Swan. She is described as the daughter of the deceased John Zatara, "the world's greatest magician." Zatanna was at the Ace of Clubs, where Chloe Sullivan’s party was being held. To enlighten her birthday, Zatanna used magic to make Chloe’s inner desire at the time come true… which made her look like her cousin Lois Lane living her life for a day. She later went to Oliver Queen, to offer him a deal: to grant him his wish if he return her father’s magical book to her. She was later confronted by Clark and Chloe, explained the nature of the magic, and granted Clark a temporary wish to be normal Mild Mannered reporter with know knowledge of his Kryptonian heritage or Powers. Once she got the Book of Zatara from Green Arrow, whom she recognized as Oliver, it was revealed she wanted to use it to bring her father back from the dead. When he was about to destroy the book, Oliver was chained up to a post by Zatanna. With the magic spell over Clark and Chloe return to their normal selves. Thanks to Clark, Zatanna realize that her father sacrficed himself so she could live. She later went to Oliver to apologies for her actions towards him, and decided to help him if he encountered any supernatural foes along the way by leaving him her phone number.

[edit] Video Games

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.

[edit] 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 from the "Satelite era" of the JLA.

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.

[edit] Appearances with Batman