History: John Zatara was the grandson of master stage magician Luigi, who gave him a box of magic tricks on his fifteenth birthday, and told him to study them. Zatara was a disciplined student, and became a stage magician at age 1, soon reaping fame and success. Zatara acquired reproductions of the notebooks of his reputed ancestor Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci wrote about his greatest secrets backwards, and when Zatara read the notebooks aloud he found that he could cast actual spells when speaking backwards. Zatara used his magic powers to become a costumed crimefighter.

(Action Comics I #11) - Zatara and Tong were on the S.S. Kansas City bound for San Francisco when Zatara was approached by a sea ghost of an English planter who'd committed suicide years earlier. He soon disappeared, and Zatara was approached by two passengers, intelligence men carrying plans for the Panama Canal that they had to keep out of enemy hands. Zatara foiled one gun-wielding spy by turning him into a door, and when an enemy put poison gas in the intelligence men's room he made the wall of their cabin disappear to dissipate the gas. To keep the plans safe Zatara turned them into a potted fern. Miss Kelly was impressed by Zatara's reputation, and asked him for a show. He rode several passengers on a flying carpet until the sea ghost reappeared. Zatara's magic proved useless against the specter, who soon vanished. The intelligence men reported being attacked by the sea ghost, and the fern was stolen. Zatara saw no wounds on them, and realized the ghost was an illusion. He teleported to the room where the fern was, and turned it to a watch so he could keep it on his person. The room belonged to Miss Kelly, who turned out to be another magician in addition to being a spy. When she crept into the intelligence men's room again Zatara had Tong, transformed into a mouse, waiting for her. She was horrified of mice, and eagerly confessed.

(Action Comics I #16) - Walking along a moonlit road Zatara and Tong witnessed a man being turned incorporeal by a cosmic ray from the sky, but Zatara used his magic to save him. He consulted with the scientist Djersinsky, who told him his colleague Harron's theory of matter being transformed into cosmic particles to be transported faraway into space, and asked Zatara to find evidence that his friend was right. Zatara and Tong were shot at by a recluse, who revealed that he was being forced to serve Gorla, a being from Saturn. Gorla used his cosmic ray to transport Zatara in energy form to Saturn, where his body reassembled. He was taken by prince Porra to see his father, Ool, ruler of Saturn. Saturn was an arid planet, but was once fertile until the sea dried up, and the men of Saturn were looking to migrate to Earth, and Gorla wanted to show them that Earthmen were weak. Gorla chose poorly when he made Zatara a representative of Earth, and he disturbed Porra by making Ool's city seemingly vanish. He pulled the same trick on king Ool to get him to listen, and used his magic to show how Saturn could be irrigated, allowing the Saturnians to stay on their home planet. He asked Ool for truce, but he was hotheaded and ordered his guard to kill Zatara. Zatara defeated the guard, and used his magic to shower Saturn with meteors. As a final act of power he had a huge arm grow from Earth and throw a mudball at Ool, who finally listened to reason. He said the Saturnians would stay put, and use irrigation to make their land prosperous again.

(World's Best Comics #1) - Zatara was on a train to Carson City when a gang tried to steal a valuable shipment of gold aboard. Zatara easily dispatched them, and was welcomed into Carson by John West, a high-ranking railroad official who gave him tickets to an important inter-city baseball game in gratitude. ZXatara knew the gang worked for a mysterious criminal named the Menace, and he deduced that West was the Menace because only a railroad official would know about the gold shipment. Zatara went to the baseball game, which Menace was trying to fix. Zatara didn't appreciate the bad sportsmanship, so he used his magic to make sure the game ended in a tie. Menace's goons tried to gun down Zatara, but he created an illusion to draw their fire. Menace ordered his men to bring Zatara to his hideout where he could personally eliminate the meddler. Zatara entered Menace's hideout and Menace pulled a lever that opened a trap-door under his feet. Zatara was almost impaled on the spikes below, but used a levitation technique top escape. Zatara dealt with the Menace's gang and unmasked the mastermind, telling him he'd long ago figured out his identity.

(JSA #53 (fb, BTS)- <Winter,1945> Zatara countered a spell cast by King Inferno on Wildcat to turn into an actual cat. Because of Zatara’s interference Wildcat remained human but gained the nine lives of a cat. Zatara and Wildcat proceeded to go out and drink a copious amount of whiskey. Wildcat commented that unlike other occult-types, Zatara really knew how to unwind.

(New Adventures of Superboy #14) - Zatara performed in Smallville, where his audience included the Kents and Superbaby. Zatara was still perfecting his magic, and when he saw Superbaby flying outside of town after the show he assumed it was because of a miscast spell, and cast a spell to make Superbaby lose the power of flight. Bank robbers confronted Zatara, they’d seen his show, and wanted him to use his magic in their robberies. When he refused they maced his throat so he couldn’t speak. Superbaby was outraged and single-handedly took out the thugs. Zatara realized his magic had nothing to do with the boy’s powers, and gave him back his flight. Zatara didn’t catch the boy’s name, but was positive the whole world would hear of him one day.

Comments: Created by Fred Guardineer.

Zatara received a profile in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #26.

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