Zatanna: Bring Down the House #1 // Review
There’s a good chance that the Golden Dice Casino had its moment. That moment has passed. The rest of Vegas has moved-on. This is not to say that it’s entirely without its charm. There must be SOMETHING to the resident stage act. She’s the daughter of a big magician from way back. Just don’t call what she does magic. She’s left THAT behind. She’s about to find out that it isn’t ready to let her go in Zatanna: Bring Down the House #1. Writer Mariko Tamaki opens a promising limited engagement with artist Javier Rodriguez. Zatanna captivates in a cleverly unassuming fashion in the opening frame of a whole new story.
Zatanna’s on her way up to the hotel when she’s stopped by a Miss Perkins from the Millennium Hotel Group. They’re looking to offer her much more than a free show attended by a disinterested crowd of tired gamblers. She’s already turned down the Justice League, so she’s not going to have any problem turning down a lot of money. She’s happy where she is...until she finally decides to deal with the strange stalker who has been attending so many of her performances. A sinister demon bursts through the center of her stage mid-act. She doesn’t want magic. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t want her.
Williams gives Zatanna a very approachable and relatable twist. Magic-wielding superheroes have carved out a certain niche for themselves that’s really difficult for any writer to escape, but Williams has found an interesting alternative to the traditional. This particular incarnation of Zatanna is a bit more identifiable than Doctor Strange, Doctor Fate, Scarlet Witch or any of a dozen others. She’s slumming it in the shadows of the big lights...just doing what she can to get by while phantoms continue to haunt her.
Rodriguez’s art has a clever mid-1990s indie comics sort of feel about it with heavy ink and endearingly awkward quirkiness that goes a long way towards defining the atmosphere. This isn’t the glamorous feel of a big, splashy Vegas celebration. This is the desert mirage of Hunter S. Thompson’s Vegas mixed with a satisfyingly weird early Vertigo Comics sort of a visual feel. It’s appealingly washed-out and drab in a way that fully captures Zatanna’s slacker slump. Through it all, Rodriguez is able to maintain a sense of charm and warmth about the title character that serves as an endearing emotional center to the series.
This particular version of Zatanna has been established. It’s different from the stylish confidence that the character has so often exhibited in the past. It will be interesting to see where Williams takes the story from here. Undoubtedly the horrors that lurk around the edges of the panel are going to be moving more to the center of the panel. Hopefully Rodriguez has the strength of vision to ratchet-up the horror once it becomes the central conflict of the series next issue. The opening chapter feels well-executed. Hopefully Williams and company have something interesting to follow up with next month.
