Quick Hits: Superboy #11, Zatanna #16, Batman #713 & Justice League of America #60

It's time for the second part of this weekend's Quick Hits-athon. This time around we're switching over to DC and taking a look at 4 final issues as DC moves closer and closer to what will either be their rebirth or their downfall. I've flip-flopped all summer long about what I thought about the whole DC reboot thing(I've gone from furious to okay about it), and I'm currently of the mindset that it's a slap in the face of long-time DC fans. I figure DC will pick up a few new readers in September, but that they might lose a few regular fans, and that most of the new readers won't stick around past that first issue, since that's the collector's piece. But I'm not going to get that into my final thoughts about the reboot since I still have about 10 days to change my mind 50 more times before The End. All I will say before I head to the reviews is this; remember Marvel's whole Heroes Reborn fiasco? Methinks Johns and Didio don't.

Superboy #11:

What Happened: Superboy manages to slip a magical trinket to the Phantom Stranger, allowing him to free himself from the magic of Tannarak. While the Stranger deals with Tannarak, SB and Krypto take care of Tannarak's goons, the Tooks, and break the computers Tannarak was using to control the Hollow Men, as well as the life support for the SB clones. Tannarak manages to escape, while Psion and the Stranger manage to reunite the citizens of Smallville with their souls/essences/minds. The Stranger heads off to see if he could pick up Tannarak's trail, while SB, Psion, Simon Valentine: Boy Genius(god am I gonna miss typing that...) and Lori Luthor head off, where everybody lives happily ever after... Well, everybody except for Jeff Lemire, who seemed to have LOTS more stories to tell.

Thoughts: Eh. This was what it was. A rushed final issue to a series that was obviously plotted to go a lot further than 11 issues. I actually feel bad for writers like Lemire(and James Robinson... Wait until I review JLA #60 later!) who seem to have all of these storylines that they'll never be able to finish up(the Psion/Simon Valentine: Boy Genius stuff, the reaction of the people from Psion's futuristic home, the ultimate fate of Simon Valentine: Boy Genius, etc). But hey, we've got to try to make Barry Allen hip and new for all the kids, so who cares about anything else?

Score: 6 out of 10.Good-bye, Superboy. And good luck on the other side... It looks like you're gonna need it...


Zatanna #16:

What Happened: After a few shows and a long flight home, Zatanna wants nothing more then to catch some sleep at her family home in Gotham. Unfortunately, the doorbell rings and she opens it to find Uriah from Limbo Town asking to be her apprentice(think Klarion, but evil). Z, wanting her sleep and being a bit wary of Uriah, says no, but by this point Uriah has gotten loose in her house. Not really thinking clearly due to the lack of sleep, Z chases him, but Uriah manages to break into her library and snatches a book on dimensional teleportation. Uriah begins trotting through dimensions, with Z following after him, trying to figure out a way to separate him from the book. Z finally manages to teleport the two of them to the dimension of Gargantuans, which distracts Uriah long enough for Z to get her book back and teleport the little troublemaker back to Limbo Town. With that, Z heads back to her bedroom and finally gets some sleep.

Thoughts: This was a good little one and done issue that gave Adam Beechen the opportunity to bring Uriah back one last time(Uriah first popped up in Robin, back when Beechen was the writer... I don't know why that stuck in my head...). The story made sense in that normally Z would have wiped the floor with a threat like Uriah, but since she was so sleep-deprived, she wasn't really thinking straight. I'll definitely miss reading this series, as it was usually a pretty good read(well, except for the puppet issues...). Oh well, here's hoping Z stays awesome in the upcoming Justice League Dark series.

Score: 8 out of 10.Zatanna lives one strange life...


Batman #713:

What Happened: It's time for one final Batman origin story!! Or at least the final origin story of this particular version of Batman. For the record, this issue is told by Robin(Damian Wayne) to some kids at a Wayne Foundation building. And don't worry, Damian isn't giving up names or identities or anything. We follow the first Batman(Bruce Wayne) and Robin(Dick Grayson) from back in the day until the present, where we now have Dick Grayson as Batman, and Damian as Robin. The story culminates with Bats(Dick) teaching Robin(Damian) a lesson about how their most important job ISN'T beating up villains, but is taking care of victims. After Damian gives his little life lesson to the kids, Dick meets up with him and the two head off to do the whole superhero thing.

Thoughts: This was another one and done final issue that I enjoyed reading. It's sad that we're losing the Dick and Damian Batman and Robin team, because it's probably the best thing to come out of Grant Morrison's Batman run. They really play off of each other well, and it's nice to see that deep down Damian does respect Dick, regardless of the things he occasionally says and does. Unless DC fundamentally changes Damian's character, I don't see how Bruce and Damian can ever come close to approaching the Dick/Damian pairing. Anyway, back to this issue. Like I said, I enjoyed it for what it was, a final look at Bruce and Dick and Dick and Damian's relationship. Here's hoping this isn't the final time we see this version of Damian, because if we wind up with a happy-go-lucky Damian to counter Bruce's darker demeanor, I'll be extremely upset.

Score: 8 out of 10.Dick: "You never take me seriously, blah, blah, blah..."
Bruce: "Hello, is somebody there? I don't HEAR anybody!"
That's got to be one of the best Batman reactions I've ever seen...


Justice League of America #60:

What Happened: We kick things off with the final meeting of this version of the Justice League. It seems that they all have personal dealings to attend to, and thus can't really make the whole team thing work anymore. The JLAers sit around the meeting table, discussing adventures that they had(adventures that we'll never see now) and the stuff that they did, before heading their own ways. This series ends with Batman(Dick Grayson) and Donna Troy having a great conversation before turning off the lights and leaving the Watchtower for the last time.

Thoughts: I've always groused about this version of the League. I hated the damned talking monkey... I wanted the OTHER Starman... I'd have preferred Superman to Supergirl... And so on. But man did James Robinson finally deliver in this, his last JLA comic. Reading through this issue, you couldn't help but get the sense that Robinson wasn't exactly overjoyed by the reboot. Honestly, if he was letdown/pissed, how could you blame him? If I spent a whole mess of years writing stories for DC and two guys decided to erase everything I wrote, I know I'd probably be a bit miffed. Maybe that's just me though and I'm looking too deeply into the dialogue here. In the end though, Robinson wrote a really good final story that left me a bit sad to see this version of the League go... Yes, even that damned talking monkey!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.This is probably one of the better comic pages I've read in some time... So what do you think, is that James Robinson's voice coming out of Batman's mouth, or is it just me?

Batman: Gates of Gotham #3 & Zatanna #15

Hey yo X-Maniacs, after a two day period in which I reviewed 8 comics(in less than forty sentences!), it's back to the regular, normal-sized, two for one reviews that you've all come to know and love... Okay, maybe not love... Anyway, it's two DC books on tap for today, with two Marvel books due up for tomorrow. Let's get to it...

Batman: Gates of Gotham #3(of 5):

Summary: This issue begins with a flashback to the Gates brothers circa Gotham City 1900-ish. All you really need to know is that the Gates were the architects responsible for designing many of Gotham's major landmarks, they sided with the Wayne family over the Kane family, which led to the death of one of the Gates brothers, almost certainly due to Kane sabotage. In the present day, Batman(Dick Grayson) is trying to figure out who was destroying many of Gotham's landmarks, getting little help from Hush and the Penguin, who both seem to know more than they're letting on. Bats sends out Robin and Red Robin to search the home of a collector of old relics to see if they could turn up any information on the supposedly stolen costume being worn by the individual responsible for destroying the landmarks, while he takes Black Bat to the Gotham Herald building to see what newspaper archives they could dig up to figure out why certain landmarks were being struck, as well as a clue as to which one may be the next to fall... And that's pretty much it...

Thoughts: Meh. I just wasn't able to get into the story here. It seems pretty obvious as to who the mystery saboteur is, the guy who was collecting the relics, Dillon May, who just so happens to be the spitting image of one of the Gates brothers, but maybe that's just misdirection on Kyle Higgins/Scott Snyder's behalf... Or maybe not. If it is May, I'm going to be kind of disappointed, because that's not much of a swerve... His (great-?)grandfather was screwed over by the Gotham fatcats, so he decides to bring down all of the things that bear the fatcats names... Hopefully I'm wrong though, and this story really takes off the next two issues.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.I wonder how much it galls Timmy to call Damian, "Robin"?


Zatanna #15:

Summary: After a magic performance, Zatanna is kicking back in her dressing room when a poisoned arrow comes flying through her window, slashing her across the throat... Don't you just HATE when that happens?! Unable to speak and beginning to feel woozy, Z decides to escape from her dressing room through a trapdoor in a closet. This buys Z some time to get away just before a bunch of armed goons storm the room. Following the blood trail, the goons figure out where Z has gone and shoot at her through the floor... Wait, if they wanted her dead in the first place, why didn't they simply shoot the arrow into her skull to begin with? Anyway, Z manages to emerge on the stage of the theater, where she grabs some sort of liquid, pours it onto a scarf and wraps the scarf around her bloody neck. The goons soon spot her and try to shoot her full of arrows(yes they were carrying both machine guns and crossbows), but Z escapes into the rafters, but not before catching a bullet to the thigh. Once again, the goons follow the trail of blood, this time leading to a rest room. Instead of entering, the goons simply aim at the door and empty their guns at the rest room(!), opening the door to find Z sitting on the floor, surrounded by bullet holes, although she herself wasn't hit by a single bullet because she was apparently using bullet-time or something... With Z hopelessly cornered and unable to speak, the head goon walks over to her and does what any good villain is supposed to do in such a situation, reveals who he was and what his plan was! Bottom line, the goons were from a long line of hunters who tracked down mystical type creatures and killed them. Unfortunately for the gabby goon, telling his story gives the liquid Z put on her scarf from earlier on the chance to fully heal her vocal cords, giving her back her powers. From there, Z dismantles the goons and finishes the beating by sending the goons back in time to the Salem witch trials, where the crazy residents of Salem figure they were witches and decide to burn them at the stake. But don't worry, Z presumably teleports the goons back to the present before they get roasted alive... Probably.

Thoughts: There was A LOT of stuff in this comic that really didn't make sense if you took the time to sit back and ponder it all... I mean, for me, the main problem was the fact that the goons didn't simply gun Zatanna down from the start... Why bother with the poisoned arrow if they had a vantage point to sniper her from? Shoot her in the damn head and you've won! For this entire issue it seemed like the goons weren't actually trying to kill Z, which kind of bugged me. Well, that and Z's uncanny ability to dodge bullets... Seriously, how do the goons shoot like 100 bullets into the rest room and manage to completely MISS Z?! Weird... If you overlook those various little story hiccups, this issue wasn't that bad. It kind of read like one of those summer action films, where the hero gets shot at for two and a half hours, dodges nearly all of the bullets and manages to come back and defeat the villains at the end thanks to various daring escape scenes. This was good, stupid fun.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10."Sasquatchen"? Wait, does that mean they hunt Canadians?

Zatanna #14 & Action Comics #902

Hey, check it out, I'm reviewing DC comics from A to Z! Get it? No? Eh. Whatever. Anyway, out of the DC comics I picked up on Wednesday, these are the two I'm expecting the most out of. Of course with this being DC, I could wind up being epically disappointed, but let's hope that's not the case this time...

Zatanna #14:

Summary: This issue starts off great with Zatanna finishing up a magic show with her AWESOME cousin, Zatara. Hell, this issue is ALREADY a 7 at least! After leaving the stage, Zatanna complains about all of Zatara's botches during the show, and his all around unprofessional behavior as they enter a limo. While Zatanna is complaining, their limo pulls up to Zatara's favorite after show nightclub, where he starts flirting with anything in a dress... HA! Needless to say, Zatanna is pissed about this and tries to tell Zatara as much, but he manages to sneak away while some muscle-bound goofs hit on her. After dealing with the goofs, Zatanna finds Zatara at the bar using some cringe worthy pick-up lines on a woman. Not wanting to be around for that, Zatanna begins to leave until she hears the woman give her name, Yuki-Onna, which apparently means Japanese succubus. Zatanna tries to get back over to Zatara, but it's too late and the succubus has Zatara under her thrall. From there we get a magic throwdown between Zatanna and the succubus, which is also using Zatara as a puppet, adding his powers to it's own. Realizing the crowd in the club could be hurt during the battle, Zatanna tries a last ditch trick and tells the succubus that she was giving up the battle for the sake of her cousin and the people in the club, with her last request being that she wanted to die by her cousin's hand. The succubus, not realizing that Zatara couldn't use his powers on living things, has him cast a spell on Zatanna to kill her, which backfires and frees Zatara from the succubus's grasp. Now weakened and without Zatara's added powers, the succubus fades away. Zatara wakes up with no idea as to what happened, and picks up right where he left off, hitting on the first hot woman he sees. Infuriated by her cousin's antics, Zatanna's night gets even worse as the muscle-bound goofs from earlier on return to hit on her some more.

Thoughts: Now THIS was a great comic! It was one of the best one and done comics I've read in quite some time. Hero and loved one get into a jam, hero has to outsmart villain to save loved one, villain is defeated and loved one carries on like nothing happened. The characterizations here were great, with Zatara being totally oblivious to everything, while poor Zatanna has to clean up his messes. Add just the right amount of good storytelling, comedy and good art, and you've got yourself a winner!

Score: 9 out of 10.I love Zatara!


Action Comics #902:

Summary: Superman attacks the Doomslayer for killing the Eradicator last issue, but is merely brushed away by the ultra powerful Doomslayer. Having proven that it could easily defeat Supes and his remaining Supes family members, the Doomslayer then goes on to do what any good villain should do, it reveals it's plan to the gathered heroes! God do I love comic book super-villains! The Doomslayer is an evolved version of Doomsday that wants to eliminate all Doomsdays from the universe, since all they were good for was running around destroying stuff. To that end, the Doomslayer intends on crashing it's massive space station into the Earth to destroy the planet since there were many people on Earth with intimate knowledge of Doomsday's DNA. The Doomslayer then goes to blast the unconscious Doomsday into oblivion, but Supes, ever the boy scout, leaps in the way of the blast with a piece of wall, deflecting the blast away from comatose Doomsday... Wait, that blast was supposed to kill Doomsday, but couldn't even breech a wall?! Anyway, Steel manages to hack into the Doomslayer's space station and realizes that he can't stop the station from crashing into the Earth, but that the Supes family could try to slow the station's descent, minimizing the damage. The Supes family does manage to slow the station's descent dramatically, so the Doomslayer readjusts the station's course, sending it directly towards Metropolis. Being a glory hound, Supes tells the rest of the Supes family to head down to Earth to help with any fallout while he finishes the job with the falling station. Supes manages to redirect the station into the ocean near Metropolis, sending a massive wave towards the city, which is contained by the combined efforts of Steel, Superboy and Supergirl. With his original plan ruined, the Doomslayer decides to set loose a mess of Doomsday clones to destroy the Earth, thus assuring that the people of Earth wouldn't be able to recreate Doomsday anymore.

Thoughts: Eh, I liked this one. It's basically what the Superman comics have been missing for the past year or so, Supes dealing with a menace so big only he could stop it. It didn't star Lex Luthor, Mon-El or Nightwing and Flamebird, it didn't have Supes aimlessly wandering the country or rebuking his citizenship, it was a good, old fashioned Superman comic book, and for that, I say thank you to Paul Cornell. It's about time SOMEBODY over at DC remembered what made Supes so great...

Score: 8 out of 10.Superman actually fighting a villain? In a Superman comic book?!? What's going on here?!

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1 & Zatanna #13

Next up, a duo of DC Comics. As opposed to most of the DC books I buy lately, I'm mildly optimistic about these two issues, so hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me in the ass...

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1(of 5):

Summary: We begin back in the 1880's where the ancestors of Bruce Wayne(Batman, duh!), Tomas Elliot(Hush) and Oswald Cobblepot(Penguin) are putting together plans to erect the first bridges in Gotham City. In the present, Batman(Dick Grayson) and Red Robin are trying to track down hundreds of pounds of Semtex(a plastic explosive) that was smuggled into Gotham. Bats leans on a lead he had and the lead reveals that Penguin was responsible for getting the explosive into Gotham, just as three bridges in Gotham explode. Bats and Red Robin do what they can to keep the casualties to a minimum, but over 30 people still die in the blasts. Bats meets with Commissioner Gordon, who reveals that right before the explosions, a Gotham newspaper received a mysterious note stating that, “the families will fall by the gates of Gotham.” Bats decides to go after Penguin for info and discovers that one of the destroyed bridges was named after the Penguin's ancestor(a name that had been changed in time). Upon learning of the newspaper note, and fearing that whoever blew the bridges up may have been after him, Penguin tells Bats that he sold the Semtex to a man in an unusual costume. With nothing more to go on, Bats heads back to the Bat Bunker and meets up with Red Robin and Cassandra Cain(who just arrived in town). Cassandra reveals that she was following the Semtex, which came from Hong Kong, before arriving in Gotham. Red Robin fills in some of the blanks from the newspaper letter, telling Dick that back in the day, people used to call the bridges “gates” and that the other two bridges had connections to the Waynes and the Elliots. This issue ends with a strangely clad man entering Hush's cell in Arkham Asylum asking if he wanted to come out and play.

Thoughts: Meh. This comic wasn't bad, as it set up a pretty interesting mystery, but it also didn't wow me. It seems that the three families from the beginning, the Waynes, the Elliots and the Cobblepots may have wronged somebody back in the day, and their offspring is looking for revenge in the present day. I could be wrong, but that's what I got out of this one so far. Anyway, while I wasn't blown away here, my interest was piqued enough to make me want to read the rest of the mini-series, so hey, that's good, right?

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.What the hell is this? 1940's Gotham? Why are there blimps everywhere??


Zatanna #13:

Summary: A magical cat gives Zatanna a vision of her future, showing her Brother Night and an angry Spectre. Now while she expected an eventual showdown with Night, the prospect of facing the Spectre doesn't appeal to Z, so she decides to head to the Spectre to see if she had any reason to worry. From there, Detective Colton is listening to the warden of the prison Brother Night was currently incarcerated in as he complained about having to house Night. The two begin to discuss transferring Night to a prison better suited to hold somebody with his unique talents, at which point Night has the skin magically tear off the bones of some inmates and has the bones form a ladder over the fence... Well THAT'S a novel way to escape prison! Colton rushes after Night and tries to stop him, but is held at bay by a possessed police dog. Night does tell Colton to say hello to a woman named Jenny Myers for him before completing his escape. As for Z, she meets with the Spectre and is relieved to learn that she wasn't on his radar. Finally, Det. Colton heads to an insane asylum and visits with Jenny, who we learn is Colton's biological mother. Jenny, realizing that Colton had met Night, begins ranting about having been touched by Night, and Colton realizes that Brother Night was his biological father(!!).

Thoughts: Hey, Zatanna made it 13 issues! Good for her! Good for me for picking this issue up, because it was awesome! Sure, the stuff with the magical, future-seeing cat was kind of dumb, but everything else about this issue was GREAT! I loved Brother Night from when he first appeared in this series, and I am overjoyed to see him back and raising hell again. And the twist at the end with Detective Colton(Z's potential love interest) realizing he was Night's son? Awesome cliffhanger. Here's hoping this series continues for another 1300 issues!

Score: 9 out of 10.Spectre's jab about fighting Zatanna was awesome!

Gothem City Sirens #22 & Zatanna #12

Two female centric DC comics here, including the third part of the Judgment on Gotham storyline that doesn't matter to DC because Chairman Johns isn't attached to it... Man, for somebody I've never met, I really can't stand that guy...

Gotham City Sirens #22:

Summary: This is another part of the Judgment on Gotham storyline, although the cover of this issue doesn't bother telling us that much... Way to let people know this issue was part of that storyline, DC! Anyway, Azrael and Crusader are ready to test Catwoman to see if she is pure enough to pass their test and thus save Gotham City from destruction. Catwoman's crazy sister heads to Azrael and Crusader and tells them that she was sent by God to be Catwoman's test. Since Azrael and Crusader are also obviously insane, they happily accept Catwoman's crazy sister into their midst. Why not? The more crazies the better! CW finally catches up to Azrael and Crusader and is beaten by them and stabbed by Azrael's wacky sin sword. Upon waking up, Catwoman sees her sister, who tells CW that to save Gotham she would have to kill her. CW scoffs at the thought of killing her own sister, but her sister tells CW that she was sent by God for this very reason, and that killing her would free CW from the demon CW's sister was positive CW was possessed by. CW realizes that by killing her sister she would pass Azrael's insane test, but in the end, just can't off her own sister. With that, CW's sister leaves, as do Azrael and Crusader. This issue ends with Ra's confident that Dick Grayson(Batman) would fail his test as well, thus sealing the fate of Gotham City.

Thoughts: No complaints here. This was a good, solid comic, that continued the Judgment on Gotham storyline. I love that Peter Calloway managed to insert CW's sister into this storyline, because she was a perfect fit here. While I had no complaints about this issue in particular, I'm still a bit baffled by the Judgment storyline itself... Mainly why are these two goofs able to beat Gotham's various heroes with relative ease, and what the hell is Ra's playing at? Eh, I either forgot, or it'll be revealed in the next part of this storyline.

Score: 8 out of 10.Jeez, Azrael sure is stab happy...


Zatanna #12:

Summary: Some mook named Backslash has captured a fairy and has a magical sword that can rewind time when he swings it. Zatanna gets wind of Backslash after he kills some merpeople, and confronts him, but is stymied by Backslash, since with every swing of his sword, her backwards spoken words come out as normal speech... That's actually pretty ingenious... Anyway, since she wasn't able to use any spells on Backslash, Z charges him and tries to defeat him in hand to hand combat, but every time Z tries to hit Backslash, he simply rewinds time, causing her to miss him. Realizing she was out gunned, Z decides to retreat, but Backslash simply makes her return to him and knocks her out. Z wakes up tied to a statue where Backslash is rapping at her... Wait, what?! Z disses Backslash's sweet rhymes, which infuriates him. The captured fairy manages to tell Z that the only way to defeat Backslash was by using palindromes, you know, those words that are the same both forwards and backwards. Before Backslash knows what hit him, Z is saying palindromes like there is no tomorrow, eventually finding the correct combination of words to free her and defeat Backslash. With Backslash done for, Z takes the sword, calls the cops and frees the fairy, ending this one.

Thoughts: This was a fun, fast little read. The story was fine, and I had only one problem with it... Backslash... God was he annoying! He had the most annoying accent imaginable! Ugh. Besides that though, no complaints here.

Score: 7 out of 10.Trust me, this all DOES make sense!

Zatanna #11 & Batman: Streets of Gotham #21

We're going the DC route for this post, with the FINAL issue of Batman: Streets of Gotham, as well as the latest issue of Zatanna, both written by Paul Dini... Huh, I JUST realized that Dini wrote both of these... Creepy...

Batman: Streets of Gotham #21:

Summary: We kick this issue off with Hush finishing up his betrayal of Dr. Death before shooting that mobster he'd been working with, Judson Pierce. From there Hush locks the two men in a room and prepares to flood Wayne Tower with a deadly array of gases, at least until he realizes that all of his henchmen were unconscious. Before he can figure out who did the deed, he gets conked over the head by the Wayne Tower employee he kidnapped, an employee who turns out to be Jane Doe in disguise. The near dead Pierce manages to wake Dr. Death up, and Death manages to mix some chemicals that blow the door to their room open. Unfortunately for Pierce, the chemicals begin to eat away at his skin while Death makes his escape. Hush wakes up tied to a chair with Jane Doe cutting his face off in order to masquerade as Bruce Wayne(remember, Hush had given himself plastic surgery to look like Bruce). Jane affixes Hush's face to her head and prepares to kill him when Batman(Bruce Wayne for this issue) drops in and knocks Jane out. From there we learn that Dr. Death's chemicals had somehow enhanced Pierce's strength, while deforming him greatly in the process. Needless to say, Pierce still wants to kill Bruce. Finally, we find Hush with his face covered in bandages, trying to convince doctors at Arkham Asylum that Bruce Wayne and Batman were the same man.

Thoughts: Meh. As a huge fan of Hush, I can't say I liked this storyline at all... What happened to the master villain who could fight both Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to a standstill all while concocting all sorts of deathtraps? I mean poor Hush... His credibility as a villain has just been going downhill since his first couple of appearances in that awesome Hush storyline by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee... Now he's locked in Arkham, AS Dr. Tomas Elliot, where nobody believes a word he says. At least most of the other times he's lost he managed to evade capture. This time he gets squashed by Jane Freaking Doe, gets his face cut off and gets locked in Arkham... Maybe he and Jason Todd can talk about the good old days when they were both meaningful Batman villains...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Life really sucks for Hush.


Zatanna #11:

Summary: We get this one started with Oscar Hampel preparing to seal Zatanna(who's a puppet now) in a puppet case in a magic museum. Yeah, that's a pretty sucky fate if I do say so myself. Before he does though, he decides to take a break in his dressing room since he had a TV performance that night. He gets a knock at the door and find a scantily clad make-up woman, who wants to get him ready for his performance. Oscar happily lets her in and she smothers him with some chloroform. It turns out the make-up woman was one of Zatanna's assistants, and had been tracking Oscar since she figured out he had turned Z into a puppet... Ooookay. Z's assistant then TELLS Zatanna EXACTLY how she figured out what had happened, in detail(!), giving Oscar enough time to wake up and attack. Oscar tries to turn the assistant into a puppet too, but unfortunately for him, the assistant came prepared and was under a spell that would reverse any spells sent her way. Needless to say, Oscar turns back into a puppet, Zatanna turns back to normal, and this one ends with Zatanna locking Oscar the puppet in a giant milk can.

Thoughts: Wow, this... really wasn't all that good... On the bright side we learn that Brother Night had woken up and was back up to his old tricks again, but everything else about this issue was pretty bad. I mean why would Z's assistant spend FOUR pages telling her how she found her?! Shouldn't she have been more interested in trying to, oh I don't know, turn Zatanna back to normal before anything else?! It just seemed to odd(and incredibly dumb!) for Z(as a puppet) and her assistant to stand around shooting the breeze while the bad guy slowly recuperated. If I was ever turned into a puppet, my first thought would be turning back to normal, not finding out how my assistant located me, but I guess that's why I'm not Zatanna...

Score: 6 out of 10.Sure, just ignore the bad guy in the corner...

Quick Hits: 3/29/11

Four more comic reviews on tap for tonight, as well as a rare perfect score! Let's get to 'em!

Captain America Comics #1:

Summary: This comic was a full reprint(with new coloring!) of the very first Captain America comic book from WAAAAAY back in Nineteen Hundred and Forty-One. You get four Captain America mini-stories(as well as one non-illustrated story), a Hurricane story and a Tuk the Caveboy tale.

Thoughts: First things first, it must have been AWESOME to be a comic fan back in the 40's, because they REALLY put a whole MESS of content in these old books! I mean this comic was chock full of goodness! This comic was, in a word, perfect. I mean it literally took me a good 20 minutes to read it from cover to cover, as opposed to the 5 minutes of so it takes me to read a modern comic. Besides that, we get the first appearance of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, the Red Skull(kind of...) and yes, Tuk the Caveboy!!! I'd only ever read the Red Skull story out of this comic, so almost all of this was new to me. Granted, I've KNOWN Captain America's origin since I was like 10, but I think this was the first time I actually read it. So that was really cool. Joe Simon could write some fantastic comic stories, the dialogue was magnificently done, and Jack Kirby IS The King, so you KNOW I was loving the artwork here. I mean, this WAS perfection. If you're a comic book fan, you should read this reprint. If you're a Marvel fan, you owe it to yourself to read this reprint. And if you're a Captain America fan, you HAVE to read this reprint!

Score: 10 out of 10. This was one of the easiest perfect scores I've ever given.Here it is, the FIRST Captain America/Red Skull meeting!


Venom #1:

Summary: Venom(Flash Thompson) gets deployed to some Eastern European country to capture a mad scientist who had managed to weaponize Vibranium. Unfortunately for Venom, Jack O' Lantern is also there for the scientist, since Jack O' Lantern's mysterious benefactor wanted to get his hands on the scientist as well. Venom runs around acting heroically(at the expense of the mission at times), while Jack runs amok, killing people indiscriminately. Eventually Jack reaches the scientist, and is ready to leave town with him, but is halted by the timely arrival of Venom. The two battle, and Jack manages to hurt Flash, which allows the Venom symbiote to gain some control. Before Venom could go into full, “We're going to eat your brains!!!” mode, Flash manages to regain control, and shove a grenade into Jack O' Lantern's mask, blowing up the lower part of his jaw(OUCH!). Something as inconsequential as a detached jaw can't stop Jack, as he grabs the scientist and tries to get away on his flying broomstick, but Venom manages to snag the scientist's head with some webbing and pulls back, breaking the scientist's neck, leaving Jack with a useless corpse. With that Venom heads home, where he is scolded by his superior officer for failing the mission(since the US wanted the scientist alive), as well as almost losing control on the field. Bummed out, Flash heads to the apartment of his girlfriend Betty Brant, who is pissed with him since he was six hours late for their date. With that, Flash leaves her place and that's basically it.

Thoughts: Well, that was a rather inauspicious start... I didn't like the main story with the scientist since, for whatever reason, it just never clicked for me. I did really like Jack O' Lantern though... He was the one real bright spot in this comic, although him not only surviving, but trying to get away after having his FACE blown up was a bit over the top... I mean how the hell does he remain alive, let alone conscious after THAT?! As for Venom, I still like the concept of Flash Thompson's as our new Venom, although everything that happened here basically happened in the recent Amazing Spider-Man point-one issue. Not the best start, but I'll definitely give this series at least two full storylines before I make a final judgment.

Score: 5 out of 10.Say what you will, but Jack O' Lantern is one dedicated villain!


X-23 #7:

Summary: X-23 and Gambit are on their way to Madripoor to look for Malcolm Colcord, but first stop off to help an old friend of Gambit's in Singapore. It seems Gambit's friend is a police officer in Singapore and one of his undercover agents went missing. The cop suspects pirates captured the agent, which is where Gambit and X-23 step in. The two track the pirates back to their base where they find the pirate boss torturing the agent. X-23 leaps into the fray(against Gambit's advice) and takes on the head pirate, while Gambit is stuck battling the rest of the pirates. The pirate boss stabs X-23 with his sword as X-23 stabs him, and the two go tumbling into the waters, where the pirate boss dies, and X-23 is attacked by sharks. Gambit also falls into the water after getting conked on the head by the pirates, and is saved from the sharks by X-23. Upon resurfacing, the duo realize that the agent had bled out and was dead. With that, Gambit's cop friend lends them a boat and they continue their journey to Madripoor.

Thoughts: In a word, this comic was very “meh”. It was the very definition of a space-holder issue. We just ended the Sinister storyline, and we're about to start the Daken/X-23 x-over, so this comic really meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. If you like Gambit, pirates and sharks, then this was the comic for you! If not, well then you can safely skip this one.

Score: 5 out of 10.Gambit: Damsel in Distress.


Zatanna #10:

Summary: Zatanna takes Oscar Hampel to her magical mansion to see if there was any way she could undo the spell her father put on Oscar which transformed him into a puppet. Before she goes through with any attempt at reversing the spell though, Zatanna wants to know if Oscar was truly unfairly punished by her old man, so she forces the puppet to touch a crystal which compels him to tell the truth. It turns out Oscar was a terrible person, killing several innocents, as well as nearly killing Zatanna as a child before her father stepped in and turned him into a puppet. Zatanna is incensed by Oscar's duplicity, and tells him she'd never reverse the spell now. Upon hearing that, Oscar freaks out and throws the crystal at Zatanna's head, dazing her. Oscar runs around the room and grabs a few magical artifacts and begins wishing that he wasn't a puppet anymore. Before Zatanna can stop him, everything fades to black, and when Zatanna comes to, it appears Oscar has been returned to his human self, while Zatanna has been transformed into a puppet.

Thoughts: Man, puppets freak me out... Seriously... Besides that though, this was a very solid comic. It wasn't great, it didn't suck, it was, as they say, a perfectly acceptable comic book. The reveal that Oscar was always a scumbag really didn't surprise me, because I doubt Zatanna's father would have turned him into a puppet unless he was sure Oscar deserved it. The ending was a bit confusing, as I didn't get how Zatanna and Oscar traded places, or how(or why!) Oscar managed to become a famous puppeteer again. I guess the answer would be, “It's magic! It doesn't need to make sense, stupid!”

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Damned, creepy puppet...

Zatanna #9

Review: Zatanna manages to break free of the ropes she was tied up in by that puppet last issue. Z attempts to magic the puppet away, but the spell backfires because of her magic was at odds with the magic her father had used to turn Oscar Hampel into the puppet. Instead she simply locks the puppet in a cage, at which time the puppet tells her his/it's origin story. Basically Oscar claims he accidentally killed somebody, Z as a little girl walked in on it, Oscar freaked a bit and grabbed Z, and Z's father turned him into a puppet without knowing the full story. Z isn't quite sure what to believe, but doesn't think turning a man into a puppet was the right move, so she takes the puppet back to her mansion to see if she can find a way to undo her father's spell, which ends the main story. There was also a back-up where teenage Z gets braces, but the less said about that the better...

Thoughts: What the hell is it with Paul Dini and his inability to produce a full story for the comics he writes?! I mean really, I thought it was just a Batman: Streets of Gotham thing, but now the whole 11/12 page story thing he's been doing over in Streets has come to Zatanna... It's completely unacceptable. As much as I like Dini's writing, maybe it's time for him to cut down to maybe one book(if that)a month so he can produce a full story. I mean I liked the main story with Z and the puppet, but the back-up story by Adam Beechen was both unfunny and unnecessary. In it Zatanna got braces and would produce an ungodly amount of spit when she spoke, as well as speaking in an incomprehensible manner. Okay, cool. But Beechen kept BEATING that “joke” into the ground... Z would spit all over people. She'd spit all over windows. She'd spit all over EVERYTHING!!! It was barely funny the first time it happened, and by the 6th or 7th time it had happened I was just wishing the story would end. So while the main story was okay, the back-up was horrible... Please DC, STOP with all of the back-up stories!!!

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.I'm sorry, but that puppet is damn creepy!

Zatanna #8

Review: We get started with Zatanna visiting her psychiatrist, in order to try to overcome her fear of puppets. Yes, puppets... And who can blame her?! Those damned things are CREEPY!!! But I digress... Now where was I? Oh yes, the puppets. Zatanna explains to her shrink that she had gone to received an award for her magic act, and that on the way to the stage she spotted a display case full of puppets. They freak her out a bit, but she decides to go on-stage anyway to get her award. During her acceptance speech, she spots one of the puppets out of the corner of her eye, standing on the edge of the stage, watching her. Needless to say, Zatanna quickly wraps the speech up and rushes back outside, where she discovers that the puppet she thought she saw was still in its case. The shrink asks Zatanna if there was an instance in her past explaining her irrational fear of puppets, and all Zatanna can come up with is when her father was preforming at a Vaudeville revival show with a world-renowned puppeteer when she was a little girl. While her father wasn't around, Zatanna wandered into the path of a murderer, and blacked out. The shrink tells Zatanna that she should meditate on that scene, and Zatanna leaves, planning on doing just that. Upon heading home, Zatanna looks into the puppeteer from that old Vaudeville show, and learns that soon after that act with her father, he vanished. Since she was unable to ask him for help, Zatanna goes to sleep and hunts down Fuseli, a nightmare demon she had dealings with a few issues back. Zatanna tells Fuseli to enter her dreams so she could head back to her childhood and the time she ran into that murderer, since that seemed to be where her fear of puppets began. The demon complies, and Zatanna realizes that the murderer was the puppeteer, and that when she happened across him, he was in the process of stabbing some poor sap to death. Not wanting any witnesses, the puppeteer goes to stab little Zatanna, but her father arrives, and flies into a rage. Zatanna's father turns the puppeteer into a puppet as punishment for his actions, and since Zatanna was hysterical due to what she had witnessed(and really, who wouldn't be after seeing THAT?!)Zatanna's father mindwipes Zatanna, causing her to forget the entire scene. Now having her answers, Zatanna wakes up, and this issue ends with Zatanna tied to her bed with the creepy puppet standing over her with a knife.

Thoughts: I have to say that I enjoyed this comic. It wasn't the best issue of Zatanna that I've ever read, and it took a long time before we got to the main gist of the story, but it was still a good read. I would have preferred it if the story had moved a bit faster(basically this entire issue set up the scene on the last page), but hey, what can you do? So next issue should give us Zatanna versus a possessed puppet... That should be... something...

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Damned creepy puppets!!!

Zatanna #7

Overall: This issue revolves around Zatanna heading to Los Angeles to check out the opening of what will be the Magic Museum. So Zatanna checks out some of the magical stuff in storage(such as a pair of her father's sunglasses)before heading back to her hotel room. It turns out Sargon the Sorcerer's turban held some of Sargon's magical abilities, and the turban combines with several other magical artifacts of clothing(Dr. Fate's boots, Zatara's sunglasses, etc), and the mass of clothing go on a crime stopping rampage. The clothes, led by Sargon's turban, want to stamp out crime Spectre style(in other words, permanently), which puts the collage of clothes at odds with Zatanna. It turns out the the mystical clothing is quite powerful, and give Zatanna more trouble than she expected. However, she notices her father's sunglasses among the angry clothing, and manages to make mental contact with her father's essence, convincing the glasses that Sargon's turban was going too far. Zatara's glasses disrupts Sargon's control over the other items of clothing, ending the threat. This issue ends with Zatanna taking the glasses in order to feel closer to her dead father.

Okay, I know what you're probably thinking... “X, was this comic really about Zatanna fighting possessed clothing?” Yes, it was. But, and trust me, this surprises me even as I type it, I really enjoyed this issue! Yes it had Zatanna fighting old clothes, but it was a fun, old school-esque super-hero romp. Was it kind of dumb, yeah, it was. But was it an incredibly fun read? Most definitely!

Score: 9 out of 10.Yes, Zatanna fought possessed clothing here. *shrugs*

Zatanna #6

Overall: Zatara, Zatanna's moody cousin, teleports to her dressing room to give her a piece of his mind after she blew off Zatara's magic show after promising she'd go and watch it. However, Zatara can't find Zatanna since she is currently being mind controlled into marrying an immortal Las Vegas casino owner, who would in turn sell Zatanna's soul to a demon in order to prolong his own life. Zatara manages to track down Zatanna and the casino owner and he frees her from the mind control she was under. The demon in question, Mammon, appears and tries to claim Zatanna's soul, but is fought off by the combined magical abilities of Zatara and Zatanna. Instead of wasting his time with the magicians, Mammon turns his attention to the casino owner and decides to take his soul, since he failed to deliver Zatanna's soul as promised. Before he can take the man's soul, Zatara saves him by striking Mammon down with a few cars. The casino owner then begs the magicians to destroy his soul by making him something without a soul, so he wouldn't have to spend all of eternity being tortured by Mammon. After some thought, Zatanna relents and turns the casino owner into a giant lump of gold. By this point Mammon returns and is none too pleased to discover the soul he was about to claim had been taken from him. The magicians manage to convince Mammon that the lump of gold would lead other mortals to desire it, which would ultimately lead to more greedy souls for Mammon to claim. Mammon approves of this and heads back to hell, leaving the magicians to breath a sigh of relief. This issue ends with Zatanna finally going to watch Zatara at a nearby casino, just like Zatara had always wanted.

This was a fantastic end to a great storyline. First off, Zatara was in this comic, so that's already a major plus right there. The story itself was a lot of fun, with each character(Zatanna, Zatara and even Mammon)getting a chance to shine, and the ending, with Zatanna finally taking the time to watch Zatara preform, was a really nice touch. This is one of those under the radar comics that is really, really good every month. Now if only Zatara would become a permanent supporting character here...

Score: 9 out of 10.What an odd picture...

Quick Thoughts on: Zatanna #5

Zatanna #5: Writer: Paul Dini. Pencils: Chad Hardin.

Quick Review: Zatanna manages to take care of the Fire Demons that had been pestering her last issue and promises her cousin Zatara that she would go to one of his magic shows after he explained to her how much it would mean to him. Unfortunately things don't go as planned as Zatanna is attacked by Benjamin Raymond, who had acquired a love potion from Mammon, a powerful Hell-based demon. In order to keep his soul from Mammon, Benjamin has to cause Zatanna to marry him, and thanks to his love potion(and zombie slaves)by the end of this issue that scenario seems ready to come to fruition.

Quick Thoughts: First off, I'm a huge fan of Zatara, so it was nice to see him get some page time and a bit of character development. Here's hoping he remains a regular in this series. But enough about Zatara, let's get to Zatanna. I'm actually enjoying this story, Mammon was humorous while still being reprehensible, Benjamin played a very good villain, and Zatanna was Zatanna. No complaints here.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.That is one UGLY demon!

Picto-Review: Zatanna #4

Zatanna #4: Writer: Paul Dini. Pencils: Chad Hardin.

This issue gets started with Zatanna heading to Las Vegas to do a show, but instead running afoul of the Royal Flush Gang. Needless to say, Z makes quick work of the card themed losers.


Z returns the money the Gang stole to casino owner Sonny Raymond, who after asking Z out on a date begins to talk to a picture of his father, which actually turns out to be possessed by Mammon, Hell Lord of Avarice.


After a long day of practicing her act, and dealing with the Gang, Z returns to her hotel room and discovers that her cousin Zatara was “thoughtful” enough to throw a party for her.


Z disciplines Zatara for his antics...


And sends him and his assistant, Bunny, on their way, where they pass some old women who turn out to be fire demons sent by Mammon.


After an extended fight scene, the tired Z falls victim to the fire demons, giving us our cliffhanger.


What I Thought: This was another good, if not spectacular issue of Zatanna. I mean, I liked everything that happened here, and I LOVED seeing Zatara show up in something other then that stupid Teen Titans Second Feature, but this was definitely a set-up issue. With all that said, I am looking forward to next issue to see how Z gets herself out of her current predicament, as well as hopefully some more Zatara appearances.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Zatanna #3

Zatanna #3: Writer: Paul Dini. Artist: Stephane Roux.

Review: This issue gets started with Zatanna rushing backstage to get ready for her show, but instead finding creepy effigies of her crew trying to kill her. After defeating the effigies, she forces one to tell her who sent them(Brother Night)and where he was(Mt. Diablo). With that, Zatanna begins to head for Diablo. Upon arriving she finds her crew members tied up, while Brother Night and his goons wait for her. Zatanna makes very quick work of Night's goons, and buries Night under some rocks. With a temporary reprieve, Zatanna frees her crew and sends them back to the auditorium. By this point Night has freed himself, and he calls forth the spirit of Zatanna's father, the Great Zatara. After gloating about how Zatara was his slave, Night tells Zatara to kill his daughter, which the spirit tries to do. Zatanna shields herself from her spirit father's attack and pulls the nightmare demon she had defeated last issue out of her hat and tells it to enter the dreams of the spirit of her father and awaken him from Night's spell. Night tries to stop the nightmare demon, but it is too powerful for him, and the demon enters the mind of Zatara and breaks Night's hold over him. After a quick and happy reunion, Zatara explains that his spirit must move on, and he leaves a VERY angry Zatanna behind. Zatanna releases the nightmare demon and tells it to go away as thanks for assisting her, before turning her full attention to Night, who was looking to slip away. Zatanna defeats and binds Night before entering his mind and forcing him to renounce his dark powers, freeing the thirteen souls he had stolen to gain his evil powers. Now powerless and defeated, Zatanna turns Night over to the police, knowing that whatever punishment Night faces on the mortal coil would pale in comparison to the hell he'd be facing when he died, since he failed his dark masters. And on that pleasant note, this comic comes to an end.

What I Thought: Hey, I've been pretty lucky with the comics I've been reading lately! This was yet another good one! The story here was completely satisfying, with Zatanna freeing her father and defeating Night, although I do have one slight complaint... This storyline seemed like it ended WAY too soon! I was hoping for maybe three more issues of Zatanna versus Brother Night, but wham, just like that, Night is defeated, Zatanna's father is saved and this storyline is over... But that's a very minor little quibble. Everything else here was great, and I only have good things to say about this series.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Yeah, pissing Zatanna off probably wasn't a very smart move...

Zatanna #2

Zatanna #2: Writer: Paul Dini. Pencils: Stephane Roux.

Review: Zatanna battles a nightmare demon that was sent by Brother Night(who is trying to consolidate his control of the San Fransisco crime scene). The nightmare demon tries to defeat Zatanna while she sleeps, but Zatanna manages to turn things around on the demon, and ends up waking up and defeating the demon in the real world(by putting the demon in her hat!). With the nightmare demon having failed, Brother Night reveals that he had enslaved the spirit of Zatanna's father, and that Night was going to be tasking John Zatara's spirit with destroying Zatanna!

What I Thought: Huh, who knew I'd really wind up falling for this series... Two issues in, and I'm definitely a fan, and I've never really been a huge fan of mystical type characters! Paul writes a great Zatanna, I have no problem with the artwork, and I'm really enjoying the story. Hokey name aside, Brother Night seems like a really great foil for Zatanna, with his otherworldly power-base and allies, including what seems to be Zatanna's own father! I'll definitely be looking forward to the next issue.

Score: 9 out of 10.Best prison EVER!

The Brave and the Bold #33

Brave and the Bold #33: Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Cliff Chiang.

Review: First off, this was a flashback issue, so keep that in mind. This issue starts with Zatanna waking up with a start, and realizing that she had places to be. Z heads to WW and tells her that she wanted to have a girl's night out, which seems to surprise WW. Next the two women head to Gotham City, where they find Batgirl(this was back when Barbara Gordon wore the cape and cowl)and after some arm twisting, they convince her to come along with them. The women get dressed up and head out to a few clubs, where the dance the night away. Everything seems to be going well until Babs walks into the ladies restroom and discovers Z and WW in an embrace, which leaves her somewhat confused. WW and Z emerge from the restroom with Z seemingly wiping away a tear... Hmm... From there the three women head to several other clubs and sing and dance for several more hours before heading to a quiet little diner. WW begins to cryptically talk to Babs about the Oracles of the ancient Greeks, and how an Oracle of information was a high honor amongst her people. After talking some more, the women decide to call it a night, and WW and Z see Babs into a cab, where Babs tells them that this was one of the best nights of her life before pulling away. After Babs is gone, WW and Z look sadly at each other with Z breaking down. We then go back in the past and learn why Z decided to have this night, as she tells WW that she had a vision of Babs being paralyzed by the Joker sometime in the near future. Z's vision doesn't tell her when the awful event was going to happen, and Z knows from past experience that if she tries to step in and help it could make matters worse, so that's why she decided to take Babs out for one final night of fun and revelry. From there we head to the home of Commissioner Gordon and Babs, and after a knock at the door, Babs opens it to find the Joker standing there with a gun and a camera... This issue concludes in the present with Babs waking up and dragging herself out of her bed and into her wheelchair to start her day as Oracle. After getting on her computer, Babs tells the person on the other end that she was having her favorite dream, the one where she was dancing.

What I Thought: Woo, what a powerful story this was! I figured out what was going on about halfway through this issue, when Babs discovered the other women in the restroom, but even knowing what was going to happen didn't lessen the emotional impact of those final few scenes. The pacing of the Joker scene was just so perfectly done, as was most of this issue. What more can I say? When a comic leaves me feeling misty eyed, I know the story was something special.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Still chilling after all these years...

Zatanna #1

Five more new reviews on tap tonight as I try to become the blogging machine I once was. You know, when I first started this blog up in 2008 I posted 342 times... In THREE months! With a job, while going to school!! I don't know HOW the hell I accomplished that, but I definitely wouldn't mind getting the post totals around that range again. Wait, scratch that, publishing over 100 posts a month is a BIT excessive... If I can reach 50 posts a month I'd be happy... Over 100 posts a month... What the HELL was I on?!

Zatanna #1: Writer: Paul Dini. Pencils: Stephane Roux

Review: This issue kicks off with Zatanna entertaining a crowd during her day job as a magician(or is it an illusionist?). Z impresses the crowd, soaks in the applause and heads backstage to relax after the show. While trying to relax, Z is confronted by a police detective, who says he has a crime scene he'd like her to take a look at. Z agrees to go and comes across a scene of total carnage(I love it! Sorry, old video game reference there...), where she finds several of the top level mobsters in San Francisco brutally murdered in several different magical ways. While going through the crime scene, Z finds a survivor and uses magic to enter his mind, discovering a few magic criminals from the San Fran underworld(led by a loon named Brother Night), deciding to expand their empire to the overworld. Now knowing who she was dealing with, Z teleports herself to the San Fran underground and confronts Brother Night and his lackeys and lays a mystical smackdown on all of them. Brother Night tries to reason with Z with the old, “might makes right” speech, but Z warns Night that if he heads back to the surface, she'll take him down HARD. With that Z heads back to the surface and awaits Night's next move. This issue ends with Night entering the dream realm and coming across a powerful nightmare demon named Fuseli. After a brief exchange, Night and Fuseli decide to join forces against Z.

What I Thought: I came into this series expecting... well, next to nothing. I have to say, I was VERY pleasantly surprised. The way this issue went was going to help me decide whether or not this series makes it to my monthly pull list, and after reading it I can confidently say that Zatanna WILL be on my monthly pull list. I enjoyed the story, I liked Zatanna and yes, I REALLY liked Teddy... Don't ask! Great first issue, that has me looking forward to more.

Score: 9 out of 10.I've got to say, I'm a fan of Teddy!