Paul Dini Continues to Work His Writing Magic
The Good: A lot more ingenuity was required to win the fights here, providing a nice change of pace ofter Zatanna wiped the floor with everyone the first 2 arcs with her spells alone.
Mammon's design is just awesome. He was so well done I could instantly image a perfect voice for him in my mind right away. Even when I have a voice in mind with no frame of reference I usually have to think about it, but Mammon just came to me instantly. [If you watch Venture Brothers, just picture him sounding like Monstroso and you'll see what I did]
The whole scene where Mammon makes a new deal was really well done, and it made me think of what Brother Night's life must have been like on the other side, so it showed us a different side of Zatanna's foes.
There was a very touching scene where Zatanna was talking to Zatara after he came back to apologize for the out of control party. There was a lot of good character development in that scene.
The implication that many of the souls sacrificed to Mammon were ex-wives added an extra layer of creepiness to the entire mood.
The scene where Mammon appears in the club as every patron was awesome.
The ending was one of the absolute best executions of being unable to control one's own body I've ever seen. The constant narration of Zatanna to offer a counter to every line she says out loud was paced superbly and you could feel the intensity leading up to her breaking free. And the crushing realization of her betrayal, and the reaction from the betrayed was a dualy powerful emotional moment.
The Bad: It was sort of a middle issue. Picked up right where the last one left off and Zatanna took care of the 3 Fire Demons pretty quickly considering the insane trouble she was having at the cliffhanger last issue.
In Conclusion: 5/5
Zatanna is one of the best written comics out there right now. It may not be the greatest thing since slice bread, but it's consistant, which is more than I can say about a lot of thing. Not only is it consistent, it's consistently fantastic. Even though it's not the best comic ever, each issue itself is nearly flawless. It's not my favorite series, but it never disappoints. It's a comic that's fantastic instead of phenomenal, but it's the absolute best of the not quite the very best. Paul Dini's obviously been ready to do this series and it shows. If you don't check this title out, you're missing out.
