Cosmic Zap CZ is an artifact that can be used to cancel one use of any alien's power and disable it for the rest of the encounter.
Note that according to the rules for flares, if an alien's power is canceled by an effect such as a CZ, its player may not play the Super effect of the alien's flare, but may play its Wild effect.
Interaction with Super flares[]
A CZ does not cancel flares. However, as clarified in FFG's 2009 FAQ, if an alien's Super flare allows the alien to use its power at a different time than stated on the alien's sheet (e.g. Trickster's Super flare), a CZ may be played at this time to cancel the alien's power even though the power is not being used per the alien's sheet. The flare in this case is not discarded but is returned to the player's hand and does not count against the player's one flare per encounter. Because the player's power is now canceled, the player may play the flare later during this encounter to get its Wild effect.
Cards that are "considered a Cosmic Zap"[]
Some cards that cancel alien powers, such as the Cosmic Field Generator tech card, state that using them counts as the use of a Cosmic Zap. This means that their effects follow the same rules as the CZ (i.e. they may be used to cancel an alien's power and disable it for one encounter) but do not count as artifact cards and thus the Card Zap cannot be used against them.