Zatanna Zatara is one of DC’s most powerful mages. The character is famous for her “backwards magic” that she conjures simply by speaking commands backwards. However, Zatanna has also played a relatively large role in the DCU as a whole, especially in her time with both the Justice League and the Justice League Dark. As one of the Earth’s most powerful magicians, Zatanna has come to accomplish quite a lot over the years, for both good and bad. Despite some of the character’s more troubled moments, there is no denying just how powerful she truly is as an individual. To see just how powerful she can be, here is our list of the 10 most powerful things Zatanna has done in the DC Universe.
10 Completely Demolished a Batsuit
Taking down Batman is no easy feat. Likewise, taking down a member of the Batfamily is only marginally easier. Since every member of the batfamily is equipped with some of the most advanced technology, it is understandable that that tech would be very difficult to disrupt.
However, this would not be a problem for Zatanna at all. During a confrontation with Luke Fox, Batwing, Zatanna completely demolished his entire suit of armor with a single word, “edolpxe.” While Luke has shown off his incredible scientific mind many times in the past, his technology and suit were no match for Zatanna’s powerful magic in this case. While Luke would remain unharmed, Zatanna certainly showed off some incredible abilities by taking him down so easily.
9 Can Predict the Future
While several other characters have been shown to predict/see into the future, Zatanna’s ability to do so is a bit more old fashioned. As the Mistress of Magic, Zatanna typically uses tarot cards to see into the future. However, she hasn’t always been the most accurate, in the Batman: Heart of Hush storyline, Zatanna gave Selina Kyle a reading that was drastically different from the outcome she had predicted.
While the reading would later come into fruition, Zatanna still saw it as a mishap on her part. Recently, however, in the Batman: Damned story, Zatanna appears briefly as a street musician and offers Batman a much more accurate reading. Despite a few mishaps in her judgements, Zatanna has been right far more often then she has been wrong when it comes to seeing the future.
8 Overpowered Felix Faust
On several occasions, Zatanna has gone toe-to-toe with the powerful DC villain, Felix Faust. Like Zatanna, Faust is easily one of the most powerful magicians in all of DC, though he often uses his abilities for personal and villainous motives. Recently, it is revealed that the two even studied the mystic arts together when they were around high school age.
Though Felix has attempted evil on many occasions, someone has always been there to stop him. Occasionally, that person is Zatanna. While it is its own separate story, the Justice League Dark (2017) animated feature showcases one of the encounters between the team and Faust. For a time, Zatanna is easily able to hold him off. While Faust eventually gets the upper hand again in the movie, Zatanna has still managed to take him down in the comics. As one of the most powerful dark magicians, faust certainly doesn’t go down easily, making Zatanna’s skills all the more powerful.
7 Healed Selina Kyle
For such a minor appearance, Zatanna still plays a pretty big role in Batman: Heart of Hush by Paul Dini. This storyline sees the Batman villain, Hush, remove Catwoman’s heart and place it on ice, giving Batman only a few hours to find it and save her. After Batman manages to retrieve the heart and it is returned to Selina Kyle, Zatanna appears to her in a vision.
Though Selina initially believes that she has died, Zatanna explains that she had simply transported her to a magical plane. There, Zatanna would give Selina a potion to rapidly increase her healing. Considering the severity of Selina’s situation, the fact that Zatanna can simply conjure a potion to almost instantly make her better is an incredible display of power, meaning that Zatanna herself is incredibly difficult to wound.
6 Spell Written in Blood
Before coming to the aid of Selina Kyle, Zatanna would find herself in her own dire situation. It began when she teamed up with Batman to investigate a missing person from her crew before her show in Gotham. Eventually, it is revealed that the Joker was behind the attack, only revealing himself after slitting Zatanna’s throat. In doing so, however, Joker disabled Zatanna’s ability to speak backwards, ensuring that she couldn’t heal herself.
Joker then placed Zatanna in a flooded chamber and turned his sights on Batman. Eventually, Batman was able to rescue Zatanna from the chamber before she drowned. Zatanna was still able to save herself from her injuries by writing a backwards spell in her own blood on the ceiling of the chamber. She goes on to explain to Batman that some of the only things more powerful than her own magic is “a spell written in blood.”
5 Survived Epoch
For those who may be unfamiliar, Epoch is a magical realm full of all sorts of dangerous forces and creatures. During the New 52, Zatanna was transported there alongside her teammate, Tim following an altercation with the Books of Magic. While there, the two of them encountered many threats while trying to get home.
After Tim’s dad eventually finds them to offer his assistance, the trio decide to attempt to take the realm for themselves. Here, Zatanna would actually lead an army that she and the group had amassed against the dark forces of the realm. The group would find themselves as the victors, though Zatanna would be the only one to return to reality.
4 Has Wiped Batman’s Memory
Batman has a reputation as the world’s greatest detective for a reason. Yet, Zatanna still managed to throw him off. After Batman walked in on Zatanna in direct violation of one of the Justice League’s codes, Zatanna, in a panic, wiped the Dark Knight’s memory. While she thought it was the right thing to do, Zatanna successfully managed to go against the Justice League twice within a matter of minutes.
Her spellcasting was so successful in this manner though, that for years, Batman would wonder what had happened to him. When her betrayal was eventually uncovered, Zatanna’s Justice League status took a massive hit along with her reputation. While it may be one of her darker moments in history, the fact that she was able to fool Batman for years is still a great display of power.
3 Lobotomized Dr. Light
If you were wondering what the first violation of Justice League code was that Batman walked in on, it was seeing Zatanna and other members of the League performing a lobotomy on Doctor Light. For years, Light was a very small threat who was usually a punching bag for the Teen Titans. In Identity Crisis, however, it is revealed that Light wasn’t always that way. After he had managed to break into the Justice League Watchtower, Light raped the spouse of Elongated Man, a longtime member.
When he was discovered, Zatanna and a few other Leaguers took matters into their own hands. Zatanna began performing a magical lobotomy that would drastically alter Doctor Light’s thought process and render him practically useless for several years. While, again, one of Zatanna’s darker moments, completely altering someone’s personality and thoughts is a dramatic display of power.
2 Took Down the Time Tailor
For a short time, Zatanna was actually part of a superteam without even realising it. Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory was a limited series that saw the Time Tailor attempt an attack on all space and time. Thanks to Zatanna’s magical abilities, she was able to pick up on this threat and act accordingly in order to stop it.
The series itself focuses on all sorts of smaller DC heroes throughout the past, present and future. As a result, Zatanna isn’t seen too often in the series as a whole. However, towards the end of the run, Zatanna used her abilities to open portals across all of space and time in order to gather all other 6 soldiers together to fight the Time Tailor. Using her abilities in this way was an incredibly massive display of power, especially since it seemed to take her little effort to do so.
1 Taken Down Magical Gods
In the fairly recent Mystik U storyline, audiences are introduced to a high school aged Zatanna after the present day version of the character is seen battling a monstrous threat. Eventually, it is revealed that this threat is one from Zatanna’s past and that she is reliving these memories in order to find the key to destroying it. The series itself offers a fun take on the character in her younger years while also showing off some familiar faces from DC’s magical community.
It is eventually revealed exactly what the threat is and how to defeat it, leaving the present day Zatanna and her former classmates to band together once more to take down the magical god. In doing so, Zatanna not only showcases her own powers, but audiences also get to see exactly how far she has come as a magician.