title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla is now considered the father of Mexican independence. His uprising on 16 September 1810 is considered the spark igniting the Mexican War of Independence. He inspired tens of thousands of ordinary men to follow him, but did not organize them into a disciplined fighting force or have a broad military strategy, but he did want to destroy the old order. Fellow insurgent leader and second in command, Ignacio Allende, said of Hidalgo, "Neither were his men amenable to discipline, nor was Hidalgo interested in regulations." Hidalgo issued a few important decrees in the later stage of the insurgency, but did not articulate a coherent set of goals much beyond his initial call to arms denouncing bad government. Only following Hidalgo's death in 1811 under the leadership of his former seminary student, Father José María Morelos, was a document created that made explicit the goals of the insurgency, the "Sentimientos de la Nación" ("Sentiments of the Nation") (1813). One clear point was political independence from Spain. Despite its having only a vague ideology, Hidalgo's movement demonstrated the massive discontent and power of Mexico's plebeians as an existential threat to the imperial regime. The government focused its resources on defeating Hidalgo's insurgents militarily and in tracking down and publicly executing its leadership. But by then the insurgency had spread beyond its original region and leadership.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Hidalgo was a learned priest who knew multiple languages, had a significant library, and was friends men who held Enlightenment views. He held the important position of rector of the Seminary of San Nicolás, but had run afoul of the Inquisition for unorthodox beliefs and speaking against the monarchy. He had already sired two daughters with Josefa Quintana. Following the death of his brother Joaquín in 1803, Hidalgo, who was having money problems due to debts on landed estates he owned, became curate of the poor parish of Dolores. He became member of a group of well-educated American-born Spaniards in Querétaro. They met under the guise of being a literary society, supported by the wife of crown official ("corregidor") Miguel Domínguez, Josefa Ortíz de Domínguez, known now as "La Corregidora." Instead the members discussed the possibility of a popular rising, similar to one that already had recently been quashed in Valladolid (now Morelia) in 1809 in the name of Ferdinand VII. Hidalgo was friends with Ignacio Allende, a captain in the regiment of Dragoons in New Spain, who was also among the conspirators. The "Conspiracy of Querétaro" began forming cells in other Spanish cities in the north, including Celaya, Guanajuato, San Miguel el Grande, now named after Allende. Allende had served in a royal regiment during the rule of José de Iturrigaray, who was overthrown in 1808 by peninsular Spaniards who considered him too sympathetic to the grievances of American-born Spaniards. With the ouster of the viceroy, Allende turned against the new regime and was open to the conspiracy for independence. Hidalgo joined the conspiracy, and with Allende vouching for him rose to being one of its leaders. Word of the conspiracy got to crown officials, and the corregidor Domínguez cracked down, but his wife Josefa was able to warn Allende who then alerted Hidalgo. At this point there was no firm ideology or action plan, but the tip-off galvanized Hidalgo to action. On Sunday, 16 September 1810 with his parishioners gathered for mass, Hidalgo issued his call to arms, the "Grito de Dolores". It is unclear what Hidalgo actually said, since there are different accounts. The one which became part of the official record of accusation against Hidalgo was "Long live religion! Long live Our Most Holy Mother of Guadalupe! Long live Fernando VII! Long live America and down with bad government!"


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: From a small gathering at the Dolores church, other joined the rising including workers on local landed estates, prisoners liberated from jail, and a few members of a royal army regiment. Many estate workers' weapons were agricultural tools now to be used against the regime. Some were mounted and acted as a cavalry under the direction of their estate foremen. Others were poorly armed Indians with bows and arrows. The numbers joining the revolt rapidly swelled under Hidalgo's leadership, they began moving beyond the village of Dolores. Despite rising tensions following the events of 1808, the royal regime was largely unprepared for the suddenness, size, and violence of the movement.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The religious character of the movement was present from the beginning, embodied in leadership of the priest, Hidalgo. The movement's banner with image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, seized by Hidalgo from the church at Atotonilco, was symbolically important. The "dark virgin" was seen as a protector of dark-skinned Mexicans, and now seen as well as a liberator. Many men in Hidalgo's forces put the image of Guadalupe on their hats. Supporters of the imperial regime took as their patron the Virgin of Remedios, so that religious symbolism was used by both insurgents and royalists. There were a number of parish priests and other lower clergy in the insurgency, most prominently Hidalgo and José María Morelos, but the Church hierarchy was flatly opposed. Insurgents were excommunicated by the clergy and clerics preached sermons against the insurgency.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: They were not organized in any formal fashion, more of a mass movement than an army. Hidalgo inspired his followers, but did not organize or train them as a fighting force, nor impose order and discipline on them. A few militia men in uniform joined Hidalgo's movement and attempted to create some military order and discipline, but they were few in number. The bulk of the royal army remained loyal to the imperial regime, but Hidalgo's rising had caught them unprepared and their response was delayed. Hidalgo's early victories gave the movement momentum, but "the lack of weapons, trained soldiers, and good officers meant that except in unusual circumstances the rebels could not field armies capable of fighting conventional battles against the royalists."


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The growing insurgent force marched through towns including San Miguel el Grande and Celaya, where they met little resistance, and gained more followers. When they reached the town of Guanajuato on 28 September, they found Spanish forces barricaded inside the public granary, Alhóndiga de Granaditas. Among them were some 'forced' Royalists, creoles who had served and sided with the Spanish. By this time, the rebels numbered 30,000 and the battle was horrific. They killed more than 500 European and American Spaniards, and marched on toward Mexico City.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The new viceroy quickly organized a defense, sending out the Spanish general Torcuato Trujillo with 1,000 men, 400 horsemen, and two cannons – all that could be found on such short notice. The crown had established a standing military in the late eighteenth century, granting non-Spaniards who served the "fuero militar", the only special privileges for mixed-race men were eligible. Indians were excluded from the military. Royal army troops of the professional army were supplemented by local militias. The regime was determined to crush the uprising and attempted to stifle malcontents who might be drawn to the insurgency.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Ignacio López Rayón joined Hidalgo's forces whilst passing near Maravatío, Michoacan while en route to Mexico City and on 30 October, Hidalgo's army encountered Spanish military resistance at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces. As the Hidalgo and his forces surrounded Mexico City, a group of 2,5000 royalists women joined together under Ana Iraeta de Mier, to create and distribute pamphlets based on their loyalty towards Spain and help fellow loyalist families. Hidalgo's forces continued to fight and achieved victory. When the cannons were captured by the rebels, the surviving Royalists retreated to the city.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Despite apparently having the advantage, Hidalgo retreated, against the counsel of Allende. This retreat, on the verge of apparent victory, has puzzled historians and biographers ever since. They generally believe that Hidalgo wanted to spare the numerous Mexican citizens in Mexico City from the inevitable sacking and plunder that would have ensued. His retreat is considered Hidalgo's greatest tactical error and his failure to act "was the beginning of his downfall." Hidalgo moved west and set up headquarters in Guadalajara, where one of the worst incidents of violence against Spanish civilians occurred, a month of massacres from 12 December 1810 (the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe) to 13 January 1811. At his trial followoing his capture later that year, Hidalgo admitted to ordering the murders. None "were given a trial, nor was there any reason to do so, since he knew perfectly well they were innocent." In Guadalajara, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe suddenly disappeared from insurgents' hats and there were many desertions.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The royalist forces, led by Félix María Calleja del Rey, were becoming more effective against disorganized and poorly armed of Hidalgo, defeating them at a bridge on the Calderón River, forcing the rebels to flee north towards the United States, perhaps hoping they would attain financial and military support. They were intercepted by Ignacio Elizondo, who pretended to join the fleeing insurgent forces. Hidalgo and his remaining soldiers were captured in the state of Coahuila at the Wells of Baján ("Norias de Baján"). When the insurgents adopted the tactics of guerrilla warfare and operated where it was effective, such as in the hot country of southern Mexico, they were able to undermine the royalist army. Around Guanajuato, regional insurgent leader for a time successfully combined insurgency with banditry. With the capture of Hidalgo and the creole leadership in the north, this phase of the insurgency was at an end.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The captured rebel leaders were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, except for Mariano Abasolo, who was sent to Spain to serve a life sentence in prison. Allende, Jiménez, and Aldama were executed on 26 June 1811, shot in the back as a sign of dishonor. Hidalgo, as a priest, had to undergo a civil trial and review by the Inquisition. He was eventually stripped of his priesthood, found guilty, and executed on 30 July 1811. The heads of Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, and Jiménez were preserved and hung from the four corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas of Guanajuato as a grim warning to those who dared follow in their footsteps.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Warfare in the northern Bajío region waned after the capture and execution of the insurgency's creole leadership, but the insurgency had already spread to other more southern regions, to the towns of Zitácuaro, Cuautla, Antequera (now Oaxaca) towns where a new leadership had emerged. Priests José María Morelos and Mariano Matamoros, as well as Vicente Guerrero, Guadalupe Victoria, and Ignacio López Rayón carried on the insurgency on a different basis, organizing their forces, using guerrilla tactics, and importantly for the insurgency, creating organizations and creating written documents that articulated the insurgents' goals.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Following the execution of Hidalgo and other insurgents, leadership of the remaining insurgent movement initially coalesced under Ignacio López Rayón, a civilian lawyer and businessman. He had been stationed in Saltillo, Coahuila with 3,500 men and 22 cannons. When he heard of the capture of the insurgent leaders, he fled south on 26 March 1811 to continue the fight. He subsequently fought the Spanish in the battles of Puerto de Piñones, Zacatecas, El Maguey, and Zitácuaro.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: In an important step, Rayón organized the "Suprema Junta Gubernativa de América" (Supreme National Governing Junta of America), which claimed legitimacy to lead the insurgency. Rayón articulated "Elementos constitucionales", which states that "Sovereignty arises directly from the people, resides in the person of Ferdinand VII, and is exercised by the "Suprema Junta Gubernativa de América". The Supreme Junta generated a flood of detailed regulations and orders. On the ground, Father José María Morelos pursued successful military engagements, accepting the authority of the Supreme Junta. After winning victories and taking the port of Acapulco, then the towns Tixtla, Izúcar, and Taxco, Morelos was besieged for 72 days by royalist troops under Calleja at Cuautla. The Junta failed to send aid to Morelos. Morelos's troops held out and broke out of the siege, going on to take Antequera, (now Oaxaca). The relationship between Morelos and the Junta soured, with Morelos complaining, "Your disagreements have been of service to the enemy."


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Morelos was a real contrast to Hidalgo, although both were rebel priests. Both had sympathy for Mexico's downtrodden, but Morelos was of mixed-race while Hidalgo was an American-born Spaniard, so Morelos experientially understood racial discrimination in the colonial order. On more practical grounds, Morelos built an organized and disciplined military force, while Hidalgo's followers lacked arms, training, or discipline, an effective force that the royal army took seriously. Potentially Morelos could have taken the colony's second largest city, Puebla de los Angeles, situated halfway between the port of Veracruz and the capital, Mexico City. To avert that strategic disaster, which would have left the capital cut off from its main port, viceroy Venegas transferred Calleja from the Bajío to deal with Morelos's forces. Morelos's forces moved south and took Oaxaca, allowing him to control most of the southern region. During this period, the insurgency had reason for optimism and formulated documents declaring independence and articulating a vision for a sovereign Mexico.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Morelos was not ambitious to become leader of the insurgency, but it was clear that he was recognized by insurgents as its supreme military commander. He moved swiftly and decisively, stripping Rayón of power, dissolving the Supreme Junta, and in 1813, Morelos convened the Congress of Chilpancingo, also known as the Congress of Anáhuac. The congress brought together representatives of the insurgency together. Morelos formulated his Sentiments of the Nation, addressed to the congress. In point 1, he clearly and flatly states that "America is free and independent of Spain." On 6 November of that year, the Congress signed the first official document of independence, known as the Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America. In addition to declaring independence from Spain, the Morelos called for the establishment of Catholicism as the only religion (but with certain restrictions), the abolition of slavery and racial distinctions between and of all other nations," going on in point 5 to say, "sovereignty springs directly from the People." His second point makes the "Catholic Religion" the only one permissible, and that "Catholic dogma shall be sustained by the Church hierarchy" (point 4). The importance of Catholicism is further emphasized to mandate December 12, the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, as a day to honor her. A provision of key importance to dark-skinned plebeians (point 15) is "That slavery is proscribed forever, , as well as the distinctions of caste [race], so that all shall be equal; and that the only distinction between one American and another shall be that between vice and virtue.". Also important for Morelos's vision of the new nation was equality before the law (point 13), rather than maintaining special courts and privileges (fueros) to particular groups, such as churchmen, miners, merchants, and the military.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The Congress elected Morelos as the head of the executive branch of government, as well as supreme commander of the insurgency, coordinating its far-flung components. The formal statement by the Congress of Chilpancingo, the Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence, is an important formal document in Mexican history, since it declares Mexico an independent nation and lays out its powers as a sovereign state to make war and peace, to appoint ambassadors, and to have standing with the Papacy, rather than indirectly through the Spanish monarch. The document enshrines Roman Catholicism the sole religion.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Calleja restructured the royal army in an attempt to crush the insurgency, creating commands in Puebla, Valladolid (now Morelia), Guanajuato, and Nueva Galicia, with experienced peninsular military officers to lead them. American-born officer Agustín de Iturbide was part of this royalist leadership. Brigadier Ciriaco de Llano captured and executed Mariano Matamoros, an effective insurgent. After the dissolution of the Congress of Chilpancingo, Morelos was captured 5 November 1815, interrogated, was tried and executed by firing squad. With his death, conventional warfare ended and guerrilla warfare continued uninterrupted.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: With the execution of Morelos in 1815, Vicente Guerrero emerged as the most important leader of the insurgency. From 1815 to 1821 most of the fighting for independence from Spain was by guerrilla forces in the "tierra caliente" (hot country) of southern Mexico and to a certain extent in northern New Spain. In 1816, Francisco Javier Mina, a Spanish military leader who had fought against Ferdinand VII, joined the independence movement. Mina and 300 men landed at "Rio Santander" (Tamaulipas) in April, in 1817 and fought for seven months until his capture by royalist forces in November 1817.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Two insurgent leaders arose: Guadalupe Victoria (born José Miguel Fernández y Félix) in Puebla and Vicente Guerrero in the village of Tixla, in what is now the state of Guerrero. Both gained allegiance and respect from their followers. Believing the situation under control, the Spanish viceroy issued a general pardon to every rebel who would lay down his arms. Many did lay down their arms and received pardons, but when the opportunity arose, they often returned to the insurgency. The royal army controlled the major cities and towns, but whole swaths of the countryside were not pacified. From 1816 to 1820, the insurgency was stalemated, but not stamped out. Royalist military officer, Antonio López de Santa Anna led amnestied former insurgents, pursuing insurgent leader Guadalupe Victoria. Insurgents attacked key roads, vital for commerce and imperial control, such that the crown sent a commander from Peru, Brigadier Fernando Miyares y Mancebo, to build a fortified road between the port of Veracruz and Jalapa, the first major stopping point on the way to Mexico City. The rebels faced stiff Spanish military resistance and the apathy of many of the most influential criollos.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The period 1816–20 is often considered a period of military stalemate, unable to delivery a knockout blow. Insurgents often settled into guerrilla warfare with some banditry, while royalist forces became increasingly demoralized. Spain sent insufficient reinforcements, although a number of senior officers arrived. By 1814, the Peninsular War against Napoleon was won and Ferdinand VII became the monarch, initially as a constitutional ruler under the Spanish constitution of 1812, but once in power, reneged on promises to have constitutional limits on his power. Crown resources did not go toward funding the war against the insurgents, so that many expeditionary soldiers were not paid and left to their own devices in territory largely controlled by insurgents. Rather than risk life and limb fighting insurgents, they avoided risky operations and stayed close to fortified garrisons. Since money to pay and supply soldiers was not forthcoming from the crown, royal forces pressed local populations for supplies. As for high officers, many saw the hopelessness of the situation and decided to make the best of it by creating what one historian has called "veritable satrapies," becoming wealthy from confiscated insurgent properties, and taxing local merchants.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: In what was supposed to be the final government campaign against the insurgents, in December 1820, Viceroy Juan Ruiz de Apodaca sent a force led by a royalist Colonel Agustín de Iturbide, to defeat Guerrero's army in Oaxaca. Iturbide, a native of Valladolid (now Morelia), had gained renown for his zeal against Hidalgo's and Morelos's rebels during the early independence struggle. A favorite of the Mexican church hierarchy, Iturbide symbolized conservative creole values; he was devoutly religious and committed to the defense of property rights and social privileges. He also resented his lack of promotion and failure to gain wealth.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Iturbide's assignment to the Oaxaca expedition in 1820 coincided with a successful military coup in Spain against the monarchy of Ferdinand VII. The coup leaders, part of an expeditionary force assembled to suppress the independence movements in the Americas, had turned against the autocratic monarchy. They compelled the reluctant Ferdinand to reinstate the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812 that created a constitutional monarchy. When news of the liberal charter reached New Spain, Iturbide perceived it both as a threat to the status quo and a catalyst to rouse the creole elites to gain control of Mexico. Independence was achieved when conservative Royalist forces in the colonies chose to rise up against the liberal regime in Spain; it was an about-face compared to their previous opposition to the peasant insurgency.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The royalist army was demoralized and the insurgents were unable to oust them. With the re-imposition of the Spanish Constitution, the relationship between newly elected town councils ("ayuntamientos") and the military meant that councils could put limits on taxation and many voted to cease exacting taxes to support the royalist army. Commanders lost their financial support and could no longer compel men to join militias. Militias were demobilized and men who had served outside of their native areas went home. The insurgents no longer felt the continuous pressure of the royalist military. Militia men abandoned areas where insurgents were active.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: With the situation changed in part because of the Spanish Constitution, Guerrero realized that creole elites might move toward independence and exclude the insurgents. For that reason, his reaching an accommodation with the royalist army became a pragmatic move. From the royalist point of view, forging an alliance with their former foes created a way forward to independence. If creoles had declared independence for their own political purposes without coming to terms with the insurgency in the south, then an independent Mexico would have to contend with rebels who could threaten a new nation. Iturbide initiated contact with Guerrero in January 1821, indicating he was weighing whether to abandon the royalist cause. Guerrero was receptive to listening to Iturbide's vague proposal, but was not going to commit without further clarification. Iturbide replied to Guerrero's demand for clarity, saying that he had a plan for a constitution, one apparently based on the 1812 Spanish liberal constitution. Guerrero responded that the failure of that constitution to address the grievances of many in New Spain, and particularly objected to that constitution's exclusion of Afro-Mexicans from citizenship, while according it to European whites, Indians, and mestizos.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: The question of equality for all races was a key matter for Guerrero and other insurgents, many of whom were had African ancestry. Iturbide accepted that important change. The two men negotiated about how the merging of the old insurgent forces and the former royalist army would occur. Iturbide wrote the final draft of the Plan of Iguala, named for the place where it was proclaimed on 24 February 1821. Iturbide proclaimed three principles, or "guarantees", for Mexican independence from Spain. Mexico would be an independent monarchy governed by King Ferdinand, another Bourbon prince or some other conservative European prince; creoles would be given equal rights and privileges to "peninsulares"; and the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico would retain its privileges and position as the established religion of the land.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: To reach an accord that both sides would accept, the plan explicitly laid out the terms of equality. For people of mixed race, point 12 made explicit "All inhabitants of New Spain, without distinction to their being Europeans, Africans, or Indians, are citizens of this Monarchy with the option to seek all employment according to their merits and virtues." For European whites, their privileged place in Mexico was to be maintained, guaranteeing their place in existing positions in government. "All branches of the government service will remain without alteration, and that all those presently employed in politics, the church, civilian business, or the military will retain the same positions held at present." Racial designations of Mexicans and distinctions between creole and peninsular Spaniards were abolished.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: After convincing his troops to accept the Plan of Iguala, Iturbide persuaded Guerrero to join his forces in support of this conservative independence movement. A new army, the Army of the Three Guarantees, was placed under Iturbide's command to enforce the plan. The plan was so broadly based that it appealed both patriots and loyalists. The goal of independence and the protection of Roman Catholicism brought together most factions. To symbolize these three guarantees of unity, religion, and independence, Iturbide adopted a green, white, and red flag; these colors are still used in the modern Mexican flag.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Although the alliance of Iturbide and Guerrero resulted in the Plan of Iguala, there was not universal acclaim of the accord. A number of important insurgents, including Juan Álvarez, and rejected it. Guzmán articulated his objection to the plan, saying that it guaranteed the privileges of the elites, welcomed opportunists who supported independence late in the struggle, and cast doubt on the clause that was to guarantee racial equality. He focused on the final words that guaranteed rights "according to their merits and virtues". Álvarez, Ascencio and Guzmán declined to join the Army of the Three Guarantees, the military force created by Iturbide and Guerrero, but did continue to fight the royalists.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Iturbide persuaded royalist officers to change sides and support independence as well as the mixed-race old insurgent forces. For some royalist commanders, their forces simply left, some of them amnestied former insurgents. The high military command in Mexico City deposed the viceroy, Juan Ruiz de Apodaca in July 1821, replacing him with an interim viceroy, royalist general Francisco Novella. By the time that the new viceroy Juan O'Donojú, practically the whole country supported the Plan of Iguala. Most soldiers had defected to Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees and the Spanish cause was lost. On 24 August 1821, representatives of the Spanish crown, including the new viceroy Juan O'Donojú and Iturbide signed the Treaty of Córdoba, which recognized Mexican independence under the Plan of Iguala. O'Donojú then resigned as viceroy. The Spanish government denied that O'Donojú had the authority to sign the treaty, but events on the ground saw Iturbide and the Army of Three Guarantees march into Mexico City in triumph on 27 September 1821. The next day, the Mexican independence was proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire. The Plan of Iguala and the Treaty of Córdoba had rapidly brought about an alliance of insurgents and former royalists turned autonomists resulting in the rapid achievement of independence virtually without further military conflict. Once independence was achieved, the fissures between different interests rapidly re-emerged.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: On 27 September 1821, the Army of the Three Guarantees entered Mexico City, and the following day Iturbide proclaimed the independence of the Mexican Empire, as New Spain was henceforth to be called. The Treaty of Córdoba was not ratified by the Spanish Cortes. Iturbide included a special clause in the treaty that left open the possibility for a criollo monarch to be appointed by a Mexican congress if no suitable member of the European royalty would accept the Mexican crown. Half of the new government employees appointed were Iturbide's followers.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: On the night of 18 May 1822, a mass demonstration led by the Regiment of Celaya, which Iturbide had commanded during the war, marched through the streets and demanded their commander-in-chief to accept the throne. The following day, the Congress declared Iturbide Emperor of Mexico. On 31 October 1822, Iturbide dissolved Congress and replaced it with a sympathetic junta.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Despite the creation of the Mexican nation, the Spanish still managed to hold onto a port in Veracruz that Mexico did not get control of until 23 November 1825. Spanish attempts to re-establish control over Mexico culminated in the 1829 Battle of Tampico, during which a Spanish invasion force was surrounded in Tampico and forced to surrender.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: On 28 December 1836, Spain recognized the independence of Mexico under the Santa María–Calatrava Treaty, signed in Madrid by the Mexican Commissioner Miguel Santa María and the Spanish state minister José María Calatrava. Mexico was the first former colony whose independence was recognized by Spain; the second was Ecuador on 16 February 1840.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: In 1910, as part of the celebrations marking the centennial of the Hidalgo revolt of 1810, President Porfirio Díaz inaugurated the monument to Mexico's political separation from Spain, the Angel of Independence on Avenida Reforma. The creation of this architectural monument is part of the long process of the construction of historical memory of Mexican independence.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: Although Mexico gained its independence in September 1821, the marking of this historical event did not take hold immediately. The choice of date to celebrate was problematic, because Iturbide, who achieved independence from Spain, was rapidly created Emperor of Mexico. His short-lived rule from 1821 to 1823 ended when he was forced by the military to abdicate. This was a rocky start for the new nation, which made celebrating independence on the anniversary of Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees marching into Mexico City in triumph a less than perfect day for those who had opposed him. Celebrations of independence during his reign were marked on 27 September. Following his ouster, there were calls to commemorate Mexican independence along the lines that the United States celebrated in grand style its Independence Day on 4 July. The creation of a committee of powerful men to mark independence celebrations, the "Junta Patriótica", organized celebrations of both 16 September, to commemorate Hidalgo's grito and the start of the independence insurgency, and 27 September, to celebrate actual political independence.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: During the Díaz regime (1876–1911), the president's birthday coincided with the 15/16 September celebration of independence. The largest celebrations took place and continue to do so in the capital's main square, the zócalo, with the pealing of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City's bells. In the 1880s, government officials attempted to move the bell that Hidalgo rang in 1810 to gather parishioners in Dolores for what became his famous "grito". Initially the pueblo's officials said the bell no longer existed, but in 1896, the bell, known as the Bell of San José, was taken to the capital. It was renamed the "Bell of Independence" and ritually rung by Díaz. It is now an integral part of Independence Day festivities.


title: Mexican War of Independence

text: There are plans for the commemoration of independence in 2021, as well as the establishment of the Mexican republic in 2024. The 2021 event is termed the "Consummation of Independence".


title: Jeff Cohen (actor)

text: Jeffrey Bertan Cohen (born Jeffrey Bertan McMahon; June 25, 1974) is an American attorney (and founding partner of Cohen & Gardner, LLP) and former child actor best remembered for appearing as Chunk in the 1985 Steven Spielberg production "The Goonies".


title: Jeff Cohen (actor)

text: Cohen was born Jeffrey Bertan McMahon on June 25, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. He took his stage name from the maiden name of his mother, Elaine Cohen.


title: Jeff Cohen (actor)

text: Cohen attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a B.S. degree in Business. Cohen asked Goonies director Richard Donner for a recommendation for his college admissions application. Upon reading Cohen’s notes detailing some of his early life struggles, Donner and his wife offered to pay for Cohen’s college education.


title: Jeff Cohen (actor)

text: Cohen was one of the children describing words to the contestants on the 1982–83 CBS game show "Child's Play." During the summer of 1985, he appeared as a celebrity on "Body Language". In 1986 he was also in a Disney TV movie, "Ask Max". Cohen's sister, Eydie Faye, is a playwright and actress. In the final scene of "The Goonies", when the families gather on the beach, Faye has a cameo as Chunk's sister.


title: Jeff Cohen (actor)

text: Cohen claimed in "The Goonies" DVD commentary track that every role he played as a child had him wearing either a Hawaiian shirt or a pair of plaid pants, and director Richard Donner had the brilliant idea to put him in both for "The Goonies". Before "The Goonies" started filming, Cohen contracted chickenpox. Afraid that they would re-cast the role, he told no one of his illness and showed up to work anyway. According to the commentary track on "The Goonies" DVD, the chickenpox on Cohen's chest can be seen during the famous "Truffle Shuffle" sequence.


title: Jeff Cohen (actor)

text: Cohen used introductions from "Goonies" director Richard Donner to get summer jobs on the business side of movie studios; he would say about that time in the "ABA Journal" story, "I grew up loving The Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers, but suddenly I had a new crop of heroes." He chose to pursue a legal career upon finding out that many of the most important figures on the business side of Hollywood had law degrees. After his time at Berkeley, Cohen earned a J.D. degree from the UCLA School of Law in 2000 and later became an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles. In 2002, he co-founded the Cohen & Gardner firm in Beverly Hills. In the September 24, 2008 issue of "Variety", Cohen was profiled in the Dealmakers Impact Report. Additionally, Cohen was named to "The Hollywood Reporter"s "Next Generation: Hollywood's Top 35 Executives 35 and Under" in their 2008 November 5 issue.


title: Jeff Cohen (actor)

text: As of February 2014, he periodically "writes about business, legal and political matters for "The Huffington Post" and CNBC."


title: Id Software

text: id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack.


title: Id Software

text: id Software made important technological developments in video game technologies for the PC (running MS-DOS and Windows), including work done for the "Wolfenstein", "Doom", and "Quake" franchises. id's work was particularly important in 3D computer graphics technology and in game engines that are used throughout the video game industry. The company was involved in the creation of the first-person shooter (FPS) genre: "Wolfenstein 3D" is often considered to be the first true FPS; "Doom" is a game that popularized the genre and PC gaming in general; and "Quake" was id's first true 3D FPS.


title: Id Software

text: On June 24, 2009, ZeniMax Media acquired the company. In 2015, they opened a second studio in Frankfurt, Germany.


title: Id Software

text: The founders of id Software – John Carmack, John Romero, and Tom Hall – met in the offices of Softdisk developing multiple games for Softdisk's monthly publishing, including "Dangerous Dave". Along with another Softdisk employee, Lane Roathe, they had formed a small group they called Ideas from the Deep (IFD), a name that Romero and Roathe had come up with. In September 1990, Carmack developed an efficient way to rapidly side-scroll graphics on the PC. Upon making this breakthrough, Carmack and Hall stayed up late into the night making a replica of the first level of the popular 1988 NES game "Super Mario Bros. 3", inserting stock graphics of Romero's Dangerous Dave character in lieu of Mario. When Romero saw the demo, entitled "Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement", he realized that Carmack's breakthrough could have potential. The IFD team moonlighted over a week and over two weekends to create a larger demo of their PC version of "Super Mario Bros. 3". They sent their work to Nintendo. According to Romero, Nintendo had told them that the demo was impressive, but "they didn't want their intellectual property on anything but their own hardware, so they told us Good Job and You Can't Do This". While the pair had not readily shared the demo though acknowledged its existence in the years since, a working copy of the demo was discovered in July 2021 and preserved at the Museum of Play.


title: Id Software

text: Around the same time in 1990, Scott Miller of Apogee Software learned of the group and their exceptional talent, having played one of Romero's Softdisk games, "Dangerous Dave", and contacted Romero under the guise of multiple fan letters that Romero came to realize all originated from the same address. When he confronted Miller, Miller explained that the deception was necessary since Softdisk screened letters it received. Although disappointed by not actually having received mail from multiple fans, Romero and other Softdisk developers began proposing ideas to Miller. One of these was "Commander Keen", a side-scrolling game that incorporated the previous work they had done on the "Super Mario Bros. 3" demonstration. The first "Commander Keen" game, "Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons", was released through Apogee in December 1990, which became a very successful shareware game. After their first royalty check, Romero, Carmack, and Adrian Carmack (no relation) decided to start their own company. After hiring Hall, the group finished the "Commander Keen" series, then hired Jay Wilbur and Kevin Cloud and began working on "Wolfenstein 3D". id Software was officially founded by Romero, John and Adrian Carmack and Hall on February 1, 1991. The name "id" came out of their previous IFD; Roathe had left the group, and they opted to drop the "F" to leave "id". They initially used "id" as an initialism for "In Demand", but by the time of the fourth "Commander Keen" game, they opted to let "id" stand out "as a cool word", according to Romero.


title: Id Software

text: The shareware distribution method was initially employed by id Software through Apogee Software to sell their products, such as the "Commander Keen", "Wolfenstein" and "Doom" games. They would release the first part of their trilogy as shareware, then sell the other two installments by mail order. Only later (about the time of the release of "Doom II") did id Software release their games via more traditional shrink-wrapped boxes in stores (through other game publishers).


title: Id Software

text: After "Wolfenstein 3D"s great success, id began working on "Doom". After Hall left the company, Sandy Petersen and Dave Taylor were hired before the release of "Doom" in December 1993.


title: Id Software

text: "Quake" was released on June 22, 1996 and was considered a difficult game to develop due to creative differences. Animosity grew within the company and it caused a conflict between Carmack and Romero, which led the latter to leave id after the game's release. Soon after, other staff left the company as well such as Michael Abrash, Shawn Green, Jay Wilbur, Petersen and Mike Wilson. Petersen claimed in July 2021 that the lack of a team leader was the cause of it all. In fact, he volunteered to take lead as he had five years of experience as project manager in MicroProse but he was turned down by Carmack.


title: Id Software

text: On June 24, 2009, it was announced that id Software had been acquired by ZeniMax Media (owner of Bethesda Softworks). The deal would eventually affect publishing deals id Software had before the acquisition, namely "Rage", which was being published through Electronic Arts. ZeniMax received in July a $105 million investment from StrongMail Systems for the id acquisition, it's unknown if that was the exact price of the deal. id Software moved from the "cube-shaped" Mesquite office to a location in Richardson, Texas during the spring of 2011.


title: Id Software

text: On November 22, 2013, it was announced id Software co-founder and Technical Director John Carmack had fully resigned from the company to work full-time at Oculus VR which he joined as CTO in August 2013. He was the last of the original founders to leave the company.


title: Id Software

text: Tim Willits left the company in 2019. ZeniMax Media was acquired by Microsoft for in March 2021 and became part of Xbox Game Studios.


title: Id Software

text: The company writes its name with a lowercase "id", which is pronounced as in "did" or "kid", and, according to the book "Masters of Doom", the group identified itself as "Ideas from the Deep" in the early days of Softdisk but that, in the end, the name 'id' came from the phrase "in demand". Disliking "in demand" as "lame", someone suggested a connection with Sigmund Freud's psychological concept of id, which the others accepted. Evidence of the reference can be found as early as "Wolfenstein 3D" with the statement "that's id, as in the id, ego, and superego in the psyche" appearing in the game's documentation. Prior to an update to the website, id's History page made a direct reference to Freud.


title: Id Software

text: Starting with their first shareware game series, "Commander Keen", id Software has licensed the core source code for the game, or what is more commonly known as the engine. Brainstormed by John Romero, id Software held a weekend session titled "The id Summer Seminar" in the summer of 1991 with prospective buyers including Scott Miller, George Broussard, Ken Rogoway, Jim Norwood and Todd Replogle. One of the nights, id Software put together an impromptu game known as "Wac-Man" to demonstrate not only the technical prowess of the "Keen" engine, but also how it worked internally.


title: Id Software

text: id Software has developed their own game engine for each of their titles when moving to the next technological milestone, including "Commander Keen", "Wolfenstein 3D", "ShadowCaster", "Doom", "Quake", "Quake II", and "Quake III", as well as the technology used in making "Doom 3". After being used first for id Software's in-house game, the engines are licensed out to other developers. According to "Eurogamer.net", "id Software has been synonymous with PC game engines since the concept of a detached game engine was first popularized". During the mid to late 1990s, "the launch of each successive round of technology it's been expected to occupy a headlining position", with the "Quake III" engine being most widely adopted of their engines. However id Tech 4 had far fewer licensees than the Unreal Engine from Epic Games, due to the long development time that went into "Doom 3" which id Software had to release before licensing out that engine to others.


title: Id Software

text: Despite his enthusiasm for open source code, Carmack revealed in 2011 that he had no interest in licensing the technology to the mass market. Beginning with "Wolfenstein 3D", he felt bothered when third-party companies started "pestering" him to license the id tech engine, adding that he wanted to focus on new technology instead of providing support to existing ones. He felt very strongly that this was not why he signed up to be a game programmer for; to be "holding the hands" of other game developers. Carmack commended Epic Games for pursuing the licensing to the market beginning with Unreal Engine 3. Even though the said company has gained more success with its game engine than id Software over the years, Carmack had no regrets by his decision and continued to focus on open source until his departure from the company in 2013.


title: Id Software

text: In conjunction with his self-professed affinity for sharing source code, John Carmack has open-sourced most of the major id Software engines under the GNU General Public License. Historically, the source code for each engine has been released once the code base is 5 years old. Consequently, many home grown projects have sprung up porting the code to different platforms, cleaning up the source code, or providing major modifications to the core engine. "Wolfenstein 3D", "Doom" and "Quake" engine ports are ubiquitous to nearly all platforms capable of running games, such as hand-held PCs, iPods, the PSP, the Nintendo DS and more. Impressive core modifications include DarkPlaces which adds stencil shadow volumes into the original "Quake" engine along with a more efficient network protocol. Another such project is ioquake3, which maintains a goal of cleaning up the source code, adding features and fixing bugs. Even earlier id Software code, namely for "Hovertank 3D" and "Catacomb 3D", was released in June 2014 by Flat Rock Software.


title: Id Software

text: The GPL release of the "Quake III" engine's source code was moved from the end of 2004 to August 2005 as the engine was still being licensed to commercial customers who would otherwise be concerned over the sudden loss in value of their recent investment.


title: Id Software

text: On August 4, 2011, John Carmack revealed during his QuakeCon 2011 keynote that they will be releasing the source code of the "Doom 3" engine (id Tech 4) during the year.


title: Id Software

text: id Software publicly stated they would not support the Wii console (possibly due to technical limitations), although they have since indicated that they may release titles on that platform (although it would be limited to their games released during the 1990s). They did the same thing with the Wii U but for Nintendo Switch, they collaborated with Panic Button starting with 2016's "Doom" and "".


title: Id Software

text: Since id Software revealed their engine id Tech 5, they call their engines "id Tech", followed by a version number. Older engines have retroactively been renamed to fit this scheme, with the "Doom" engine as id Tech 1.


title: Id Software

text: id Software was an early pioneer in the Linux gaming market, and id Software's Linux games have been some of the most popular of the platform. Many id Software games won the Readers' and Editors' Choice awards of Linux Journal. Some id Software titles ported to Linux are "Doom" (the first id Software game to be ported), "Quake", "Quake II", "Quake III Arena", "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", "", "Doom 3", "Quake 4", and "". Since id Software and some of its licensees released the source code for some of their previous games, several games which were not ported (such as "Wolfenstein 3D", "Spear of Destiny", "Heretic", "", "Hexen II", and "Strife") can run on Linux and other operating systems natively through the use of source ports. "Quake Live" also launched with Linux support, although this, alongside OS X support, was later removed when changed to a standalone title.


title: Id Software

text: The tradition of porting to Linux was first started by Dave D. Taylor, with David Kirsch doing some later porting. Since "Quake III Arena", Linux porting had been handled by Timothee Besset. The majority of all id Tech 4 games, including those made by other developers, have a Linux client available, the only current exceptions being "Wolfenstein" and "Brink". Similarly, almost all of the games utilizing the "Quake II" engine have Linux ports, the only exceptions being those created by Ion Storm ("Daikatana" later received a community port). Despite fears by the Linux gaming community that id Tech 5 would not be ported to that platform, Timothee Besset in his blog stated "I'll be damned if we don't find the time to get Linux builds done". Besset explained that id Software's primary justification for releasing Linux builds was better code quality, along with a technical interest in the platform. However, on January 26, 2012, Besset announced that he had left id.


title: Id Software

text: John Carmack has expressed his stance with regard to Linux builds in the past. In December 2000 Todd Hollenshead expressed support for Linux: "All said, we will continue to be a leading supporter of the Linux platform because we believe it is a technically sound OS and is the OS of choice for many server ops." However, on April 25, 2012, Carmack revealed that "there are no plans for a native Linux client" of id's most recent game, "Rage". In February 2013, Carmack argued for improving emulation as the "proper technical direction for gaming on Linux", though this was also due to ZeniMax's refusal to support "unofficial binaries", given all prior ports (except for "Quake III Arena", via Loki Software, and earlier versions of "Quake Live") having only ever been unofficial. Carmack didn't mention official games "Quake: The Offering" and "Quake II: Colossus" ported by id Software to Linux and published by Macmillan Computer Publishing USA.


title: Id Software

text: Despite no longer releasing native binaries, id was an early adopter of Stadia, a cloud gaming service powered by Debian Linux servers, and the cross-platform Vulkan API.


title: Id Software

text: "Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons", a platform game in the style of those for the Nintendo Entertainment System, was one of the first MS-DOS games with smooth horizontal-scrolling. Published by Apogee Software, the title and follow-ups brought id Software success as a shareware developer. It is the series of id Software that designer Tom Hall is most affiliated with. The first "Commander Keen" trilogy was released on December 14, 1990.


title: Id Software

text: The company's breakout product was released on May 5, 1992: "Wolfenstein 3D", a first-person shooter (FPS) with smooth 3D graphics that were unprecedented in computer games, and with violent gameplay that many gamers found engaging. After essentially founding an entire genre with this game, id Software created "Doom", "", "Quake", "Quake II", "Quake III Arena", "Quake 4", and "Doom 3". Each of these first-person shooters featured progressively higher levels of graphical technology. "Wolfenstein 3D" spawned a prequel and a sequel: the prequel called "Spear of Destiny", and the second, "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", using the id Tech 3 engine. A third "Wolfenstein" sequel, simply titled "Wolfenstein", was released by Raven Software, using the id Tech 4 engine. Another sequel, named ""; was developed by MachineGames using the id Tech 5 engine and released in 2014, with it getting a prequel by the name of "" a year later; followed by a direct sequel titled "" in 2017.


title: Id Software

text: Eighteen months after their release of "Wolfenstein 3D", on December 10, 1993, id Software released "Doom" which would again set new standards for graphic quality and graphic violence in computer gaming. "Doom" featured a sci-fi/horror setting with graphic quality that had never been seen on personal computers or even video game consoles. "Doom" became a cultural phenomenon and its violent theme would eventually launch a new wave of criticism decrying the dangers of violence in video games. "Doom" was ported to numerous platforms, inspired many knock-offs, and was eventually followed by the technically similar "". id Software made its mark in video game history with the shareware release of "Doom", and eventually revisited the theme of this game in 2004 with their release of "Doom 3". John Carmack said in an interview at QuakeCon 2007 that there would be a "Doom 4". It began development on May 7, 2008. "Doom 2016", the fourth installation of the "Doom" series, was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 13, 2016, and was later released on Nintendo Switch on November 10, 2017. In June 2018, the sequel to the 2016 "Doom", "Doom Eternal" was officially announced at E3 2018 with a teaser trailer, followed by a gameplay reveal at QuakeCon in August 2018.


title: Id Software

text: On June 22, 1996, the release of "Quake" marked the third milestone in id Software history. "Quake" combined a cutting edge fully 3D engine, the "Quake" engine, with a distinctive art style to create critically acclaimed graphics for its time. Audio was not neglected either, having recruited Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor to facilitate unique sound effects and ambient music for the game. (A small homage was paid to Nine Inch Nails in the form of the band's logo appearing on the ammunition boxes for the nailgun weapon.) It also included the work of Michael Abrash. Furthermore, "Quake"'s main innovation, the capability to play a deathmatch (competitive gameplay between living opponents instead of against computer-controlled characters) over the Internet (especially through the add-on "QuakeWorld"), seared the title into the minds of gamers as another smash hit.


title: Id Software

text: In 2008, id Software was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the pioneering work "Quake" represented in user modifiable games. id Software is the only game development company ever honored twice by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, having been given an Emmy Award in 2007 for creation of the 3D technology that underlies modern shooter video games.


title: Id Software

text: The "Quake" series continued with "Quake II" in 1997. Activision purchased a 49% stake in id Software, making it a second party which took publishing duties until 2009. However, the game is not a storyline sequel, and instead focuses on an assault on an alien planet, Stroggos, in retaliation for Strogg attacks on Earth. Most of the subsequent entries in the "Quake" franchise follow this storyline. "Quake III Arena" (1999), the next title in the series, has minimal plot, but centers around the "Arena Eternal", a gladiatorial setting created by an alien race known as the Vadrigar and populated by combatants plucked from various points in time and space. Among these combatants are some characters either drawn from or based on those in "Doom" ("Doomguy"), "Quake" (Ranger, Wrack), and "Quake II" (Bitterman, Tank Jr., Grunt, Stripe). "Quake IV" (2005) picks up where "Quake II" left off – finishing the war between the humans and Strogg. The spin-off "" acts as a prequel to "Quake II", when the Strogg first invade Earth. "Quake IV" and "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars" were made by outside developers and not id.


title: Id Software

text: There have also been other spin-offs such as Quake Mobile in 2005 and "Quake Live", an internet browser based modification of "Quake III". A game called "Quake Arena DS" was planned and canceled for the Nintendo DS. John Carmack stated, at QuakeCon 2007, that the "id Tech 5" engine would be used for a new "Quake" game.


title: Id Software

text: Todd Hollenshead announced in May 2007 that id Software had begun working on an all new series that would be using a new engine. Hollenshead also mentioned that the title would be completely developed in-house, marking the first game since 2004's "Doom 3" to be done so. At 2007's WWDC, John Carmack showed the new engine called id Tech 5. Later that year, at QuakeCon 2007, the title of the new game was revealed as "Rage".


title: Id Software

text: On July 14, 2008, id Software announced at the 2008 E3 event that they would be publishing "Rage" through Electronic Arts, and not id's longtime publisher Activision. However, since then ZeniMax has also announced that they are publishing "Rage" through Bethesda Softworks.


title: Id Software

text: On August 12, 2010, during Quakecon 2010, id Software announced "Rage" US ship date of September 13, 2011, and a European ship date of September 15, 2011. During the keynote, id Software also demonstrated a "Rage" spin-off title running on the iPhone. This technology demo later became "Rage HD". The game was ultimately released in October 2011.


title: Id Software

text: On May 14, 2018, Bethesda Softworks announced "Rage 2", a co-development between id Software and Avalanche Studios.


title: Id Software

text: During its early days, id Software produced much more varied games; these include the early 3D first-person shooter experiments that led to "Wolfenstein 3D" and "Doom" – "Hovertank 3D" and "Catacomb 3D". There was also the "Rescue Rover" series, which had two games – "Rescue Rover" and "Rescue Rover 2". Also there was John Romero's "Dangerous Dave" series, which included such notables as the tech demo ("In Copyright Infringement") which led to the "Commander Keen" engine, and the decently popular "Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion". "In the Haunted Mansion" was powered by the same engine as the earlier id Software game "Shadow Knights", which was one of the several games written by id Software to fulfill their contractual obligation to produce games for Softdisk, where the id Software founders had been employed. id Software has also overseen several games using its technology that were not made in one of their IPs such as "ShadowCaster", (early-id Tech 1), "Heretic", "" (id Tech 1), "Hexen II" ("Quake" engine), and "Orcs and Elves" ("Doom RPG" engine).


title: Id Software

text: id Software has also published novels based on the "Doom" series "Doom" novels. After a brief hiatus from publishing, id resumed and re-launched the novel series in 2008 with Matthew J. Costello's (a story consultant for "Doom 3" and now "Rage") new "Doom 3" novels: "" and "".


title: Id Software

text: id Software became involved in film development when they oversaw the film adaption of their "Doom" franchise in 2005. In August 2007, Todd Hollenshead stated at QuakeCon 2007 that a "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" movie is in development which re-teams the "Silent Hill" writer/producer team, Roger Avary as writer and director and Samuel Hadida as producer. A new "Doom" film, titled "", was released in 2019, although id itself stressed its lack of involvement.


title: Id Software

text: id Software was the target of controversy over two of their most popular games, "Doom" and the earlier "Wolfenstein 3D". More recently in 2022, id Software found themselves mired in a controversy concerning libel against Doom Eternal's composer.


title: Id Software

text: "Doom" was notorious for its high levels of gore and occultism along with satanic imagery, which generated controversy from a broad range of groups. Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten most controversial games of all time.


title: Id Software

text: The game again sparked controversy throughout a period of school shootings in the United States when it was found that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, were avid players of the game. While planning for the massacre, Harris said that the killing would be "like playing "Doom"", and "it'll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, World War II, Vietnam, "Duke Nukem" and "Doom" all mixed together", and that his shotgun was "straight out of the game". A rumor spread afterwards that Harris had designed a "Doom" level that looked like the high school, populated with representations of Harris's classmates and teachers, and that Harris practiced for his role in the shootings by playing the level over and over. Although Harris did design "Doom" levels, none of them were based on Columbine High School.


title: Id Software

text: While "Doom" and other violent video games have been blamed for nationally covered school shootings, 2008 research featured by Greater Good Science Center shows that the two are not closely related. Harvard Medical School researchers Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner found that violent video games did not correlate to school shootings. The United States Secret Service and United States Department of Education analyzed 37 incidents of school violence and sought to develop a profile of school shooters; they discovered that the most common traits among shooters were that they were male and had histories of depression and attempted suicide. While many of the killers—like the vast majority of young teenage boys—did play video games, this study did not find a relationship between gameplay and school shootings. In fact, only one-eighth of the shooters showed any special interest in violent video games, far less than the number of shooters who seemed attracted to books and movies with violent content.


title: Id Software

text: As for "Wolfenstein 3D", due to its use of Nazi symbols such as the swastika and the anthem of the Nazi Party, "Horst-Wessel-Lied", as theme music, the PC version of the game was withdrawn from circulation in Germany in 1994, following a verdict by the Amtsgericht München on January 25, 1994. Despite the fact that Nazis are portrayed as the enemy in "Wolfenstein", the use of those symbols is a federal offense in Germany unless certain circumstances apply. Similarly, the Atari Jaguar version was confiscated following a verdict by the Amtsgericht Berlin Tiergarten on December 7, 1994.


title: Id Software

text: Due to concerns from Nintendo of America, the Super NES version was modified to not include any swastikas or Nazi references; furthermore, blood was replaced with sweat to make the game seem less violent, and the attack dogs in the game were replaced by giant mutant rats. Employees of id Software are quoted in "The Official DOOM Player Guide" about the reaction to "Wolfenstein", claiming it to be ironic that it was morally acceptable to shoot people and rats, but not dogs. Two new weapons were added as well. The Super NES version was not as successful as the PC version.


title: Id Software

text: In May of 2020, after the Doom Eternal Original Soundtrack was released, there was a serious backlash to the Doom Eternal OST and accusations of low quality work that did not match composer Mick Gordon's usual standards. On April 19, Gordon confirmed on Twitter that it was not his work, and Marty Stratton subsequently posted on May 20 a 2,500-word open letter on Reddit blaming Gordon for everything that went wrong with the process of creating music for the soundtrack. Following this, public outcry against Gordon reached a level where he received explicit death threats and graphic messages of intent to harm him and his family. Gordon's message accounts, servers, and phones were allegedly inundated with abuse to extreme levels, seriously impacting his mental health.


title: Id Software

text: On November 9, 2022, Mick published a 14,000-word article on Medium explaining his side of the story as a defensive rebuttal of the nine outlined accusations in Stratton's post (described as "an extensive series of lies"), substantiated with various forms of evidence including photographs of emails, receipts, and file metadata to verify his claims. It included claims that Gordon had yet to receive over half of his payment for his work and awards from the soundtrack's nominations at The Game Awards 2020 Stratton had reportedly claimed to deliver on Gordon's behalf; that his name had been listed on the OST's pre-order for weeks before Bethesda had contracted him to work on it just 48 hours before the game's release; Mossholder had been composing an alternate version of the OST as early as August 2019, and in response to request from Gordon's lawyers for Stratton's Reddit post to be removed, he was offered six figures in exchange for a lifetime gag order, but never the possibility of Stratton's defamatory post being removed.


title: Id Software

text: On November 16, 2022 Bethesda released a statement backing Marty Stratton, Chad Mossholder, and everyone in the id software team. Their statement further claimed that they had evidence to rebut Gordon's claims, without releasing mentioned evidence, and expressed concern that his statement enticed harassment and violence towards the team.


title: Id Software

text: In 2003, the book "Masters of Doom" chronicled the development of id Software, concentrating on the personalities and interaction of John Carmack and John Romero. Below are the key people involved with id's success.


title: Id Software

text: Carmack's skill at 3D programming is widely recognized in the software industry and from its inception, he was id's lead programmer. On August 7, 2013, he joined Oculus VR, a company developing virtual reality headsets, and left id Software on November 22, 2013.


title: Id Software

text: John Romero saw the horizontal scrolling demo "Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement" and immediately had the idea to form id Software on September 20, 1990. Romero pioneered the game engine licensing business with his "id Summer Seminar" in 1991 where the Keen4 engine was licensed to Apogee for Biomenace. John also worked closely with the DOOM community and was the face of id to its fans. One success of this engagement was the fan-made game "Final DOOM", published in 1996. John also created the control scheme for the FPS, and the abstract level design style of DOOM that influenced many 3D games that came after it. John added par times to Wolfenstein 3D, and then DOOM, which started the phenomenon of Speedrunning. Romero wrote almost all the tools that enabled id Software and many others to develop games with id Software's technology. Romero was forced to resign in 1996 after the release of "Quake", then later formed the company Ion Storm. There, he became infamous through the development of "Daikatana", which was received negatively from reviewers and gamers alike upon release. Afterward, Romero co-founded The Guildhall in Dallas, Texas, served as chairman of the CPL eSports league, created an MMORPG publisher and developer named Gazillion Entertainment, created a hit Facebook game named Ravenwood Fair that garnered 25 million monthly players in 2011, and started Romero Games in Galway, Ireland in 2015.


title: Id Software

text: Both Tom Hall and John Romero have reputations as designers and idea men who have helped shape some of the key PC gaming titles of the 1990s.


title: Id Software

text: Tom Hall was forced to resign by id Software during the early days of "Doom" development, but not before he had some impact; for example, he was responsible for the inclusion of teleporters in the game. He was let go before the shareware release of "Doom" and then went to work for Apogee, developing "Rise of the Triad" with the "Developers of Incredible Power". When he finished work on that game, he found he was not compatible with the "Prey" development team at Apogee, and therefore left to join his ex-id Software compatriot John Romero at Ion Storm. Hall has frequently commented that if he could obtain the rights to "Commander Keen", he would immediately develop another Keen title.


title: Id Software

text: Sandy Petersen was a level designer for 19 of the 27 levels in the original "Doom" title as well as 17 of the 32 levels of "Doom II". As a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, his influence is apparent in the Lovecraftian feel of the monsters for "Quake", and he created "Inferno", the third "episode" of the first "Doom". He was forced to resign from id Software during the production of "Quake II" and most of his work was scrapped before the title was released.


title: Id Software

text: American McGee was a level designer for "Doom II", "The Ultimate Doom", "Quake", and "Quake II". He was asked to resign after the release of "Quake II", and he then moved to Electronic Arts where he gained industry notoriety with the development of his own game "American McGee's Alice". After leaving Electronic Arts, he became an independent entrepreneur and game developer. McGee headed the independent game development studio Spicy Horse in Shanghai, China from 2007 to 2016.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna Zatara () is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, and first appeared in "Hawkman" #4 (November 1964). Zatanna is a stage magician with actual mystic powers much like her father, Zatara, granting her magical powers notably controlled by invoking commands speaking incantations backwards. Her powers originate from her homo magi heritage, an off-shoot of humanity capable of naturally manipulating magic energies. She is known for her involvement with both the Justice League and Justice League Dark, having served as a leadership figure for both teams.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna has appeared in several different media adaptations, including appearing in several television series in the DC Animated Universe, notably voiced by Julie Brown and Jennifer Hale. She has also appeared as a recurring character in the final three seasons of "Smallville", portrayed by actress Serinda Swan. A younger version of the character also appears in the "Young Justice" series, voiced by Lacey Chabert.


title: Zatanna

text: Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in "Hawkman" #4 (November 1964). When she is introduced, she is on a quest to find her father Zatara who made his first appearance in "Action Comics" #1 but had not been published regularly for several years. The storyline crossed multiple comics published by DC at the time, culminating in issues of "Justice League of America", also written by Fox.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna is the daughter of magician Giovanni "John" Zatara who appeared in Golden Age comic books and Sindella, a member of the mystical species "Homo magi". Her younger cousin, the teenager Zachary Zatara, is also a magician in the DCU. Zatanna makes her living as a stage illusionist prior to discovering her magical abilities while investigating the disappearance of her father. Her original costume is based upon her father's costume but substituting fishnet stockings and high heels for slacks. Zatanna's search for her father was the subject of a storyline which was featured in several titles edited by Julius Schwartz, and in it, Zatanna interacts with Hawkman and Hawkgirl; battles Batman and Robin while in disguise as a witch and under the control of the villain the Outsider; and teams with the Atom, Green Lantern, and the Elongated Man. The series culminated in "Justice League of America" #51 (February 1967). This Justice League adventure took place during the "Batman" television craze when Batman was at the height of his popularity. The premise that the witch in "Detective Comics" #336 was Zatanna was perceived as an attempt to get Batman participating in this issue of "Justice League of America" no matter how vague the connection to Zatanna's quest was.


title: Zatanna

text: She briefly was featured in backup features in "Adventure Comics" and "Supergirl" from 1971 to 1973. Zatanna assists the Justice League of America on a few missions before being elected to membership in "Justice League of America" #161 (Dec. 1978). Soon after Zatanna joined the group, the identity of her mother was revealed in a multi-issue storyline. Zatanna teamed with Superman in "DC Comics Presents" and with Batman in "The Brave and the Bold". A ten-page short story in "DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest" #5 (Nov.–Dec. 1980) revealed new details about Zatara's origin and how Zatanna's quest to locate her father began. During her tenure with the Justice League, her power level diminishes, so that she can only control the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. She starred in a backup feature in "World's Finest Comics" #274–278 and the limitation of her powers is reversed in "World's Finest Comics" #277 (March 1982). She assists Wonder Woman and several other superheroines in fighting an extraterrestrial threat. Zatanna once elected as the Justice League chairperson via votes.


title: Zatanna

text: At the conclusion of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing "American Gothic" storyline (which was tied to the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths"), John Constantine comes to get Zatanna, Mento and Sargon the Sorcerer to come together to help demonic and divine forces in other hellish dimensions battle the entity known as the 'Great Evil Beast'. The séance is held at Wintersgate Manor, the home of Baron Winters in Georgetown, Washington D.C., which is also a temporal threshold to other planes of reality. Because Constantine had previously taken Zatanna to a "tantric studies meeting", Zatara will "not" let Zatanna out of his sight with Constantine present and, by his very presence, is forced to take part in the seance to which he was "not" invited. The Beast, which is so tall that its thumb alone looms over Hell, takes notice of their group twice. The first glimpse dooms Sargon, whom Zatara convinces to 'die like a sorcerer' and not break the holding of hands. Sargon burns to death nobly. The second glimpse starts to literally heat up Zatanna. Zatara willingly takes the effect onto himself, dying (his smoldering hat lands on the table), but sparing his daughter's life.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna starred in a special solo one-shot in 1987 that featured Zatanna exploring her mother Sindella's background and battling the villainous sorceress Allura. In Neil Gaiman's "The Books of Magic" limited series, Zatanna becomes friends and even temporary guardian to Timothy Hunter, a boy destined to become the greatest wizard in the world, and his girlfriend Molly who at the time was cursed by the Queen of the Fairies and unable to touch anything in the human world, including the ground. After a brief stay, she sent Molly home and Tim wandered off on his own adventures. In 1993, Zatanna starred in her first solo limited series, titled "Zatanna: Come Together", which saw her summoning her mother's spirit and battling the sorcerer Tannarak and a demon called Xaos.


title: Zatanna

text: When the Justice League vanish in the past as they attempt to rescue the missing Aquaman, an emergency protocol set up by Batman assembles a new League, with this team including Jason Blood as its magical expert. However, when the current threat is identified as Gamemnae, an ancient Atlantean sorceress who seeks to conquer the world, she uses a quagmire spell to absorb Zatanna and Tempest into herself. When new League leader Nightwing attempts to order Blood to transform into Etrigan to help them against Gamemnae, Blood insists that Zatanna is the one they need, sacrificing himself to Gamemnae's quagmire spell in order to free Zatanna. She subsequently joins Nightwing, Firestorm and Hawkgirl in travelling back to ancient Atlantis, where Aquaman has been trapped in a pool of water as a water wraith, Firestorm creating a channel between the pool and the sea before Zatanna casts a spell that allowed the water-based Aquaman to control the entire ocean as his body, allowing him to sink Atlantis in the past and present and disrupt Gamemnae's power.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna starred in another solo one-shot in 2003, "Zatanna: Everyday Magic", in which she fought Nimue Ravensong, a magic-user jealous of Zatanna's ability to use magic naturally and without committing sacrifices. Nimue seduced and cursed John Constantine, leading Zatanna into conflict with the wannabe sorceress. In the 2004 limited series "Identity Crisis", Zatanna is a member of the Justice League at the time the villain Doctor Light rapes the Elongated Man's wife, Sue Dibny. When apprehended, he threatens the JLA members' families. Although Zatanna is prepared to erase Light's memories of the incident as she had done to other villains with knowledge dangerous to the League, tampering with Light's mind sparks a debate among the team's members: should the villain's personality be transformed to prevent him from repeating his crime. Zatanna, Hawkman, and the Atom (Ray Palmer) vote for such action, while Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Green Lantern vote against. The Flash (Barry Allen) breaks the tie. Zatanna mind-wipes Light, and the process results in his intellectual abilities being lowered. In the midst of the process, Batman appears and tries to stop it. Zatanna freezes him, and the members vote unanimously to erase Batman's memories of the incident as well.


title: Zatanna

text: Her working relationship to Batman sours after he discovers the alteration to his memory. When Zatanna helps Batman with reconnaissance at one of Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pits, she asks him why he came to her and Batman says: "I needed someone I could trust. But I had to settle for you". After "Infinite Crisis", their relationship appears to have warmed; in "Detective Comics" #824 he calls her for information on a card-counter involved in scamming the Penguin. He makes no mention of their conflict, and casually calls her by her nickname, "Zee".


title: Zatanna

text: Catwoman discovers that Zatanna's mind-wipe of Dr. Light in "Identity Crisis" is not an isolated occurrence; Catwoman's journey from villain to hero and her resulting efforts to lead a moral life are retconned as being the result of Zatanna's mental intervention. Catwoman comes to distrust her memories, motives, and the choices she has made since that incident. In retaliation, Catwoman shoves Zatanna out a window. Zatanna parry the next attack from Catwoman and freeze her, before apologize and leaving her.


title: Zatanna

text: A 2005 four-issue "Zatanna" limited series was published as part of Grant Morrison's "Seven Soldiers" event. In it, at a support group for superheroes, she recounts a failed magical ritual to search for her father's tomes, during which one of her past spells summons a shapeshifter named Gwydion, who kills her companions. This trauma, combined with her guilt from her former mind-wipes, robs her of her powers. With the help of her new apprentice, Misty Kilgore, she captures Gwydion to use as her own. She eventually regains her confidence and powers, and uses them to defeat Zor, a rogue Time Tailor who released the Sheeda as a plague to infect and degrade the entire universe. As a reward, the other Time Tailors allow her one last meeting with her father, who reveals that his books were written for her, his "greatest spell and gift to the world". In the final battle against the Sheeda, Zatanna casts a spell to move time and space, retroactively positioning the Seven Soldiers to overthrow the Sheeda.


title: Zatanna

text: In "Detective Comics" #833 (August 2007), it is stated that Zatanna's father was a friend of Thomas Wayne. Zatara trained Bruce Wayne in the art of escape, and Bruce and Zatanna were childhood friends, although Batman believes that he has never met her in "Justice League of America" #51, and her only memory of meeting him is while she was disguised. Bruce helps Zatanna investigate the death of one of her former assistants; all clues point to a performer named Ivar Loxias. Loxias is revealed to be the Joker in disguise; he shoots Zatanna in the throat and incapacitates Batman. Zatanna is able to heal herself by writing a curing spell in her own blood, and she is instrumental in foiling the Joker's scheme, driving Joker insane in the process. Bruce puts Zatanna's betrayal behind him, allowing the two to renew their friendship.


title: Zatanna

text: On the "Roll Call" of "Justice League of America" #22 (August 2008), Zatanna is listed as a part of the team. Called upon to help with the Red Tornado's restoration in his android form, she aids the League when they are attacked by a new, powerful iteration of Amazo. During the battle, Zatanna has her mouth magically removed with her spells, and once again uses her blood to write out spells and restore it. After that Wonder Woman throws off Amazo's concentration and free Zatanna. Zatanna then defeats Amazo once and for all by using the Red Tornado's soul. Following this battle, Zatanna rejoins the team.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna later accompanies Firestorm, Black Lightning, and Batman to Metropolis after they come to believe Kimiyo Hoshi has been kidnapped by agents of the covert metahuman team known as the Shadow Cabinet. After a brief conflict, Zatanna and the others are informed by teenage superheroine Rocket that Kimiyo's perceived abduction was actually a misunderstanding caused by the Shadow Cabinet's mission to seek out her help in dealing with the cosmic vampire known as Starbreaker. With assistance from Hardware and Icon, Zatanna and her comrades are able to defeat Starbreaker in a battle in the Himalayas.


title: Zatanna

text: In "Gotham City Sirens" Zatanna is visited and restrained by Poison Ivy, who interacts via a tree and asks her if her encounter with Catwoman changed Selina in any way.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna takes a leave of absence from the JLA, only to reappear during a battle with Despero. Once he is defeated, Zatanna informs the League of the apocalyptic events of the "Blackest Night" taking place across the globe. After taking the team to the Hall of Justice to find Firestorm, she is forced to fight the undead form of her father, continually pitting the black magic he wields against her own; it is implied she was successful in banishing the Black Lantern, but was left psychologically crushed from having to kill her father again. In the aftermath of "Blackest Night", Kimiyo mentions that Zatanna is one of the members who has left the team.


title: Zatanna

text: In May 2010 Zatanna received her own solo series, written by Paul Dini and drawn by Stéphane Roux. No longer an active member of the JLA, Zatanna is asked by officer Dale Colton to help solve a murder case at a restaurant frequented by mobsters. Zatanna informs Dale that the murderer was a powerful sorcerer known as Brother Night, who rules the supernatural crime scene in San Francisco. After Zatanna shows up at Night's demonic nightclub and threatens him, he responds by calling upon a powerful nightmare demon for help in battling her, but Zatanna defeats and imprisons the demon to aid her later. A crooked casino owner who had made a deal for eternal youth with the demon of avarice by selling the souls of his brides to the demon attempts to use a love potion to win Zatanna's soul. When her cousin Zachary Zatara breaks the spell, the casino owner begs Zatanna to turn him into a soulless lump of gold in order to escape torment in Hell. Aside from Brother Night, Zatanna faces other threats, such as Oscar Hample, a man who tried to murder her when she was a child and was turned into a puppet by her father. The "Zatanna" series ended with issue #16 (October 2011).


title: Zatanna

text: In September 2011, "The New 52" rebooted DC's continuity. Zatanna is one of the main characters in Peter Milligan's "Justice League Dark" series. She sports a new costume, though she still wears her classic magician's outfit during shows. In the first issue, she learns that Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg have been defeated by the Enchantress and volunteers her services to the League.


title: Zatanna

text: The Black Canary and Zatanna graphic novel "Bloodspell" written by Paul Dini and drawn by Joe Quinones was to be released in 2012, but was delayed until May 2014. The story centers around a 16-year-old Black Canary's first meeting with Zatanna.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna makes her first appearance in "Detective Comics" #958, assisting Bruce in taking out a robot chasing after a cult member. Later on, it is revealed Bruce would like to see her in hopes that she will teach him more about magic that would revive Tim Drake.


title: Zatanna

text: After the conclusion of the main storyline of the "DC Rebirth" "Batwoman" series, Zatanna is implied to be an outpatient therapist of sorts for Beth Kane, Kate Kane's twin sister.


title: Zatanna

text: In 2018, a new "Justice League Dark" series began, with a redesigned Zatanna being part of the team. Zatanna travels to Northern Italy to bind a group of demons called "Il Osservatori" in a story called "Zatanna: Sleight of Hand", published in the "DC New Talent Showcase 2018" #1.


title: Zatanna

text: Prior to the New 52, the character was considered half human and half homo magi (sometimes referred to as Atlantean), in which the latter half was attributed to originating from her mother. In addition, the 1993 Zatanna mini-series heavily implied her ancestry to also include the demigod, Arion, the entity known as "Xaos" having conflated the two due to possessing similar magical "signatures" and later correcting himself. Through her father's family line, the character was considered a descendant of Leonardo da Vinci and is related to Nostradamus, Alessandro Cagliostro, Nicholas Flamel, and Evan Fulcanelli. It is also through this line she is considered of both Italian and Romani descent.


title: Zatanna

text: Afte the events of Flashpoint and the New 52, it is mentioned that both Sindella and Giovonni Zatara are of the homo magi race.


title: Zatanna

text: In comics taking place in the mainstream continuity, Zatanna has had various relationships with other DC Characters, including John Constantine (with whom she practiced tantra) and Doctor Thirteen. Zatanna also had a flirtatious relationship with her fellow Justice Leaguer Barry Allen / the Flash shortly after the death of his wife Iris. In "" timeline, Zatanna is romantically involved with Jason Blood / Etrigan the Demon. In the Mystik U universe, Zatanna pursued a romantic relationship with Sebastian Faust, the son of infamous sorcerer Felix Faust.


title: Zatanna

text: She has a strong friendship with Batman due to their shared (retconned) pasts. In "Detective Comics" #843-844, Zatanna and Bruce briefly discuss the possibility of having a more meaningful relationship. Both later concede that Bruce is too devoted to his cause as Batman to give her the relationship she wishes for, but the pair reaffirm their bond as close friends. Catwoman once considered Zatanna a more dangerous contender for Bruce's attentions than Jezebel Jet, his fiancé at the time. A pep talk between the two women confirms how Zatanna really meant, during the fateful discussion with Bruce, to explore the possibility of a true romance, but turned out quietly resigned to the role of best friend and confidant. Claiming to act on Bruce's best interest, she pushes Selina into confessing her feelings to Bruce, thus "stealing" him from Jezebel Jet before it is too late.


title: Zatanna

text: In mainstream media, DC Animated Universe touches on Bruce and Zatanna's closeness depicted as her having had a crush on him while he trained under her father as "John Smith", though she later found out his real name. Decades later, an elderly Bruce is shown to still care for her as he keeps a picture of her along with pictures of his other love interests in a file in the Batcomputer. In the TV series "Young Justice", Zatanna has a flirtatious and possibly romantic friendship with Dick Grayson / Robin during Season 1. Dick later says that they have a "history" in Season 2 (five years after Season 1), implying that they dated and eventually broke up but still remained close. In season 4, Artemis mentions that both Zatanna and Raquel dated Dick prior.


title: Zatanna

text: An expert magician with knowledge of an immeasurable number of spells, Zatanna is considered one of the most powerful magicians in the world of DC Universe; as a member of the Homo magi, she possess both the genetic ability to use magic and has mastery over both mystical and cosmic forces considered to be as old as the universe. Her prowess earned her the title of both "Mistress of Magic" and is also hailed as "Sorceress Supreme". She is often depicted working alongside other, heroic peers considered among the most powerful magic-users on Earth such as Madame Xanadu, John Constantine, Jason Blood/Etrigan, Doctor Fate, Sebastian Faust, and Tempest.


title: Zatanna

text: As tribute and a method to concentrate, Zatanna usually casts spells by speaking backwards (known as "Logomancy") for a variety of magical effects such as teleportation, healing, manipulate the mind of others, and more. Zatanna can also cast spells and other magics normally and by others means. While not as adept as Madame Xanadu, Zatanna has proven herself able to call upon tarot reading for insight or divination, a skillset that does not require verbal incantations, spoken or written, at all, nor is it tied to a specific tarot deck. Her magical powers increase if not used, but overuse can deplete them to the point that further use strains her physical well-being; as with other magical users, the only way to restore her waning powers is an extended period of rest. Furthermore, her powers seems tied to her self-confidence, as the long series of blunders described in "Seven Soldiers" left her both emotionally and psychologically shattered, powerless, until she was able to restore her lost confidence.


title: Zatanna

text: In addition to her magical abilities, Zatanna is a skilled illusionist, showgirl and stage magician even without resorting to her innate magical powers. She considers part of her "training" exercising sleight of hand tricks, and she claims to have invented a variation of the three-card monte called the "Zatara shuffle", in which she is so fast and precise that, even without resorting to cheating, only skilled gamblers like Selina Kyle are able to follow the movements of her hands. Zatanna is also a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained by her father during her childhood. She is highly trained in escape artistry, having learned how to get out of a straitjacket underwater in Kindergarten and between her magic show acts.


title: Zatanna

text: As a sorceress, Zatanna also has access to various arcane object at her dispsal, many of them being the same collection of artifacts her father collected over the years:


title: Zatanna

text: The 1978 "DC Super Dictionary" invented a character, Conjura, who had the same magic ability as Zatanna, in addition to possessing a time-traveling amulet. While possessing similar powers, the character was visually distinct from Zatanna, depicting her as a dark-skinned woman in a purple jumpsuit, jackboots, and yellow turban with a long cape.


title: Zatanna

text: In the Amalgam Comics universe, Zatanna is merged with the Scarlet Witch of the Avengers to form a character known as Wanda Zatara, the White Witch.


title: Zatanna

text: In "", a world where Oliver Cromwell's Church never fell and the United States of America (which now encompasses North America and most of South America) is ruled by a totalitarian religious group known as the Privy Council, Zatanna is an agent of the council. She uses her 'sin' in the service of the state to capture other superhumans, but she is defeated by Batman. While focusing on defeating Barry Allen, Batman throws a gas pellet down her throat.


title: Zatanna

text: In the alternate timeline of the "Flashpoint" event, Zatanna is a member of the Secret Seven and is a member of a motorcycle gang. Her father, Giovanni "John" Zatara, is transformed into a motorcycle when Zatanna is riding on him. Zatanna is killed while trying to cast a death spell on Enchantress.


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna stars in the four-issue mini series, "Smallville: Harbinger". Looking for her father's "Book of Magick" in England, she meets John Constantine for the first time. They team up to rescue Rachel Roth and retrieve the "Book of Magick" from Brother Blood. Similar to the TV show, her spells are spoken entirely backwards.


title: Zatanna

text: In the "DC Bombshells" continuity, Zatanna was the daughter of a Jewish father and a Romani mother during World War II, but was prevented from being sent to the concentration camps thanks to the Joker's Daughter, who in return, forced her to perform magic to aid the Third Reich. Her lover, John Constantine, confronted her during one of her shows in an attempt to rescue her, but knowing they were surrounded, Zatanna transformed John into a rabbit and kept him under her care to prevent his death. He eventually convinces her to use her magic to aid the Allies, which she does by transforming her soul into a large, spiritual dove that aids Batwoman in freeing a refugee camp. Their attempts are discovered by the Nazis, and the two are depowered of their magic (with John being turned back into a human) and sent into the ghettos. Zatanna slowly gains her powers back over time, and finds a kindred spirit in another magic user imprisoned by the Joker's Daughter, Raven. They eventually defeat and depower the Joker's Daughter after allying herself with the Bombshells.


title: Zatanna

text: A college-aged alternate version of Zatanna is the lead character in the DC limited series "Mystik U" written by Alisa Kwitney and illustrated by Mike Norton. The Zatanna of this continuity enrolls in Mystik University, a school for magic users, alongside other magical DC characters like Enchantress, Sargon the Sorcerer, and her love interest in the series, Sebastian Faust. The students of the school must figure out which of them is destined to betray the others and become a force of evil.


title: Zatanna

text: DC released two stand-alone Zatanna graphic novel titles for its "Books for Young Readers" program. The first, "Zatanna and the House of Secrets", written by Matthew Cody and illustrated by Yoshi Yoshitani, was released in February 2020. The story features a middle-school aged Zatanna who lives in the House of Secrets with her father. Zatanna must protect her pet rabbit, Pocus, from Klarion the Witch Boy, and then rescue her father from Klarion's mother, the Witch Queen. The second Zatanna stand-alone young adult title, "Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend", is written by Alys Arden and illustrated by Jacqueline de Leon. It was released in April 2021, and features a young Zatanna whose "fun in Luna Park comes to an end when a mystic's quest for a powerful jewel unravels everything Zatanna thought she knew about herself and her beloved neighborhood. Mysteries and magic surround her as she reveals the truth about her family's legacy, and confronts the illusion that has been cast over her entire life".


title: Zatanna

text: Zatanna is a recurring character in the final three seasons of "Smallville", portrayed by Serinda Swan. The character first appeared late in season eight episode "Hex". She is described as the daughter of the deceased John Zatara, "the world's greatest magician". Zatanna is introduced at the Ace of Clubs, the scene of Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack)'s birthday party. To enliven things, Zatanna uses magic to make characters' inner desires come true—Chloe is physically transformed to resemble her cousin, Lois Lane (Erica Durance), for example, and Clark (Tom Welling) becomes "normal". Zatanna later approaches Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley) and offers him a deal: she will grant him a wish if he returns her father's magical book to her. Once she acquires the Book of Zatara from Green Arrow, whom she recognizes as Oliver, she reveals her aim is to use it to resurrect her father. Because Clark is vulnerable to magic, and Oliver lacks the power to stop her, Zatanna has to realize for herself that her father sacrificed himself so she could live. She later goes to Oliver to explain herself, and decides to help him if he encounters any supernatural foes along the way by leaving him her phone number. Swan reprises the role in the ninth season episode "Warrior". In season ten episodes which feature the government attempting to hunt down the Justice League, Zatanna's picture is shown among their targets. Although not portrayed by Swan, an actor in costume represents Zatanna in the episode "Icarus". In "Fortune", Zatanna is used as a plot device; the episode establishes her as having sent an enchanted bottle of wine to Clark and Lois on the night of their engagement party, which sets the events of that episode in motion.


title: Blended (film)

text: Blended is a 2014 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci and distributed by Warner Bros. Written by Ivan Menchell and Clare Sera, the film stars Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore as two single parents who went on a blind date together and never wanted to see each other again afterwards. To their surprise, they both end up at the same African safari resort with their children and are forced to stay together. The film's ensemble cast also features Bella Thorne, Emma Fuhrmann, Terry Crews, Joel McHale, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kevin Nealon, and Shaquille O'Neal. South African cricketer Dale Steyn makes a cameo appearance as himself.


title: Blended (film)

text: The film was produced by Adam Sandler, Jack Giarraputo, and Mike Karz and was released on May 23, 2014. It grossed $14.3 million during its opening weekend and $128 million worldwide, against a budget of $40 million, and received generally negative reviews from critics. This is the third collaboration between Sandler and Barrymore after "The Wedding Singer" (also directed by Coraci) and "50 First Dates".