#zatanna: superhero team

[thevoidstaredback]

Enough Caffeine to Kill an Elephant

Listen. It was an accident. He didn't mean to! It just kinda happened.

So maybe he brought a drink with enough caffeine in it to kill an elephant within a few minutes, and maybe he forgot to put the sleeve on his cup so he could tell it apart from the others, but it's not his fault! He didn't think anyone else was going to have the exact same Yeti cup as him! It's not like he'd seen any of the others carry one before. Besides, he worked with superheros. They should be smart enough to check before drinking someone else's drink.

Danny had been summoned by the Justice League Dark a few years back in order to help with a world ending crisis and he just didn't leave. It's not like he could go anywhere anyway. His ghost half hadn't grown past fourteen and his human half had stopped visibly aging at eighteen. He'd had to leave town as Danny Fenton, but he'd stayed in Amity Park as Danny Phantom. When his parents died of old age, thank god, he'd closed down the portal, stuck around for a few more years, before traveling the world as Danny Fenton.

Anyway, he'd taken up residence in the House of Mysteries after the JLD had summoned him. Constantine, at first, had been wary, but he and the rest of the JLD had grown to accept him. He was an honorary member of the team.

At some point, just after Robin had become Red Robin, Danny had been introduced to the Justice League. He liked those guys, too, and worked with them sometimes. Though, he usually only went to bug them.

Red Robin had been very interested in the fact that his was fourteen and working with grown heros, like he was one to talk, but Danny hadn't explained anything other than saying that he had died and come back. The following conversation was an interesting one that lead to Danny knowing that Nightwing was the Batman he'd met and that Batman was lost somewhere. He'd confirmed that the man was not dead, but he hadn't offered to help look for him. He probably should have, in retrospect.

Back on topic! Everyone in the JLD knew not to touch Danny's drink. They'd all seen him make it before and had been horrified on varying degrees. It's not like it could kill him. He's already half dead! So long as he only drank this specific brew as Phantom, he'd be fine.

The Justice League, apparently, didn't get the memo. He blames Constantine because Zatanna and Raven can do no wrong. No, John, he's not biased.

The point is, Red Robin just had a sip of Danny's drink. The horror he now felt was akin to the fear he held when he'd told his parents he was Phantom. (An interaction that had gone very well, thank you very much.)

Danny knew the exact moment that the vigilante realized he grabbed the wrong drink. His eyes widened to an astonishing degree, and, if he'd been able to seen his eyes behind the mask, Danny knew that the man's pupils would've completely overtaken the irises. His hands started shaking, too. Oh, no. The man's already addicted to hellish amounts of coffee. This is only going to make it worse!

Quickly, and without drawing any attention, thank the Ancients, Danny rushed over. "You, um, you okay, man?" Obviously not, but he tends to talk when he's anxious and he was certainly anxious right now. He could've possibly just killed a man via poison!

"What the fuck is in this coffee?" Red Robin asked, going to take another sip.

Danny pulled the Yeti from his hand and gave him the proper one. "Enough caffeine to kill an elephant."

"Obviously not, seeing as I'm still alive."

"Yeah, I can't tell if that's a good thing or not."

"Excuse me?"

"I-I mean-! I didn't-! You know what I mean." Caffeine is poisonous in excess, and his drink was way beyond excess, but it's the only thing that works for him as a ghost! Superpowered metabolism and all that.

"Do I?" The laugh in his voice answered for him. He took a sip from his drink and frowned at it. "I don't think any coffee will ever be enough again."

"And that's my cue to get my drink very far away from you." Danny turned, fully intent on moving to the other side of the room. Besides, the meeting was going to start as soon as the Flash and Kid Flash arrived, which would be soon. Something about one of their Rouges getting out?

"What?" Red Robin asked, "Why?" If he was a little desperate to get another sip of that coffee, he'd rather not acknowledge it.

"Because you don't need anymore lethal coffee," he muttered, "The sip you took will already keep you awake for three days at least, and it probably jump started an addiction. Best to stop it now. Besides, I need to go have my crisis on how the hell you're still alive after even a sip of this stuff."

"Again, rude." The bird themed vigilante crossed his arms as best he could while holding his cup. "If it's so dangerous, why do you drink it?"

Danny took a deliberate sip as he locked eyes with the technically younger man. "I'm dead. I don't need to worry about my heart stopping or having a seizure."

"Excuses."

"No, it's not 'excuses'. I'm saving your life."

"You're a kid. If I can't have that coffee, then you shouldn't be having it."

"First, I'm older than you. Second, I already told you: I'm dead. This isn't going to hurt me. Third, you can't tell me what to do."

"There's no way you're older than me. You're like, ten."

"I'm thirty-eight!" He balked, "I only look fourteen because I died when I was fourteen. We've been over this."

Neither noticed the entire Justice League looking at them. The two they were waiting on had arrived a few minutes ago and everyone was ready to start the meeting, but they'd been distracted by the two's conversation. Was that true? Had Phantom really died so young? They'd all been made aware he was not living, but they didn't think he'd died so young! Though, that was probably the denial speaking.

The Justice League Dark had been fully aware of this and didn't really bat an eye. Though, someone should probably get this meeting started. A potentially world ending threat was the topic, and that was a pretty important thing to discuss.

Captain Marvel was the first to pull himself together, though that was only after Atlas and Zeus had mentally slapped him out of his stupur. "As, ah, riveting as this conversation is," he stepped between the two boys- er, boy and man? "we really need to start this meeting."

Batman did not clear his throat because he'd not lost his voice in the first place. "He's right. Everyone take your seats."

Storyboard Part 2

[deadsetobsessions]

Ghost King!Danny Phantom and the Justice League

[Here] The JLA summons Danny and Constantine regrets his poor life decisions.

[Here] Writing Prompt: Ghost King!Danny can hear the screams of the Joker's victims.

[Here] Batman tells Hal Jordan to babysit the unconscious Ghost King because Hal’s neon green.

[Here] Zatanna helps the dying ghost boy by repairing his grave and hunting down the GIW

[Here] Zatanna retrieves the gravestones of Phantom's subjects and gives him a safe space to grieve.

[Here] Ghost King!Danny babysits Wonder Woman at the behest of the Goddess Hera.

[Here] Ghost King!Danny munches on some demons.

[Here] Local space ghost scolds superhero club because they littered in space.

[Here] The OG Young Justice team summons Danny in a private school bathroom

[Here] The JLA failed to prevent cultists from summoning the ghost king. Luckily, they get Danny instead, who seems to be the king's assistant.

[Here] Ghost King! Danny offers Nightwing a chance to see his parents again

[alienzil]

DP x DC Prompt/notion #1

Danny is summoned by some superheroes. Maybe by accident or maybe they didn't know what they were doing but they don't really know who he is (or that he's the ghost king)

Danny isn't entirely honest about his powers or who he is for reasons and the Justice League mostly just classify him as an average power level teen hero and sign him up for the teen titans (or young justice, whichever).

After hanging out with the younger heroes for a bit, Danny gives them his summoning spell because it's the most reliable way to get ahold of him.

Danny's summing spell has very specific requirements (as is the norm) but after a while one of the other heroes gets annoyed at having to go through the whole process every time they need Danny (maybe Danny is going back and forth between Amity and the hero team and they have to summon him every few days?) Specifically, I'm picturing Red Robin. So he decides there has to be a better way.

There's a big battle and Danny isn't there. The teen heroes all have a pretty good idea by this point that Danny is more powerful than the Justice League knows. They're dodging explosions and flying debris and one of them shouts to Tim that they need to summon Danny, does he have the supplies?!

"Download the app!" Tim shouts back.

"App?!" they respond "What app?!"

"The app I made to summon Phantom, it's in our secure sever."

"That can't possibly work?! The summoning needs a circle drawn while chanting the spell!"

"The image of the circle is loaded on the screen and the spell plays via a recorded audio file. It actually works better because there's no way to mess up the incantation or the circle requirements since the app does it all!"

"You need 7 candles of pure beeswax!"

"That part's just about not being cheap with the lighting! That phone costs over a thousand dollars and has a backlit LCD screen with the highest resolution available. It exceeds the requirements."

"What about the blood?"

"There's blood inside your hand, your hand is holding the phone. It works fine. "

Naturally the app works and Danny shows up to help save the day.

I'm picturing one of the Justice League's bigger magic users (Constantine? Zatanna?) finding out about the app and they want to see it. This ultimately leads to them getting details on the summoning spell (presumably with some shenanigans along the way if the younger heroes know the secret and are helping Danny hide it) and finding out Danny is the ghost king.

[megamindsupremacy]

Clark Pines AU random headcanons

-sometimes Stan and Ford pull the "switch clothes and talk differently to see if anyone can tell the difference" trick to mess with the twins, and they fall for it a solid 35% of the time, but Clark never falls for it because he can hear their hearts and Ford's heart is FUCKED UP due to the gazillion volts of electricity he got during weirdmageddon

-Clark almost didn't go to college to stay and work at the Shack and maybe convince his dad to finally let him help with the portal, but Stan recognized Clark was smart af and didn't want Clark to be held back for his sake. And then Stan had twenty crises in a row when it came time for Clark to actually Go To College

-Clark has to wear (reading) glasses but he doesn't like the feel of them so he usually just carries them around and wears them as infrequently as possible. And then his entire secret identity becomes "put on glasses" so he has to wear them all the time and he's REALLY MAD about it

-Clark was originally going to college for some sort of mechanics/engineering degree, but once he left Gravity Falls, he realized just how weird his hometown is. Like, he was theoretically aware, but the guy lived there his whole life. He left a few times to visit the twins and their parents or for miscellaneous other reasons but he never really lived outside of Gravity Falls for any amount of time. So it kinda hits him how different The Real World (for lack of a better term) is, and he decides to switch to communications/journalism major instead. Also, he was not very good at engineering.

-The Mystery Twins are approximately the same age as Robin!Dick so they become pretty good friends over the years. Mabel has a gigantic insane crush on Dick and Dick has a tiny baby crush on Dipper and everybody is oblivious about everything except for Bruce and Clark, who have to silently suffer together about the situation until everyone gets over it.

-Dipper gets really into magic and spells and stuff as he gets older so he becomes Clark's go-to "there's weird shit happening and it's not the genre I usually deal with" person. It isn't his life's work like with Constantine or Zatanna, so he isn't a JLDark member or anything, but he definitely Knows Some Shit.

-I'm cooking something along the lines of "Mabel becomes the youngest congresswoman ever at age 18" simply because I think it would be funny and because nobody ever acknowledges how that one frozen president technically made Mabel a congresswoman in that one episode.

-You know how Jon Kent is named that after Clark's Canon Dad Jonathan Kent? Clark tries to name his kid "Stan" after his dad and uncle and both Stanley and Stanford are like don't you FUCKING dare, we have enough Stans in this family, please give your son a better name dear god

-When the Young Justice team (yj98, NOT yjtv) forms, there's a running bit where they keep fucking running into either Mabel or Dipper on every other mission, except none of them know they're Superman's cousins so they think these two weirdos are trying to do Evil Stuff when in fact they're just living their lives, and these lives happen to be absolutely insane enough to keep crossing over with teenage superhero shenanigans.

[solar-wing]

⚣ Idiots In Love 🤦‍♂️

⚣🤦‍♂️ A/N → This is a request that I got from my previous account. It's not a re-post though. This is freshly written and done. Here you are @alexanderstarhero! I hope you like it! Not one of my best, but I did get a similar request to this one, and I wanted to get it out. Warnings: Omegaverse | Oblivious Friends to Lovers | Jealousy | Canon-Typical Violence | Kissing and marking | etc.

⚣🤦‍♂️ Summary → Nothing is more frustrating than watching two people who are clearly in love with each other be completely oblivious and ignorant of each other's feelings. It's so obvious, like come on, how could they not see it? Wait, did Conner just protectively wrap his arm around Y/N when Wally got too close? And they're supposed to be "friends?" I can't take this anymore. I'm DONE! I'M OVER IT!

⚣🤦‍♂️ Words → 5.0k

REBLOGS & replies are greatly appreciated, please! 💛

Also, vote in my Omegaverse/Yandere poll here!

⚣ ENJOY 🤦‍♂️

It was so sweet, yet also so painful to watch. How could you two be that affectionate and cute with each other, and still have no clue of the feelings you both held? It had to be a screw loose in the brain or something because this was just getting ridiculous.

Shortly after Zatara became the new Dr. Fate, Zatanna, his daughter, reached out to his son and her adoptive brother, Y/N Zatara to come join her at Mount Justice and join the Team. He was more than thrilled at the offer and immediately packed up his things from his boarding school and joined his sister in Happy Harbor.

Y/N had always wanted to join the Justice League’s newest stealth and covert team when it was first formed, but Zatara would not allow it. He didn’t want either of his children to join the Team for various reasons. Specifically, he didn’t want to create any chance or risk of losing Zatanna, his only connection to his deceased wife, Sindella.

For Y/N, he knew the life of a superhero and its sometimes cruel and unfair conditions. The magician knew the already hard life the young omega was given early on and didn’t want to add to it.

When Y/N was very young, he’d become an orphan, his parents disappearing under mysterious circumstances. So, he was placed in foster care and moved between many different foster homes. As the story typically goes, he felt out of place and never really accepted in any of the homes his CPS agent would place him in.

Not just for his magical abilities, but sometimes also for his daily obvious submissive nature. Even if he hadn’t presented yet, Y/N always showed early traits of an Omega dynamic. And, just as many places in the world that had yet to move forward in modern times, there was an inherent bias in the foster care system that favored Alpha or Beta children over Omegas.

It wasn’t until his 5th or 6th foster home that he ran away, and happened to come across a battle between Zatara and Wotan. The magician’s curiosity had been piqued when this random child helped him in taking down the sorcerer. After hearing a bit of the young child’s story, he decided to take him under his wing and adopt him as his son.

Many jokes were made by different leaguers about how he needed to be careful or he’d turn into Batman 2.0.

The Dark Knight did not find the joke amusing.

When Zatara had brought Zatanna to the Team’s new base shortly after their creation as a stealth unit for the Justice League, Y/N wanted to join along, but Zatara insisted he stay at his school and focus on his studies. That’s why he was absent for the first adventures his sister got to join in.

Things changed though when Zatanna decided to use the Helmet of Fate in the battle against Klarion after he split the world into two dimensions with one only full of adults and the other only full of children. As fate would have it (pun unintended), Nabu, the spirit possessing the helmet refused to give up her body as he felt it necessary he establish himself permanently on Earth to prevent the world from falling into chaos.

A deal was made between Zatara and Nabu that he would trade places with his daughter, becoming the new Dr. Fate.

After that, Zatanna’s life was moved from New York to Mount Justice where she lived alongside Miss Martian and Superboy. M’Gann did her best to help her new comrade and roommate feel welcomed, excited at having another girl living at Mount Justice and being able to do all sorts of Earth girly stuff as she saw on TV, but it wasn’t enough.

Zatanna craved familiarity. She missed her home and her dad, and though nothing would ever be able to replace those feelings, she figured having her brother around would help her feel less alone after just a few months of living at the Cave

Yes, was it a bit selfish? Kind of, but, in her defense, Y/N had already wanted to join the Team the second he found out about it. It was their dad who wouldn’t let him, so of course, when he got the call from his sister, he wanted to immediately pack up his things and move himself to Happy Harbor.

But, of course, adults had to intervene. Their leaders suggested Y/N wait till he finished the semester at his current school and then transfer over in the new year after winter break was over. Not what they initially wanted, but knowing they would eventually be together in a few months was enough to hold them over.

After the entire mess with Vandal Savage and his scheme of taking the Justice League was over, Batman and Black Canary began the official process of transferring Y/N over to Happy Harbor. They handled all of the paperwork and administrative details on Zatara’s behalf, and soon, both the Zatara siblings became full-time members of the Team.

The day Y/N arrived was one to be remembered. His future teammates couldn’t think of a time they had seen Zatanna so anxious and excited. When the Zeta Tube machines began whirring up and the automated voice announced his arrival, she almost left skid marks on the floor from how fast she sprinted to the opening.

The very first moment Y/N came through, she immediately ran forward and tackled him into a hug with him returning the gesture as well, happy to see his sister. The other team members watched in silent awe, some a bit emotional than others (*cough* Wally *cough*).

After their tearful reunion, Zatanna introduced her brother to the rest of the team. Everything went smoothly until she got to Superboy, who Y/N immediately became nervous and flushed around the second he laid eyes on the Kryptonian.

Zatanna and Y/N always kept in contact through phone calls, emails, and letters while he was away, and that didn’t change when she met the Young Justice team. 

In her messages, she described the Team and its different members, the missions they went on, and all the different stuff about the Cave. She also went into very specific details about one particular member of the group, even going as far as to send pictures sometimes whenever the group took photos together.

Knowing her sweet, Omega brother, and his overly romantic way of thinking, she knew if he and Superboy had ever met, he’d more than likely fall head over heels. Zatanna herself was a Beta, so she wasn’t easily swooned by the sight and smell of Alphas and Omegas like her brother or other certain members of the team (*cough* Wally *cough*).

However, she didn’t expect the surprising (at least to her) relationship between Conner and M’Gann. That truthfully was the plot twist of the season. She was no relationship expert, but if you asked her, those two just didn’t make sense.

There was no chemistry, no connection or spark that even the strongest telescope could see between them. The most you could see was physical attraction if even that. So when it came down to their eventual split a few months later, Zatanta, out of everybody else on the team, was not even the slightest bit surprised.

M’Gann swore they were just on a small break and would be back together in no time, but the sorceress was almost positive it wasn’t happening. Conner showed no interest in wanting to get back with her, which was the entire reason she even started poking at the idea of him and Y/N together in the first place.

They would look so good together, and oh god, could you imagine their children? Cutest kids ever. She wasn’t biased at all, but seriously? Take one look at Y/N, then look at Conner who’s basically the standard of the attractive himbo– ahem, male. 

She could even remember her and her dad doing all the thinking of the world of who Y/N’s parents could be.

You didn’t get looks like those by wishing for it or casting a spell…

Hold up?

…

Nah.

Yet, the only issue getting in the way was their inability to confess their obvious feelings for each other. It was like that feeling you get when watching a Dora episode and the twitch but replacing it with a b kept asking for something that was literally RIGHT THERE.

Like, girl, ARE YOU BLIND?!

That had to be the case, considering both reactions from Y/N and Conner when they were introduced.

As mentioned before, Y/N became flustered and nervous, almost stuttering over his words when he went to shake hands with Superboy. He’d been smooth and charismatic with everyone else on the team, but, as Zatanna predicted, the Omega immediately grew a crush on the young superhero. And it definitely wasn’t one-sided.

You know in those cheesy romance novels and movies (Disney we’re looking at you), when the two lovebirds or soulmates first make contact, and there’s that ‘spark’ between them. Like long-lost lovers or some shit like that?

Let’s just say, this was a bit more, extra if you will.

Conner had only been out of his pod for a few months, and what he had yet to discover was that the human part of his DNA meant his genes were also subjected to Alpha/Beta/Omega biology, unlike M’Gann and her Uncle or even Clark. Not much study had been done yet on Kryptonian biology and if they were affected by a similar biological dynamic system like most homo-sapiens were. 

Martians were never known to have such a thing in their biology according to Martian Manhunter.

Therefore, it never occurred to anyone the possibility that Conner could very well end up presenting a dynamic at some point if he hadn’t already. When he met Y/N and shook hands with him, you could say his reaction was surprising, bordering on terrifying or hot. Your choice.

The Kryptonian’s nose had flared and he ended up yanking Y/N into his arms, aggressively sniffing at his neck. He also uttered the word ‘Mine’ while glaring and growling at anyone who dared take a step too close.

Hmm, does anyone else have the weirdest sense of Déjà Vu? Weird.

It became clear to everyone right there Conner’s biological dynamic; Alpha. And, considering meeting Y/N was his first time meeting an Omega ever, he reacted quite better than many before they’d seen, which was a bit shocking when you think about it.

The man literally came out of his pod swinging and punching, not to mention his less-than-tactical way of dealing with confrontational situations. Everyone chalked it up to his Kryptonian DNA and his isolation from society for his aggressive ways.

Nope, it was just regular Alpha-like temper tantrums. Typical.

Plus, most of the guys were either Alphas, except for Dick who had yet to present. Artemis and Zatanna were both betas, making Y/N the first and only Omega on the team.

The others managed to separate the two, and when Conner got himself back under control, he apologized embarrassingly before excusing himself. Everyone had brushed it off and wouldn’t hang it over his head, knowing from experience how bad those situations can get when you experience your first ‘hormonal instinct takeover’, or H.I.T. as most would call it.

Whoever thought of that must have considered themselves quite clever. Getting hit with H.I.T.? So corny.

That interaction all but confirmed Zatanna’s predictions that Conner and Y/N would end up together. Though, he didn’t score high in M’Gann’s favor at all.

She wasn’t pleased with that interaction at all and wanted to avoid the possibility of having any repeat mistakes in the future. Things would not go her way. In truth, they would go the opposite.

After they showed him the Cave, they let him get set up in his room which was conveniently right next to Conner’s room. Something else the Martian girl was 100% not happy about.

She tried to point out the fact that maybe if Conner was getting used to his new Alpha dynamic, having an Omega room right next to him wouldn’t be the best idea since it could be a trigger for the Kryptonian. It almost worked too, but once again, things did not go her way.

Surprisingly (not for Zatanna), it was Conner who shot down the idea, saying that he could control himself and didn’t think it necessary for Y/N to move rooms. Besides, the Omega had already started unpacking and getting comfortable, and he didn’t want to inconvenience him.

Which was half the truth…

Little did he or anyone else realize, Conner was already falling in sync with his natural Alpha instincts. And the most urgent of those at the moment was keeping the Omega he desired in a close enough place where he could protect and watch over him.

The thought of having Y/N in a room farther away where he couldn’t immediately get to him if something were to happen left a very sour feeling in the Alpha’s stomach. Thankfully, Batman and Black Canary agreed to let him keep the room. But, Conner would be working with the Dark Knight on controlling and understanding his new biological nature since that was something the G-Gnomes couldn’t telepathically teach him.

M’Gann was not happy.

Zatanna was ecstatic.

Y/N was nervous but also giddy. The Kryptonian was not alone in his feelings or instincts taking over as the second anyone suggested a room change, the Omega was prepared to fight (metaphorically speaking) to stay exactly where he was.

He wasn’t blind at all. Y/N caught on to M’Gann’s motives the second she opened her mouth, and he wasn’t going to let her win if he had anything to say about it. The more time Conner and Y/N spent around each other, the more protective and jealous each other became when it came to anyone else coming around them. Specifically, anyone they saw as a threat.

For Y/N, that was obviously M’Gann.

As time passed by and he got more acclimated into the team, he was not oblivious to the many attempts M’Gann would make to flirt and get back with Conner, even going as far as one day just blatantly asking him if he ever thought about her.

The Kryptonian was kind enough not to embarrass her in front of everyone and pulled her out of the room to explain his platonic feelings for her. Y/N heard everything though, thanks to a spying spell he secretly cast.

And Y/N is not shy about staking his claim on the Alpha, even though they’re only friends. He finds subtle ways to leave his scent on Conner, whether that’s giving him subtle touches where he knows his scent glands are, asking to wear his jacket when he pretends to get cold, or finding an excuse to hug or touch the boy.

Also, if the Alpha ever needs anything, Y/N is the first to grab and provide what it may be. Not only did it please his nature to know he was taking care of an Alpha, but it also satisfied his territorial side whenever M’Gann saw or heard Conner praising him for his assistance.

His biggest success though may have been after an incident where M’Gann tried to read his mind only to have her thoughts scattered by his defensive spell. Y/N was never a big fan of the telepathic link of communication they used on missions, giving M’Gann unlimited access to all of their thoughts.

He placed a protective spell over his and Zatanna’s minds with her permission that would only allow M’Gann access to communicating thoughts and nothing else. If she went searching for more, the spell would activate and deflect her signal right back to her mind, scrambling her head. Imagine a brain freeze or your worst headache, and then put it on steroids. Served her well.

He discreetly put one on Conner as well, but knew he would take it off eventually as he didn’t want to overstep boundaries.

Of course, this caught the attention of others when the Martian girl was more or less screaming in pain for a solid minute. The effect didn’t last long, so she wasn’t being tortured for an extended period, only long enough to teach her a lesson. 

When Aqualad asked what happened, Y/N simply explained his discomfort with having an open link into each of their minds and his protective measures in case someone decided to get a little nosy. M’Gann’s little reaction proved his concerns were justified.

The mage suggested that he could use the same spell which would allow them to communicate telepathically still, but just that. No reading one’s thoughts and mind.

Everyone readily agreed to this, of course, the only one protesting it was M’Gann, but considering she was outnumbered, she had no choice but to go along. Aqualad also requested he place that defensive spell on each one of their minds, just in case any of them were to have run-ins with a mind-reading villain like that time in Bialya.

When it came time for him to put the spell on Conner, Y/N decided to come clean and admitted he already placed a spell on him. He claimed it was because he heard how the G-Gnomes used to control him telepathically and figured he wanted to erase any chance of that, which was true, but not the only reason. 

Thankfully, the Kryptonian didn’t question him, finding comfort and admiration in the fact that he would go out of his way for him like that. His Alpha side was very happy.

Zatanna, of course, knew better and was very happy watching this entire thing unfold.

Now, on Superboy’s end, his threat was basically anyone who was not either a female, another Omega, or himself. Meaning he sees not just his enemies as a threat to claim over Y/N, but even some of his allies as well.

If he and Y/N were in the same room together and Kal, Wally, or Dick entered, Conner immediately would be on edge. He’d watch their every move like a hawk, especially if they came too close toward the mage for his liking. 

If any of them were to be talking to the Omega, they’d turn to find a very aggravated and tense Kryptonian glaring at them with a very clear message. One wrong move and their mentors would be looking for new mentees.

It was something he had to work hard on in his training with Batman and now Superman as well, taming his jealous and possessive instincts. He learned that while Kryptonians don’t share the same biological dynamics as humans do, they do still have stronger instincts and urges, which can amplify his already strong Alpha nature.

It proved easier said than done.

It was so easy for him to let his protective nature take over, even when Y/N was perfectly safe or in total control of a situation.

Many times on missions, Conner would all but demand that Y/N be paired with him if they were to split up. Even if it sometimes made sense for the mage to be paired off with a different person, he’d barely budge. With Artemis or Zatanna, he was lenient. M’Gann was just an automatic no. And any of the other guys, it’d be easier to ask Batman to not brood for one day.

That wasn’t even the worst part, though. Many times on missions or in battles, the Kryptonian would demand Y/N stay back and let him handle the fight, even if the mage was winning.

At one point, Wotan sought revenge against Zatara, Dr. Fate, and the Omega who defeated him so many years ago and had once again combined forces with Klarion to put many heroes in the Justice League under a spell. Similar to when that mind control thing happened with Vandal Savage, but this time, they were instructed to just destroy those three.

Of course, as Fate would have it (no pun intended), Superboy and Y/N ended up facing off against Superman. Now, given the last time the two Kryptonians faced off, you’d think Conner would have taken the back-pedal, considering they both shared a similar weakness to magic.

Nope.

Conner insisted that Y/N stay behind him and that he would take care of Superman himself. He held out for as long as he could, but, at some point, the mage just couldn’t continue to sit by and watch.

They won the battle, and Zatanna and Y/N were able to break the spell over the heroes, but Conner was not happy with the Omega at all. However, he couldn’t figure out if he was more upset about the fact he disobeyed him or that he put his life in danger for him. 

And, truthfully, he had to wonder if he was only upset and not also appreciative and grateful for the knowledge of knowing that if he truly was ever in trouble, he could count on Y/N to be there to help him when he couldn’t help himself.

Again, Zatanna was fully enjoying herself watching this play out.

Yet, the longer it went on, the more she and the others got tired of waiting. Even M’Gann was getting restless wondering when those two were going to man up and admit their feelings.

In the beginning, Y/N and Conner were both very awkward around each other, considering how they first met. The Kryptonian felt as if he didn’t know how to approach the Omega without humiliating himself again. And, the mage felt like he didn’t know how to talk to the Alpha without getting flustered and nervous and saying something embarrassing.

Truly, two peas in a pod.

But, their mutual affection and painfully obvious feelings for each other would bring them closer over time, and they soon became almost virtually inseparable. There weren’t many instances where anyone could say they saw one without the other. Especially Conner who always made it a point to be in the same vicinity as Y/N.

Zatanna and the others eventually got tired of waiting and cooked up a plan to get the two together so they could finally end this drawn-out torture. Since they were both so oblivious, they decided the best way to get them to admit their feelings was for lack of a better phrase, ‘forcing them in a corner.’

Some legitimate concerns did come up considering their plan consisted of Wally flirting with Y/N to irritate and make Conner jealous. The main one came from the speedster himself in how they would keep the Kryptonian from trying to essentially murder him.

Don’t get him wrong; Wally was no coward. But, he knew when he was outmatched in a fight, and considering how territorial and aggressive Alphas could get when they felt challenged since he was one himself, the possibilities were all too real in his mind.

Zatanna, Dick, and the others promised they wouldn’t let that happen, but it didn’t do much to alleviate the concerns in his mind. But, in a surprising twist of events, it turned out Conner wasn’t the one they had to worry about.

They put their plan into action early in the mornings, with Wally giving subtle one-liners and suggestive looks in Y/N’s direction. As predicted, Conner immediately became disgruntled, growing irritated and frustrated with every flirty line and look out of the speedster’s mouth toward his Omega (at least in his mind).

Y/N was surprised by this as well and did his best to ignore Wally’s advances, but not good enough in a certain Martain’s eye. 

M’Gann was not in on Zatanna’s plans for obvious reasons, and when she saw Wally’s attempts at flirting with the Omega took that as her golden opportunity to win Conner back. She found the Alpha in the training room by himself, a rare occurrence where Y/N was nowhere in sight.

He was busy sparring with the reinforced punching bag Batman created for him, doing his best to control and tame his anger like Superman and Batman taught him. But, his super hearing wouldn’t allow much of that since he could still hear every flirty line out of Wally’s mouth which just increased the intensity of his punches.

M’Gann took advantage of his angry state, trying to paint a false, negative image of Y/N that if he really cared about the Kryptonian, he wouldn’t entertain any of Wally’s behavior at all. She was laying hands on his hard, shirtless body doing her best to give her most alluring eyes while looking at his sweaty and angered face.

Conner was so in his head with his anger and frustration that he barely reacted or moved when M’Gann pushed herself closer, looking as if she was going in for a kiss. Of course, as fate would have it, that was the moment Y/N chose to walk in on them with Wally and the others in tow.

It was almost as if time had paused and then skipped a few seconds because before anyone could react, Y/N had cast a spell that blasted M’Gann to the other side of the room. No one had seen the Omega that angry before (besides Zatanna) didn’t know how to react when he stomped toward the Martian who was just getting herself off the floor.

When it looked like no one was going to do anything, Zatanna was about to step in until Conner intervened, grabbing Y/N, and holding him against his body while instructing the others to check on the Martian to make sure she was okay. He dragged the furious Omega out of the room, Zatanna subtly smirking as she watched before going to help M’Gann.

Conner marched them both toward his bedroom, shutting the door forcibly behind him before pushing Y/N against the surface, smashing his lips against him to silence the Omega’s angry shouts. Shocked, surprised, bewildered, all words you could use to describe Y/N's reaction to the sudden kiss, but resistant? Not in this universe or the next however many.

He immediately gave in to the Kryptonian’s demanding and rough lips, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of his hands squeezing and pulling his waist against his. They became a tangled mess of limbs as Conner moved them from the door over to his bed, carefully laying the Omega’s body onto the mattress while positioning himself on top.

Eventually, they broke their lips apart, but the Alpha wasn’t done yet. He greedily ran his lips up and down the Omega’s jaw and neck, giving into his possessive nature and leaving as many bites and hickeys as the eye could see. 

At that point, Y/N was begging for the Kryptonian to knot and mark him, seeing as how Conner wasn’t shy this time about letting the smaller male know who’s Omega he was. His Alpha nature and instincts were very satisfied seeing the mage so desperate and needy for him, wishing suddenly he could take a picture to capture this moment.

And while tempted to give in to the Omega’s cries and pleas, he opted to resist, wanting to save that moment for a more special occasion.

“Boo, you’re no fun,” Y/N pouted.

Conner grew a smug look at the bratty Omega before running his nose down his neck toward his scent gland. “That’s fine. Besides, why should I reward you after letting another Alpha flirt with you all day?” Conner asked, a crossed expression passing over his face.

“I wasn’t letting him flirt with me. I was trying to get him to stop and avoid him all day since I knew it would make you upset.” Y/N said in reply.

“How did you know I would be upset?”

“Dude, anytime one of the guys even breathed at me, you got angry. You were ready to break Dick’s arm that time he caught me falling from that stairway.” Y/N laughed.

“He shouldn’t have his hands that low on your waist. You can easily catch someone using their armpits.” Conner said, a childish ‘hmph’ leaving his lips.

“Yeah, okay Mr. I can lift a car with my pinky.”

Conner rolled his eyes, before using his hands to tickle the Omega’s sides, “You think you’re so funny.”

Y/N tried to fight against the laughs coming up his chest and push Conner away, but the Alpha was obviously stronger than him and easily held him down while continuing to tickle him mercilessly. Eventually, he released him and they both calmed down.

The Alpha continued to lay gently on top of the Omega, burying his face in the smaller male’s neck to breathe in his scent while Y/N rubbed his hands up and down the larger male’s back and through his dark hair. It was intimate and peaceful, the two lovebirds finally enjoying what they both had secretly been craving for so long.

Eventually, their friends came to check on them, interrupting the special moment. Wally apologized to Conner after he and Zatanna explained their plan, to which the Alpha and Omega gave unamused looks to their friends, though they both appreciated the gesture since it did help them finally get together.

Y/N also apologized to M’Gann for his behavior but did warn her that if ever tried something like that with his Alpha again, she’d realize just how creatively violent he could get with his magic. Surprisingly, she also apologized, but the Omega could tell that his friends probably forced her to do so.

Either way, he was happy.

He and his idiot Alpha were finally together.

☀️ | Conner Kent/Superboy | ☀️

☀️ | Masterlists | ☀️

[puppetwoman17]

So I see that a lot of YouTubers are getting around to reacting to the Young Justice cartoon. And that’s great! Like that’s actually great, it’s one of my favorite shows and I will forever chant season five in my head.

There’s only the teeny tiny voice in my head that keeps saying how bad it feels for Billy when his identity was revealed. I hope I’m wording this right. Cause I’m not saying I don’t absolutely love the show. It’s just…

Cause we never see the aftermath of the meeting in I think s1 ep22 where they choose who becomes a JL membrr(sry if I’m wrong). Like we know Billy gets to stay, but I just know it must’ve been hard to deal with teammates who didn’t trust him anymore. Who just see a kid. We have no idea what the relationship Billy has with the league was before the identity reveal. Who he was close with, who was suspicious of him, that sort of thing. We just know that after the reveal, everyone was really unsure of what to do with the magic child.

Imagine what was going through Billy’s head. The Wizard said he was worthy. Hell, the gods said he was worthy. And after years of fighting it, even he thought he was worthy. And then his heroes, his coworkers, push that all down and try to dictate his hero life. During identity reveal fics I also laugh at how they think they can stop his heroism when he’s the literal champion of magic. Like he HAS to be a superhero. You can’t just tell the Champion to quit.

You know what that does? That leads fucking Doctor Fate to your door. Zatanna. Specter. Hell, Lady Blaze. Even the beings who hate Cap know they need him. If they were to hear that some hero team from Earth was the reason for him to quit, they would go BALLISTIC.

Shit I went on a tangent.

Well anyway back to what I was saying before. We don’t see much of Billy’s relationship with the League after this episode. We do know his relationship with the covert team gets better, so that’s cool. But it just rubs me the wrong way how he was such an integral part of getting the adult and child worlds to collide and then they do this.

Idk that’s basically all I wanted to say. Again, I hope I worded this right. I love YJ, I just get a sense of dread when I see it😅.

ALSO ONE FINAL THING.

I am soooooo mad that season five isn’t a thing. Because I know this might be a stretch, but I just have a Feeling that they might’ve wanted to explore Billy or the Rock or whatever(cause of Black Mary, which, btw, I’m still salty about).

Every time, guys. Every time we could be getting something Cap related they just tbrow it out the window.

[theflashjaygarrick]

I honestly think it would have been fun if after Spectre 2001 Hal when became human again he didn't go back to Green Lantern for a while, but instead became the stressed guardian/mentor of a magical ten year old girl who is 100% using her powers to sneak out and hang out with other child superheroes.

It could mostly be about Helen figuring out her place in both the magic users and superhero community, and maybe joining a new team of young heroes. She definitely is trying to figure out her place in the often neglected magic side of DC, and gets mentored by Zatanna because I think that'd be neat.

Meanwhile Hal immediately realises he has to actually get his shit together if he wants to keep custody of his niece. No more being in two places at one, no more magical nannies, just ordinary not-quite-man Hal Jordan (who is now weirdly philosophical and spiritual, which is unnerving) trying to be a responsible human adult when his only previous experience as a human was being a reckless disaster bachelor. Also he's dealing with his recent epiphany around his gender which shockingly didn't go away when he stopped being spectre.

Like he'll go back to being a lantern eventually but civilian support to young superhero Helen would have been so much fun.

[kitzatara]

TODAY IS ZATANNA’S 60th DEBUT ANNIVERSARY!!!

Exactly 60 years ago today, Zatanna came onto the comic book pages of Hawkman #4, and has continued to thrill and delight!

So to celebrate here on tumblr, this will be a post about fun facts and information about the one and only, Princess of Prestidigitation, Sorceress Supreme, and Mistress of Magic!

Zatanna is a human and Homo Magi hybrid born to Giovanni “John” Zatara and Sindella. Through Zatara she is of Italian descent, and related to Leonardo Da Vinci, Nostradamus, Cagliostro, and Nicholas Flammel. On her mother’s side she is of Atlantean descent and distantly related to Arion the sorcerer king and demi-god of Atlantis.

Zatanna primarily casts spells by speaking backwards, originally due to her connection to Da Vinci who wrote his journals in reverse. Later it was revealed to be a way to keep the Otherkind from the dark multiverse from finding and feeding on her. And while it is her go to spellcasting method she can cast spells without speaking, through rhymes, runes, song, and even psychically!

Since she can pretty much make anything happen by speaking it backwards she has a laundry list of magical capabilities and is considered one of the most powerful Justice Leaguers, and magic users in the DC universe. Having used her powers to stop many threats over the years and save countless lives.

Despite having near limitless powers Zatanna often suffers from being sidelined in stories, or nerfed to make her more palatable to the narrative. Usually due to a combination of sexism, being not as popular as other characters, or so that the other characters can have the spotlight. But when Zatanna gets to shine, it’s brighter than the sun.

Like many of her peers Zatanna has a no kill rule, and has actually never killed anyone in the main continuity/universe. She has also never died in main canon, a somewhat rare quality among comic characters.

Despite having a no kill rule Zatanna does have a bit of temper, as well as an over reliance on her magic powers. She is a self proclaimed “spellaholic” often using magic for mundane tasks and to get even with people who vex her. And when her father, loved ones, and children are threatened she has been known to lash out. But she always sets things right, and does the right thing in the end.

Despite her temper Zatanna is a very kind and loving character, she considers many of the League members to be like family, and is much beloved among the superheroes and magic users of the world. Her fierce determination to do good and put a smile on people’s faces even when she’s feeling low is a stand out character trait. She has even gone out of her way to protect her enemies, the people who caused her mother’s death, and civilians of people who have harmed her. Because at the end of the day she is a hero, and damn good one.

Zatanna is a complex and fascinating character with so much wonderful history to explore. And it’s so fortunate that she has her first ever Black Label solo called Zatanna: Bring Down The House. What better way to celebrate her 60 years than by checking it out? Issue #3 releases next week! And tomorrow (August 21st) Superman #17 releases featuring a rare team up between the Magic Maid and the Man of Steel. And below are some of my personal comic reading recs!

May you come to love her as I do

Yojne! 🎩🪄

[zahri-melitor]

Okay because I am setting my expectations as low as possible in the hopes I get to be pleasantly surprised, here is the history of Black Canary as a solo title at DC:

Black Canary 1991: 4 issue miniseries. Probably best described as 'mediocre'. Dinah discovers Ollie's being an unemployed dropkick who has been stealing/borrowing money from the Sherwood Florist till and not accounting for it; out of her frustration at him she goes and beats up a drug cartel and white supremacists with the help of her new friend Gan Ngyuen, who would be a better boyfriend to Dinah than Ollie is being right now. In conversation with her Grell appearances, but seriously underestimates Dinah's actual skillset.

Black Canary 1993: 12 issue ongoing. Dinah's basically broken up with Ollie for the whole of this, which is completely fine by me, as Ollie uses some of his appearances in this book to accuse Dinah of sleeping with Ray Terrill. Who is 18 and was trying to look after the injured superhero who turned up on his doorstep. Time to go die in a firey helicopter crash, Ollie, you are terrible in the early 90s. Anyway, this is an incredibly uneven run that covers topics like Dinah's backstory, why Ray Terrill develops the biggest puppy crush on Dinah, and also the very first Nightwing-Oracle-Huntress-Black Canary team up. Tragically despite the compelling characterisation going on in this title between the four of them, the story they are in is a white slavery plot, rendering it almost impossible to recommend to people who aren't the sort to read every single appearance of a character.

Black Canary 2007: 4 issue miniseries. This would actually have been a compelling story apart from its intent and outcome. Dinah and Ollie, in the lead up to their wedding, grapple with combining their families and Dinah works with integrating Sin into the US educational system. Unfortunately, Sin is abducted and then Ollie fakes her death and doesn't tell Dinah what he's done, as he makes Connor take her off to one of the Himalayan monasteries various Arrows and companions have spent time at. Sin does not get to attend their wedding, and for some reason Dinah does not tell Ollie it's off even though he just faked Sin's death and lied to her about it.

Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell 2014: Graphic novel. Paul Dini's pet project that he spent the best part of a decade trying to get DC to publish. The only decent Dinah solo on this list, it's not actually a Dinah solo because it's co-starring Zee. Dinah and Zatanna met each other as teens trying to live up to the expectations of their families, then reunite in Vegas after some of Dinah's friends tell her that someone's made them swear a magic oath to take part in a heist, and it's killing them. Hijinks ensue! This is the only title of any of them on this list that's actually full of joy. Please read it.

Black Canary 2015: 12 issue ongoing. 'What if Dinah decided to make Black Canary be the stage name of a musician in a band rather than a superhero?' Does this have any connections to previous Dinah characterisation? Not really, no. Does it sound like the premise of an Elseworlds rather than main continuity, even for n52? Yes. Dinah decides being a superhero is just too much work, so she'll be in a band instead, aside from all those times she needs to stop singing to fight crime in the audience. Contains a time travel plot involving Kurt Lance, aka the worst decision DC has ever made in regards to Dinah's love life, and I'm including Ra's al Ghul and marrying Ollie on that list. I think they made Kurt Lance save the universe but I admit I was hatereading at that point. The final issue has Dinah have her life flash before her eyes while retconning out most of the n52 changes to her characterisation and also suggesting she got pregnant with Ollie's baby at age 53 before dying of a mystery disease at age 69.

EDIT: Reminded of the Teen Book

Black Canary: Ignite 2019: DC teen graphic novel. Written by Meg Cabot, this is one of their teen alternate continuity rewrites set around the awkward period when Dinah was a teen and wanting to be a superhero like her mother, but Dinah Drake was firmly refusing to train her. Contains Larry Lance and is actually set in Gotham! (this is a good thing) On the other hand, maintains the 'was in a band' concept from Black Canary 2015, which personally I would rather stuff into a black hole never to be seen again, but angry teens singing in bands is a genre conceit for a reason. It's cute.

So really. Why would I let myself get my hopes up over Black Canary Volume 5?

[fantastic-nonsense]

Hi! I've never done this before but I'm new to comics (started with WFA and Zatanna and the Ripper) and I've basically got most of my information from posts on tumblr and r/hobbydrama (including yours.) I think I have a general idea of what Jason Todd is like, but I believe a lot of people are unhappy with his new characterisation.

So, if you were the one in charge, how would you write him? Would you write him with a team or as a solo character? Would you have him use the All-Blades or a crowbar or his guns? Would you have him properly rejoin the batfam or not?

Thanks!

Hi! Welcome to the fandom! I hope you're enjoying your time here.

In general, I think DC (and the fandom) has spent too much time milking Jason's death for trauma porn. They have refused to allow him to find closure, move past that, and exist beyond his daddy issues drama with Bruce. When DC has allowed him to have stories outside of that, they were often written with little consideration for what should be done with Jason beyond making him "badass."

None of this has been conducive to creating any kind of satisfying and coherent narrative or character arc for Jason, especially when both writers and editorial seem more obsessed with stealing traits, relationships, and stories from other people to give to him (most prominently Dick, Selina, and Helena). My hottake is that DC should move beyond "Red Hood" as an identity for Jason entirely, because it drags his character down and keeps him inherently tied to the same problems that have kept his character stagnant for years.

However! I don't think he's unsalvagable. I simply think DC needs to put a decent writer on him and commit to a character direction for more than 2 years at a time. I'm unsure of what Shawn Martinbrough is currently doing with Jason in his The Hill arc, as I'm not reading it, but I've heard that there might be some forward momentum finally happening there?

Anyway, my personal conception of Jason's future (as lovingly brainstormed by me and my friends in our comics discord server) is effectively this: he becomes a street-level paranormal detective who solves cold murder cases by talking with the victims' ghosts and providing closure to restless spirits. Think Lockwood and Co. meets Pushing Daisies with a superhero twist; basically, a supernatural detective noir book.

There's a lot of concepts and lore drops tied into this idea, but basically it was born out of a discussion where I was talking about Jason's many connections with the supernatural and occult across all continuities and how it's kind of a mystery why DC hasn't just formally connected him to the mystical side of the DCU. So I was like "they should just reveal that Superboy-Prime’s reality punch resurrection left him LITERALLY undead, make the event where he finds this out also spark his ability to see and communicate with ghosts, and make him an occult detective. Let him close cold case murder files and put those spectres to rest."

Which is also a great premise for a Bat book and a great unfilled niche for a Batfamily member. Kate's supernatural stories are much more high concept and connected to her family drama. Damian's supernatural/occult connections are traditionally very heavily tied to his family history and the Lazarus Pits. Dick's semi-regular magic encounters are usually stuff he deals with alongside his teammates in the course of working with the Titans. None of the other Bats have enough regular encounters with the supernatural and magic side of the DCU for it to encroach on their shtick, and a Gotham-based supernatural book is well within DC's ability to publish and market given books like Gotham by Midnight.

In terms of how that direction affects all the other questions you asked...I think Jason's relationship with the rest of the Batfam should be complicated. I personally don't think "good/bad relationship with the Batfam" is a particularly useful way to look at it because I think there are people he should never see eye to eye with, people he realistically shouldn't and doesn't have a problem with, and people he should get along with just fine. I don't think everyone needs to or should be friends or enemies with him, but his morals and past actions will (and should!) complicate those relationships in interesting ways.

And re: what weapons I'd like to see him use...using the All-Blades would certainly factor into my proposed narrative direction, as that would lean into the supernatural connections, but I generally prefer the concept of Jason using knives as his preferred weapon over guns/a crowbar/etc. That way he can still be a marksman without using guns, and I think that fits more with his character trajectory as someone attempting to be less lethal but also has no problem roughing people up when he thinks they need to be.

[phantoms-world-and-more]

Amity Park isn't located in the United States its a town in Australia. Unfortunately the Justice League seems very American if not North American focused with a majority of their members in the main line up from the US. Flash, Zatanna, Black Canary, Batman, Green Lantern, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Captain Marvel and Superman just to name the main ones. So while they do deal with big world events they don't take notice when this town on the other side of the world keeps having issues. Years later Danny who is fed up of the Justice League not helping decides to make his own superhero team to deal with problems on his side of the globe. He finds quite a few allies that don't feel valued as a JL member so they quit to his new team. Danny has a bit of a grudge towards the JL.

.

[slythepuffle]

My DC Clan Cryptid AU, non-familial allies, magic edition.

Jason Blood (+Etrigan)

Alias: None

Media Portrayal: Arthurian Historian/Supposedly "Magic" Artifacts Collector; Antihero Demon

Clan Relation: Ally of the Clan, closest magic expert

Klarion Bleak

Alias: Klarion The Witch Boy; Abyss

Media Portrayal: "Lord of Chaos" Villain/Member of The Light as The Witch Boy; Faceless Necromancer as Abyss

Clan Relation: Blood's Ward/Nephew, Tim's Best Friend, Cassi's Partner

Zatanna Zatara

Alias: Nona

Media Portrayal: Stage Performer; Skilled Magician in Justice League Dark

Clan Relation: Old Childhood Friend of Bruce

John Constantine

Alias: None

Media Portrayal: Zatanna's Assistant/Stage Performer; Occult Detective in Justice League Dark

Clan Relation: Ally of Clan through Zatanna

William "Billy" Batson

Alias: Captain Marvel (I like this name better than Shazam)

Media Portrayal: Unknown Foster Kid as Billy; Powerful Magical Superhero as Marvel

Clan Relation: Friends with the Clan kids

Rachel Roth

Alias: Raven

Media Portrayal: Half-Demon daughter of Trigon; Titans Reserve Teams Member

Clan Relation: Ward of Zatanna + John; Friends with the Clan kids

[rantceratops]

Man, I really miss Young Justice. No matter what, that show will always have a special place in my heart. A lot of my feelings have changed about a lot of things, and tbh I have many negative feelings about the series post-season 1, but the series still always had really cool things in it throughout.

But for me season 1 was always the shining star of the series, and I genuinely wish things hadn't panned out the way they had. I can chalk it up to just being a me thing, maybe, but I personally signed up for teenage superhero shenanigans along with all the dangerous stuff. And personally I just never liked the cast being expanded every single season. I never understood why DC cartoons seem to love trying to shove in as many superheros as possible into one show. Justice League did okay with it, but I still wasn't the biggest fan. Teen Titans, at least, had 4 seasons with our main Team and some single cameos and things before it really expanded in s5.

For me, I just don't like big extended casts, I like a tight knit group and cameos and occasional team ups are fine, but. I liked the six kids we were given, and I was more than fine with making it eight with Zatanna and Rocket, but it was such a shame because Rocket was added at the ass end of s1 and we never even really got to spend real time with her and her dynamic with the Team before there was a fucking five year time skip.

Idk. There's always a part of me that's going to weep at what should/could have been. But I still really love s1 and there are always things to love even in the later seasons.

I miss all the brain bugs this show used to give me for writing and art, that's for sure. I miss the characters. I miss the powers. I miss the ships(even though my feelings fluctuate on ships these days). I miss my superhero show.

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

First meetings between the Chief and the Drake

Tim honesty doesn’t know why he has to work with The Chief (or whatever the hell he’s called back in good ol’ Fawcett)

Why does an entire pseudo family of magic users even have a tech guy??

“They have useful information on the group were dealing with Tim,” rang-out Oracle’s heavily disguised voice. Ready for further hide her identity behind the screen to his left for when the expected Marvel finds his way to the Bat-cave. “With all the magic issues we already have to power through without outside assistance I think its nice we have more to rely on than just Zatanna or Jason whenever they’re in town.”

Tim fidgeted in the Bat-chair, swishing the tea Alfred made for him earlier in his mug. “I know but the whole family is a deck of wild cards, how do six people capable of taking on Superman on an off day just pop out of the woodwork with no history other than ancient the kind Babs?” Tim took another once over of the cave security cams and aerial footage of the manor’s surroundings, “We only found out about the rest of the family two weeks ago because of that shitty Luthor-Sivanna team up, Cap has a whole team hidden away in his city or that Rock place he mentions once in a blue moon and he never mentioned there being more of him.” Tim flew his empty hand up in the air, “and now Bruce is pulling his hair out trying to research what his now a minor pantheon of ‘heroes that are probably weird ass new gods’ and is going grey-er than normal finding nothing!”

At the end of that mini rant Tim could feel the disinterested, patient look from behind Barbra’s monitor, “Got the bats out of the cave now?”

“Is that some kind of family saying?” Questioned a voice from the nearby medical platform, The Chief had bypassed cave security at some point unknown to Tim.

Good god Bruce needs some anti magic runes or something…

“Oh!” The man startled when Tim head snapped to his direction, hovering in front of the door of a containment room or when they need to hold someone infected with anything from new fear gas to a zombie virus.

Why is he just floating there? Shouldn’t he be by the elevator or the Zetta tube if he just got here?

“Sorry, I’m uh- heh,” he hovered down closer to the Bat-computer, one hand rubbing his neck nervously and the other in mock surrender. “Cap said I needed to pop by to pass on what we know on Dionysian cult practices and what the stuff you guys found exactly does?”

There was a tense moment, one normally shared between vaguely Batman like heroes and vaguely Superman like heroes. Where one looks the other over studying for the slightest hint of evidence to their theories in everything about them, their form, the choice in costume design, the body language, to even the slightest hair out of place. All done in a fraction of a second to not force the subject of the inspection into trying to hide anything after the fact, all while the other acts so painfully normal and human that it throws every speculation out the window. Too nervous in the face of a mortal man to be anything approximating an immortal being or god, but proven to be far too strong to be anything but.

His proclaimed older brother wiped the floor with a Superman infected by red kryptonite. He broke the man of steels arm and bruised multiple ribs subduing him so that he wouldn’t knock down another building. The Captain had been able to catch up to and outrun Wally when a bomb got strapped to his wrist and disarmed it while still flying faster than the man could run. None of the Marvels have documented limits in all the battles they’ve joined the league on, short of the minor annoyance of a magical attack. One of them is the dictator of a small country. They pop in and out of existence for superhero duties on a whim. Good god Bruce why did you have to rub this specific paranoia onto me?

“I’m going to hazard a guess and say our magic friend has arrived?” Oracles distorted voice snapped him from staring the lanky hero down, just now noticing the outstretched hand waiting to shake his. Turning back to the monitor Tim replied a curt, “He’s here.” Ignoring the childishly dejected look of the possibly thousands years old or freshly spawned being of magic to his right.

“So,” the hero in grey clapped his hands, “I can just upload the data we’ve got on them to the Bat-Computer here and just head out for you guys to do your, uh, Bat…thing?”

“That would be be-”

“Do you have the files physically on hand, on a drive, or on another device we’ll have to link to the computer?” Oracle interjected, startling both men.

“Oh, uh, well…” he began flexing and un-flexing his fingers, “I can literally kinda just, well I can basically upload everything I know in my head to what you’ve got here?” Probably realizing how odd even that sounded he rushed to clarify, “I-I’m basically like a magic technopath or whatever it's called, I can talk to machines and control them to a degree. Not like flinging keyboards with my mind or talking politics with a toaster levels of talk but I can just y’know,” he gestured between his head and the many screens, “Take what's up here that you need and put it in here?”

The man gave a unsure and lopsided grin, as if hearing how near absurd it sounded to have the ability to mix two polar systems together so seamlessly to be as simple as a data transfer between a computer and a human maybe human mind with magic. A force that has famously never worked well with modern machines or technology without major repercussions or those machines fusing with the person trying to mix them, the closest they’ve gotten that doesn’t instantly mutate the user or straight up explode is when Cyborg connects to New Gods Tech and even then its a gamble of if he can do anything with it or if it will infect him with some kind of virus.

He’s nervous mentioning it but he has an air of confidence like hes done this before, but also as if its common knowledge for him but something to withhold from Red Robin. Tim wonders if this is a universal power for his “family” but replays how he phrased it in his mind, he only said “I” and not “we”, it’s most likely a power specific to him or only he’s been able to master.

[venus-of-the-hrdsell]

I want to get into Zatanna comics but I’m not sure where to start. What series do you recommend?

Hello! Don't worry, I can give you a short starting guide + some recommendations on this post so you can read without having to dive fully into thousands of issues (unless you want a detailed guide of more appearances).

The usual go to for any beginner is Zatanna (2010) by Paul Dini. It's her longest solo comic (16 issues) and it fits as a stand alone.

If you are interested, I'm currently working in a masterlist reading guide of her appearances. Zatanna is a very old character, so a lot of her appearances are scattered as cameo and team books, so often finding what to read is hard. If you want to get a little further into her character, these options I'm about to mention are good as well. More under the cut because this is a long post.

- Secret Origins (1988) (volume 2) #27

Offers a summary about of Zatanna's origin in the DC universe. A bit old, so the scans can be blurry, but still a nice read.

- Zatanna Special (1987) by Gerry Conway & Gray Morrow

Zatanna gets contacted by the ghost of her mother Sindella, which leads her to travel to secret city of the Homo Magi with her manager. A lot of details about her background are revealed her, it's one of my favourite comics for her.

Zatanna: Come Together (1993) by Lee Mars & Esteban Maroto

Four issue mini in which Zatanna tries to get a fresh new start in San Francisco, temporally retiring from her superhero career. Unfortunately, she doesn't expect to find her stay disrupted by a supernatural threat infesting the city. Still one of my favourite comics of her and the art is amazing too. It also explores her background from her mother's side of the family, which is always good and underrated.

Zatanna: Everyday Magic (2003) by Paul Dini & Rick Mays (one shot)

We see Zatanna in her best moment as a famous stage magician in a long tour. She seems to be doing great, but she still fights to have an ordinary personal life. Things get complicated when her former partner, John Constantine, shows up on her life once again.

This is a fun story! It's Zatanna only Vertigo solo book. There are some poorly aged jokes and the art is not everyone's cup of tea, but it's a fun light hearted read for everyone.

Zatanna: Seven Soldiers (2007) by Grant Morrison & Ryan Sook

Zatanna attends a superhero support group. Her powers are weak and she finds herself in a low spot in her life, but the arrival of a mysterious girl pushes her to go on a tripe to find her father's missing journals.

This mini series is part of a bigger event written by Morrison called Seven Soldiers of Victory, but it can be read as a stand alone. If you want further context, I recommend reading the event, though.

I really like this comic, though. I wish we got to see more of Zatanna's mentorship role.

Black Canary & Zatanna: Bloodspell (2015) by Paul Dini & Joe Quinones.

A fun team up comic! It's an original graphic novel. I love Zee and Dinah's friendship.

Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace (2020) #15

A fun team up issue with Diana and Zee spending quality time together.

Justice League Dark (2011) (New52) & Justice League Dark (2018) (Rebirth)

Now, to clarify. I don't necessarily recommend the Justice League Dark books, but I'm incluiding them since most of Zee post new 52 appearances are in these two books which are...a mixed bag. Justice League Dark (new 52) wasn't of my liking with the exception of the last third of the whole book (Dematteis did a good job, probably the best out of the three writers heading the book). Earlier writers didn't know how to handle Zatanna, her personality is very watered down just as well as her abilities, and she isn't really given spotlight, leadership and full potential of her abilities until Dematteis takes the pen. I also don't enjoy how off was the characterisation of other characters of the book and the overall writing quality and pace, but that's a story for another post.

Justice League Dark (Rebirth) is a step up in quality from New52, but unfortunately it continues with the weird personality shift in Zatanna's personality and the a lackuster character design. As much as I love Diana, who is part of this team line up, I think Zatanna should have been given the leader role and the spotlight. Out of this book, I sincerely enjoyed Ram V's stage on the later half on this run, who deserved to stay longer on this title.

That said, you can take a look on these titles, but you know, at least you know what to expect.

Bonus: Graphic novels, webtoons and stand alone stories

DC's new talent showcase (2018)

Truth and Justice (2020) #7 - 9

Zatannna & the Ripper (Available for Free in Webtoon, still ongoing)

Zatannna & House of Secrets (Kids graphic novel)

Batman: Urban Legends (#11-16)

Johnny Constantine & Mystery of the Meanest Teacher (she's a co protagonist here)

[comicsart3]

In some respects, Zatanna Zatara might be one of the oddest of DC’s comic book heroines. The daughter of the magician Giovanni “John” Zatara, Zatanna sports a costume half stage magician and half glamorous assistant and like her dad, supports the Justice League and other hero groups to fight villains and aliens with her magic powers. Also like her father, she is a member of a meta-human species (the Homo Magi) endowed with magical powers and uses this magic by casting imperative spells on her opponents by reciting the enchantments backwards. This means she rarely if ever relies on her physical prowess to overcome her foes (although in later incaranations, the top-hatted heroine possesses good unarmed combat abilities), usually overcoming her foes through the powers of magick, itself a form of alternative science. Zatanna was the creation of writer Gardner Fox and illustrator Murphy Anderson and made her debut appearance in Hawkman #4 (November 1964), sporting her top hat, tails, bow tie, fishnets and heels costume which has remained substantially unaltered up to the present.

Zatanna is highly intelligent, courageous and very skilled in the arts of magic, making her the go-to hero if the world is threatened by malevolent forces also using magic, which is generally beyond the ken of even the members of the JLA. However one of her more endearing features is that Zatanna is also a genuine stage magician and takes her show business career very seriously, meaning that world-saving and crime-fighting can come second to her on-stage obligations.

Despite her unique abilities, Zatanna has never enjoyed her own series, being confined to one-off “specials”. However she has regularly appeared in Hawkman, Justice League of America, Catwoman and Gotham City Sirens (and occasionally Scooby Doo team ups!) over the decades. An exception to this was in 2010/2011 when she did enjoy a brief run in her own title, temporarily dispensing with her showbiz attire in favour of the generic skin tight costume most female comic book characters now seem to wear, and surfed the wave of popular culture’s obsession with all things supernatural, combating demons and other evil otherworldly creatures.

Beautiful, quirky and never too sure whether being a superhero is really her forte, Zatanna the sorceress is one of the more intriguing characters in the DC Universe.

The illustration is taken from the cover to Catwoman Vol 3, #50 (February 2006), featuring the story The Backward Masking Part 1 by Will Pfeifer; art by Adam Hughes.

Sources: the Zatanna Wikipedia page and dcfandom.com