Zatanna #6
“Dragon of Calamity!”
Writer/Artist: Jamal Campbell
Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse
Publisher: DC Comics
Earth. Air. Fire. Water.
The four nations lived in harmony, until the Fire nation…
Wait, that’s Avatar: the Last Airbender.
My bad.
Fire Nation
We open with Zatanna educating the reader on the four elements, and how they can transform emotions into physical forms. The most powerful and dangerous? The collective anxieties of a population can turn into a dragon.
You know, like the one attacking the Hidden City.
That’s what takes up the majority of this issue, Zatanna versus a dragon. Is she able to save the place her mother loved so much and the grandmother that she just found?
And waiting in the wings, who is the returning Lady White?
The Greatest Show
You can never go wrong with a big dragon.
I’ve always loved dragons. On the covers of so many fantasy novels. Part of the namesake for Dungeons and Dragons. Also, my high school mascot.
So I was going to like this issue no matter what.
The fact that it had an interesting take on dragons based in the rules of magic we’re steadily learning? That’s just icing on the cake.
That being said, my lack of familiarity with Zatanna’s history definitely hurt my enjoyment of this arc a bit. I didn’t know about the Hidden City or Zee’s mother before this, so most of the emotional beats here didn’t really land for me. Similarly, betrayals amongst the City’s leadership didn’t affect me because I don’t know anything more about the characters than what’s seen here.
It’s nice that Zee has met her grandmother, so now she has some form of family to fall back on when it gets tough. Hopefully it gives a reason to return to the Hidden City from time to time, too.
I do like that one constant trait of Zatanna’s character is that she’s a showman through and through. Nothing is small scale or subdued—everything is flashy or memorable. And banishing a dragon by telling it to “disappear?” That’s just cool.
The hints of another looming threat at the end of the issue are intriguing, but again, I don’t know who they are so I think some impact is lost. Maybe I need to go back and read Campbell’s miniseries from a couple of years ago—that might fill a few holes in for me.
Pull a Rabbit Out of a Hat
The best issues of this series are the ones that Jamal Campbell writes and draws, such as this one. You can tell that he scripts the book with a specific visual in mind that he’s then able to give form. Everything here is incredibly detailed, from the dragon’s multitude of eyes to the full-page spread of it trying to overwhelm Zee emotionally. Plot-wise, there’s so much more going on than just “a dragon attacks.” There’s the struggle between the old ways and the way the world is, the pain of regret, and so much more. They need to move past the people who sacrificed Zatanna’s mother, but they don’t know how.
Having enough collective anxieties to summon a dragon probably doesn’t help, either.
The colors mesh so well with the art, you’d think Campbell did that himself too. Andrew Dalhouse gives everything a strong, bright palette, with a multitude of creatures and magical effects that let him really cut loose. The dragon is an interesting mixture of the traditional take with some unique traits like the creepy eyes all over its body, and it’s the colors that really make it stand out.
Smaug!
Zatanna #6 is more or less an all-action issue, with Zee taking on a dragon powered by the collective anxieties of the Hidden City’s people. Given what that place has been through, that’s a pretty powerful dragon. Fortunately, Zee is no slouch herself. I’m sure some of the events here would hit a little harder if I knew more of the character’s history, but it’s to Jamal Campbell’s credit that I’m still engaged even without an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Zatanna Zatara.