Zatanna is the daughter of magician John Zatara and Sindella, a member of the mystical “Homo Magi” race.
Zatanna usually dresses in the garb of a female illusionist, with tuxedo jacket, white vest and gloves, top hat, leotard and fishnet stockings. (After becoming a full member of the Justice League, she appeared for some time in a more traditionally super-heroic red-and-blue spandex costume, but has more recently returned to the tuxedo and fishnets, possibly in tribute to her late father's memory.) She has inherited her family's ability to cast powerful spells. Like her father, Zatanna does this by describing the desired effect in backwards speech (e.g., sdrawkcab hceeps), similar to Rechtub klat, the backwards slang of Australian butchers.
Origins Zatanna made her living as a stage illusionist prior to discovering her magical abilities while investigating the disappearance of her father. Zatanna's search for her father was the subject of the first major comic book crossover in 1964, and in it, Zatanna interacts with Batman, Hawkman and Hawkwoman, and Green Lantern.
JLA Zatanna assisted the Justice League of America on a number of cases before being elected to membership in Justice League of America #161. During her tenure with the group, her power level diminished briefly, so that she could only control the four elements of Empedocles (earth, air, fire, and water); this limitation was later reversed.
Come Together In the 1993 limited series Zatanna: Come Together, Zatanna is worried about her lack of focus in using her magic. She decides that her father's style of magic is wrong for her, and explores her mother's mystical heritage.
Identity Crisis While Zatanna was a member of the Justice League, the villain Dr. Light brutally raped the Elongated Man's wife Sue Dibny and, when captured, went so far as to threaten the other JLA members' family members as well. The JLAers present voted to have Zatanna erase Light's memory of the rape as she had erased the memories of other villains in the past; however, it was also agreed that she should tamper with Light's mind so that he wouldn't pose a threat to their loved ones. Zatanna used her magic on Light, accidentally lowering his intellect as a result. In the midst of this spell, Batman appeared and tried to stop the group; consequently, Zatanna erased Batman's memories of the event as well.
Batman and Zatanna's relationship does not improve after he finds out about the alteration to his memory. When Zatanna helps Batman with reconnaisance at a Lazarus Pit, she asks him why he came to her. "I needed someone I can trust," Batman says. "I had to settle for you."
After departing from the team, Zatanna regains her full power and continues her stage career with the additional calling as a sentinel against mystical threats.
Catwoman Zatanna's mind-wipe of Dr. Light in Identity Crisis was not an isolated occurrence. Selina Kyle (Catwoman) learns to her dismay that her journey from villain to hero, and the steps she has recently taken to lead a moral life, were in fact the result of Zatanna's mental intervention. Selina comes to distrust her memories, motives, and the choices she has made since that incident. Zatanna appears in several issues of Catwoman and, at Selina's behest, mind-wipes Film Freak and Angle Man, two villains who had deduced Catwoman's secret identity.
Seven Soldiers A 2005 four-issue Zatanna limited series was published as part of Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory event. Zatanna reveals that the reaction of her peers to the mindwipes, as well as the inadvertent deaths of several people in a failed magic ritual she conducted, were so extreme that she lost her self-confidence and magical abilities. With the help of her new apprentice Misty Kilgore and the news of an impending apocalyptic battle, she regains her powers. Her continued solicited appearances imply that she will be one of the Seven Soldiers to survive.
