Broken Frontier

Zatanna has a problem. She’s a spellaholic. Anything she spells backwards comes true. So what happens when she wishes for something that might end the world?

This is the third mini-series in Morrison’s massive opus, Seven Soldiers. After Shining Knight and Guardian, Zatanna is slightly more humorous, slightly less straightforward and a whole lot more Morrison! Ever so slowly, I can see a picture being drawn together throughout these books. It’s early days yet but the central premise between these stories is still evident. Shining Knight and Guardian were, as promised, self contained and Zatanna is no different. Any fan of the character could buy just this one mini and (as the first issue suggests) be quite satisfied by what they got.

Zatanna and a bunch of other creepy occult-types have been having bad dreams. They believe that evil is coming and they must put a stop to it somehow. To do this they need Zatanna’s father’s books of knowledge. The books had been lost in this world so the gang must travel to another dimension where "every thought leaves a chalk-trace on the walls of the imaginal world."

This has been the most satisfying Seven Soldiers yet after the initial book-end issue. It is a complete adventure unto itself with humor and excitement and good old-fashioned-gotta-read-it-twice-or-thrice-to-understand-it Morrison vibes. I’m not familiar with Zatanna or indeed DC character history in general but I certainly didn’t feel lost. Morrison set down quite clearly the nature of Zatanna’s powers, her relationship with her father and her overall psyche that I was able to completely enjoy the proceedings. I also spotted a number of things which were presumably nods to DC lore which I don’t get but it doesn’t matter that I don’t. The issue revolves around a rather shaky plot device but after the confusing romp through the parallel dimension, such a simple explanation was surprisingly quite fitting.

Ryan Sook’s artwork is seems rather ordinary in the first part of the book but in the middle third it starts to work quite well. As he starts to illustrate Morrison’s whirlwind of quantum physics and evil monsters, his artwork seems much more suitable. There were times when I felt that the art lacked a little punch, something the inker and colorist should take some of the blame for, yet it was never disappointing or distracting.

Zatanna shows a return to some of Morrison’s roots while also being the most fulfilling and well rounded first issue in the overall series. As each mini seems to be improving as we go, I’m certainly looking forward to Klarion the Witch Boy! Not to forget further issues of Zatanna!

-Matthew Clark