Let's make some Justice Leagues, part 6

(Continued from part 5)

            The Justice League is a gathering of the top skills in the DC Universe, brought together to face things ranging from psychos out of Gotham City, Giant Robots from Metropolis, Mythic creatures like Cyclopes and Minotaurs, and Aliens with complex politics and strange ways.  But sometimes stuff gets really weird and suddenly you need access to a witch, wizard, warlock, demon, or angel to help plug up the gate to hell that has just opened.  Who are the best candidates for this roll?  I am going to introduce a lot of characters I imagine most people have never heard of.  Welcome to the world of the mystic.

5) The Mystic

            This character exists to hit on the occult side of magic.  While a character like Wonder Woman fights gods and monsters from mythology these guys fight demons, witches, vampires, and the like.  While there are dozens of these types of characters (though which ones exist in the 52 universe is anyone's guess), I think the obvious candidates would be Jason Blood, Zatanna, Zauriel, Raven, and Doctor Fate.

            Jason Blood was a knight of the Round Table (this is his origin story told during the cold open of an episode of "Justice League") and betrayed King Arthur for the love of a demonic woman who then killed him with a venomous kiss.  The Wizard Merlin was so hurt by the betrayal that he decided death was too good for the treacherous twit and bound Jason's soul to Etrigan the Rhyming Demon (though his rhyming is rarely played up outside of comics, it's hard to fit the rhythm of it into a fight scene, when it works though it really works).  This binding brought Jason back to life and made him immortal, he also has the unfortunate moral question of having to turn into the demon in order to try and fight greater evils, but since Etrigan is hard to control this is a gamble.  He is a frequent ally of Batman and has been on a Justice League before under the leadership of Nightwing.  "Gone, Gone, The Form of Man, Rise the Demon, Etrigan!"

Etrigan has tried and failed to conquer hell before.

            Zatanna is on the current Justice League Dark and has a long standing history of being in the Justice League, appearing as part of Batman's various love interests, and generally being a cool character.  Her gimmick, that she says words backwards in order to cast a spell really only works in a comic book, as reading the backwards speak can allow you to decipher what it is she is saying, "srewolf otni nrut snug" becomes "guns turn into flowers", but in my opinion it doesn't work in cartoons or audio because you could literally put any gibberish in there, and there would be no way to check the work.  Either way she is a strong character to be in there.  (She was also featured as a main character in the "Young Justice" Cartoon).

Much Like Power Girl, Zatanna's costume is sexy to the point of overshadowing her as a character,
but she is a good character.

            Zauriel is an angel that fell to Earth in order to date a woman he fell in love with, he also helped the Justice League stop an invasion of Earth by a legion of rogue angels who were preparing to pull a coup de tat on God.  Those angels failed to defeat the Justice League and Zauriel joined the team specifically to be the team's adviser in occult matters.  And when atomic war threatened to end Earth he called on the army of angels in heaven to stop the annihilation of human kind.  Zauriel has some things on his side, aside from being a romantic noble character with a an interesting look and a sort of distinct place in DC as the most Christian of all the characters.  He also has the distinction of being invented by my favorite comic writer, Grant Morrison.

He looks like the cover of an 80's rock album.

            Raven, being one of the core members of the "Teen Titans" hardly needs an introduction.  she is the half demon daughter of Trigon, one of the biggest bads in the DC universe.  Her powers manifest as a telekinetic shadow that she can shape like a Green Lantern construct, use to enter the neither world, or teleport around terra firma.  Her powers are controlled by emotion so she is constantly using meditation to keep them in check against her thinly veiled demonic rage which could crack the world.  She is a great kill-joy character and adds a unique character trait to a group she is on: sullen-for-a-good-reason. "Azarath Metrion...ZINTHOS!"

Also a character made famous by a well done cartoon, "Teen Titans".

            Then there is Doctor Fate, a character I both love and hate.  What and who he is varies based on what version of DC you are in, sometimes he is a spirit that lives in a helmet and takes over the mind of whomever dons the helmet, in other continuities the helmet is merely a tool that can be worn by any magic user of capable enough skill and allows them to access the knowledge and spell casting power of all those who have worn it.  Either way works for story reasons and since the helmet is more the character than anything else you could give it to a new character, hell finding a new Doctor Fate could be the first mission for the team allowing them to fight the numerous bad guys who want the helmet for their own use (or to put in a concrete box somewhere so they won't have to deal with Fate ever again).

I also think this is one of those slots that should be filled by a minority woman.
Cause there are not a lot of them doing stuff in DC.

            There is another guy, John Constantine.  He has appeared in live action mainstream TV and could be considered one of the most prominent characters in circulation, like Green Arrow and Flash.  In my opinion I was shocked they brought him into this universe.  His stories are more dialogue focused and I could more easily see him and Swamp Thing teaming up to call Neil Gainman's Dream an emo.  Rather than be on or lead a team with superheroes.  Then again, Justice League Dark never appealed to me, maybe his could be great, but I think that everything he does can be done by Jason Blood  who I am also not picking.

A guy who references felching shouldn't be in mainstream comics (IMHO).

            If I were to make a final decision, Zatanna, Raven, and a new Doctor Fate would be who I would go for.

(Continued in part 7)