I don't read any particular comic books featuring Zatanna, but I do watch Young Justice, and I can't help but wonder, what are her limits? Can she accomplish anything just be saying it backwards? It makes me wonder how the team has any actual problems when she can just say "etaerc dlrow ecaep." I've been working on a fanfiction that starts with the team working together to get all of the passengers off of a plane before it crashes, but I'm not getting anywhere with it, because I'm constantly wondering why Zatanna can't just say "riaper eht enigne," but that defeats the possibility of there being any real struggle.

If I remember correctly, she can't bring people back from the dead. That's pretty much it.

The spells have to be recited perfectly pretty much. She says at some point in the show that she has to practice her backwards speech all the time or else the spell doesn't work. Which is why in seaso one most of her spells were pretty simple.

If she has never ever said riaper eht enigne before, she is not gonna nail it the first time. She needs to perfectly speak backwards that is why he has goto spells she has perfected.

Peace is an abstract concept, like time. Peace doesn't really exist so a spell couldn't bring world peace. Peace is a calm state of mind. There have been criminals who have stated that they can't stay calm without killing. So even if she created world peace, they would still be killing. Characters like The Flash could create World Peace in an instant for some time if he ran around killed everyone with a criminal record. Peace doesn't really exist, it's how anyone takes peace.

That is why I never got the powers to stop time. All you are doing is thinking really fast, you can't stop something that doesn't exist. Time is also an abstract concept, it's made up.

I don't remember YJ much, but in the comics Zatanna has done a lot better things than repairing an engine.

I believe the backwards magic she uses has certain limitations. Of course these limitations were created by the writers to make her relevant in that she cannot just be able to stop Amazo, Darkseid, or Doomsday by opening her mouth. These limitations are also probably not consistent between different writers putting her in different situations. However, it does make sense, in my honest opinion, that just because someone is a powerful magician, doesn't mean they could just accomplish anything. I believe the backwards spells she uses are in fact spells and she can't just say anything backwards for it to happen, without it being an actual spell. Also while she may be powerful enough a mage to be quite an asset to the Justice League, her power still has limits, she is not omnipotent. There are things that are outside of her power to accomplish. I remember once when they were looking for the Calculator, she couldn't just say something like "ekat em ot eth s'rotaluclaC noitacol" without an "anchor" present at said location. Once Oracle tracked the Calculator and the Atom came out at the Calculator's location through the phone line, Zatanna was able to teleport Batman and herself there because the Atom was there acting as an anchor. I highly doubt anyone has a definitive handbook to what Zatanna can and cannot do with her backwards magic, but I know she does have limitations.

@marvelcinematicfanatic: This was discussed back in the 80's, and the 70's, in fact, all the way back to when the character was first created. Same with her father.

She has to learn spells in order to execute them properly. There's a Young Justice episode wherein she's performing a 15 minute spell that she has to get correct, or else the team fails.

I see that you asked this awhile back, so I hope you solved the problem with your story. PM me a link to read if you see this.

She can do almost anything or anything with just her magic. Change reality, manipulate time (stop, move forward, go back and even manipulate a person's time, for example, stop that person in time while everything is normal), manipulate their size, teleport, manipulate the elements of nature / Earth , telepathy, transmutation, transformation, resurrection and countless others.

In the past, everyone thought she could not bring the dead back to life, but it has been proven that this is a myth. Yes, it can bring the dead back to life, but like all magic in DC Comics, it has a cost and is very high: You have to pay for it. Obviously characters that have been practicing dark magic for years like Felix Faust and Klarion, The Witch Boy or characters with demon blood like Constantine (nowadays he doesn't have anymore) or even characters on the multiversal level like Nabu (wearing the cloak Doctor Fate), Mordru (he is a lord of the aces, so the rules of magic do not apply to him) and Circe (she has a fraction of the power of the goddess Hecate), these characters don't have that much limit or don't have to pay a cost (John needs it, but that’s not much explored), but Zatanna, who is new to resurrecting people, animals or beings, has more visible consequences.

In an issue of Dark Justice League, she brings her rabbit to life after he died in front of her (she must have been about 8-12 years old), but her father, Zatara, soon sees and warns her about it, so he '' absorbs '' the cost for it and suffers the consequences. He seems to have a type of nosebleed or something, and after that, he makes her promise never to do that again, so here's the myth that she can't resuscitate people.

She has a variety of magic and powers, but she is difficult to work with because she is too powerful and, whenever she appears, they use a tape or something to cover her mouth to '' limit '' her. The proof of this is that characters with less screen time than she have more appearances and greater achievements.