DCUC Wave 14 Zatanna

Why Zatanna now? DCUC Wave 14 was a Wal-Mart exclusive just hitting shelves in November 2010, right after I started the Super-DuperToyBox. Action figures in this scale were new to me, as Zatanna was, so she was overlooked. I picked her up because I'd been reading some Justice League recently, and she was seven bucks on clearance. Yes, some troll had robbed the Ultra-Humanite BAF part, but I wasn't trying to build him anyway... More importantly, the DC 75th Anniversary collector button was left intact, which happens to be from the cover of Justice League: Second Coming, which I'd just read!    :)

I'd bought Gold, Hourman, and Obsidian from this wave at the end of 2010 and still haven't opened them. While Zatanna has a lot going for her, I'd be willing to bet the others are better than Zatanna here. While I agree with Yo Go Re over at OAFE that the sheer unlikelihood of thi figure's production in the first place, but I think he was overly optimistic. Sure, I got the pics I wanted, but she was not easy to deal with.

I was aware of Zee's swivel-jointed hips lacking the lateral hinge that DCUCs are typically outfitted with, and that she wasn't the sturdiest on her high heeled feet, but she was comically difficult to pose upright. Further compounding these issues were a stuck right ankle, the pegs holding her shoe also loosened. While working at an unsuccessful attempt to epoxy the pegs back into her heel, her fishnet stockings got stretched out a little- and those already looked questionable. I agree that soft goods were likely a wise alternative to what could have been a disastrous paintjob, but the ugly seams up the back of her legs were unsightly enough.

A nugget of info from the all-wise, all-knowing OAFE.Net: DC author Paul Dini's wife is a the magician Misty Lee!  While I like the way things went from the waist up, Zee doesn't look like she did in the recent Ed Benes artwork I've seen from the last decade, her bangs trimmed, more girlish, with a white vest. I've seen artwork of her in other costumes, even a variation of this with a cape & thigh-high boots with a yellow vest, but this seems to be an original Four Horsemen interpretation of the sorceress.

In Identity Crisis (2004), Zee mind-wipes Dr. Light, who threatened the Justice League's families upon being apprehended attacking Sue Dibny, Elongated Man's wife. Batman appears unexpectedly in the midst of the process, and enraged, tries to stop her. Freezing him in his tracks, Zatanna and the members decide to erase Batman's memories of the incident as well, causing a moral rift in the group. A dark but great book I'd recommend to any DC fan!

In the  trade paperback I just read, Justice League: Second Coming, Zee's mouth is magically removed by the villain Amazo, rendering her helpless, unable to cast one of her spells. Writing it out in her own blood, she is able to undo Amazo's terrible magic and defeat the nearly unstoppable foe, saving the Justice League! Zatanna sports a new costume currently as one of the main characters in DC's New 52 Justice League Dark series.

Zatanna with some of my other DCUC ladies: Donna Troy, Star Sapphire Wonder Woman, Katma Tui, and Power Girl!

*Read more about Zatanna at ComicVine.Com!

* Visual checklist & reviews of the DCUC line at DCClassics.Com!

More Later- Make It FUN!