Women in comic books – let’s face it, more often than not they get objectified. It just sort of comes with the role. Female comic book characters often end up in skimpy outfits with excessive cleavage and are secondary players to males in comic books. But what happens when you have a character who feeds off that aspect? Someone who chooses to dress provactively as part of her character? And what if that character kicks an insane amount of ass? Then you have a character like Zatanna.
Zatanna is the daughter of Zatarra, a Golden Age superhero, and Sindella, a homo magi. When Zatanna first started out, she was a stage magician in search of her missing father. This lead to the first major comic book crossover featuring her, Batman and Robin, Hawkman and Hawkwoman, The Atom, Green Lantern, and Elongated Man. She would then go on to assist the Justice League greatly, even becoming a card carrying member. At this point in her life, she began to doubt whether or not her father’s side of magic was right for her and began to only control the four elements before exploring her mother’s side of the family. Soon after, during the events of Identity Crisis, her importance is once again brought up against Dr. Light, and without her involvement, one of the biggest lead-ins to Infinite Crisis would never have happened (although it’s a spoiler I’ll refrain from telling to those who haven’t read it). She also had a somewhat relationship with Batman, although it never became more than close childhood friends (although it was addressed by both parties). She soon left the league after Infinite Crisis, returning full time to stage magic as well as joining the Sentinels of Magic and occasionally helping to save the world, including a role in Seven Soldiers of Victory by Grant Morrison. Sometime after this, including her adopting of a powerless Captain Carrot, she re-joins the Justice League as reserve member (although lately she has been with the Justice League quite frequently after the events of Final Crisis).
So now we have a brief run down on the importance of Zatanna in the DC world. Now why do I love her so much? Simply put, she’s just one of the awesome characters that bring such an original personality to the comics she appears in. Zatanna is a mildly lonely character who puts her heart and soul onto the stage, and this is where she focuses a lot of her energy. She also has one of the few legit reasons for why she dresses as she does, and it’s not just to look like a dominatrix. She states (in Seven Soldiers) that she dresses like she does because her whole life revolves around her performance as a magician, and the outfits are part of her act. Her act then drips into the superhero universe while she saves countless lives with her magical aptitude. She’s one of the few really powerful women in the DC universe, and I don’t mean that by sheer force of strength. She is almost a modern day magical Rosie the Riviter in how she promotes feminine awareness, and her often witty banter allows her to rise above most stereotypes in order to represent a strong female role. She is also a ridiculously powerful sorceress, possessing the ability to wipe someone’s entire mind, which isn’t something a lot of magical users can do, and if you ever need to take down Superman she’s the one to call. Zatanna has also showed reality bending capabilities with her magic, which puts her on par with the big name Justice Leaguers in my book.
Honestly, with all the love that goes around for Batman, I’m surprised people don’t go for Zatanna as much as I do (as far as character interests go) due to their strong relationship with one another. When Hush returns to Gotham as a power player, he even goes after Zatanna briefly before the Heart of Hush arc with Catwoman. On top of that, she had a relationship with John Constantine. Zatanna has managed to seduce two of the biggest loner’s in DC comics, so why isn’t she a bigger character overall? Granted, nothing physical ever happened with her and Batman, but as I mentioned before they did acknowledge the attraction, and this even led to some tenacity in her friendship with Catwoman. My favorite thing about Zatanna and her relationship life, though, is how dissatisfied with it. Let’s face it – with the way she looks, you’d think she’d be a much bigger dater. However, her role in Seven Soldiers starts with her in therapy discussing how lonely she really is, and I think that it’s a great portrayal of her. She could trick anyone she wanted into loving her, and yet she’d rather wait for her perfect match (who just happens to be a tiny little shapeless man who lives in a bottle and has existed for 42,000 years). It’s with that that I really love the character. Sure, she can play the minx and the sassy outgoing fox on stage, but she recognizes fully that a lot if it is just part of her act, and as strong as powerful as she is, she’s not above anyone else.
So let’s all raise a glass for Zatanna, one of the most underrated female characters of the now. I someday hope to see her light up the big screen in Hollywood, hopefully played by Mary Louise Parker (that would be seriously amazing), although I can’t complain about Serinda Swan to be honest. At the very least get her own on-going soon, which I think would be a fantastic read. It’d be one-part Madame Xanadu magic and one-part Spider-Man’s humor, and all-parts a great read.
