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aboutzatanna · 2 years

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Meet Zachary Zatara! Zatanna’s Cousin

I’ve covered Zatanna’s mother, father and now to complete my series of posts on the pairing, lets look at Zachary Zatara.

Zachary is a magician just like Zatanna, making her one of the few female heroes with a male side kick. He was also a member of the Teen Titans during Geoff Johns run which the YJ show draws heavily from.

I’ve included a recommended reading guide for him at the very end of the post including some lesser known, obscure stories so do check that out if you’re interested in wanting to read more about him.

The inspiration for Zachary goes back to writer Mark Waid and artist Alex Ross Kingdom Come OGN. KC was seminal back in the day and had a huge influence on the DCU both positive and negative.

A big part of KC were the children of various superheroes and super villains whom Superman, freshly out of retirement, recruits into his new super powered army in order to fix a world ravaged by out of control anti heroes like Magog.

One of them was John Zatara, the son of Zatanna and Constantine (the latter of whom was walled off from the rest of the DCU at the time). It’s not known what happened to Zatanna and Constantine in the KC timeline, Zatara being their kid was only revealed in the back of the Absolute edition of Kingdom Come.

Zatara barely had a speaking role in the OGN, here is a couple of scenes where he shows up in:

He also showed up as a supporting character in ‘Kingdom Come: The Offspring’ one shot by Mark Waid and Frank Quietly which focused on Plastic Man’s son Earnie a.k..a ‘Offspring’ where it was mentioned that he was dating Avia, the daughter of Scott Free and Big Barda.

Also note that all of his dialogue was written backwards throughout the whole comic even during normal every day conversations:

He also appeared as a background character in The Kingdom Special as one of the many heroes trying to protect Superman and Wonder Woman’s kid from Magog.

Given these minor appearances it’s really hard to get a feel of Zatara’s personality here. One gets the impression that Avia is the assertive one in their relationship whilst Zatara is the passive one. And...this is just my speculation here, but I think KC Zatara might be autistic or at least, on the spectrum.

After KC’s monumental success, DC began incorporating elements from KC into it’s main universe, and just to give you an idea of how immense and influential KC is and continues to be:

(feel free to skip past these bullet points if you’re not interested in KC’s influence)

- Maxine Hunkel, Magog, Jai and Iris West first appeared in KC then later in the main DCU.

-The concept of a Blue Beetle who wore mecha armor ended up becoming Jaime Reyes.

-It also popularized the idea of Bruce and Talia having a son. The idea originated from ‘Son of the Demon’ where we first see their infant child given up for adoption. Then in KC we see him grown up and named ‘Ibn Al Xuffasch’ and later incorporated into the comics in the form of Damian Wayne. Xuffasch also had a romance with Nightstar (Dick and Kory’s kid) much to Dick’s chagrin.

-Alan Scott’s GL armor was introduced in KC that later appeared in the main universe.

-WW’s golden eagle armor which has appeared in both the main universe and in WW84, her being the one Trinity member being willing to kill in the series which also directly paved the way for Rucka’s Sacrifice arc in which she killed Maxwell Lord. Granted she killed once during Perez’s run but the context of how it happened in Sacrifice directly pertains to KC. This lead to the false perception of Diana being a blood thirsty warrior and her thus her characterization in early Nu52 era.

-KC Superman even showed up in the main universe and even talking to Diana about how the main universe was turning similar to his.

-The concept of Diana being exiled from Themyscira. In KC universe she was exiled because of her failure to change Man’s World. In JLU, 2017 Wonder Woman and Bloodlines DTV movie, her being exiled would be incorporated into her origin story instead (not for the better, if you ask me). In the Golden Age, Post Crisis and Rebirth versions, she left voluntarily with the blessings of her mother and sisters and was later able to reunite with them.

-Even the core concept of the Infinite Crisis event of older heroes trying to impose a nostalgic outdated view of heroism on a world they deemed too dark and cynical was clearly inspired by KC.

-JLU’s Cadmus arc and the paranoia about Superman turning the JL into a super powered army, the fight with Captain Marvel on the show, things turning out for the worst despite Superman’s best intentions and Batman disproving of Superman sentencing criminals to the Phantom Zone felt like they were directly drawn from KC.

-CW’s version of Crisis on Infinite Earths where Brandon Routh’s Superman had a costume similar to KC Superman and even has elements of his backstory like Lois, Perry and his co workers being killed by a gas attack from the Joker.

-Even CBR exists because of KC since the site started off as a fansite for Kingdom Come before turning into a forum and later a comic book news site. So yeah, good and bad influences on the DCU all round.

1/3 Zachary Meets Infinity Inc & Black Adam

Anyway, back to Zachary Zatara, he first debuted in Teen Titans Vol 3 #34 and was created by Geoff Johns and Tony Daniels. Although his first published appearance was in Teen Titans, his first chronological appearance would have been in 52; a weekly series which covered the gap year in which Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were inactive and other heroes were filling in for them.

Zachary showed up in 52 #21 as part of the Teen Titans team investigating the new Infinity Inc (a group of kids given super powers by Luthor).

Note that’s not Big Barda. That’s Little Barda. A New God who takes after Barda and clearly based off of Avia.

Zach gets off on the wrong foot with one of the Infinity Inc members:

Later, in the issue, one of the Infinity Inc members was killed in battle (thanks to Luthor’s machinations) and Zach and Little Barda are seen at the funeral:

Note that Zach is associated with Raven.

Later in 52 #32 Zachary is among the crowds of young heroes gathered to fight Black Adam (he’s right next to the Superboy statues palm):

Among them is also a young, costumed Eddie Bloomberg aka Kid Devil whom we will see will be an important character for Zachary:

In World War III #3 we get a small glimpse of Zachary fighting Black Adam as well as Raven reacting to him getting hurt (these two always had a connection):

And finally in the 52 #50 we see Zachary working with Zatanna and several other mages attempting to stop the rampaging Black Adam with the help of Billy Batson:

Zatanna and Zachary don’t share any dialogue with each other in the issue but it’s cool to see them working together as well as seeing Zatanna and Billy effectively leading the magical side of the DCU and I love that it’s Billy who figured out how to defeat Black Adam.

2/3 Zachary & Eddie + The Teen Titans

Zachary would make single panel appearances in Teen Titans #34-38, they were from bits and pieces from Cyborg’s recordings from when he was in a coma. The ‘present’ day of these issues were set the year after the events of 52 Zach complains about Raven’s powers affecting him and we also get hints of his personality:

So Raven has gone missing and in between fighting super villains, the Titans go on search for her which leads them to meet Zachary.

Zachary finally gets the spotlight in Teen Titans #39 in which we are also introduced to his assistant, Bunny and he and the Titans don’t really get along:

We also learn from Cyborg that his powers were only awakened recently after the events of Days of Vengeance (long story short; Spectre went crazy, Nabu died, magic died and was reborn):

Zachary is kind of snobbish, arrogant and rude but they are also a way for him to hide his insecurities and fears.

As you can see he also has history with Kid Devil/Eddie Bloomberg and we finally learn about their history and Zachary’s role in Eddie’s transformation from the kid in the suit you saw in 52 to the humanoid devil in present day in Teen Titans #42.

So, Eddie is a huge of Blue Devil aka Dan Cassidy and idolizes him much to the latter’s chagrin , this leads to him wanting to get powers just like BD. One day he gets a strange mystical candle from a stranger which he takes to Zachary for consultation:

So despite Zach’s warning, Eddie goes through with the deal and to no one’s surprise, his trust in Blue Devil is in fact broken, when Eddie learns that Blue Devil was indirectly responsible for his Aunt’s death. (Long story short: Neron promised him a way to return to being BD if Daniel blew up a power plant, the latter did but the feed back ended up killing Eddie’s aunt who was miles away. Dan Cassidy kept it a secret until Eddie confronted him about it).

So yeah, Eddie is pretty much damned now but Zach tries to console him the best way he can, in Teen Titans #56:

This era of Teen Titans was heavily dependent on making the Titans into a Junior Justice League. Along with Zachary, this run also introduced Miss Martian and reinvented Superboy/Connor from a fun loving Booster Gold style glory hound to the angsty black t-shirt wearing Superboy we know today and Cassie Sandsmark from the tomboyish fangirl to the cheerleader archetype. Instead of a stand alone squad the Titans were now tutored by older heroes, at least initially. Suffice to say, this run had a huge influence on the Young Justice show.

As for the run itself, I wasn’t a fan of how Robin, Wonder Girl and the Wonder Twins were written. Especially under Sean McKeever post Infinite Crisis (though tbf he faced a lot of editorial hurdles) but the Eddie/Zachary stuff was a highlight for me personally.

Side note, Teen Titans #52 also gave us a peek at a possible future version of Zachary, you can tell he is evil because he has a goatee:

Zach also showed up in Tim Drake’s Robin series (Robin vol 2 #166) to help him out with some bad guys:

There are so many dark haired caucasian costumed guys around, especially in Gotham that even the villains get confused.

There are some interesting parallels between Zachary and Donna Troy. They’re both the side kicks of female heroes, both of them debuted in a title that didn’t star said female hero and they operated independently for a while before actually getting to interacting with their female mentor.

Despite Zachary being a ‘part time’ Titan, he would show up in the 6 issue Terror Titans mini in which the Titans took on Clock King who was running a meta human fight ring. Zachary and the Titans were captured and mind controlled to participate in the tournament and somehow Zach lost to Terra in a straight up fight:

(I call bull shit, maybe he threw the fight)

Also Zach being emotional about Kid Devil is what got him caught in the first place:

Meanwhile, in the main Teen Titans Eddie has managed to beat his curse and returned to normal human form.

Then in the follow up in Teen Titans #69, he harshly turned down Wonder Girl’s offer for Zach and other teens held prisoner by the Clock King to train with the Titans.

His next appearance in the Titans would be part of a back up title called Coven of Three which ran from Teen Titans #84-87. The series starred Zachary Zatara, Traci 13 and Black Alice in which the Demon’s Three trapped them in a world that brought their deepest desires to life. All of it as part of a gambit to escape their imprisonment and threaten the world again.

The series begins by showing Zach in the least flattering light as possible:

Then drops this reveal on us when Zach’s dream world is shown:

Yes, he had a girlfriend with unborn twins who died untimely deaths. How old is this kid anyway? Was it a teen pregnancy? Does Zatanna know? This is one of the many plot threads that could have been addressed in the Zatanna ongoing were it not for it’s untimely cancellation and the 52 reboot.

Traci 13′s dream is a world where she is worshiped as a Goddess and Black Alice’s dream was a world where her parents were alive and they had a normal family unit. Of the three, she was the most reluctant to give up her wish. It made things more complicated because undoing the spell required the consent of all three individuals. Zachary and Traci have relatively normal, stable lives to return to, Alice doesn’t.

We also got this interesting scene showing the difference between a book worm mage and someone who has natural abilities but never studied actual theory:

Zach also brings up Eddie again and he gets a moment with Kate (his dead gf) before helping Traci undo the spell:

The three managed to undo the spell and even agree to become teammates:

But there is a twist at the end where we learn that oops, even though they ‘won’, it was all still a ruse on the Demon’s parts as they’re still playing right into the demon’s hands:

The ending also flips our view of the character. Zachary, whom in the beginning was kind of a jerk, ends up with the most sympathetic motivation of wanting to use magic to bring back his dead girlfriend and unborn child. Black Alice ends up more or less at the same spot she started in. Meanwhile, it looks like Traci 13 is on the path of actually bringing her dreams of being a goddess to reality as she keeps one of the magical items used to trap the Demons Three for herself.

On the YJ cartoon, I wasn’t a fan of Mary being the corrupted one for various reasons. But given Traci’s characterization here, I would have rather she had been the one corrupted by power.

It’s a neat twist and I’m disappointed that there hasn’t been any follow up to it. Especially the part about Zach’s dead girlfriend. Zatanna and Diana need to have a talk about their respective side kicks going through all sorts of trauma in stories without either of them getting involved.

NGL, I still find weird that the Young Justice show, which draws heavily from Geoff Johns era of Titans decided to deage Zatanna and put her on Dick’s team instead of using Zachary, who was already associated with the Titans. Plus it’s rare for a female hero to have a male side kick. But then, if Zatanna was with the adults on YJ, we’ll probably see even less of her.

2/3 Zachary & Superman: World of New Krypton Era

Sometime after his first appearance in Teen Titans, Zachary later showed up in Superman #680 in which Superman fought the mythological Atlas and was getting his ass beat. Supes realized that he needed help so he went to a magic show Zatanna was meant to headline but instead met Zachary there and the two got off to a rough start:

I’ve mentioned this story in another post but lets cut to the chase; Supes is a little abrasive here but lets cut him some slack, the Man of Steel was forced to leave his dog to fight his battles for him.

After getting a super charge from Zachary, Supes managed to beat Atlas but he wanted everyone to credit Krypto instead.

Zachary would have a minor role during the ‘World of New Krypton’ era of Superman comics. This was imo, the most interesting era of Superman comics which was kicked off when Superman rescued the shrunken bottled city of Kandor and restored it to full size on.......earth. So now the inhabitants on earth are neighbors with a thousands of Kryptonians and not all of them are as nice as Superman.

This event was like a tide for the Superman books and supporting cast, I can’t think of another era (besides maybe Death of Superman) that elevated supporting characters like Supergirl, Guardian, Dr Light/Kimiyo Hoshi, Captain Atom while also reviving Silver Age characters like Mon-El, Flamebird and Nightwing/Chris Kent (hey, remember him? he was the proto Jon Kent).

Zachary and Zatanna appeared in Action Comics #873 along with the ‘Sentinel of Magic’ where they cast a spell to ward off a group of hostile Kryptonians and we also get a peek of Zatanna mentoring Zachary:

The Zatara’s and the Marvel Family should team up more, imo. Plus it’s cool to see them doing combos and this is a great follow up from their appearance in 52. Their team work is better here and they’re doing combos now.

In Superman #690, Zachary is meeting one of his stage hands who has something important to tell him when they are suddenly interrupted by Parasite:

Mark Merlin is an old Golden Age character, the writer, James Robinson (who also wrote Starman) is a huge fan of Golden Age characters.

I’m normally not a fan of jerkass protagonists but Zachary is a little different. His arrogance and aloofness serves as a mask to hide his insecurities and cowardiance. Plus you know Zee would whoop his ass if he really crossed the line.

In a sudden twist though, we learn in Superman #692 that the man Zachary was talking to was not Mark Merlin, but Mirabai; a sorceress who agreed to become an ally for General Sam Lane in his anti-Kryptonian war in exchange for him loaning her a brainwashed Captain Atom so she can rule her realm (called the Sorcerers World) with an iron fist.

Zachary appeared in the Captain Atom back up series in Action Comics that ran from Action Comics #879-889. Zachary appeared in #887-889 as an unwitting slave to MIrabai. He doesn’t really get to do much here, the story is centered on Captain Atom who has managed to break out of the Mirabai’s mind control and joined the rebels to help them over throw Mirabai.

He succeeds only to find out that one of his ally’s was actually the wizard Mordru (I’ve mentioned him before in relation to Dr Fate) in disguise who quickly banished Zachary back to the mortal world:

But he is friendly with Captain Atom, telling him that the latter could come back to his realm at any time.

This issue also came with preview pages for Zatanna’s solo series by Paul Dini and Stephane Roux which is where we meet Zachary next:

Side note: Mirabai would make a good foe for Zachary and by extension Zatanna (’nobody enslaves my cousin!’).

3/3 Zachary & Zatanna

Finally, when Zatanna’s own ongoing was launched in 2010, we finally got to see what their relationship was like.

Zachary showed up in Zatanna #04-06 written by Paul Dini and we finally get a little backstory on them including this flashback showing a teenage Zatanna teaching a young Zachary:

Zatanna promises to show up for Zachary’ next show but fails because an evil casino owner who made a deal with a literal demon hypnotizes her to marry him so he can sell her soul in exchange for immortality.

Zachary is at first, pissed when Zatanna doesn’t show up...

but ends up helping her escape from the evil casino owner while also bickering like siblings:

The issue walks a fine line between not rendering Zatanna a damsel in distress, giving her agency in saving herself while also allowing Zachary to contribute to the story.

At the end, she finally does manage to make it to one of his performances:

He showed up next in Zatanna #14 written by Adam Beechen which starts out with Zatanna chewing him out for screwing up a joint performance:

Zach, predictably doesn’t listen and ends up getting into trouble which his cousin had to bail him out of:

Part of what makes the Zatanna/Zachary dynamic so fun is that both Zatanna and her father are often portrayed as heroic and selfless (even if they have some morally gray moments at times) but Zach is more self absorbed and arrogant which forces Zatanna to be more up front in dealing with her side kick. It also gives Zach a character arc; his hubris is a cover for his cowrdiance and insecruities thus his story arc is one about overcoming them to become a better person.

They also worked together during the Reign In Hell event which is set sometime before Zatanna’s series, I’m posting this here because I found Zach’s impudence here to be hilarious:

You know you done fucked up when even Jason Blood is horrified.

Post Nu52, Zachary disappeared but he did show up in Raven: Daughter of Darkenss, a 12 issue limited series by Marv Wolfman as part of the Nightforce:

I haven’t read it yet and it’s the kind of thing that deserves it’s own separate post anyway.

Finally, in 2021, a Suicide Squad book was among the titles in DC’s Round Roubin (basically, vote for whichever title you want to read the most otherwise it won’t see the light of day) with Zachary on the roster. The title never made it past the rounds and was never published but we did get some preview pages, Zach screwed up royally and has to work with the Squad to make up for it:

Thank god this was never published, all I can imagine is Zatanna downing a whole bottle of alcohol and screaming after hearing this.

That’s about it for his major appearances to this date. Now for some FAQ’s before wrapping this up and also check out the Recommended Reading List at the very bottom:

Who Are His Parents?

Zachary’s parents have never appeared on panel and has never been mentioned. Sure, in Earth-22 Kingdom Come universe, ‘John Zatara’ is the son of Zatanna and John Constantine but as you can see there are differences between ‘John Zatara’ and the ‘Zachary Zatara’ here.

Zatanna having an adult son either in the Pre Nu52 universe or the Rebirth timeline doesn’t make much sense timeline wise unless you go down the path of convoluted retcons involving aged up magical babies and false memories ala Pre Crisis Dinah Laurel Lance. You also have to consider the flashbacks showing teen Zatanna training kid Zachary, how they interact like cousins/siblings instead of mother/son and they refer to each other as cousins even when they are by themselves. .

That said, there is no indication in Giovanni’s backstory of him having any siblings either but not enough to completely rule out the possibility either. It’s possible that he had an estranged brother or Giovanni himself became distant from his own family or he had an uncle and Zachary is his cousin first removed.

Also, this is just my opinion, but I can’t really see Zatanna as a mom. Even with characters like I like seeing her dating (whether it’s Blue Devil, Joshua, Batman, sometimes Dick Grayson). I can see Wonder Woman, Mera, Big Barda and Catwoman being mothers but never got that vibe from Zee. Sure she’s great with kids but I never got the ‘mom’ vibe from her character. She always struck me as a Helen Mirren type who would remain childless but fulfilled even into her old age.

I have a few guesses as to who his parents could be in the pre Nu52 timeline:

-Fulcanelli. A minor character that appeared in Fate #10 (click here for more). Zatanna initially introduces him as a friend of her fathers. He’s an alchemist who is burdened with the cost of magic. At the climax of the issue, right before he is turned into a gold statue, Zatanna calls him uncle while in turn he calls her niece. Whether it was just an affectionate term, like she thought of him as an uncle despite not being related or if they were actually blood related was never clarified. Plus Zatanna has referred to people she isn’t blood related to as uncles or aunts, like the time she called Rose Psychic her Aunt during Reign In Hell.

But suppose Fulcanelli and Zatara’s were blood related, Zachary’s father being an alchemist could explain why his power doesn’t work on anything organic.

-Giovanni himself.

Which would make Zatanna and Zachary into siblings as well which also fits their banter in the comic books. My theory in this case is that they share the same father but different mothers. Giovanni has been associated with multiple women, both romantically and non romantically; Madame Xanadu, Charity from Starman and Tigress. He was smitten by Madame Xanadu and outright said he wanted to make babies with her but the latter turned him down since she was aware of his future. Their relationship never moved beyond friends with benefits but it would be interesting if she ever did take up on his offer after Sindella’s first death.

The other option would be Tigress; the classic enemy-to-lovers trope. Tigress was a thief and a normal human who was Zatara’s main nemesis and sometimes-ally during the Golden Age. There are no stories where their relationship turned romantic but imagine if it did at some point but for whatever reason it didn’t work out, they divorced and Tigress had custody of Zachary. The flashback of teen Zatanna training a young Zachary could have taken place during brief visitations. It also fits Zachary’s stated origin that his powers were only awakened after the events of Days of Vengeance, especially if one or both of his parents are human. It also explains Zatanna telling Flash that she doesn’t have a family in JLA: Crisis of Conscience, technically she wasn’t lying as this scenario involves Tigress separating herself from the Zataras. But then Zach got his powers and started following in his father’s footsteps and the two started to bond again. It also contextualizes Zachary’s ego; he is trying to reject his mother’s villainous roots and trying to embrace his father’s heroic side.

Still, this is just what my speculation.

Who knows what Johns, Robinson and Dini had actually planned though. Maybe they were intending for him to be Zatanna and Constantine’s son and had a convoluted explanation involving wizards and genies and time travel involved.

Is Zachary Queer?

Zach has never been confirmed to be queer but I noticed that he does have a queer fanbase and his close friendship with Kid Devil aka Eddie Bloomberg can be interpreted as such. They just have that vibe to them. He also does have a relationship with Bunny, his stage assistant but that could just mean he is either bi sexual or polysexual. Folks are free to interpret him however they like.

I’m supportive of the head canon that Zachary is queer and him being in a relationship with Eddie totally works.

I hope Zachary returns one day. He would be perfect for JLD and I love his dynamic with Zee and an appearance there is long over due.

Litnu txen emit!