This is, admittedly, juvenile and petty but I just feel like whining a bit about Superman and his weakness to magic. I have been reading comics for a little while now and Superman is my favorite character. Maybe its because My mom took me to Metropolis Illinois when i was a kid and I fell in love. I take issue with a few things in regards to how he was written but in regards to his powers and abilities (I told you this was juvenile) I find the most asinine Achilles heel he has is the weakness to magic. Now I am aware it is intended to be only a vulnerability but it has been written and portrayed throughout comics as a weakness. I just don't see the point or the logic behind this. I thought for sure with the new 52 they would retcon things like this for their characters but it seems as though this annoyance of a weakness has persisted into perpetuity for the Man of Steel. Can anyone explain the necessity for this being a vulnerability/weakness for Superman?

Because characters are defined by what they can't do, not by what they can do.

@jonny_anonymous:

I don't necessarily agree with that but I suppose that is one way of looking at it.

He is not weak to magic, he just does not have any special protection against it. He still takes less damage to magic attacks, then lets say batman or GL.

I have to disagree:

http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-2901189

if some says Superman loses just cause he's weak to magic so em this.

Gallery

@pperspectiveandreality: Well some writers put it as what I said, and some don't get it, and put it as a weakness :/

@allstarsuperman:

that is more like it lol

@pperspectiveandreality: yup, only thing i could ask for is better art, lol

He's overcome magic before through shear strength and will. He's not weak to magic, he's just vulnerable to it because it doesn't follow the laws of nature and physics, while he does.

Same sh*t can be said about Batman and Flash against magic.

I think his worst achilles heel is red sun. I just find it stupid.

@allstarsuperman said:

if some says Superman loses just cause he's weak to magic so em this.

Gallery

How did you do this, with the pictures?

@2cool4fun said:

@allstarsuperman said:

if some says Superman loses just cause he's weak to magic so em this.

Gallery

How did you do this, with the pictures?

what do you mean?

Probably it’s just because many authors can’t tell the subtle (sarcasm) difference between weakness and being susceptible to something.

@pperspectiveandreality said:

@2cool4fun said:

He is not weak to magic, he just does not have any special protection against it. He still takes less damage to magic attacks, then lets say batman or GL.

I have to disagree:

Picture that you posted isn’t that big of deal. Normal human would have been dead after such magic blast for sure. So no, ultimate WTF moment is there:

Some author doesn’t even know the difference between magic and kryptonite and how each of them afflicts Superman. Batman stands alright and Superman gets sick in mere presence of magic.

@allstarsuperman said:

@2cool4fun said:

@allstarsuperman said:

if some says Superman loses just cause he's weak to magic so em this.

Gallery

How did you do this, with the pictures?

what do you mean?

You put 7 small pictures in a row, how did you do that?

@2cool4fun: If you save pictures to your desktop, you can upload a group of them side by side like you see there.

Also this is another good magic resistance feat

He tanks a constant barrage of these lightning bolts from Captain Marvel. Plus there's no solid proof Eclipso was amping Superman in that fight.

my favorite explanation of this was in the Kingdom Come novelization which probably isn't canon but in it they say that the reason why he was always vulnerable to magic was because he never believed in it and once he finally believed in it that vulnerability went away

@2cool4fun said:

@allstarsuperman said:

@2cool4fun said:

@allstarsuperman said:

if some says Superman loses just cause he's weak to magic so em this.

Gallery

How did you do this, with the pictures?

what do you mean?

You put 7 small pictures in a row, how did you do that?

use the "side by side" option.

I only remember how Superman cut his finger on Diana’s blade and then was hurt by Shazam’s lightings. Where was that “vulnerability to magic went away”-part in KC?

it was in the novel not the comic

D..n, how I missed it! Thanks for the tip.

Well he needs to be weak to something. And being weak to magic makes perfect sense. Its magic, it follows no rules or laws. It kind of out of his league. He definitely should be weak to magic, he has no power or ability that should make him strong against it

@jayc1324:

Kryptonite, red sunlight, telepathy, high-developed technologies aren’t enough for you?

@jayc1324:

I think the main problem with him being weak to magic is that it's only him who has an issue with it. No other powerhouse character with superhuman durability has that kind of glaring vulnerability to enchanted blades like Superman has.

Wonder Woman is fine. She has a magic background so it makes sense for her being resistant to magic. Same goes for Shazam.

Aquaman? His durability is based in science even if his stories have a magical element to them. Why can he resist magical attacks better than Superman? Why can Mongul? Or Doomsday? Why can non-magical objects resist a magical blade if the magic blade bypasses the laws of physics?

If Superman is vulnerable to magic just because magic doesn't adhere to the laws of physics then every super durable character should share that vulnerability unless they have a specific resistance to magic.

@metaljimmor: I disagree. Every character is different.

@sanohibiki: Nope. Magic should be there too

@jayc1324:

Why is Superman the only character that has so many weaknesses? Why does he need more than everyone else?

@sog7dc: Because he is more powerful than a lot of people. Slightly overpowered

@jayc1324:

Nah, I’m not too opposed vulnerability to magic – when it’s portrayed as vulnerability, not as weakness. Mainly I don’t see much sense in red sun and telepathy’s effect.

@jayc1324:

....right. So Wonder Woman, Thor, Shazam, Hulk etc. don't need weaknesses because they aren't as strong as Superman

@sog7dc: That's not exactly what I said but sure. Superman is extremely powerful so he needs something to keep him grounded. And wonder woman has weaknesses too ya know. And shazam. And I could probably find a weakness or vulnerability for the others too. I'm not saying they don't or shouldn't have them, but Superman needs them. But all in all, superman should be vulnerable to magic. Everyone who doesn't use magic should.

Because stories of Superman and kyrptonite were getting boring so they had to spice things up a bit.

Any chance a writer can get to make it look like superman is in trouble they should take it. The over using of kyrptonite was making his storys lame.

Wonder Woman has a weakness to piercing attacks. That's why she has to block bullets with her bracelets - because they would seriously harm her.

Thor is painfully slow to the point where street levelers have consistently embarrassed him.

Do I need to keep going? Nearly every character has a weakness, especially powerful ones.

I see acouple people say Red Sun which is silly becuase its not a weakness it just turns him well normal like if he was Captian Marvel shouting Shazam plus if you can believe he gets his powers from our Sun why cant you believe a differant Sun has a different effect on him

@fallschirmjager:

Those are not the same at all. Kryptonite brings him to his knees, the mere presence of magic has made him sick, red sun makes him basically human. What you listed are vulnerabilities, not weaknesses. So by all means--continue.

@jayc1324:

Name their weaknesses. And we'll compare them to the list if Clark's.

Superman has also overcome both Kryptonite and magic before. Just because the other guy has it doesn't mean he loses. And just like Superman being depowered under a reds one, Thor's powers have been taken away from him. So have many characters.

Sorry. He isn't special in this regard.

@fallschirmjager:

When have thors powers been taken away other than by odin? I've had this debate before. They tried to argue Odin is Thor's weakness......that's like saying a guy with a knife's weakness is te guy behind him with a tank.

Dude. Daredevil who doesn't even possess a fraction of the strength of Superman has a huge weakness too....(wait for it)....LOUD NOISES.

Almost everyone has a weakness.

@fallschirmjager:

I'm talking about characters specifically on the level of Superman.

I definitely agree that it should be viewed as "just as vulnerable to magic as everyone else", but even then...it just doesn't "add up" IMO. If we look only at things that are specifically magically labeled - like, "sword that cuts anything" - then I think it's fine. It cuts him as it cuts everyone. But when we get into the vague area of being hit/clawed by a magical being (see DCAU & the magic squid thing) or by magical energy blasts...it doesn't make sense (IMO).

As it was already pointed out, you can't exactly say "affects him like everyone else" because a magical blast wouldn't be as devastating to him as it would be to Batman - a normal human. Also, plenty of times he's been shown to be damaged by "super forces" (extremely high energy blasts, punches from other super beings, etc) - so it's not like he has some magic ( :D) invulnerability to "normal" damage. He just has an insanely high level of durability where any normal weapon made by real-world humans, nor any crash/explosion/force of nature we're familiar with in our world, can actually hurt him. So compared to you & I, he's invulnerable.

He is "shielded" by energy in some manner (filled with it, each cell having an energy barrier, etc etc) - so when he is damaged, it is because he was hit with some source of energy that exceeded the energy (of the barrier) of the target-area of the attack. So, as long as the attack exceeds his defense, he should take damage from attacks normal or magical alike. ie: If the attack is a "weakly magical" fireball, he still take less damage than a regular human (aka: not burned horribly, haha) - so there's got to be some "defense" taking place. The ONE explanation I can think of (& would accept) that he doesn't take the damage a human would & the magic attack still bypassed all of his energy-defense, is that Kryptonians (supposedly) have a higher cellular density than humans & would be naturally hardier. (But that doesn't really explain surviving "elite" magic attacks though). To explain all the inconsistencies in portrayal/writing, at most I think we can say he can't defend against magical energies as well as he can non-magical ones.

One area I don't think is explained much is his ability to affect magic items. For example, if we are to get all nerdy & suppose his abilities involve subconsciously manipulating the mass/inertia of a heavy object to lift/smash it (ala the comic Irredeemable) - then perhaps if there was a heavy magical item, he would not be able to "alter" it & therefore it would be as heavy to him as it would Batman or Flash. Or say a magic wall/door, he would not be able to smash through it.

He also wears glasses and people think he's clark kent...

Well I don't have a problem with him being vulnerable to magic. He is such an all round powerful character that it would be a bit boring if his only Achilles heal was Kryptonite...it means that he can be challenged by various opponents. I was reading the Superman for Tomorrow book this week and noted that Wonder Woman's sword cut Superman simply by having magic properties...fair enough with me. WWs sword is supposed to be able to split atoms, so why cant it hurt the man of steel.

Pretty sure an Achille's heal is supposed to be one's only weakness :D (the only spot Achilles wasn't magically invulnerable, etc).

I might argue that most people don't even have one. That is, they just get beaten by people who are more powerful than they are (as opposed to a flaw/weakness that lets you beat them with much less effort/power). People on Superman's level have a harder time finding people who are flat-out more powerful than they are (/writers & artists have trouble creating characters that are so, and also interesting enough to be used more often), so in comes the AH - a backdoor for characters who aren't as powerful as the subject.

i dont have a problem when it is being treated as a vulnerability not a weakness. It irks me when some writer portrays it as a weakness as one of the scans above. Also i would like to ask to people saying magic is essential because Superman is slightly overpowered and otherwise would lack challenges. Wouldn't the likes of Wonder Woman or Shazam be able to challenge Superman if he was not vulnerable to magic? I think they are able to challenge him on the virtue of their strength, not because he is vulnerable to magic. The same way guys like Doomsday, Mongul and Martian Manhunter could challenge him despite being non magical in nature. But as i have said before i have no problem as long as its a vulnerability and not a weakness.