Zatanna #12 has Paul Dini stepping back and Matthew Sturges taking the reigns. I honestly didn’t notice the change in writers before reading, but at some point, it become blindingly obvious. If I had to guess, it sunk in around the time I realized that this was a comic with a magical Austrailian rapper with a time-altering sword for the antagonist.
Where do I even start?
I’ve stated numerous times how the switching writers and artists keeps this book from having a consistent feel, but at least things have been, overall, good until this point. Zatanna #12 is just a huge drop in quality. The supporting cast that’s been built up so far? Barely used. The plot points and running threads that have been running up to this point? Hardly mentioned. Her love interest? Has one showing on-panel. Brother Night, the main villain for the entire series? Not even mentioned.
Let’s say you can look past. Let’s say you’re okay with this just being a one-shot deal. Fine. But even on its own merits, this is a weak showing. As I said before, the villain for this issue is just a terrible rapper cliche who somehow got a hold of a fairy and a sword that reverses time when he swings it backwards. Where did he get that from? Where did he get the fairy from? Why does he bother carrying a fairy around on a leash?
I do not know. It never explains that. The character just shows up, kills a bunch of fish people because they wouldn’t tell him the directions to “Maccy D’s” – yes, really – and the story go on like we’re just supposed to accept him at face value. Oh, and he’s called Backslash. And in case you didn’t get it, he has an actual backslash symbol on his shrit to drill the point in.
At least he seems to be a suitable antagonist for Zatanna at first glance; his sword rewinds time and undoes he spells before she can really do them, making her say them forwards. She gets around this through an obvious solution, but it’s one that she doesn’t even figure out herself – the fairy tells her how to win and she just rolls with it. It wouldn’t be so bad if the answer was difficult to think up, perhaps, but Zatanna’s been built up to be a fairly intelligent woman so far – it really should have occurred to her without a prod.
It’s hardly a pain to read, but this is really the low point in the series so far; giving the excellence of what we’ve seen so far, it doesn’t come close to measuring up.
I miss Paul Dini already.
