Zatanna #1

Talking Backwards

Written by Grant Morrison

Art by Ryan Sook, Mick Gray & Nathan Eyring

Summary: JLA member Zatanna attends a workshop for super heroes with low self esteem. In this group, she talks about her father Giovanni Zatara and how wisely he used his magic powers. Then she recounts the when she joined a group of wizards gathered in a magical house to form a séance so they can “journey” into a magical realm. They were brought together by shared dreams of “… little people from under the hill, locust armites with tiny riders, a queen on an eight legged horse.” Their journey takes them to where “All the books that were ever written in anyone’s head,” as Zatanna searches out her fathers four books she comes in contact with the demon Gwydion who murders her friends but leaves her alive. Gwydion was created by Zatanna when she wished for her perfect mate and now her friends are dead and she’s lost her own magical powers. Zatanna is approached at the end of the workshop by a teenage girl named Misty who wants to become her apprentice.

Zatanna Zatara. A powerful sorceress under the guise of a stage magician. She is potentially one of the most powerful heroes in the DC Universe, but even heroes can succumb to their emotions. Out of utter loneliness, Zatanna casts a spell that calls for the man of her dreams, who heralds impending doom.

Noteworthy Items:

Rabbits = desire, lust.

Gwydion - In the Mabinogion he's a great warrior/magician, a shape-shifter, and a trickster-figure. He figures prominently in the story "Math, Son of Mathonwy."

Sidhe(the word which maybe the basis of Sheeda) is Irish which has its mythology crossover with Welsh where Gwydion of Zatanna's mini comes from.

Ibis and Taia were both Fawcett characters, displaced through time from 12th Century BC Egypt.

Timothy Ravenwind has apparently been around since 1973, and was used in the Morrison/Miller Swamp Thing.

There have been mentions of comparisons to Promethea because of the interreality journey through magic featured in the issue.

Possible foreshadowing of the tragic ending of JLA #119? Zatanna recalls Baron Winter stating Timothy Ravenwind "yelling about the collapse of the watchtowers."

Possible references to various magicks. Possibly even Chaos Magick which Grant Morrison practices.

Last page, Misty summons a Gypsy Cab, different from the Pumpkin Taxi from Klarion and the Manhattan Guardian.

This issue takes place before Seven Soldiers Special #0.