Zatanna #13 – Review

By: Paul Dini (writer), Jamal Igle (penciller), Jon Sibal (inker), John Kalisz (colorist)

The Story: Beware, Zee—you’re coming dangerously close to becoming a crazy cat lady.

The Review: DC has quite a lot of iconic characters, many of whom have some kind of hold on our public consciousness even if you’ve never read a comic.  But the true test of a character’s popularity comes out when they have to carry their own title.  Many of the great DC superheroes couldn’t make it—just look at Aquaman’s on-off solo career.  What determines the longevity of these titles is often not just the star him/herself; it’s also the strength of the supporting cast.

Besides her namesake father and cousin, Zatanna has no closely associated characters of her own, so Dini’s had to build her cast from the ground up.  Despite the multiple appearances of stagehand Mikey and Detective Dale Colton, you still have little to no idea who these people are, or where their association with Zee comes from.  Colton has particularly been a mystery with his inexplicable affinity for handling occult matters.

Dini finally makes a thorough effort to clear out some cobwebs from Colton’s history, which smartly ties into his strict watch over Brother Night.  The truth about the detective’s origins certainly has a suitably sordid flavor, not the least of which involving his mother’s mad ravings and behavior.  But how these revelations will develop his character in the long-term, or flesh out his role in this series—those questions remain open-ended.

Speaking of Brother Night, Dini also takes some pains to pump up his street cred as Zatanna’s first ongoing villain.  Since their early encounters mostly involved Zee dismissing his various lackeys, and most of his power originated from a much bigger demonic source, it was easy to classify him as an overblown thug.  But the ease with which he sways his fellow prisoners (and others) to his bidding, and the dark magicks he uses to break out (ladder of human bones—sick) indicates he may be much more competent a foe for Zatanna this time around.

Zatanna #10 – Review

By: Paul Dini (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), John Kausz (colorist)

The Story: This sadistic, knife-wielding marionette ain’t your mama’s puppet.

The Review: People have a tough time defining Zatanna’s position of power in the DCU.  Her magical abilities have had a lot of pretty wide swings: one moment capable of spectacular feats, like merging Aquaman’s spirit with the entire ocean, another limited to neat tricks, like turning fans to flamingoes.  Clearly, there’s heavy work to be done in cleaning up these inconsistencies.

This issue features some small steps in that direction.  You get a revisit to Zatanna’s family estate, Shadowcrest, a place Dini established with some flair back in Countdown but has rarely been seen since.  It’s still apparently packed to the gills with all kinds of imaginative stuff, including a wry stuffed dodo and gargoyle named, respectively, Abelard and Chauncy.

But this is all just scratching the surface of the imaginative things that can be done with the character.  Dini includes a lot of grandiose descriptions about magical rules and the mystic order, but you only see a couple pieces of evidence, which in this issue is pretty much a glowing crystal that compels the truth from people.  You just expect more creativity from DC’s one title dedicated to magic, featuring its premier magician.

Zatanna #2 – Review

by Paul Dini (writer), Stephane Roux (pencils & inks), Karl Story (inks), John Kalisz (colors), and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Zatanna battles Fuseli in the realms of nightmare and Brother Night makes Detective Colton an offer he can’t refuse.

What’s Good: Stephane Roux’s artwork in this issue is awesome.  He takes his game up to totally new levels for this issue.  A good part of it is due to much of the issue taking place in Zatanna’s dreams, which allows Roux to really cut loose with his lay-outs, allowing him to go wild with a couple of awesome splash pages or create pages that feel like organic collages while John Kalisz goes wild with the psychedelic colors.   Zatanna’s facial expressions are also really well done, instantly making her very likable.  Villains Brother Night and Fuseli look great as well; Brother Night’s barely changing sinister grin is creepy as hell and Fuseli reminded me of Gollum of LOTR fame.

Dini’s Zatanna continues to grow on me.  Her trademark sassiness is ever present and it was nice surprise to see her be completely unfazed Fuseli’s nightmares.  Instead going through the typical traumatic struggle with her past, Zatanna quickly interrupts Fuseli and starts kicking ass in the nightmare realm.  It was a total about-face from what I was expecting.  Dini also adds plenty of human touches to the character.  In constantly wanting a good night’s rest, Zatanna is instantly more sympathetic and vulnerable, which is in complete juxtaposition to her composure when battling Fuseli’s conjurations.  It’s really rather neat as Zatanna shows no vulnerability under stress, when we’d expect her to, but instantly becomes human outside of that stress.  If that’s not the mark of a superhero, I’m not sure what is.

Dini is also very effectively building up Brother Night.  Everything he does is subtle and minimal, just enough to hint at his power without ever pulling back the curtain.  There’s a demonstration of his power this issue that is really awesome in this respect; it suggests the sheer depth of his power without breaking out any pyrotechnics.

I also liked Dini’s depiction of Fuseli’s dream manipulation.  Instead of going with standard nightmares for his victims of falling or monsters or what have you, Fuseli’s constructions are realistic and close to life.  It’s far more effective and it makes a lot more sense.

Zatanna #1 – Review

by Paul Dini (writer), Stephane Roux (pencils), Karl Story (inks), John Kalisz (colors), and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Brother Night, crime boss of the mystic realm, looks to expand his empire into the human world, forcing Zatanna to lay down the gauntlet.

What’s Good: It’s clear relatively early on that this book feels a hole in DC’s line-up.  The very fact that this is a mystic title makes it feel different and greatly missed.  This is only heightened whenever the action leaves the human realm; when Zatanna confronts Brother Night in his lair or when Night tries to gain an ally in Fuseli, a demon of nightmares, it’s hard not to have flashbacks to great books like Sandman or Swamp Thing.

Given Dini’s much documented love for the character, there’s no surprise that Zatanna is expertly shown as a strong protagonist.  She’s a badass, pure and simple.  An enterprising, confident, and sassy female lead is always an easy sell, and that’s no different here.  Dini also begins an effort to mark Zatanna with an adversity to the idea of destiny as a defining feature.   I hope he sticks with this, as it could lead to intriguing stories in the future.  I actually feel that Zatanna’s openness and bluntness about this aspect of her beliefs serves better than subtlety; surprisingly, it makes the “I forge my own path” schtick feel less clichéd.

What I appreciate most about Dini’s work here, however, is how quickly he leaps into the action.  There’s only a bare minimum of set-up and next to no exposition.  We’re plunged headfirst into the first story-arc and conflict more or less immediately.  This leads to a quick, energetic read that almost fools you into believing that Zatanna has a large and well established back-story, or that Brother Night and his rogue’s gallery have been around forever when, of course, this is their debut.  It makes the book an engaging read and, more importantly, gives it a sort of confidence.