SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA #1
© DC Comics

Mania Grade: B+
Issue: 1
Authors: Grant Morrison, Ryan Sook, Mick Gray
Publisher: DC
Price: $2.99

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SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA

ZATANNA is the third miniseries launched in Grant Morrison's ambitious SEVEN SOLDIERS epic that will run through seven four-issue miniseries and two bookend one-shots. All are written to be read either individually or as part of a single story. While I've been getting all of the SEVEN SOLDIERS titles, this it the first one I've read, other than the first one-shot. The question then, is if ZATANNA really stands on its own or if anyone that hasn't read the rest of SEVEN SOLDIERS will be hopelessly lost.

Zatanna is the most high-profile of the characters being reintroduced and reworked for SEVEN SOLDIERS, but I really only know her as the magician girl from the Justice League that speaks backwards to recite spells. This issue opens with Zatanna at a support group for Z-grade superheroes with self esteem problems, all of whom scoff at our title character for coming. Zatanna confesses that she is a "spellaholic" (addicted to casting spells, not proofreading) and discusses both her childhood and her most recent magical failures. The childhood tribulations of living in her father's shadow are charming enough, but among her failures are a thoroughly confusing interdimensional romp to find her father's lost books and a botched effort to summon the man of her dreams (she summons an evil force that, deep down, she really longs for without realizing it).

I really feel like a bit of a dunce after reading this, because I'm not sure if Morrison is trying to be deliberately obscure or if I'm just missing something. There's a lot of talk about magic and alternate realms that appears meaningful, but I'm not really in a position to comfortably call it nonsense (though I'm tempted). To Morrison's credit, ZATANNA doesn't appear too dependent on the other SEVEN SOLDIERS miniseries, in that it doesn't seem to refer much to the particulars of SHINING KNIGHT or GUARDIAN. Morrison was very specific about the format he intended for this series and, thus far, he appears to be sticking with his original vision.

Ryan Sook's pencils are quite good, though nothing to make me suggest that Alex Ross hang it up. It's a more-than-adequate job, if an unspectacular one. This is one of those books where I can see that DC is getting their money's worth, but I wouldn't grab the book for the art alone. Still, I can't draw, so what do I know? And he also draws lovely, waif-like women as evidenced by the first panel showing Zatanna at the support group.

All in all, a good book, if a bit confusing for some of us. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the entire SEVEN SOLDIERS epic and this certainly bodes well for it.