WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Justice League Dark #28, by Ram V, Amancay Nahuelpan, June Chung and Rob Leigh, on sale now.
Justice League Dark's battle with the Upside-Down Man has been one of the most brutal mystical wars the DC Universe has ever seen. The heroes have taken it to the Other Place, home of the Otherkind, to try to burn his dark magic out, but it's a supernatural suicide mission, and they just can't overpower the villain.
Even with Wonder Woman using Hecate's full power, they're coming up short, but Zatanna pulls a Hail Mary in Justice League Dark #28 to stop him. Unfortunately, there's a huge price to pay as a couple of heroes perish. Even though the issue resurrects John Constantine, it costs the life of someone who's even closer to Zatanna, her dad Zatara.
The Upside-Down Man claimed Constantine's life, which seemed to fulfill a prophecy and pact the foul-mouthed Brit made early on in the book in order to get the team over. With Swamp Thing's fallen and Kent Nelson's Dr. Fate having already fallen in battle, Zatanna's reeling from all the death around her. She merged with the Upside-Down Man and destroyed him from the inside, so she's feeling hurt even more after becoming part of the entity that killed her friends.
But as the heroes recover moments after their win, the finale of the issue shows Zatanna's dad, Giovanni, actually appearing to her. He was released from his fiery purgatory since that the Upside-Down Man was gone. And instead of resurrecting himself, he decides to broker a deal to bring Constantine back to life and give his daughter one last shot at happiness..
Zatara was created by Fred Guardineer in 1938's Action Comics #1, the same issue that introduced Superman. As decades went by, he would be linked to the deceased Waynes, even mentoring young Bruce in escapism using his stage theatrics and took the deaths of the Waynes very hard. Despite his heroic pedigree, Zatara had a cruel death that helped elevate Zatanna's standing as a premier supernatural warrior. In the Post-Crisis and New 52 era, he died during a seance against the Great Evil Beast, with Constantine blaming himself for the death and apparent damnation. Now, this comes full-circle as Giovanni decides Constantine's life is worth more than his.
As he chants his reverse spell, Zatara takes death onto himself in his state of limbo, which frees up Constantine to return to the land of the living. As Zee bids her dad a tearful goodbye, she's at least happy Constantine's back. Still, she tried to find her dad for so long that this is an incredibly crushing moment for her. Still, Zatanna got closure, and her father's sacrifice could bring Constantine and Zatana closer together than ever.