An oft-repeated truism of superhero comics is creators can summon any idea, no matter how magical, to the page. The limits of that wonder are imposed not by budget (forgetting time and materials) but skill and imagination. Artist Javier Rodríguez’s skill has been revered for decades and Zatanna: Bring Down the House #1 makes clear his imagination is unrivaled in a stunning debut with writer Mariko Tamaki. All superhero comics might have the potential to be magic, but Bring Down the House is absolutely filled with the stuff.
The new Black Label miniseries focuses on Zatanna Zatara, the stage magician turned superhero, in the midst of performing shows on the Las Vegas strip. She is reluctant to do more than “tricks” as she frames it, even declining a Justice League invite following a traumatic childhood incident with magic when she was a child. The arrival of a mysterious, repeat audience member and emergence of a monster threaten both Zatanna’s status quo and to expose the terrors of her past.
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That story is filled with familiar hallmarks of Zatanna canon and a potent collection of themes. Zatanna’s blend of skill and self-doubt, projected confidence undermined by unaddressed trauma, and mysteries swirling about her past all serve to craft an enticing and sympathetic narrative. This should be no surprise for readers of Tamaki’s rich and varied comics work, which often emphasize the formative experiences of young women across many genres and styles. But Bring Down the House #1 is focused on establishing a framework for exploring these ideas in the four issues to come, leaving readers to focus on how Tamaki and Rodríguez are presenting the story.
It opens in the past with Zatanna performing on a card table for other children; it’s here Rodríguez uses his own colors to distinguish timelines. Childhood and adulthood both possess the artist’s clean lines, inventive layouts, and overlapping figures and panels, but color design instinctively distinguishes the two narratives. Childhood sequences are coated in softer pastels utilizing more gradients, while adulthood is brought into sharp relief with brighter colors and sharper lines to divide them. It’s not simply a functional choice, but a thematic one.
Both eras fluctuate between a more direct style of storytelling featuring Rodríguez’s characteristically dense but varied layouts and moments when magic enters the page. Both as a child and adult, Zatanna performs mundane (but still splendid) stage magic and encounters terrifying sources of otherworldly power. The former is largely delivered in gridded panels, while the latter often eschews standard panel borders and gutters altogether. When her father’s mansion appears on page three, the use of negative space and overlapping forms makes it clear that the existence of magic reshapes the reality readers expect.
This early flashback establishes expectations that pay off in a big way by the issue’s end. Transitions between the life of a performer and whatever haunts Zatanna’s steps down the strip or along the desert develop a sense of tension without explaining any of the underlying mystery. Threats are apparent from their very nature with no expository sequences required. And whether it’s a shadowy stalker or an outright monster, each appearance by these unknown forces is made terrifying by Rodríguez’s approach.
There are wonders throughout the issue and pages bound to enthrall even some cynical superhero readers, but the fireworks found when magic appears doesn’t undermine the excellence found in every page. Seemingly simple sequences like Zatanna’s morning routine are filled with details that inform her character and raise tension; every ounce of real estate on the page is utilized. In a debut that could assume readers already know who Zatanna is, Zatanna: Bring Down the House #1 uses every page to establish its heroine, story, and ideas in a universal fashion capable of bringing in any reader intrigued by the promise of a new adventure with a beloved DC Comics B-lister. In that way it’s a pure expression of comic book magic.
Published by DC Comics
On June 26, 2024
Written by Mariko Tamaki
Art by Javier Rodríguez
Colors by Javier Rodríguez
Letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover by Javier Rodríguez
