Even though it’s a little thin on story, the new Zatanna solo series is a visual feast from writer/artist Jamal Campbell. After an enigmatic first few pages featuring light and dark princesses and flashbacks to pivotal moments in Zatanna’s character history (The death of her father Giovanni Zatara, when she joined the Justice League of America.), Zatanna #1 focuses on the preparation behind her latest magic show at San Francisco’s Terpsichore Theater. However, it all goes awry when long-dead actor/artist/dancer/singer/multi-hyphenate Lady White appears and whisks all of Zatanna’s crew members to different types of movies. What follows is a love letter to classic Hollywood cinema and spectacle as Campbell captures what it’s like to actually experience magic.
Beautiful is an understatement for Jamal Campbell’s art in Zatanna #1, and it’s easily the main draw of this comic. There’s a sequence where Zee goes into the posters of different films and must use the tropes of the genre to rescue her crew mates that lets Campbell try out different styles. However, each panel has its own magician-type flair as she hijacks the mini movies that her colleagues are stuck in. There’s moments of surreality when Zatanna breaks the rules of reality in a hypercompetent, entertaining way just like she does in her actual stage show. This dreamlike feel is reinforced by Jamal Campbell’s color choices like an exquisite porcelain for Lady White, or blues and all kinds of shiny digital effects for a musical sequence. However, the palette can also be more muted for more quiet, serious moments like Zatanna giving one of her scene partners, Adam, a sort of pep talk about his performance during a sequence.
Zatanna is definitely a comic where the art is better than the writing as it ends with a cliched cliffhanger, and it goes a little too mysterious for the first issue of a new series. (I do have faith that we’ll learn more about Lady White in future issues so I won’t ding the title too hard for that.) However, despite the hypercompression of Campbell’s plotting, he does execute a magnificent tour de force of Zatanna’s abilities, both as stage magician and an occult superhero using similar splash pages and intricate layouts for her show as well as magical battles against ghostly, mysterious Hollywood stars. However, there is still time for vulnerability like when Zatanna is brooding in her dressing room in her first appearance before putting on a brave face for rehearsal. Also, not every trick goes off without a hitch, but this imperfection adds much-needed conflict to the comic and breaks the montage of gorgeous spreads
Zatanna #1 showcases Jamal Campbell’s sequential storytelling chops as he melds fairy tales, magic shows, and classic Hollywood glamor with the usual top hat, tuxedo, and fishnets shenanigans. It could use a little more story, but with his mastery of layout, color, and atmosphere, I’m not complaining too much.
Story/Art: Jamal Campbell Letters: Ariana Maher
Story: 7.1 Art: 9.0 Overall: 8.1 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle
