Zatanna - Bring Down the House #1 - 5

This past week has been the end of an era of sorts. Once again, the winter months for me have officially ended and, with the end of my bus ticket to work, it means returning to the bike to get to work.

This also means that all of that travel time which I filled with comic reading has gone as well.

So, my final reading (on the bus) opportunities upon me, I decided I'd read (or more accurately, re-read) a recent mini-series of single issues I'd picked up.

Zatanna: Bring Down the House is an origin story of sorts by Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodriguez. Daughter of the late, great magician John Zatara, whose death is mired in mystery, Zatanna Zatara is a Las Vegas hotel performer. For now charge (as long as you have a $12 water park ticket), you can see Zatanna perform tricks on stage (but NOT magic). However, when a mysterious stranger begins attending her shows, Zatanna's world is torn asunder as Demons and Magic casters appear for her, wanting to determine her role in the death of her father.

For me, Zatanna is one of those characters I can never help but check out. With a unique style (for a superhero) and an equally unusual power set (I've always wondered if her words are pronounced like they are read or sound like a recording played backwards?), Zatanna has always been a character I've kept an eye out ever since I read Paul Dini's run.

With this mini-series, Mariko Tamaki has written a fun and enthralling tale about how the hero we all know came to be. It seemed like a refreshing take to have the character so full of potential but unable (or, more accurately, unwilling) to utilise this familial talent. What comes next is essentially a battle for the soul of the character, with many unique sides of the magical community vying for her power; either in judgement, support or control.

The true making of this series is Javier Rodriguez's artwork. I loved what he did on a She-Hulk run with Charles Soule way back when, but here, with the assist of some incredible lettering work by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, it felt like another level. While he gives the entire story and Zatanna's immediate world a real brightness to start with, once the more magical aspects kick in, Rodriguez really ramps up his style and utilises it for some really trippy, Doctor Strange movie vibes .

If there was one downside to this story, it was my decision to collect the issues rather than wait for the trade, as the piecemeal way of it, really caused the story to falter. However, upon re-reading the series as a whole, I must admit that the pacing felt so much better.

Zatanna: Bring Down the House was a good read. Fun and quirky while equally a captivating look into the beginnings of the Mistress of Magic.

It certainly makes me want to check out the ongoing sometime soon.

Re-reading Marvel's Civil War ... 19 Years Later

After finishing Criminal last week I found myself without any new reads (well, besides single issues). So, without anything new I decided to pull off the shelf something that hadn't been rwad in a while.

However, with a spring clean blocking the vast majority of my collection, all I had left was a handful of comics, including something that has been a seminal piece of fiction ever since its release, 19 years ago.

Civil War was the third major event of the 'Bendis Era', a exceptionally long writing gig of Brian Michael Bendis on the major (although not all) Avengers titles, after Disassembled and House of M. While Bendis was not the scripter of this event, creative duties falling to Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, Civil War has always been deemed an important lynchpin event during the noughties and Bendis' long-term story telling as it seamlessly fits between what came before it and what came after (and even having a big screen adaptation named after it).

Much like the movie named after it, Civil War focuses primarily on two characters; Captain America and Iron Man. When a group of fame-seeking c-list heroes go after a bunch of villains, a tragedy occurs near a school resulting in 600 innocent lives. What follows is a battle of ideologies (and, naturally, superheroes) as the Government decide to register all heroes in the wake of this tragedy, with Cap and ol' Shellhead ending up on differing sides of this argument.

When this series was released, I remember a lot of division in the fan base (although certainly the advertising tagline 'Whose side are you on?' certainly helped with that) with both Cap and Iron Man getting equal support (or course I could be wrong though).

Nearly two decades later though, this title still seems as prevalent today (maybe even more so, given the fractured state of the world on a number of political issues). When I first read Civil War, I was strongly on Cap's side with this. However, age and (maybe) wisdom certainly helped me understand Iron Man's point of view a lot more even if not support it.

Mark Millar's story holds up tremendously well, thanks to the simple premise of security vs freedom which informs the overall plot. The script seems tight and the pacing never once flounders (certainly no more than it needs to) as the viewpoint of many major Marvel characters are revealed in a story where there are no bad guys.

Indeed, this notion of 'no bad guys' is certainly where the story excels. The adage 'everyone is the hero of their story' has always been something Marvel does really well. Magneto, Doom, even the lower tier Street villains like Sandman, all their villains have a justifiable reason for their actions. Therefore, it stands to reason that the evolution of this notion (and even the clichéd 'hero vs hero' fight) should move in the direction of Civil War.

While Millar's story holds up (and maybe even improves with retrospect), let's not downplay the input provided by Steve McNiven. McNiven's work, ably assisted by colourist Morry Hollowell and a crew of inkers, is non-stop beauty from beginning to end. Every panel, every line is clean and smooth and the colours perfectly marry the divide between keeping the story grounded and maintaining its colourful roots.

If there is one flaw in this series, looking back, it is the rationale behind Cap's actions to his argument. This is a superhero comic and, by definition, there needs to be a degree of action and fisti-cuffs and so on. However, the idea that Captain America and his forces would treat this like a war, rather than some sort of underground railroad-type scenario just seems counter to his argument. What happens if he wins? Does the Government bow to his wishes? (They rarely fulfil the publics wishes at any other point).

There is also the issue of Bendis' larger story at the time which, while having a fantastic jumping off point, never seemed to fully utilise it. What happens her lays the groundwork for Secret Invasion and, beyond that, Dark Reign. However, upon re-reading this, the idea of secret identities being outed is never fully explored (especially during Dark Reign). Also, the introduction of Miriam Sharpe, a victim of the initial disaster in this story, feels like she should have been used more as the road to Secret Invasion progressed, maybe even revealing herself to be a part of the enemy force from that story.

Still, that's simply retrospective dreams of my own for tales that weren't exactly bad reads themselves.

Regardless of its place in a grander narrative, I truly think that Civil War has remained an engrossing, thrilling and beautiful read which still feels as contemporary as the day it was first released.