Pick of the Week
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Art by CLIFF CHIANG
Cover by STEPHANE ROUX
Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99
Here’s the thing: puppets are creepy.
Here’s another thing: Paul Dini has a demented side.
Here’s a third thing: Cliff Chiang is awesome
These are the three major things to take away from Zatanna #8.
I love Zatanna. I always have and I’m not entirely sure why. It can’t just be the fishnets because I’m not that shallow and she’s a drawing of a fictional character. But she’s always been one of my favorite second tier characters to the point in the past where whenever she would show up in a book I would think, “Awesome! Zatanna!”
And that was before Paul Dini got his mitts on her.
Former iFanboy columnist and all around awesome dude Paul Dini has a well known affinity for magic and for Zatanna Zatara, and for the last five or so years it seems to be his personal mission to single handedly raise her profile in the DC Universe. If he’s writing a book for any length of time, you can bet Zatanna will show up. Hell, he even retconned Batman’s history to make Zatanna not only an old childhood friend of Bruce’s, but he rocked my world by making her a possible love interest for Bruce. (And it’s no surprise that Zatanna was one of the few DCU guest stars on the old Batman: The Animated Series.)
What I’m saying is that it’s no surprise that Paul Dini is writing a Zatanna on-going series and it’s certainly no surprise that it’s one of the most fun books out there that no one is talking about.
Well, I’m talking about it.
The main thrust of Zatanna #8 is this: Zatanna is terrified of puppets. We’ve all got our things. Some people are afraid of spiders. Some people are afraid of snakes. And some people are afraid of puppets, what with their creepy, frozen glares and their tendency to come to life and appear over your bed holding a giant knife.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Zatanna is afraid of puppets and she’s seeking help from Dr. Jana Bodie a mystical therapist whose office exists between realities. This is one of the really nice and inventive touches that Paul Dini tends to bring to his books. Dr. Bodie (and he office) seem to appear differently to each patient. She seems like a normal therapist with a normal therapist’s office to Zatanna, but when her next patient, Detective Chimp, comes in to talk about falling off the wagon, Dr. Bodie appears as a chimp herself and her office a jungle. I loved that.
Back to Zatanna.
She explains to Dr. Bodie that the being scared of puppets thing isn’t normally a problem except that she was accepting an award at the Magic Museum in Los Angeles, which contained an exhibit on Oscar Hampel’s Merry-O-Nettes and it would seem that Zatanna kept seeing one of the puppets — the one with the creepiest frozen gaze — stalking her throughout the evening. What does this all mean? I’m not going to spoil the twists, but it involves repressed childhood memories of murder, magic spells, and an extremely creepy final page cliffhanger.
Speaking of things with the word “cliff”, guest artist Cliff Chiang couldn’t be better suited for this book. If you read his The Brave and the Bold #33 you know that he draws a great Zatanna and he’s the perfect guy for a book starring a beautiful lady that emphasizes sexiness without being exploitative. Chiang even uses a subtly different style than normal here. His line has a harder, rougher edge and it’s slightly sketchier than the normal smooth, clean lines we are used to seeing from him. But even with slight variation in his style, it’s still 100% Cliff Chiang which means it features some of the Top Ten Best Art in Comics Today. This is a title that has always featured strong art. When Zatanna was first launched, Stephane Roux (sidebar: for the longest time I thought it was Stephanie Roux) was the regular artist but he gave way to a series of guest artists, including this three part stint by Cliff Chiang before new regular artist Jamal Igle takes over with Zatanna #11.
I’m not a magic guy, per se, and I suspect that there are some people who hear about a book like Zatanna and think, “Magic! Ugh!” but don’t be so judgmental, people. Yes, it’s a book whose main character is a magician and there is a lot of magic in the book, but it’s a fun, whimsical, Zatanna kind of magic. Plus, with a veteran writer like Paul Dini he doesn’t let the story get bogged down in the magic. Instead he adds inventive and imaginative touches, like having the dress the Zatanna conjures up for her awards ceremony sparkle with real stars. She’s wearing space!
Zatanna #8 is a great jumping on point. If you’re at all curious about the series you can pick up this issue and read it without any prior knowledge whatsoever. It’s usually true with this book in general because Paul Dini’s extensive time in television writing means that he’s really good at making stories accessible to a new audience, but this issue in particular is especially well suited to those who might want to take a peek behind the magic curtain.
Conor Kilpatrick
Eht stenhsif tnod truh.
conor@ifanboy.com
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Aw Yeah! Finally this book gets some love!
Woohoo! Nice pick Conor! Will this be covered in the podcast when you guys come back from break?
@electricv01 Sadly, no.
Cool, another comic I’m already reading. I think this has happened now twice in the last four weeks.
Figures, the one time Zatanna is made POTW then yall can’t even talk about on this weeks show :(.
i missed this but will pick it up tomorrow, it’s too bad stephanie roux is gone after the cliff chiang run, she really has a good handle on zatanna, is she gonna come back after igle?
Cliff Chiang? How did I not pick this up?
@wangman31888 Stephane Roux is a guy. And I would assume they haven’t planned that far ahead on a book like this. All indications are that he’s done with this book.
^^lol whoops, still sad though
I bought this book for the first four issues but I felt it was doing anything special. Maybe I’ll catch up.
@conor You guys should at least give it a mention! Come on! It’s worth it! =)
With the news of the endding of Streets. of Gotham #21 in March. I couldnt give this POW status.
My heart is still crushed about Sts. of Gotham.
Matthew
“It all started with my Dad back in Boston… we were doing Vaudeville!”
Awesome.
this book has been awesome. My favorite new series of 2010, and i think one of DC’s best books. JLGL is awesome too.
Damn, I had no idea Cliff was drawing this one. I’ll have to grab it next week.
I haven’t read this yet, but this series, so far, has been really strong. The addition of Cliff Chiang only helps. I’m really looking forward to reading it.
Zatanna is arguably the closest thing to Gray, Palmiotti, and Conner’s Power Girl that we have now. It’s a fun read, and it’s kept me hooked since issue 1. Here’s hoping Dini stays on the back, and that the book doesn’t get cancelled prematurely.
One of my favorite books.
I had a good week of comics.
It’s so nice to see that Chiang still seems to like doing semi-regular interior work, despite his increasing work on covers. Really looking forward to reading this.
i love this comic. hey does anyone know if john constanine(it rhymes with fine) is gonna be part of the normal dcu again? wouldnt it be awesome to see him in a zatanna issue. i mean she appeared in swamp thing and hellblazer a few times.
@NawidA This is basically what I did. I thought about picking this up too. Hm. Maybe if it’s still there when I go to grab comics next week.
I’ve enjoyed MOST books from this series so far but I’ve not let myself get too attached to this book, for fear of seeing it get cancelled. It’s great to see it get some love here, perhaps 2011 will see a couple more issues of Zatanna getting POTW, at least one to get covered by the podcast I’m hoping.
I can’t argue with anything Conor’s said about the book here. A lot of fun…a lot of creepy… Seeing that Detective Chimp cameo was great, and I love the little twist with the shrink. Perhaps she can be a recurring character? Would love to see how other mystical folks, both good and bad, see her.
Great pick Coner. I’d kind of hoped this would be the pick but thought to myself ‘the only chance it has is if Coner has the potw’ I read it on the plane to Vermont, next to two guys who were arguing LOUDLY about Brand New Day of all things. I turned to my wife and said ‘hmm, do I chime in here?’ and she said ‘really? isn’t that like 3 years ago now?’ Good stuff.
Happy Holidays everyone.
And I meant One more Day…not Brand New Day, anyways, the story remains true.
The thing that struck me most about this issue was the revelation Z makes about her father mind-wiping her, brings things full-circle in a way for her in terms of Identity Crisis, and not that Z is a character that’s known to be hung up on daddy issues, think this would still have further repercussions on her emotionally and psychologically now.
Very Happy with this book. It was meandering for a while there but I think this issue gave it the boost it needed. Zatanna is one of my favorite characters. I was so happy when I saw Chiang was drawing this.
@Franktiger – yup, me too. The Identity Crisis zinger was what really got me. Great stuff.