Which Zatanna costume should I use? I've got several possibilities. If you need piccies, I dunno where to find them, but I have a couple I'm sure I can scan or upload for you to see.
The first one is Zatanna's stage costume, the top hat, tails, and fishnets! This is the most common Zatanna costume. I like this, but it's a costume used for stage magic. I love this costume, but I'd like to have it seperate from the actual action costume.
The second one is the Sindella costume. This is probably the 2nd best known costume. It appears all through out her stint in JLA as a leader and what not. Also it's the costume appearing in Identity Crisis 2 cover. The little critter on the head, the boots, and the huge disc Z earrings.
There is also a silver one that is a one piece with a cut in the breast area, silver, with these ugly pink/purple elf shoes and a cape. I don't really like this one at all.
The final one is a kind of conservative one that appears in Who's Who's 88. She wears high heel boots, black slacks with a red stripe down them, a yellow vest with a long sleeve white shirt on and a small insignia on the center of her chest. She also has a cape that looks kind of like bat wings. I like this costume, but the picture makes her look like a ditz.

I know it's hard to imagine these without a picture, but if you want a picture you can PM me or E-mail me at MalkComedy@aol.com and I'll send you some copies of the costumes.

Fishnets...oh yeah.

I have to agree, definitely the fishnets. B)

Oh let me clarify something, my Zatanna WILL be wearing the fishnets, top hat, and tails no matter what, but as her work costume. In other words, when she is on stage, performing magic, she will have that costume on. What I'm looking for is her crime-fighting costume. What should she wear when she's fighting baddies?

lol I think they want her to wear the fishnets on stage and fighting crime. I think I like the Sindella one best, going on your description. And I think that's the one you have for your avatar.

Does she really need to wear a costume? (And no, I don't mean she should fight crime nude...) I mean, she could just wear normal street clothes. You know, something that gives her a bad-ass look. Long black leather trench-coat and stuff. I mean considering the fact that Zatanna isn't a mainstream crime-fighter at this point in time (only assisting the hero community from time to time when the need arises), she doesn't really have a costume anymore.

Of course if really want her to wear a proper costume, why not the 'Sindella' costume? It's the only other costume aside from the magician stage costume she's really remembered wearing. Might as well take that one up again.

OK, yes the icon is Zatanna's Sindella costume. It's got the ugly hood ornament and everything. Though I must admit that Turner makes it look pretty good.
The reason for no street clothes is because I don't like that look. She actually tried that in the Zatanna limited series and it looks kind of aweful. Various other superheroes have tried the plain clothes look (Canary and Superboy are two that I know well) and it almost always turns out look pretty horrid. It's pretty anti-climatic and not very heroic at all.
As for the reason I don't just choose the Sindella costume, well it's beause I don't really like it, though I have to admit Turner makes it look good. I may end up using it in the long run, but I wanna know what other people think.

I suppose. I've just felt for some heroes (Wolverine, Superboy and Punisher) can pull off the plain clothes look. It isn't anti-climatic. It's a bit more realistic. I mean honestly, some of the super-hero costume are to laugh at.

I mean, take the NEW X-MEN uniforms during the last two years. They were awsome. The black and yellow leather outfits that looked a bit more like normal day wear than over the top blue and yellow spandex. They could walk down the street and look badass rather than kind of like the dancers from an Elton John concert. (Frankly I never understood WHY Wolverine always wore yellow and blue uniform. Doesn't exactly inspire fear in your fellow man or mutant. Not to mention it never made sense for him to where a mask...)

And since Zatanna isn't a career super-hero she could get away with dressing more casual. Besides, she could still have a few accessories to make her look a bit more super-heroic like they did with the X-Men uniforms.

But it's you're call Z.

Is Zatanna gonna be in the JLA? They do need females, and if she is, she's going to need a costume. Who in the JLA doesn't have a costume?lol It'd be weird.

I really have to disagree with you there. Superboy's current t-shirt and jeans costume looks stupid. I mean he has the glasses.. and all he does now is to take off the glasses, and switch the t-shirt (he probably keeps it inside out so that he can just take it off and flip to the S Shield).. It's not very heroic and it's like hitting people upside the head with his secret ID.
If you check out Dinah's appearances throughout history too, she's had some really crappy "street" cloth costumes that just don't work. Now her current costume (and various other incarnations of the Fishnet costume) are nice and practical without being garish and ridiculous (like the Scuba costume was).
I do admit that some of the costumes that the heroes wear are often times really bad and crappy (See Powergirl, enough said), but I think that it really is part of being a hero. There are some GREAT costumes out there that aren't garish and just plain ugly and aren't street clothes as well (See Zatanna's stage costume, Canary's current costume, the Supergirl costumes (minus Cir-El's), Wondergirl's current costume). That reminds me.. another horrible street clothes costume, Wonder Girl's original costume! Cassie looked like crap!
As for Zatanna not being a "career" hero, well that's not exactly true. The problem with Zee is that DC writers are rather scared of her, they don't know how to handle her and how to use her properly. The truth of the matter is Zee is constantly on call, more so than the JLA or anybody else for that matter. Zatanna, like all the other Sentinels of Magic, has to keep a balance of magic in a particular area. Heck, Zee goes clubbing at Bewitched, a bar owned by an enemy of her fathers and her own, Tannark. Zee also has a plethora of magical beings and magic users that drop by at random times (as seen by Constantine randomly appearing in both Books of Magic and Zatanna: Everyday Magic and Tim Hunter's random appearances in Books of Magic). Infact Zatanna has set up her house as a magical answering machine (it actually projects an image that looks like her, but it's kinda ditzy), to pick up some of the slack while she's away.
I see Zatanna as a person trying to balance her life out. She has her magic, her career, her boyfriend (my Zatanna is dating Tony from Everyday magic at the moment), and her superheroing. She has added problems because she has no secret identity. The guys she dates often expect her to magic up money and fix everything, which she is not willing to do. Also, unlike most heroes Zatanna can change her costume by just saying, "emutsoc egnahc!" In the past, Zatanna has expressed a desire, well actually a need, to have a different costume for stage magic and one for fighting crime. Lately that doesn't see as important, but it's hard to tell because well she has rarely appeared Post-Crisis at least compared to her Pre-Crisis stint when she appeared in over 150 JLA comics (roughly from 100-250). It seems that Post-Crisis Zatanna has yet to use the Sindella costume, that I know of, which is why it might be interesting to try just for a short stint. It'd also be nice to know why, but you know DC. I dunno.. I opened this for ideas on what I should do and I still can't decide..

Why not fight nude? Worked for the Greek Warriors and, if I'm not mistaken, Lady Shiva trained nude... Ok, ok. I'm kidding... Well, what I said about Greeks and Shiva was true, but I'm kidding about fighting nude...
I dunno which costume is which, so I have no real input.
Big shocker, right? Yeah...

What are you talking about Zatanna? You honestly don't think this costume inspires coolness?

Zatanna is going to be a member of JLA, since that's the group she was a member of. Technically she's the mystical liason to the JLA, but still.. She's a member. She's also a member of the Sentinels of Magic, but since they've never been much of a group, it's kinda silly to try to form one.

now Marx, that particular picture is actually much more flattering than most of the pictures of Cassie's original costume. First of all, the original costume (in WW 113) had a black t-shirt, googles, a very flat black wig (it's not curly at all), red hot pants, and elbow and knee pads. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence in her.

It doesn't just not inspire coolness, it inspires me to puke. It is a bit more flattering than some, but I kinda liked her original costume... Not as much as any of her current ones, but still not HORRIBLE.
That pic, however, is HORRIBLE. :D

Ps. The hair is a bit better tho.

LOL You guys are scaring me if that picture's actually one of the better ones. *Looks at the picture again* The first costume I saw her in that I liked was the first one she had in YJ, as you said it doesn't compare to the TT one. *has nightmares thinking of a costume worst than that pic*

Well I think Superboy's current 'costume' fits his personality much more. I never saw Superboy as the tights kind of character. I've always seen him as a guy who wears normal clothes when fighting crime. Though he needs his trademark leather jacket with the yellow S-shield on the back.

Frankly it depends on the character. Certain characters should not wear spandex but rather something more... real.

And yeah, I know why Zatanna is under used. It's always hard to write for characters who have such great abilities. I mean magical characters are never easy to write for because they are often too powerful and become boring for both reader and writer.

But she really is only a part-time hero. She doesn't spend all her free time in the watchtower. She doesn't go looking for trouble. She tries to have a life outside of crime fighting and magick. She has always been quoted as saying how she perfers the life on stage over the life of fighting for her life. Which I respect. It makes her such an intersting character. She is so powerful and yet she perfers to have a life as performer.

I've actually never seen Zatanna say that she perfered the stage life than fighting evil. I HAVE seen Zatanna say that she perfers to do stage magic, I.e. leigermain over real magic because it's harder.
As for Zatanna not being at the watchtower, well she isn't an official JLA member. She's more like a member of the JLA Reserves. I don't think Zatanna has to search out evil and problems like the others. It comes after her. This is easily seen through various appearances of Zatanna in her own titles (World's Finest, her Limited Series, her One Shot, and Everyday Magic). Also, Zatanna's stint in JLA shows that she is a major attraction for magical baddies. I mean she's the most powerful semantic mage in the world. She also lives in a major mystical city, San Fran, and she tours the world. The problem appears that Zatanna has been severely under used in the Post Crisis world, so many people don't realize how much Zatanna has actually appeared and what she's faced. Basically Post Crisis Zatanna has appeared in JLA, Books of Magic, and her own titles (Limited series and Everyday Magic). There are others but those are the basics. And really, talking to other Zatanna fans, the best characterizations of Zatanna have appeared in Everyday Magic and in Books of Magic which is really saying a lot considering in Books of Magic, she really only has a few pages in the Limited Series and only a couple issues in the actual series. Zatanna is a majorly UNTAPPED character. That doesn't mean she doesn't face problems and evil isn't attracted to her or even that she doesn't go out to right wrongs, it's just that there aren't many titles that she actually appears in to do any of that. Books of Magic is certainly not a good vs. evil title and Everyday Magic was suppose to be about just that, Zatanna's everyday (which means that if that is her everyday life, fighting an evil witch and a demon, plus dealing with Constantine, it's no wonder she doesn't just join the Watchtower gang cause she's got enough problems that are just drawn to her).
I mean up until Zatanna's appearance on the cover of Identity Crisis #2, I don't think it was even clear if Zee still had the Sindella costume in the Post Crisis world. It's also strange because it appears that Batman trained with Zatara at some point. That randomly came up in a comic, no clue where.
I'm not saying that what you say is wrong, I'm just saying, I think there is more here than meets the eye. I think Zatanna has more adventures "off camera" than we see, just like ALL the Sentinels of Magic. I mean Madame Xanadu, Doc Occult, Rose Spiritus (Ok so technically she's still Doc. Occult, but still), Mr. E, the Phantom Stranger, and various others have had next to no page time period and a good percentage of who they are and what they go through is unknown. I think JLA Black Baptism was suppose to show that the Sentinels of Magic deal with the forces of evil constantly, they just don't communicate with each other. Also the evils they fight aren't as showy as say Joker or Luthor or even the Crime Syndicate.

Zatana mentioned that she perfers life as a magician in an issue of Justice League (I forget which issue), when they offered her to re-join the League. She told them that she'd be there if and when they need her, but that she was happy with her life as a traveling performer.

And yes, Zatanna is a reserve member of the JLA. Because she refused to join the team as I mentioned earlier. When I say Zatanna isn't a full time super-hero, is because she doesn't do what other heroes do. The only way Zatanna could be considered a full-time hero was if she were being more pro-active in her crime-fighting career. She doesn't protect a city on a regular basis, and she doesn't go out to stop crime in any shape or form like Batman, Green Arrow, Superman or Flash. She doesn't go searching the galaxy for wrongs to right like Green Lantern.

Like you said, she waits for evil to come to her. When ever they show Zatanna a villian is either coming after her, or she's been called in by the JLA or something. She's willing to help anyone who asks for her help. But otherwise she doesn't really spend her time looking for rights to wrong like she did in her JLA days.

That really makes her a good samaritan who just happens to be a reserve JLA member. Much like Barbara Gordon towards the end of her career as Batgirl. She didn't much do the super-hero thing as regularly as before, but she'd help if she was needed.

And yes, the Sindella costume and her past does still exist in the post crisis world. If you've read the JLA secret Origins issues they had a section that talked about past JLA groups. The team with Zatanna in that costume and as a team leader did occur. Her past is still the same one as from pre-crisis except for the things the writers have actually published recently telling us about the change.

And I understand what you are saying though Z. It is quite possible that Zatanna might be battling evil in her free time. Unfortunantely none of us can say for certain because we only know what the writers at DC give us. For all we know Zatanna has been in Las Vagas since the Obsidien Age, doing shows in place of Zigrfy and Roy. We can't really say what she has been doing.

From what I've read about Zatanna in recent years is that she is a full-time stage magician. When the JLA needs help with mystical problems they will call on her and she'll be more than happy to help. But otherwise she seems to perfer life a little less hectic.

And actually Batman training with Zatara, first occured in the Batman Animated Series when Zatanna (being only a normal non-meta magician) made a guest apperance. Whether or not that bled into the comics, I couldn't say.