Zatanna #1-16 Complete

At last - the Mistress of Magic in her own ongoing series! Zatanna Zatara has long made her home in San Francisco, but right under her nose a sinister threat has developed - a crime boss who dominates the criminal underworld with the dark powers of the magical underworld! The terrifying Brother Night is making his play for San Fran, and the police force - including hunky detective Dale Colton - turn to Zee for help. But Brother Night is a whole new kind of criminal and if Zatanna thinks she can backwards-talk him down, then she's in over her top-hatted head! Superstar writer Paul Dini (BATMAN: MAD LOVE) is paired with the gorgeous art of Stephane Roux (BIRDS OF PREY), making his anticipated DC debut on interior art! There's only one thing to say - T'NOD SSIM TI!The story opens up with Zatanna trapped and in peril from an odd drillin machine with Joker and Dr. Light. laughing in the background. It is, then, revealed that this is part of her stage show as she escapes and bows to an applauding audience. After the show, she is dealing with a few issues with her stage crew, including answering the question of the Dr. Light actor who asks, "How are real people supposed to wear these ?", referring to his cape. She is just getting ready to go home when a SFPD member Dale Colton arrives and asks her to accompany him to a crime scene. She magics up her street clothes and goes with him.

The scene they arrive at a scene which is very gruesome with people magically transformed, burned and 'infested. The few still recognizable as human are identified as major players in the San Francisco criminal underworld. They find a waiter still alive and Zatanna gets permission from him to view his memories. In them, she sees a heavy hitter from teh magical realm known as Brother Night who traffics in souls. He and his henchmen murdered the group of crime lords through magical means. Romalthi can transform anyone it touches into whatever form its mask takes from pig to frog to even slug. Ember is an unborn dragon gestating in human form that breathes fire. Teddy appears to be a young boy that opens a box which creates bugs that infest and kill. They were sending a message that Brother Night is going to take over the mundane San Francisco criminal underwold. Zatanna spoils part of the plan by returning all the dead to human form.

She tells Dale that the police are not going to be able to stop Brother Night but she will and she teleports to Brother Night's club in the magical realm. She shows them through both physical and magical abilities, that she is a match for them. Brother Night predicts that a time will come when she will lose her belief in others and, in that dark time, she will cause as much or more destruction than he ever has. Zatanna denies such a time will come and tells the club as a whole to stay out of the mundane realm then leaves to go take a bath and relax in her home.

Brother Night orders his people to clean up his club as he takes a 'nap' and goes to visit a demon of the nightmare realm known as Fuseli to recruit his help against Zatanna.