Zatanna: It's Showtime!

by Jamal Campbell

Zatanna Zatara is going back on tour—or at least she’s trying to! Before her show can even begin, she finds herself under attack by a strange new the White Lady! This ghostly new adversary has abducted her crew, forcing Zatanna to dive headfirst into a world of tricks, curses, and…magical swords?! Writer/artist Jamal Campbell dazzles as he takes the Mistress of Magic through her most deadly, action-packed story yet! Collects Zatanna #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Fantasy

152 pages, Hardcover

Published November 4, 2025

About the author

Jamal Campbell is a freelance illustrator and comic book artist working out of Toronto, Canada.

Reviews

[Jim Ef · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.0/10
Yet another solid mini series starring the mistress of magic. Fairly good plot, very nice art.
After getting two short runs ( this and Bring down the house ) i think it's time for Zatanna to have an ongoing series. Of course i have no idea how were the sales and if enough people are interested in the character.

[natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jamal Campbell I was not familiar with your game.

[Molly™☺ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A visually stylish and fun foray into the world of magic through the eyes of Zatanna. Whilst the rules of how it works remains murky, there is enough flair to overlook the need to thoroughly pick apart the laws and power levels. Ir doesn't try to be a deep introspection, instead offering genre mainstay villains and tropes that may feel common, but still come off well in execution. It's another solid miniseries for the titular character, and Campbell leaves fans wanting to see more of their work.

[Aderyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite of all of Zatanna's (many) minis, now can we get her an ongoing?

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

read in singles.
the art was really good the colours weren't always to my liking.

overly written dialogue. Campbell will probably learn to reduce their wording.

I like the addition of Zaranna's mother here. I haven't seen her used before. blue devil was a fun addition.

[Bab · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much and it was such a great starting point as a new comic reader

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impaled by a magical sword and betrayed by a friend (one of these things is worse than the other), Zatanna finds herself with her magic impaired, and a brand new villain teaming up with some old foes in order to take her down those final few pegs. What's a magical girl to do?

I very much enjoyed this. I bought it for Jamal Campbell's artwork, which is absolutely phenomenal, but the plot is top notch as well, managing to challenge Zee without taking all her power away, and adding to her rogues' gallery while also using some old familiar faces.

It seems like there's more story to be told here, given the little teases at the end of the series, so I really hope DC let Campbell do a follow-up, as I'll be first in line.

[jes · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonder woman showing up in a zatanna comic, i’ve prayed for this 🙏😪 kinda liked this one more than her other comics, while Z has an over abundance of male characters i didn’t feel like the whole story was focused on her relationship w the male characters. we get to see several female characters (friends&foe) show up consistently over the course of the story… and her mother 😩🙏 i hope her future comics allow her to explore her friendships and fights w female characters more pls and ty 😁🫶

[klau · Rating 4 out of 5]

zatanna increíblee aunque debo de decir que pensaba que sería como más villana/aura villana (no sabía de su existencia antes de ti)

ha sido en el issue 4 donde me he dado cuenta que las partes donde parece que hay un idioma inventado realmente está escrito al revés 😍

me ha gustado aunque hay veces donde no me enteraba de ciertas cosas pero well

btw zatanna debe ser para las girls 😔

[c · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. fun!!!

[kenz ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love zatanna :D

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

LA MEJOR 🗣️🗣️

[harveymundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

can’t go wrong with zatanna

[Suillellus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice read, glad to get to know more about Zatanna. Overall, the story was pretty enjoyable, and the art was really great; every panel popped out. I think Jamal Campbell's art fits this somewhat more grounded story, because yes, some of the time while reading Far Sector, it could get kind of overwhelming. Honestly, it's hard talking about this as one collective work, because although I did read it mostly over the course of one week, I seemed to have a different impression on each chapter/issue, so I suppose I'll go over them individually.

Chapter 1: A solid intro, the popping between movie poster world during the fight was fun, even if it did remind me of ORV. It did feel very fast-paced, to the point where I was struggling to keep up, and none of Zatanna's crew or Adam's betrayal really left much of an impression. Lady White also felt like a very run of the mill villain, though I'm guessing Campbell wanted to get straight into the magic sword problem, so that's fair. It did interest me in continuing, and that's something.

Chapter 2: When the first fairytale segments came up, I wasn't excited and I expected them to get annoying, but they were tied up nicely in the end. Still, seeing it made me delay continuing for a solid week or so (I don't know what I had so against it, maybe because I was already not that enthralled in the story). It wasn't bad in the end. I liked Zatanna's struggle to get rid of the sword and how uncharacteristically reckless it made her act. This chapter also introduces brother night and the bar gang, and much like the circus guys, they weren't all that fleshed out. Also, I didn't like brother night's design at all really, he felt way too deviant-arty. A combination of too plain and too edgy-leaning? I think that even something as simple as a pencil moustache would've made it SO much better, given him a more specific vibe like "mafioso" instead of just "purple man in a suit".

Chapter 3: I think I might've been reading this one too late, because I was left pretty confused by it. I did not understand why both dream bruce and clayface were being thrown into the mix when there were already so many characters to keep track of (especially when there's more to come, of which three play a significant part in all that's going on). The final battle was epic and looked fantastic, but yeah this whole side-story with clayface felt like it was taking away time that could've been used on developing other stuff instead. Oh, also brother night straight up acts like the batman who laughs in that one scene and yeah I hope he won't make it to the next book. I mean, I guess hating a villain is good.

Chapter 4: This chapter was crazy fast. I liked the magic gollum thing, and I with it had stuck around instead of clayface, but I guess not. Also, this was the most confusing one for me (agian, it was 1AM so maybe my fault) but I could not keep a track of the three different voices in zatanna's head, who was being controlled by who, and brother night being as intimidating as a nosepicker. I was honestly on the verge of giving up, but I mean I only had two issues left and I pushed on.

Chapter 5: I'm glad I did. Again, I was pretty confused by the backstory portion (like, how did she go from saying I lliw ecapse to being all white? - I though lady white had taken her over or summat) and zatare being such a douche. But the ending of this chapter and main villain FINALLY being introduced was top tier, and not being confused for once was a good feeling. Zatanna's interactions with Sindella was finally an example of how to characterise in a short time, though after all that happened in Zatanna's head, I was left wondering how much time had actually passed in the real world while she was tripping.

Chapter 6: The first part with the further explanations and the miscellaneous heroes coming in to help zatanna was fun, though as the fight progressed I was definitely wondering when they'd had the time to plan out and choreograph all those fake sword breaking, clayface pretending to be zatanna etc. stuff. Also, maybe defeating Allura was a bit too easy, and her becoming zatanna's pet rabbit definitely felt so-so and like they were just tempting fate to me.

All in all it was a very ambitious story and I think that an extra 20 or so pages would've helped it a lot. It would definitely make a fire animated movie, in which the voice acting and sound effects would really bring out the magical aspects more. Zatanna was my favourite character here, what a shocker, and the other characters were okay, in here for like 5 panels, or brother night, so I hope that in the 2026 series, they'll get the chance to be more fleshed-out. Wonder woman cameo! Woo

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me alegra que el panorama ALL IN no solo se defina por redefinir las cabeceras de personajes principales en la situación de "road to DC KO" o generar otras supeditadas a ofrecer el panorama general y completo de la aparente desaparición total de Darkseid del universo troncal DCita. Así nos cruzamos con una miniserie exclusiva para la hechicera por antonomasia de DC comics, la encantadora Zatanna está viviendo un excelente momento editorial entre su participación crucial en la guerrilla superheroíca del evento Absolute Power, el laureado y premiado DC BLACK LABEL de Mariko Tamaki y Javier Rodríguez y ahora esta miniserie donde Jamal Campbell no deja ningún truco en su chistera.

"It´s Showtime!" arranca con Zatanna Zatara ensayando para un nuevo espectáculo que vuelve a ser truncado por insidiosas amenazas sobrenaturales hacia su persona y linaje. Es cierto que Jamal Campbell no pretende revolucionar totalmente a este personaje, lo cual no desmerece esta propuesta que se interna del todo en el personaje y cierta parte de su linaje mágico que no suele explorarse tanto. Además, recurre a ese siempre interesante gimmick argumental cuando se sabe emplear de hacer que el personaje se vea afectado por algo que limita sus super habilidades. Algo que cuando se trata de literales palabras mágicas, es de sumo agradecer para no adelantar y facilitar resoluciones fáciles. Aunque a decir verdad, la existencia de Zatanna es menos idílica y perfecta de lo que se le asume su espléndida "performance" vital. En esto, la hechicera siempre ha conseguido contar con grandes amigos y aliados, los cuales por desgracia se ven en peligro como en estos números, donde Zatanna puede temer llegar a ver su magia como algo dañino en vez de ese increíble milagro.

Es cierto que "It´s Showtime!" podría dar para una propuesta algo más relacionada con "eras" pasadas más "Vertigueras" con ciertos antagonistas de círculos diabólicos o malditos. Esto queda como atisbo, pero en cambio hace que se puede añadir a la historia ciertos personajes que más que generar conexiones huecas de universo hiper conectado, contribuyen a lograr cierta sorpresa y mayor interés. A lo que contar también el arrojo gráfico de Jamal Campbell, quien logra salir bien parado de la autoría total de la obra que propone una estupenda variedad de situaciones donde la realidad dentro de la viñeta desafía incluso a la maravillosa maga hasta llegar a un número donde la 4º pared se dinamita por completo.

Es cierto que al final, todo peca de quedar en ese frustrante concepto actual de miniserie de 6 números de endeble promesa de futuro. Esto hace difícil generar propuestas realmente memorables y que generen nuevos puntos y a parte en ciertos personajes como Zatanna. Pero creo que "It´s Showtime!" entra muy bien en una función más "accesible" de nueva aventura del personaje que el citado Black Label y consecuente con la participación de Zatanna en el actual corpus DCita. Conectando muy bien con el potencial de estupenda maravilla comiquera de esta maga de gran salón (de la Justicia).

[Ángel Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gráficamente espectacular, pero mediocremente escrita y demasiado autorreferencial. Cualquier miniserie de este personaje debería ser perfectamente accesible para el lector casual, ya que es, nos guste o no (a mí no; me encanta Zatanna), una secundona en el extenso, prácticamente inabarcable, Universo DC. Así que, si se quiere captar nuevos lectores, no se pueden hacer constantes referencias a series antiguas (como la de Dini, que me gusta mucho, por cierto), o, peor aún, a personajes completamente olvidados, como la mami de nuestra heroína, que yo ni la conocía, vamos. Y si lo haces, has de proporcionar el trasfondo suficiente como para que el lector no se pierda e, inevitablemente, acabe aburriéndose. Tampoco me queda claro si el Clayface que aquí aparece es bueno, malo, o ni lo uno ni lo otro, y, para alguien que no siga la(s) serie(s) de Batman, el hecho de que la identidad del villano sea la original, es decir, Basil Karlo, es, como mínimo, confuso, como la propia historia, que se ramifica en demasiadas direcciones, algunas de las cuales quedan en suspenso al final del cómic, del que ni siquiera sabemos si va a tener continuidad. En fin, que el tomo, mal que me pese, solo resulta recomendable por su impresionante apartado artístico, dejándonos el guion una sensación de buenas ideas desaprovechadas que, en manos de Dini (y dejando el dibujo intacto), habrían dado lugar a un tebeo prácticamente perfecto. Una pena...

[Ryan H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been a fan of Zatanna through side character roles, but this was actually my first time reading a story centred entirely around her. Storywise there are some fun twists and I really enjoyed the way the book grounds Zatanna’s magic in a way that feels fresh without taking away the spectacle. There are also a few great guest characters some well known some lesser known who add personality and momentum to the plot.

The art is absolutely stunning, this is one of those books that genuinely benefits from being read physically. The creative panel work is brilliant and as an example at one point the full page spread is used like one big page for the panels in another you have to follow the speech bubbles like the hands of a clock as Zatanna lies across it, and touches like that make the whole book feel playful and magical like the character.

My main issue is that while the main arc wrapped up nicely, there are multiple villains in the story. I found them equally intriguing but this led to the resolution to some of the threads feeling a little rushed toward the end but I think that's probably the downside of trying to fit everything into six issues. That said, I’m hopeful we’ll see some of these antagonists again, especially with the newly announced full Zatanna series coming in 2026.

Overall, a beautiful, clever, and fun read for anyone who loves the character or wants a to find out more about her.

[Riley Pilgrim · Rating 4 out of 5]

We need Campbell to do the new Zatanna ongoing this year. This man gets it, and to me, was probably the best Zatanna book I've read in a while. I feel like she's a character that's kind of slept on, but whenever done right her books are so freaking good. This miniseries feels like a sequel to the Paul Dini series, as it brings back Zatanna's crew, Midnight, and references a lot of the stuff that happened in Dini's stories. Campbell throws you right into the action, introduces new villain Lady White, and keeps you on your toes on what's going to happen. I didn't know what direction this story would go, and Campbell does a great job at keeping you guessing.

Now while the story was great, I feel like the art in this series does A LOT of the heavy lifting. Campbell illustrates every panel with such intention. He's not afraid to get really creative with the format and panel layouts. The different magic is drawn beautifully, and one of my favorite pages was when Zatanna teleports herself on a comic page outline. Again he plays with the format a lot in this book.

Overall I really loved everything here. Campbell also seems to have left some stuff open for when he either comes back for the new ongoing this year, or for other writers. Excited for more Zatanna.

[Sonder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to do something different and review a comic book, so I decided to do one on a paper trade back that I have. Growing up, I’ve always been a fan of comics, and Zatanna was always a character who stood out the most to me before I ever knew the difference between Marvel and DC. So it made sense that I gravitated towards her and got Campbell’s run on her. Not only was the story groundbreaking and offered so much to her character, but it also reassured me why Zatanna was always one of my favorite magic users—she’s resilient as she is kind. Her magic offered such uniqueness that words alone serve as an understatement of her capabilities. She’s the kind of person that you root for because she always has this way of saving the day. Not only was Campbell’s art stunning, but it was a reminder of why he was picked for this run: he knew her best and made Zatanna a much more grounded character for me. What this story captures greatly is Zatanna's flaws, and rather than using them as a crutch to weigh her down, they serve as a stepping stone for her to save the day, as she always does.

[✦ Arwen ✦ · Rating 5 out of 5]

EHT DNE!

Zatanna by Jamal Campbell is finally over—or rather, I finally finished reading it—and boy, was it a fun ride. Campbell pulls out all the stops in this series, bringing back some of Zatanna’s most iconic characters and stories to weave together a new tale where she has to defeat the evil sorceress named Allura, a longtime enemy of hers. Which she does do, spectacularly, might I add.

Campbell’s writing and magnificent art shines through this book in colorful and vibrant bursts. You can really feel the love he has for Zatanna through the pages.

I truly, truly, loved this whole series. A thousand roses for Jamal Campbell for truly understanding and embodying Zatanna’s character perfectly! Us Zee fans owe you the world for this run, which is likely going to become one of the must-read runs for new Zatanna fans.

4.8 stars <3

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to rate this 3.5 stars, but i dud think it deserved a round up. No just because Zatanna is one of my favourite DC characters, but i liked the artwork, and the across two pages for the panels. A bit different and I think it work and the last couple of issues/chapters really tied everything up for me.

Zatanna is doing her usual of balancing being a superhero, performing (mixing real magic with performance), and keeping her friends and crew happy. However, she us about to be betrayed and attacked by ghosts and nemesis from her family's past. Can she overcome the obstacles thrown at her especially as her very past seems to be corrupted.

A good book, a lot of chaos (to be expected in the magical world), and a bit of a mystery with plenty to keep me interested. All in all a good series. The book finishes with a huge variant cover gallery and a character design sketchbook.

[MaHaha (McMurder) · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a New comic reader…..this was my first Zatanna comic and she’s a baddie? Her spells are backwards??? Apparently she can do magic in sign language too 😀 scary but also so slay 🤭

I genuinely have no idea what’s happening cuz she gets impaled and there’s nightmares and the constant setting changes. I’m too new maybe to understand? Or just slow….anyway….

Love love the art so so pretty I love the colors the pinks purples sooo pretty. Love her witchy woo typa room too. I liked her room.

I think there were too many dialogues in some pages….wayy tooo many on one page yk? And it just made me head go ⁉️but overall I liked it:)

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jamal Campbell pulls double duty here as writer and artist on a fun, magical journey. First off, Campbell's art was amazing. Truly breathtaking. Creative layouts and beautiful linework. The story here was incredibly solid as well. Multiple antagonists make life miserable for Zatanna, who is possibly in over her head. There were some really good guest stars but Zatanna was the star. Sometimes, DC magic books tend to star the same couple characters and focus on the same things. This was not that. I wished the backwards talk was only used for spells. Overall, this was really fun and I'd love to see more of this from Campbell.

[kesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

can't say i enjoyed this as much as dini's run (even though that was a mixed bag and she was written with very male-heavy support) but for the sake of showing the head honchos that she needs an ongoing - this was pretty solid

campbell is clearly rocking with dini and picks the series up with zee working her day job with her crew, we get fuseli and some new bits like blue devil and zatanna's mother (lore drop)

need to read tamaki's bring down the house but zatanna in the big 21st century is nothing short of a dub

3/5

[Daniel Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This does a good job of introducing you to Zatanna as a character, her powers, and the side characters who revolve around her. The story was fine. Nothing I think I will remember distinctly, but it wasn't super dull.

The art was pretty beautiful, but I also really struggled with it affecting readability. I think the colours used and linework really made images blend together to the point that big action panels looked like a jumble of stuff I couldn't really make out at times.

Mediocre - 5/10

[VoidLoaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap that ending I need this to be continued on into the Zantana series coming this year. Like that end with Adam still being lost I need to see if Zantana can find him and all those loose ends with Brother Night please DC and Jamal Campbell I need to see this continue in that book. Anyway a great book that I would definitely read again.

[vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

more than anything, the art surpassed all my expectations and more!! i'd love to see more of campbell's art in other series/comics but i feel like the writing kinda didn't hit as it should've for me?! i'm not sure why, i think it was a skill issue and i just wasn't interpreting things the way they should've been interpreted. overall, decent read!

[Geo Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series was fun to follow, although it’s nothing groundbreaking. It’s a solid magic user story but it’s not much more than that.

Love the agency and prevalence of women in this story though ! The conclusion was especially interesting.

[Serena Riarh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this book was amazing. From the start to the end this story had me hooked from its compelling art to its amazing story. This is definitely a beginner friendly read and is a great start for anyone getting into comics. I have no complaints from this book and I think it is perfection!