The Untold Truth Of DC's Zatanna

If you only know DC characters from movies and TV, you might not know much about Zatanna Zatara. Don't be fooled by her relatively low profile — Zatanna has been a staple of comic books since the 1960s, and has a legacy that dates back to the first appearance of Superman. Zatanna is also a conceptual bridge between various eras of comic book history, and a lynchpin of the DC universe many times over. Furthermore, she's one of DC's most enduring heroines, deserving of mention in the same conversations as Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Harley Quinn. 

Beyond all of this, Zatanna is also a massively fun character. How many DC heroes can you think of who are just as comfortable tackling crime alongside the Dark Knight in the Batcave as they are getting loaded with John Constantine? How many massively powerful superhero sorcerers use their mind-bending talents to pull off a killer stage show? How many DC do-gooders have managed to use their prodigious powers by harnessing the power of a Speak & Spell? Only Zatanna combines such seemingly contradictory attributes into one person — and does it with aplomb at that. She's a hero, a performer, a master of mysticism, and a seriously cool person. For those not familiar with her, get ready to fall under Zatanna's spell as we delve into the untold truth of this iconic character.

Zatanna might not sport fins, multiple eyes, or wings, but don't be fooled: She isn't actually human. Like her parents, Zatanna is a member of the Homo Magi race of humanity, whose members are naturally endowed with the ability to wield magic. This race has existed since the dawn of civilization, evolving alongside Homo Sapiens and frequently intermingling with them (and other species, like Atlanteans). Zatanna's powers, as a result, are not the result of simple mysticism, but are her actual genetic birthright.

This explanation, of course, was given long after John Zatara helped kick off the Golden Age of Comics. At that time, loosely explained mystical origin stories were perfectly acceptable in the burgeoning superhero genre: Indeed, Zatara's creator, Fred Guardineer, spent some time writing another character called Merlin the Magician, whom Guardineer decided should also cast spells by speaking backwards. As the medium progressed through what are now called the Silver and Bronze Ages, writers started cooking up more scientific explanations for superpowers, often retconning them into the origin stories of Golden Age characters. Thus, the Homo Magi race was born, and Zatanna became one of its representatives.

Zatanna first appeared in the pages of Hawkman #4, as part of a storyline entitled "Zatanna's Search," which spanned six issues over the course of two years, all written by Gardner Fox. But unusually, those six issues didn't take place in sequential order under the banner of a single title. Instead, after encountering Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Zatanna bounced from The Atom to Green Lantern to Detective Comics, searching for her missing father. The storyline culminates with Zatara's official return in Justice League of America #51, by which point the affair had become the first modern, multi-title crossover in comic book history.

Crossovers would go on to become the bread and butter of both DC and its rival, Marvel Comics. Of course, modern crossovers often have their own titles, featuring a unique mix of characters. They're also a lot more careful about letting you know which issues you need to pick up to gather the pieces of the entire story. The six installments that comprise "Zatanna's Search" were released upon an uninitiated audience, without the benefit of promotional guides and marketing roll-outs. But the essential formula, which gets readers to buy multiple titles to keep up with their favorite superheroes, endures. Thus, Zatanna is the original crossover character.

Zatanna's name might not be on the cover all that often, but she makes up for this with historical importance and the sheer breadth of her appearances. Those two elements combined in 1986, when Zatanna became one of the few mainstream DC Comics characters to cross the line between comic book audiences. That was the year she appeared in Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing, in a story that kills off her father, Zatara, and establishes her romantic relationship with fellow magician and future Hellblazer protagonist John Constantine. It also loosely connects to the legendary crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Saga of the Swamp Thing was one of the first comics to officially ditch the Comics Code Authority, which had been regulating comic book content since 1954. A mature horror comic that indulges in both violence and sex, it is intended for adult readers rather than children, and was a major part of starting DC down the path that would eventually lead to the creation of Vertigo, their adult-oriented imprint. For the most part, Vertigo characters and storylines were kept separate from those of DC Comics proper, but Zatanna made the leap several times, nearly always in John Constantine stories. In Hellblazer #63, the first issue of Hellblazer published under the Vertigo name, she attends Constantine's birthday party and smokes marijuana grown by Swamp Thing. If that doesn't show off her range, we don't know what could.

Zatanna's history with the Dark Knight technically goes back to her second-ever appearance in Detective Comics #336, but we do mean technically –- Batman and Robin battle a witch in that issue, who, Zatanna explains in Justice League #51, had actually been her in disguise. It's a mild retcon that allows Batman to join in on the conclusion of "Zatanna's Search." But Batman also says in Justice League #51 that, barring the witch encounter, he's never met Zatanna before, a statement that has since been subjected to a considerably larger retcon.

According to the new history laid out in 2007's Detective Comics #833, Gothamite John Zatara was once friends with Bruce Wayne's father. Bruce and Zatanna knew each other as children, and Zatara goes on to train an older Bruce in the skills of escape artistry. This arrangement leads to Zatanna knowing about his plans to become Batman and developing a teenage crush on him. As the years go on, their crimefighting work draws them closer together, and, in Detective Comics #843 and 844, they discuss the possibility of a romantic relationship. Zatanna ultimately nixes the idea, suspecting that Bruce's passion for her could never be stronger than his obsession with his personal demons, but they remain friends, as they have been in some form since 1965.

There's a reason supervillains are so anxious to shut Zatanna up: Her sorcery allows her to break the laws of physics and fundamentally alter the shape of reality. Over the years, the effects she's created range from healing to elemental control to transmutation to predicting the future –- and those are some of her more mundane spells. While you don't often see her squaring off against the likes of Doomsday or Darkseid, that's only because she's busy tackling evil magicians like Brother Night, Nimue Ravensong, and Zachary Zor, as well as extra-dimensional and demonic beings like Allura, Fuseli, and Mammon. She's also the guardian of artifacts such as the Gnosis Sphere, and maintains a vast occult library in her mystical mansion, Shadowcrest.

In a universe boasting its own modern mythology of gods and heroes, Zatanna isn't always placed in the upper echelon of DC characters. But that says more about how she's been utilized than about what she can do –- which is, theoretically, anything. As an example, probably Zatanna's single greatest feat of magic occurred in 2005, during Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers series. At the story's climax, Zatanna casts a spell that retroactively re-writes time and space to fulfill a prophecy and defeat an alien race called the Sheeda. It's the sort of thing she can pull out of her hat at any moment, meaning that Zatanna is always ready to make her case as one of DC's most powerful heroes.