Thanks to Batman Training, there is one Justice League member who has what it takes to thrive in the darkest hours of the DC Universe. After months of planning, Amanda Waller did the impossible and stole the powers of almost every metahuman on Earth.
In an instant, everything changed for the world’s heroes. With her trinity of evil compatriots Failsafe and the Brainiac Queen, Waller is able to lure the heroes into the open, and use the all-amazo team Task Force VII to take their powers. But as the world’s remaining metahumans scramble for safety, one justice league reveals a set of skills they’ve kept hidden.
Zatanna has amazing martial arts skills thanks to Batman
in Superman #16 By Joshua Williamson, Jamal Campbell and Ariana Maher, the superhuman community is still adjusting after Waller’s initial attack. In the Fortress of Solitude, Superman is fighting for his life after being shot during a bank robbery after his powers are stolen by Task Force VII’s last son. Mister Terrific and Doctor Mid-Nite work tirelessly to repair the damage to Clark, But even they are not sure that Superman will get his powers back Or if the injuries will be permanent.
Elsewhere, Waller’s task force agents are on the streets enforcing a strict curfew looking for anyone with superpowers or any problematic vigilantes. A shadowy figure moves through the streets, doing their best to avoid the agents. The figure approaches the outline of a door embedded in a wall and says a magic word. Unfortunately, magic isn’t working for them right now. Even worse, the agents recognize the figure and scan them, revealing that the powerless magic user is Zatanna Zatara And they draw their guns on her.
Zatanna thinks back to her youth and remembers a conversation with Bruce Wayne, who told Zatanna that she can’t always rely on her powers. With a smile, Zatana throws her coat at the agents and begins to punch and kick them with precision and skill. As the confused agents shoot at you, Zatanna expertly dispatches both of Waller’s cronies by knocking them out cold. The fight draws the attention of more agents, but thankfully, Lex Luthor’s Girl Friday Mercy Graves arrives to extract Zatanna and get her to safety.
Batman and Zatanna have been friends for years
The Justice League may have been together for years at this point, but long before the DC Universe’s greatest team ever assembled, a young Bruce Wayne befriended a future ally. The two first crossed paths when Zatanna’s famous sorcerer father, Giovanni Zatara, was hired to perform for Bruce’s birthday party shortly after Thomas and Martha were killed. Bruce left the festivities to be alone, but Giovanni brought his daughter to the party and she went looking for the troubled boy.
Zatanna and Batman’s first meeting can be seen in Detective Comics #833 (2006)!
Zatanna found Bruce and while the young man tried to brush her off, she stuck around to try and cheer him up with magic. Not just prestidigitation, either, but honest to goodness magic, generating bubbles out of thin air. Zatanna was one of the first people to make Bruce smile in the wake of his childhood tragedy. Batman later reveals that he studied under Zatanna When he traveled around the world. Zatanna helped Bruce learn escape artistry, a skill that proved to be very useful when he finally became the Dark Knight.
Of course, as close as Batman and Zatanna have been at various points, they also have a large common patch. During Identity crisisIt was revealed that Zatanna mind-wiped Doctor Light after he broke into the League’s headquarters. Worse, Bruce walked in when Zatanna did and so he wouldn’t stop she also wiped the memory from Batman’s mind. Bruce felt incredibly betrayed by his old friend and kept her at a distance. However, after working together on a case, Batman and Zatanna are able to overcome her mistake.
As Batman’s Training is a boon for Zatanna during Absolute power
One thing that has become clear is that Amanda Waller is playing for keeps. She wants to permanently deal with metahumans, which is why she’s invested so much time and effort into tech that can de-power them on a world-wide scale (not to mention creating a prison to hold every hero on Earth). She finally got what she hoped for with her new bundle of Amazos, enhanced by the Brainiac Queen and Failsafe. Green Arrow also emphasized that unlike previous encounters with Amazo, the DC heroes will not be getting their powers back.
But what Waller failed to account for was fighting skills, which are learned and take hours and hours of practice. Task Force VII has only shown to be able to take away powers (or in Zatanna’s case, magic). But it doesn’t seem like they can take away people’s ability to run, talk or fight. So though Zatanna can’t talk back to make the impossible happen anymore, she can still kick some serious butt when the situation calls for it.
It should also be noted that Zatana does not only know real magic, she knows all kinds of performance art tricks like small of hand or, as she taught Bruce, escape artist. Combine Zatanna’s natural knack for stage magic with the fighting skills she picked up from Batman and she’s a pretty formidable threat. Maybe not enough to take on one of Task Force VII’s Amazons, But definitely enough for Zatanna to hold her own against some of Waller’s lower-tier enforcers. With the dire situation in the DC Universe, it’s better than nothing.
Zatanna is ready to fight alongside her allies
There is no doubt that Zatanna is at a disadvantage now that her magic is gone. But thankfully she took Bruce’s words to heart all those years ago and knows how to defend herself without swearing. Things will almost certainly get worse before they get better, but at least Zatanna won’t be defenseless. As the heroes prepare a counterattack to take down Amanda Waller, Zatanna will be there, ready to test her fists and do Batman And the whole Justice League Pride.
Superman #16 is available now from DC Comics.