Of all of the characters that Grant Morrison is exploring or introducing over the course of this Seven Soldiers event, Zatanna is probably the most recognizable. Morrison recognizes what Paul Dini did in his recent Zatanna one-shot, as have other writers before them: there's tremendous potential in this character. Her grounded personality and the unreal power she wields makes for a winning combination. The larger plot here is a cosmic one, boasting surreal visuals and consciousness-expanding ideas that ignite the imagination. But what makes it work is how human the title character is. I like that Zatanna's neurotic. That she's fallible. That she's horny. Welcome, readers, to Sex and the Sorcery.
Zatanna Zatara attends a support group session for super-heroes, and she's got quite a burden she's carrying. She tells her would-be professional "colleagues" about the reason why she's decided to give up on spellcasting. She recently led a small group of occultists, along with professional sketptic Dr. Terry Thirteen, into other magical planes of reality on a quest for her late father's lost books of knowledge. Instead, she discovers that a recent wish she made is about to come true. Good news for her, bad news for... well, everyone and everything else.
Ryan Sook was an excellent choice as penciller for this book. There was a time when his work only elicited comparisons to the gothic style of Mike Mignola, but that time is long past. There's still a dark, gothic feel to be found here, but there's a greater depth to his style. I'm reminded me of the work of such artists as Adam Hughes, Peter Gross and Kevin Nowlan here, not to mention J.H. Williams III's style. Sook captures the same surreal, boundary-breaking approach Williams offered in Seven Soldiers #0 and Promethea, and it's fitting that Williams's frequent inking collaborator, Mick Gray, joins Sook on this project. The plane-jumping sequences are stunning; the artists really make it look as though the characters are physically delving further into the comic and emerging from it. Eyring's colors add to the surreal quality of the magical backdrops nicely.
A coming apocalypse. Charred corpses. A loss of faith in self. These are all plot elements here, but what's really impressive about this story is that it's a comedy. The super-hero support group is hilarious, mainly because it's clear that Zee is the only one in the bunch who can really lay claim to the label. The others are wannabes; the support group is where they feel special. Zatanna is the most extraordinary among them, yet she is the most normal as well.
It's a shame that the recent release of DC Countdown and the advance promotion of Infinite Crisis is eclipsing Morrison's Seven Soldiers event, because I have no doubt that this project is the stronger of the two. It's far more challenging, but then, not as many readers want to be challenged as entertained, I suppose. Small snippets of Morrison's core plot, as referenced in the Seven Soldiers #0 bookend issue, creep into this script, but this never feels like a crossover. Morrison doesn't require the reader to fall into the traps of the crossover. In other words the Seven Soldiers comics feel like storytelling, not marketing. 10/10
