BCZBloodspellCover

Paul Dini’s love of Zatanna is fairly well-established. He was the character’s principal caretaker in the DC Animated world, writing episodes featuring Zee for both Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited. He also used her a few times in his run on Detective Comics. Maybe he likes her top hat, or the way all of her spell incantations are just words spelled backwards. If this book is any indication, though, it’s probably the fishnet stockings, which at first glance seems to be the only thing linking Zatanna with Black Canary, Zee’s co-star in Dini and artist Joe Quinones’s new graphic novel. Whatever it is, it works – Black Canary & Zatanna: Bloodspell teams up two characters that might not otherwise be thought of as a duo, and does so with fantastic results.

The story is pretty basic. Black Canary, while working undercover to infiltrate a ring of thieves, accidentally takes part in a bloodspell – a curse that binds all of the members of the gang to their leader, a nasty thief named Tina Spettro. One year after the ring’s defeat and their leader’s death, members of the gang start dying mysteriously. Canary turns to Zatanna for help in breaking the spell and saving the remaining gang members, while in flashbacks Dinah and Zee’s relationship is fleshed out.

The book is mainly character-driven by its two leads, and the story is fueled by those characters. Aside from wanting to free herself from the spell, Dinah is genuinely concerned for the other members of the gang, many of whom she came to think of as friends while she was undercover. The story is largely a race against the clock as Canary and Zatanna try to stop Tina from exacting her revenge on her former accomplices, and it moves briskly towards a satisfying conclusion.

Dini balances the light and dark elements of the story extremely well. Dinah and Zatanna’s rapport is at times terribly serious when the situation demands it, and at others easy and friendly. Given their similar backgrounds – Zatanna as the daughter of Zatara and Dinah as the daughter of the original Black Canary – it’s easy to imagine why they would gravitate towards each other. Even without the flashbacks to show it, one gets the impression that these two characters have known each other for a long time and are very comfortable together.

On the art side, Joe Quinones’s work is stylish as always. At times reminiscent of Amanda Connor, at others Kevin Maguire, his line work is smooth and expressive. The tone of art matches the writing really well, bringing out the comedic aspects when necessary and ramping up the action as the book races towards it climax. In addition to the full script for the book, there’s also a sketchbook section included in the back matter that is fantastic (those interested in art process can view some of what went into this book on Quinones’s blog). This reviewer also personally enjoyed a few panels where, when Dinah and Zee are perusing Justice League merchandise at a mall toy store, Quinones clearly included figures from Kenner’s Super Powers Collection and Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited toylines in the display. It’s little easter egg-y details like that that help make this book so enjoyable.

A note about the continuity: there is none. Which is to say, this book doesn’t fall into the New 52 timeline, in case that wasn’t evident from the cover, but even then it’s unclear where it falls in the classic DCU, either. It’s likely set around the Satellite Era of the Justice League, but there’s no definitive timeline set. The freedom allows Dini and Co. freedom to do more or less whatever they want to do, and it’s refreshing that they don’t try to shoehorn the book into any specific point in DCU continuity.

All in all, if you’re in the market for a fun, self-contained story that’s longer than your standard issue comic, and that includes a lot of interesting ‘bonus’ material, you could do a lot worse than picking up Black Canary & Zatanna: Bloodspell. It’s a great read that, unlike a lot of DC’s other current offerings, doesn’t take itself too seriously but still tells a story with some weight to it. Here’s hoping Dini can return to these characters at some point down the road.

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