Background
Height: 5’7
Weight: 127 lbs
Occupation: Stage Magician
-A descendant of Leonardo DaVinci, Cagliostro, Nicolas Flamel, and Nostradamus.
-A vegetarian.
-Has been a member of the Justice League of America, Justice League Dark, and Sentinels of Magic.
-Nicknames: The Mistress of Magic, Princess of Prestidigitation, and ‘Zee’.
Born to Giovanni Zatara, a talented magician and superhero, and Sindella, a member of the ‘Homo-Magus’ race, Zatanna’s destiny as a gifted magician was set from birth. In order to return to the Homo-Magus, Sindella faked her death after giving birth to Zatanna, leaving Giovanni to raise Zatanna throughout her early years. With her father’s guidance, Zatanna learned the ways of magic, escape artistry, martial arts, and stage performances to become a stage magician, and actual magician (hiding in plain sight and all that).
But when her father mysteriously disappeared, Zatanna went on a hiatus from show-biz for 20 years to find him. With Hawkman, Atom, Green Lantern, and Elongated Man’s help, Zatanna eventually discovered that her father had intentionally left. Turns out the evil sorceress Allura had placed a spell on Zatara that would cause both he and Zatanna to die should they meet in person. As a result, he hid himself away in the magical dimension, Kharma, in hopes of finding a way to undo the spell.
Which he did, after he successfully banished the sorceress with Zatanna’s help. With her quest now complete, Zatanna began working with the Justice League as thanks for their help, and proved invaluable due to her backwards magic. While in the league, Zatanna reunited with her mother as well, who ultimately sacrificed herself to save her.
Zatanna’s father unfortunately wasn’t long for the world either. While trying to fend off the Primordial Darkness alongside Swamp Thing, Doctor Fate, and a slew of other heroes, Zatara died in a seance ritual, sacrificing himself to The Darkness to save Zatanna. It wouldn’t be his last death. After the conflict was resolved, Zatanna returned to the limelight as a stage magician, and continued her work with the Justice League.
During which time the league began using her magical powers to erase the memories of villains to prevent them from continuing their evil deeds. Her erasing and overwriting Doctor Light, and Cat Woman’s memories was simple, but after others began objecting, she had to overwrite the memories of heroes such as Batman as well. A decision she would later regret.
Despite this controversial decision, Zatanna ultimately redeemed herself and became one of Earth’s greatest heroes, facing off against and taking down many mystical threats. Such as the cult leader Brother Night, her own dark doppelganger, and the Time Tailor Magician, Zachary Zor. Most recently, she has found herself working alongside Dead Man, John Constantine, and other mystical heroes in their own magic focused team: Justice League Dark.
Experience
Having been around since the 60s, Zatanna has a myriad of experience in combating the supernatural and much more.
-Zatanna Learned martial arts and magic from her father, Zatara at an early age.
-She mastered escape artistry to the point that she claims she could get out of a straight jacket when she was in kindergarden, and taught Batman the craft.
-Zatanna spent 20 years travelling across different dimensions and realities in pursuit of her father, and learned many things along the way. Her meeting with other heroes during the quest was also part of a secret training Doctor Mist intended for her.
-Because she usually casts magic by pronouncing words backwards, Zatanna trains herself regularly using flash cards so that she has backwards words memorized. Over the years, she has become so good at it that speaking backwards has become second nature, even when she has to create palindromes when speaking for her spells to work.
-Zatanna also learned magic from Nick Necro.
-In her own time, she has used portals to study magic across different eras.
-Even without magic, Zatanna is a skilled hand to hand expert, having received combat training from the Justice League, and claims to have a red belt in Martian Kung Fu.
-This is demonstrated in many of Zatanna’s hand to hand battles. Like when she took down several specially trained supernatural hunters without the use of magic.
-Should Zatanna need to, she can also magically give herself the hand to hand skills of other DC heroes, such as Black Canary.
-In terms of more mystical battles, Zatanna has gone toe-to-toe with many other magicians and supernatural threats. Such as the sorceress Allura, the serial killer turned cult leader Brother Night, The Main Man Lobo, the Time Tailor Zachary Zor, her own doppelganger, and her father Zatara.
Arsenal
Magical Outfit: Zatanna’s outfit has some magical protective properties thanks to a spell her mother casted on it. However, strong enough magical forces can overcome this protection.
Staff: Zatanna has on rare occasion fought using a staff gifted by her father, which she can use to channel magical energies. However, she almost always casts her magic by hand instead.
Crystal Ball: Zatanna possesses a crystal ball which she can use to see into the future and for clairvoyance.
Abilities
Escape Artistry: Even without magic, Zatanna is a skilled escape artist.
Magic and Mysticism
Zatanna describes her magic as the power of ‘belief’ and ‘asserting one reality then replacing it with a contradictory reality through the power of suggestion.’ The very laws of reality are hers’ to control. With just a few words she can make night into day, and turn off gravity. She typically activates this magic by speaking words backwards, like her father did, but this is just a means of focusing herself, and is not required for her to cast magic.
She has fired energy blasts and other spells without speaking backwards, or even speaking at all, in the past. Said magic stems from another dimension. A lot of these spells are improvised, but she keeps several hundred prepared and on-hand at any given time too.
Below is a breakdown of everything we’ve seen Zatanna do over her storied career, but theoretically, she can do just about anything with her magic as long as she has the backwards words to do so. Her magic is regularly stated to be bound only by her imagination. The only known exception is reviving people from the dead. And even that she technically sort of can do, it’s just the ‘price’ of casting such magic is usually too steep.
Levitation: Zatanna can levitate herself and objects.
Transmutation: Zatanna can transmute objects and people around her. Such as turning deadly gas into oxygen, bullets to sponges, people to doves, or an entire ship into rubber. Zatanna’s own father, whose magic she can do, once turned an entire crowd of people into rabbits.
Healing Magic: Zatanna can heal herself and others with magic. She once healed John Constantine who had suffered a near fatal stab wound and significant blood loss, and can cure things such as blindness. She also has managed to halt infections caused by powerful beings such as Swamp Thing.
Teleportation and Dimensional Traversal: Zatanna can teleport and move freely across dimensions. She can do this with others through her magic to both quickly move to other areas, and BFR opponents away. She can also make portals to a variety of locations, which she can use to Banish opponents just as easily. Her ability to traverse dimensions extends to higher dimensions.
Intangibility: Zatanna can become intangible via a ‘Phantom Form’.
Item and Object Conjuration: Zatanna can create items and energy constructs out of thin air. This includes things such as...
-A flying carpet.
-A giant pair of tweezers (complete with bag).
-Magical Cards that can explode on command.
-A giant hand.
-A giant lens.
Sleep Spells: Zatanna can render foes asleep with just a quick chant. The spell is powerful enough to work even on Martian Manhunter.
Element Manipulation: For a while Zatanna’s powers were nerfed, and her magic was limited to only manipulating natural forces. This of course changed, but she still has quite a few feats of manipulating elements. Such as...
-Calling down storms and lightning bolts.
-Manipulating atmospheric and cosmic winds around her.
-Suffocating foes by removing the air around them and their lungs.
-Creating giant ‘hands’ of water.
-Making earthquakes.
-Firing ice beams.
-Controlling trees and plant life.
-Harnessing and focusing light.
-Creating a blinding flash.
-Heating molecules to a temperature high enough to melt metal.
Decay and Deterioration Control: Zatanna can make material weaken structurally and decay on command.
Existence Erasure: Zatanna can erase things from existence with a simple ‘vanish’ spell.
Gravity Manipulation: Zatanna can turn off gravity, and make individuals be unaffected by it.
Life Bestowment: Zatanna can bring objects such as suits of armor to life.
Mystical Barriers: Zatanna can form barriers small enough to fit around her, and large enough to encompass entire buildings. Said barriers can repel attacks back at foes.
Binding Spells: Zatanna can magically bind foes in place, including a hoard of demons.
Astral Form: Zatanna can assume a spiritual form that ordinary people can’t perceive.
Paralysis: Zatanna can paralyze foes on command.
Appearance Manipulation: Zatanna can change her appearance and outfit, and the appearances of others via magic. She can even make a dress out of literal stars.
Invisibility: Zatanna can make herself invisible.
Illusions: Zatanna can make an army of Illusory Duplicates.
Mind Manipulation: Zatanna has manipulated the minds of those around her in a variety of ways. Such as...
-Mind controlling enemies to fight one another.
-Entering someone’s psyche (though this can be very dangerous).
-Re-writing The Top’s personality.
-Commanding a hunger demon to eat itself.
-Communicating with others via telepathy.
Spiritual Awareness: Zatanna can perceive and speak with spirits.
Soul Manipulation: Zatanna is stated to be able to ‘move souls’ and has many feats of manipulating souls. Such as...
-Turning someone into a (literally) soulless lump of gold.
-Resurrecting Nightmare Nurse using a fraction of her own soul.
-Reconstructing the mind and spirit of Dead Man.
-In one of the Elseworld comics (admittedly an alternate continuity), Zatanna controlled and purged tens of thousands of souls from The Beast.
Summons: Zatanna is capable of summoning different creatures and lifeforms to help her in combat, including…
-Other members of the Justice League. While she will usually summon the real ones for assistance, should they not be available, Zatanna can make literal duplicates of them through magic to assist her.
Energy Manipulation: Zatanna can transfer energy to people.
Damage Deflection: Zatanna can cast a spell that passively ‘reverts traumas’, causing all damage meant for her to be sent back to the opponent.
Power Amplification: Zatanna can increase the power of both her own attacks, and the attacks of others via magic.
Underwater Breathing: Zatanna can use a spell to breathe underwater.
Size Manipulation: Zatanna can change her size to shrink or grow large enough to pull down a universe.
Power Nullification: Zatanna can take away and return others’ powers, and revert powerful transformations. She can also undo magical spells simply by chanting ‘undo’ backwards. She can do this as many times as she wants.
Runes and Magic Writing: When Zatanna is incapable of casting magic with regular words, she will resort to other methods. She can cast magic by writing spells in her blood, and in flames. She has also used runes and sigils when it wasn’t ‘safe’ to use her regular magic.
Magical Containment: Zatanna is capable of trapping and containing people and creatures in objects. She managed to trap and bind Fuselli, a dream demon, within her hat.
Exorcism: Zatanna can exorcize demons.
Time Travel: Zatanna can freely travel through time, and send others to different time periods via portals.
Time Manipulation: Zatanna can manipulate time in many other ways too. Such as…
-Slowing down the flow of time for specific objects.
-Stopping a single foe from moving.
-Stopping a group of heroes, including Etrigan.
Language: Zatanna is fluent in Spanish, and can magically translate other languages.
Magical Detection: Zatanna can sense and detect mystical powers and influences around her and others. This extends far enough to track people across dimensions.
Miscellaneous Reality & Probability Manipulation: There are a lot of other miscellaneous things Zatanna has done over the years through magic that don’t fit into a specific category.
-Caused an opponent to drop their gun.
-Caused a weapon to misfire.
-Took away an audience’s vision.
-Gave Wonder Woman a ‘lucky landing’.
-Literally broke down panels and the very laws of reality.
Illusion Resistance: Zatanna has some impressive showings of dispelling and distinguishing illusions from reality.
-Realizing she’s trapped in an illusion of Allura’s creation.
-Freeing herself and Batman from an illusory dream.
Possession & Soul Manipulation Resistance: Zatanna can place a barrier to prevent her soul from being possessed and manipulated.
Mind Manipulation Resistance: Once when the entire planet was mind controlled by ‘Mind Mines’, Zatanna created a spell that freed all of them from said mind control.
She has also freed Batman’s soul from an artifact possessing him, and broken free of a love spell placed on her.
Existence Erasure Resistance: Zatanna has made a barrier that held back Pralaya. Who, aside from being the embodiment of non-existence, had essentially erased and consumed everything in the story prior.
Energy Absorption & Corruption Resistance: Zatanna can cast a spell to stop Pandora’s Box from feeding off of and corrupting her magic.
Transmutation Resistance: Zatanna can undo transmutation spells inflicted on her and others.
Other
Shadow Crest: While not a weapon per-say, Zatanna has access to a mystical mansion located in its own dimension called Shadow Crest. This mansion has been passed down throughout her family’s history. She can teleport herself and others to it whenever she wants, banish foes from it, has an entourage of mystical servants, and several miscellaneous creatures such as a genie to help her.
House of Mystery: While typically in John Constantine’s possession, Zatanna has been the owner of the House of Mystery in the past as well. The house is similar to Shadow Crest, and managed to hide away from Pralaya, even when she was destroying the multiverse. The house can also repair itself if it gets damaged.
Feats
Strength & Destructive Power
-Harnessed a year’s worth of sunlight into a single blast of energy. (Justice League of America (1960), Issue 244, Page 12-13,
-Toppled a building with a localized earthquake. (Justice League of America (1960), Issue 255, Page 10)
-Created a giant stone wall large and strong enough to imprison a hoard of giant demons (Blue Devil, Issue 5, Page 19)
-Created a thunderstorm (Justice League of America 80 Page Giant, Page 34)
-Smashed apart two large slabs of stone (Secret Origins (1986), Issue 27, Page 37-38)
-Covered the moon in an ocean (JLA Black Baptism, Issue 2, Page 3)
-Literally pulled Zor’s magical universe down around him (Seven Soldiers Zatanna, Issue 4, Page 14,
-Caused a rupture in space and time across the DC multiverse as an after effect of hers’ and John Constantine’s K’am D’eva spell. (Justice League Dark, Annual #2, Page 34-38 for the feat, Justice League Dark, Issue 39, Page 16-17 for additional context)
Speed & Agility
-Turned bullets into sponges after they exited their chamber (Adventure Comics (1938), Issue 421, Page 31)
-Blocked a laser ray by raising a shield. (Justice League of America (1960), Issue 178, Page 7)
-Sweeped across the globe scanning millions of individuals and travelling to dozens of locales in minutes. (Supergirl (1972), Issue 4, Page 24)
-Dodged a bolt of lightning. (Zatanna Special, Page 16)
-Dodged arrows. (Zatanna (2010), Issue 15, Page 9)
Durability & Survivability
-Blocked the heatwave of a nuclear blast. (Justice League of America (1960), Issue 208, Page 21)
-Shielded herself and Catwoman from two large missiles that destroyed a skyscraper. (Gotham City Sirens, Issue 19, Page 7-9)
-Alongside Sargon, Doctor Fate, Etrigan, and John Constantine, created a barrier around the Earth to stop a collision with Mars. (Martian Manhunter (2015), Issue 11, Page 13-15)
-Survived a sound blast from Green Lantern. (Green Lantern Rebirth, Issue 2, Page 14)
-Created a barrier strong enough to halt Pralaya’s destruction of the multiverse. (Justice League Dark, Issue 40, Page 9)
Scaling
Zatanna has consistently fought with DC heralds and much more, and as such should scale to many of the most powerful entities in DC. There is some debatable scaling surrounding several notably powerful characters as well. Those being Zor and Pralaya. In the former case, she pretty handily defeated Zor, who had given the Spectre trouble in the past. In the case of the latter she managed to create an enchantment that held Pralaya off (albeit, temporarily) while she was consuming the entire multiverse.
-Zatanna claims she was as powerful as Pre-Crisis Superman (note: She later regained this level of power).
-Her barrier survived blows from Mary Marvel, who is comparable to Shazam.
-Fighting and overpowering Lobo with magic.
-Overpowering John Constantine.
-Creating an enchantment to hold back Pralaya.
-Harmed Star Breaker, who is said to have the power of 1000 of our suns.
-Zatanna asserts she is stronger than Phantom Stranger and Nightmare Nurse.
Superman
-Crossed billions of lightyears in a nano-second
Martian Manhunter
-Reached out to the minds of Earth’s population within a planck moment
Doctor Fate
-Perceived information while riding the big bang at the ‘velocity of God’.
Potential Scaling
Pralaya
-Destroyed the entirety of the DC multiverse, save for the House of Mystery.
Weaknesses
While Zatanna’s magic is powerful, it requires focus and willpower to be able to perform. If her focus is clouded or hindered, or her belief in herself wanes, she will struggle to cast magic. More powerful magic can also stop and interfere with her own. And while she has shown she doesn’t need to speak backwards to cast magic, Zatanna has an awfully bad habit of jobbing in certain comics by having opponents silence her. Though being completely fair, even when silenced she has work arounds and ways of casting magic without speaking.
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