Every superhero tends to have someone in their life whose only goal is to make them miserable. These arch enemies are often direct contrasts to these heroes or somehow an examination into the flaws of their beliefs. Superman has Lex Luthor and Batman has the Joker. But even heroes like Zatanna have their own nemesis who lives to torment her.
This character’s name is Allura, a powerful dark witch who has close ties to Zatanna and her family and was responsible for Zatanna’s father leaving her in Silver Age continuty.
Created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky in 1967’s Justice League of America #51, Allura was a powerful sorceress who appeared on Earth shortly after Zatanna’s 18th birthday. Zatanna’s father, John Zatara, engaged Allura in a magical duel to protect his daughter from her. John won the battle and managed to imprison Allura in a weapon known as the Sword of Paracelsus. But Allura was not someone to accept defeat with grace and dignity. In an act of cruelty and spite against the man who had bested her, Allura cursed the Zatara line.
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Thanks to her magic, John could not be near his beloved daughter. He could not speak or contact her in any way, directly or indirectly. If he did, the curse would kill his daughter. John had succeeded in protecting Zatanna from Allura, but his opponent had still robbed him of the very person he was trying to protect. He had no choice but to leave, the risk of the curse and its ambiguous rule violations meant that so long as he and Zatanna lived in the same plane of existence, she would always be in danger.
But Allura was not done with the Zatara family just yet. Zatanna, determined to find her father, enlisted the aid of members of the Justice League to help her in her search. Allura, despite being trapped in the sword, became aware of Zatanna’s mission and manipulated the young sorceress into freeing her. Freedom was not the only thing she was after though. She also desired to punish John for her years of imprisonment, so she led Zatanna to her father in the other dimension of Kharma.
Allura hoped that the reunion would kill Zatanna and destroy her hated foe. But this is where the dichotomy of Allura comes into play. She actually has a good side, with a separate personality that has its own hopes and dreams. This good side manifested before Zatanna found her father, warning her of Allura’s sadistic designs. With this good Allura’s help, Zatanna was able to defeat Allura and simultaneously break the curse keeping her from her father.
This became the basis for a repeating cycle of violence against one another. Allura would return time and time again, determined to kill or best Zatanna, completely forgetting about the man who imprisoned her to focus on the daughter. She genuinely hates Zatanna enough to keep risking death to come back and fight her.
And this makes her perfect to reinvigorate the character of Zatanna. Lately, she’s been dealing with the fallout from changes following the introduction of the Infinite Frontier. Even before that she was dealing with magical threats of a cosmic scale. There was never a magical foe that wielded such a personal touch. Allura is powerful, but she is also deeply personal to Zatanna as she is the one villain that managed to hurt Zatanna without even trying to kill anyone else. Allura is relentless and powerful and cunning and now is the perfect time for Allura to make her return to the DCU and give Zatanna a run for her money.
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