Z is for Zatanna

Zatanna #1 is written by Paul Dini with art by Stephanie Roux.  It was published by DC Comics with a cover date of July 2010.

The story opens with Zatanna performing one of her magic shows.  After the show, Zatanna is approached by a police detective who is seeking her help on a murder case.  Zatanna agrees to help and rides along to the murder scene.  At the scene, it becomes obvious why Zatanna's assistance was requested.  Everyone murdered had been turned into an animal or had their insides eaten by insects.  Zatanna finds a waiter who survived and uses her magic to see the event through his eyes.  Zatanna finds that the undead underworld boss Brother Night is behind the attack in an attempt to expand his criminal empire to the human realm.  He and his band of evil mystics killed the people in the room (a group of area crime bosses) to eliminate the competition and send a message.  Zatanna tracks down Brother Night and issues him a warning against crossing into the human realm again.  After Zatanna leaves, Brother Night visits a demon named Fuseli as he seeks assistance in attacking Zatanna.

Paul Dini has done some great work in comics, but I will always think of him as one of the head writers on Batman: The Animated Series.  I think that his experience in episodic animation has really paid off in the comics business.  He does a great job of writing self-contained stories and providing all the information you need.  In this issue, the scene where the detective meets Zatanna was used in a very organic way to recap who Zatanna is and what she does.  This is something that usually has to be addressed in narration.  This was a fun story and I really enjoyed Stephanie Roux's art as well.  This series lasted 16 issues, and only came to an end as a result of DC Comics' new 52 relaunch strategy.  Zatanna can now be found in the pages of Justice League Dark.

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