Zatara

Giovanni "John" Zatara, aka simply Zatara, was a fictional magician appearing in various publications of DC Comics, beginning with 1938's Action Comics #1, which was also the first appearance of Superman.

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As well as being an illusionist, Zatara also had genuine magical powers, which he focused through speaking backwards: he could do anything so long as he could describe it in sdrawkcab hceeps ("speech backwards", spelled backwards). This helped distinguish Zatara from the numerous Mandrake the Magician knockoffs that cluttered the comics and pulp magazines of the day.

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His love of magic began early when he was given a magic kit by his uncle, himself a professional illusionist. Although he began learning the craft in childhood, his early attempts at performing professionally were unsuccessful until he realized that he needed to work on his showmanship.

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To that end, he dug up old diaries of Leonardo Da Vinci, who was a direct ancestor. While reading the diaries, which Da Vinci wrote in backwards spelling as a security precaution, Zatara learned that his family had the command of magic. He discovered this inadvertently when he accidentally gave a command to a mannequin to begin waving an arm wildly. Zatara realized that he could command it to stop by giving the order in backwards spelling.

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With this new knowledge, Zatara developed a successful show. During the premiere performance a fire broke out on stage, forcing Zatara to use his command of real magic to put it out. While the audience mistook the incident as part of the act, Zatara realized that this power could be invaluable in helping people and he resolved to use it as such between shows.

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Now better known as the father of his more famous daughter Zatanna, John Zatara sacrificed himself to save the universe during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since then he has made sporadic appearances in the afterlife.

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Magician: The term magician can refer to a practitioner of either paranormal magic or illusionism. In most cases there is little to differentiate a magician from similar fictional and folkloric practitioners of magic such as an enchanter, a wizard, a sorcerer, a necromancer, or a thaumaturgist....

DC Comics: DC Comics is one of the largest companies in comic book and related media publishing. Today a subsidiary of Time Warner, DC is responsible for such famous characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and their teammates in the Justice League. For decades, DC Comics has been one of the two largest ...

Action Comics: Action Comics is the comic book series that introduced the world to Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics, Inc., and later as National Comics and as National Periodical Publications, before taking on it...