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.