wildcat

(Cover to Zatanna #4; pencils by Ryan Sook, inks by Mick Gray)

I mentioned before that Zatanna Zatara is my favourite super-hero these days. Part of it is the fishnets and the top hat; you can't help but be captivated by the character, who recognizes the element of performance in superheroics (all the splashing colours and spandex) and successfully integrates both sides of her career -- Zee has no need for a secret identity.

But it's also Zatanna's connection to language. Her power is the Voice, the ability to perform magic by speaking. She's a personification of language right down to her very core. She spent years trying to track down the Liberii Zatarae, the four books of magic left behind by her father, Giovanni "John" Zatara. During a particularly large threat to the planet, she's led to believe that these four books will be a great weapon in the fight. But, after harrowing trials have left her lost and barely holding it together, she encounters her father's spirit and learns the truth: she's the books, in herself:

"The Book of Water is a kind heart. The Book of Earth is a graceful body. The Book of Air, a keen mind. The Book of Fire is strength of spirit."
-- Zatara, Zatanna #4 (written by Grant Morrison)

Periodically, changes have been made to her powers. Never to the language aspect, which plays so well into meta-commentary in comics about comics, but she has had her powers reduced to merely controlling the elements. I prefer Zee when she can do anything but mostly doesn't because it isn't as satisfying or because she honestly doesn't know how to articulate a particular desire. She once summoned the man of her dreams and ended up with a shapeshifting monster because she was having prophetic nightmares at the time; the guilt blocked her magic and Zatanna was forced to face him with a couple secondhand magical weapons and a top hat. That's it: no power of her own beside some basic self-defense skills. She defeated him through showmanship and experience.