Zatanna: Bring Down The House #5 Review: Magical Perfection

zatanna bring down the house #5 crop

With the final issue of DC Comics‘s Zatanna: Bring Down The House now in stores, enough time has passed: this book was magical perfection, from the first page to the last.

Written by Mariko Tamaki, with art by Javier Rodríguez, Zatanna: Bring Down The House #5 brings to a close the story of our heroine’s journey through her past, present, and future. As a Black Label book, the five-issue mini wasn’t beholden to continuity, though skirted it, introducing a forgotten moment in Zatanna’s past that led to her father’s disappearance, and her refusal to use magic in the present.

It’s also built up a delightfully unique cosmology for DC magic that involves magicians, and their familiars — really, just bunnies — with Zatanna stuck in the middle. Heck, the series even found time for a version of John Constantine who isn’t quite as much of a jerk as his mainstream counterpart… But still finds time for a little self-centered betrayal, here and there.

While Tamaki’s light, fun writing style here deftly weaves through the magical storyline, the real standout (as usual) is Rodríguez’s jaw-dropping art. Here he gets to mix Vegas skylines with magical, Kirby-esque weirdness. His creatures, including the final one Zatanna faces in this issue call to mind Miyazaki meets Moebius, and the panel layouts throughout are trippy and superb.

It’s the sort of book that if it was in the mainline universe would be a defining run for Zatanna. As is, it’s a perfect standalone story that also works as a stellar introduction to DC’s most magical character. While I have no magical powers of my own, I predict this will be an instant classic that will be discussed and read for years to come. Pick up the individual issues, wait for the trade… However you read it, true to its name, Zatanna: Bring Down The House is a showstopper.

Zatanna: Bring Down The House #5 Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Zatanna: Bring Down The House #5 Official Synopsis:

AND NOW FOR HER GRAND FINALE! Zatanna’s been hunted by demons, terrorized by warring factions of magic, whisked halfway across the world by an ex–always running from the past rather than daring to face it down. But when it becomes clear that the ghost that haunts her lies in the kaleidoscope of childhood memories she’s tried so hard to forget, will she be able to turn back the clock to not just save herself but the very fabric of magic?

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