Thanks toBatman’straining, there’s oneJustice Leaguemember who has what it takes to thrive during the DC Universe’s darkest hour. After months of planning,Amanda Waller has donethe impossible and stolen the powers of nearly every metahuman on Earth.
In an instant, everything changed for the world’s heroes. Using her Trinity of Evil compatriots Failsafeand the Brainiac Queen, Waller was able to lure the heroes out into the open, then use the all-Amazo team Task Force VII to take their powers. But as the world’s remaining metahumans scramble for safety, one Justice Leaguer reveals a set of skills they’ve kept hidden.
Zatanna Has Amazing Martial Arts Skills Thanks to Batman
InSuperman #16by Joshua Williamson, Jamal Campbell, and Ariana Maher, the superhuman community is still adjusting after Waller’s initial attack. At the Fortress of Solitude, Superman is fighting for his life after being shot during a bank robbery after his powers were stolen by Task Force VII’s Last Son. Mister Terrific and Doctor Mid-Nite work tirelessly to repair the damage to Clark,but even they aren’t sure that Superman will get his powers backor if these injuries are going to be permanent.
Elsewhere, Waller’s Task Force agents are on the streets enforcing a strict curfew and looking for anyone with superpowers or any problematic vigilantes. A cloaked figure moves through the streets, doing their best to evade the agents. The figure approaches the outline of a door etched into a wall and says a magic word. Unfortunately, magic isn’t working for them right now. Even worse, the agents spot the figure and scan them,revealing that this powerless magic user is Zatanna Zataraand they draw their guns on her.
Zatanna thinks back to her youth and remembers a conversation with Bruce Wayne, who told Zatanna that she can’t always rely on her powers. With a smirk, Zatanna tosses her cloak at the agents and begins punching and kicking at them with precision and skill. As the confused agents shoot at her,Zatanna expertly dispatches both of Waller’s cronies by knocking them out cold. The fight draws the attention of more agents, but thankfully, Lex Luthor’s girl Friday Mercy Graves arrives to extract Zatanna and get her to safety.
Batman and Zatanna Have Been Friends For Years
The Justice League may have been together for years at this point, but long before the DC Universe’s greatest team ever assembled, a young Bruce Wayne befriended a future ally. The two first crossed paths when Zatanna’s famous magician father,Giovanni Zatara, was hired to perform for Bruce’s birthday party shortly after Thomas and Martha were killed. Bruce had left the festivities to be alone, but Giovanni had brought his daughter to the party and she took it upon herself to look for the hurting boy.
Zatanna and Batman’s first meeting can be seen inDetective Comics #833 (2006)!
Zatanna found Bruce and while the young man tried to brush her off, she stuck around to try and cheer him up with magic. Not just prestidigitation, either, but honest to goodness magic, generating bubbles out of thin air. Zatanna was one of the first people to make Bruce smile in the wake of his childhood tragedy.Batman later revealed that he studied under Zatannawhen he was traveling the world. Zatanna helped Bruce learn escape artistry, a skilled that proved to be highly useful when he finally became the Dark Knight.
Of course, as close as Batman and Zatanna have been at various points, they also had a major rough patch. DuringIdentity Crisis, it was revealed that Zatanna had mind-wiped Doctor Light after he broke into the League’s headquarters. Worse, Bruce had walked in when Zatanna was doing so and to prevent him from stopping her, she wiped the memory from Batman’s mind as well. Bruce felt incredibly betrayed by his old friend and kept her at a distance. However, after working together on a case,Batman and Zatanna were able to move past her mistake.
How Batman’s Training is a Boon for Zatanna DuringAbsolute Power
One thing that’s become clear is that Amanda Waller is playing for keeps. She wants metahumans dealt with permanently, which is why she’d invested so much time and effort to tech that can de-power them on a world-wide scale (not to mention creating a prison to hold every hero on Earth). She finally got what she was hoping for with her new batch of Amazos, which were improved upon by the Brainiac Queen and Failsafe. Green Arrow also emphasized that unlike previous encounters with Amazo, the DC heroes are not going to be getting their powers back.
But what Waller failed to account for is fighting skills, which are learned and take hours and hours of practice. Task Force VII has only been show being able to take away powers (or in Zatanna’s case, magic). But it doesn’t seem like they can take away people’s ability to run, talk, or fight. So even thoughZatanna can’t speak backwards to make the impossible happen anymore, she can still kick some serious butt when the situation calls for it.
It should also be pointed out that Zatanna doesn’t just know genuine magic, she knows all kinds of performance art tricks like slight of hand or, as she taught Bruce, escape artistry. Combine Zatanna’s natural knack for stage magic with the fighting skills she picked up from Batman and she’s a pretty formidable threat. Maybe not enough to take on one of Task Force VII’s Amazos,but definitely enough for Zatanna to hold her own against some of Waller’s lower-tier enforcers. With the dire situation the DC Universe is in, it’s better than nothing.
Zatanna’s Ready to Fight Alongside Her Allies
There’s no doubt that Zatanna’s at a disadvantage now that her magic’s gone. But thankfully, she took Bruce’s words to heart all those years ago and knows how to defend herself without the use of a spell. Things are almost certainly going to get worse before they get better, but at least Zatanna won’t be defenseless. As the heroes prepare a counterattack to take down Amanda Waller, Zatanna will be there, ready to put her fists to the test and doBatmanand the entireJustice Leagueproud.
