Thursday, November 8, 2018

How To Make Zatanna Even More Annoying!!

Look, I know my dislike of Zatanna's "backwards-talk" magic is just a personal bugaboo of mine.

I mean, aside from the fact that it's the same shtick dozens of Golden Age magician heroes used, so I'm pretty tired with it already; and aside from the fact that it's a pain in the ass to read; and aside from the fact that it's pretty boring--she can make anything she says backwards literally happen--where's the challenge in that?; and...

Anyway, as I said, just a personal bugaboo.

But I should thank my lucky stars, but it could have been much, much worse.

In her very first appearance, when Hawkman is investigating something in China...

OK, what?

Meanwhile, Hawkgirl is encountering the same thing at the exact same time in Ireland!

When they compare notes...


Oh for heaven's sake, cut that out!!!

Thank Odin they didn't stick with that ridiculous premise.

So how did she get split in two?
Oh, never mind, I've heard enough.

Sorry, Zatanna, it's me, not you...

From Hawkman #4 (1964), as reprinted in Supergirl #5 (1973)

3 comments:

Madman2001 said...

No, I think this "speak backwards" schtick is just too much, too! Ridiculous

Green Luthor said...

It's especially annoying when they just spell the words backwards, but don't run the sentences backwards as well. (Also, when digraphs are run backwards. If you're speaking backwards, "the" wouldn't come out "eht", it should be "eth", since the "th" is a single phoneme.)

(On an unrelated tangential note, that last one also bugs me when they use a made-up alphabet, like Interlac in Legion of Super-Heroes, where everything corresponds letter-for-letter to the modern English alphabet. If you're gonna make a new alphabet, why would you keep the letters "c" or "x" that don't produce distinct sounds, and why would you leave "ch", "sh", "th", and the like as two letters? Or keep long and short vowel sounds as the same letter, or any of the numerous other oddities in English that a new alphabet should get rid of.) (Sorry, venting.)

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