Hawkman #4
Hawkman #4 contains the first appearance and origin of Zatanna Zatara, one of DC's most enduring supernatural heroes, who went on to become a Justice League member, a Vertigo-adjacent figure, and a cornerstone of DC's magical universe for six decades. The issue also launched 'Zatanna's Search,' a serial quest for her missing father that played out across six separate DC titles over roughly two and a half years — a structural experiment that anticipates the modern cross-title event in meaningful ways and demonstrated that a single narrative thread could pull readers from one hero's book into another's. Gardner Fox built the new character as a deliberate legacy figure, connecting the dormant Golden Age magician Zatara — absent from DC publishing since the early 1950s — to the Silver Age through a daughter whose popularity ultimately far surpassed his. Notably, Zatanna does not appear on the cover of this issue; the cover's action sequence instead promotes the issue's second story, making her debut all the more surprising inside.
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The issue was written by Gardner Fox, drawn and inked by Murphy Anderson (who also provided the cover), lettered by Gaspar Saladino, and edited by Julius Schwartz — the same tight creative team that had been shaping the Silver Age Hawkman series since its launch in early 1964. Fox and Schwartz conceived Zatanna as a way to revive the Golden Age magician Zatara, whose strip had quietly ended in 1951, by introducing his daughter on a quest to find him rather than simply bringing the father back directly; one contemporary account characterizes this as creating 'the first legacy hero' in the deliberate Silver Age sense. The issue carries a cover date of November 1964 and was published on August 20, 1964, during the second year of Hawkman's first solo series, which ran 27 issues in total.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of Zatanna Zatara (Zatanna), created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson.
- Published August 20, 1964 (cover date: November 1964); part of Hawkman Volume 1, a bi-monthly series that ran 27 issues from 1964 to 1968.
- The lead story is titled 'The Girl Who Split in Two!' (13 pages); the second story, 'The Machine That Magnetized Men!' (11 pages), features the villain Jan Kyll and a time-traveling magnetic vehicle — and is the scene depicted on the cover.
- Zatanna's debut is the opening chapter of 'Zatanna's Search,' a multi-title crossover arc that continued through The Atom #19, Green Lantern (Vol. 2) #42, Detective Comics #355, and concluded in Justice League of America #51 — one of the earliest sustained cross-title story arcs in DC history.
- Zatanna is introduced as the daughter of Golden Age hero Zatara the Magician, who had first appeared in Action Comics #1 (1938) but had been absent from DC publishing since 1951.
- Zatanna's signature ability — casting spells by speaking words backwards — is established from her first appearance, modeled after her father's own magical technique.
- Commissioner Emmett appears in the second story, calling in Hawkman (Katar Hol) and Hawkgirl (Shayera Thal) to investigate the magnetic robberies in Midway City; the Druid appears in cameo flashback within the Zatanna lead story.
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times: in JLA: Zatanna's Search (2004 trade paperback), The Hawkman Archives Vol. 2 (2004), Showcase Presents: Hawkman Vol. 1 (2007, black and white), Supergirl #5 (abridged), and a DC Facsimile Edition (December 2024) that reproduces the original ads and letter column.
Cast · 8 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Separately investigating the mysterious arrival of 2 artifacts to the Midway City Museum, both Hawkman and Hawkgirl find a paralyzed girl in a magician's costume speaking gibberish. When they bring the twins together they merge into one being -- Zatanna. She thanks them for their help and tells of them of her quest to find her father, the Golden Age hero Zatara.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).