Zatanna by Paul Dini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — DC Comics

Zatanna is a magician, both in the sense of being a professional stage illusionist and in the sense of making real magic offstage. The stories contained herein are about her heroic use of the latter magic, though they are often set to the backdrop of her professional life, i.e. clubs and other entertainment venues. Daughter to a deceased legend of stage prestidigitation, The Great Zatara, Zatanna makes magic through verbal spells.
 
This sixteen-issue run consists mostly of standalone stories. There are a couple story arcs that span three or four issues, but for the most part the stories are wrapped up within an issue. Some of these stories dedicate panels to what’s happening with Zatanna’s long-running nemesis, Brother Night, even when the main story is unrelated to him (presumably so as to keep the readers ready to receive some larger arc.)

The stories are good, light-hearted escapism — even – perhaps – when they don’t mean to be. By that I mean that the subject matter is often dark, dealing in demons and nightmares personified, but Zatanna is usually so overpowered compared to her enemies and the book attempts to maintain a quippy comedic effect, and so the reader never feels their heroine is at risk of true danger. That said, the authors do put Zatanna in dire situations, and so the stories often do hook one into a state of wonder about how she will escape some awful fate (even while not doubting for an instant that she will.) Zatanna does have weaknesses and there is some attempt to suggest that magic has risks and consequences (otherwise, the stories would devolve into lukewarm absurdism rather quickly.)

I enjoyed this run. The art is crisp and imaginative, and the stories are often clever — if rarely taut.

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