#like whyj has EVER had the forethought for character development LMAO

[dyketectivecomics]

How do you feel about zatannas role in identity crisis and the fallout involving her after?

tl;dr - I personally like the potential that it provides as a rallying point to further develop her character, but I also think that DC wasted that potential. 

(Let’s recap for anyone who hasn’t read through Zatanna’s appearances like some of us lmao)

Overall, in Identity Crisis, Zatanna, and more specifically her power, is used as little more than a plot device. We’re given the narrative clues that she’s young & easily swayed into agreeing to go along with the plan, should the vote turn out that way (with her voting positively to mind-wipe Light, of course). But nothing further than that. We’re not offered many clues about her own potential internal conflict about those choices in the event itself, because the narrative isn’t focused on that, it’s focused on the murder mystery. Fair enough. But you’d expect it to be addressed SOME time, though... right?

But that’s the thing, it’s not even addressed in the next major event that she’s more directly involved in the next year (Seven Soldiers in 2005), and even the follow up in JLA (issues #115-119 for those just now following along here, also in ‘05) was a little... lackluster. Because just as soon as she takes a stand this time around, a refusal to mind-wipe the Secret Society for the second time, all it takes is one quick conversation with Diana about The Greater Good and Difficult Choices to change her mind. (So for those keeping score, she’s mind-wiped those villains TWICE now, with the second time having a better, more nuanced understanding of what it means.)

The only other times we see DC dive a little further into Zee’s guilt on this matter, mostly involve how she’s manipulated Catwoman’s memories and personality (solo issues #50-51, and brought up again in Gotham City Sirens #17-19), and her trying her best to make amends with Selina on that front. Which I think did a marginally better job of shedding some light on how she was processing those choices, but only just.

Even her solo series, for as much as I LOVE it, kind of glosses over this part of her history and any guilt she may still feel about it. Granted, by that point, it’s been 6-ish years since the initial event and god only knows how long in-continuity (yaaaay timelines in comics, right?). But it’s still... a little bit of a sore spot for me personally, knowing that the solo was cut off when it was. 

Because her solo? Would have been the PERFECT time & opportunity to do a deep dive into Zee’s psyche, and into how that event formed her and who she was before/after. So many little potential plot threads were clearly being set up along the way, and Zee processing her history more? Would have been a fascinating read! 

So to tie it back to your question, and to what I think gets a little lost in the fandom’s buzz on character’s like Zee: Whether a reader personally agrees or disagrees with Zatanna’s choices are irrelevant, because it’s a compelling narrative, and that’s all that really matters. It’s a great moral conflict for us to make meta over and that fandom philosophers could have a field day debating, and most of all, it adds a depth to Zatanna’s character that hadn’t quite been there before. But all of that depth unfortunately almost went out the window because DC didn't explore it when they really SHOULD have. At least not to the extent that I would like to see it.

(But then again, if her appearance in the upcoming Catwoman issue is anything to go by, maybe we’ll have a chance for it to be readdressed in a new light.)

Until then, I have yet to see many people in fandom really talking about this point, at least not without their own personal feelings on the morality of the matter clouding their meta (the closest I’ve seen it brought up was with the parallel of YJ season 3 and her and M’gann’s manipulation of Artemis’ grief. And god were there some BAD takes around that time.) And it certainly hasn’t been brought up in any fics I’ve read (but I’ve been doing a lot less fic reading lately anyways), but I don’t expect it to be handled well by amateur authors (myself included) at all.

Because it’s a complicated issue and it’s a complicated narrative. But damn does it deserve to be explored.