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Zatanna is one of those characters who hasn’t been fully explored in television and movies.  Yes, she had three episodes in Smallville but is that enough?  The Mistress of Magic is an interesting enough character and could easily tie in to a Justice League Dark or Swamp Thing movie.  Let’s get Zatanna on the big screen, JJ Abrams!  

Enough begging, on to her first appearances in comic books.  One of the weirdest quirks regarding Zatanna’s first appearances is related to Detective Comics #336.  The story from February 1965 has a gnarly old witch fighting Batman and Robin throughout the story.  There are no clues in the story that this is Zatanna like backward speaking or talking about her father.  Two years later in Justice League of America #51, Zatanna explains that she was disguised as the witch to find her father, Zatara.  We never see Zatanna out of the witch costume, so we have a special designation for Detective Comics #336.  We are calling this book a “Retroactive Continuity Appearance of Zatanna” instead of a numbered appearance.  

Here are her first 12 appearances in order as I did with Harley Quinn Appearances.

Shockingly, DC didn’t put Zatanna on many of those early appearances.  She appears on only four covers out of the first 12 appearances. 

The Atom #19 as a floating head for her 1st cover appearance
Green Lantern #42 in the damsel in distress pose
Justice League of America #51 engulfed in flames
Adventure Comics #413 as a floating head, again

Based on the lack of covers you would think that DC was ashamed of the Magician Zatanna.  When DC Super-Stars of Magic #11 came out 13 years after her first appearance, she finally got a great cover.  Thank you, Gray Morrow.  Since then she has had several fantastic covers.

by Ron Cloer