Although Superman is an incredibly powerful being, he has a couple weaknesses, the most famous being Kryptonite. Another is exposure to red solar radiation as it takes away his powers. A third way to harm him isn't necessarily exposing a particular weakness unique to Kryptonians, but it has often been considered a weakness: Magic.

Now, in reality, Superman isn't particularly weak to magic as he is kryptonite, but it affects him nonetheless. He is as susceptible to magic as Spiderman is. The reason being that Superman doesn't derive his powers from magic (they come from his physiology) and isn't a magical being with that kind of resistance. So this got me thinking: How far does this susceptibility go? And how much can his durability stand up to magic?

It has been shown before that Superman is able to receive a cut from magic imbued weapons (as in the time Diana knicked Superman with a magic-knife in the For Tomorrow arc, drawing blood). If Batman, w/o kryptonite, tried to cut or stab Supes with a non-magical sword, the sword would shatter. Clearly, the magic in the aforementioned knife bypasses whatever invulnerability Superman has. But I have to wonder: could one theoretically kill Superman with such a weapon? If someone took a magical gun that shot magical bullets at Superman (who is magically prevented from moving out the way somehow), could that someone kill Superman? What about something as powerful as Etherion (Fairy Tail ftw)? If Superman had to stand there and take an Etherion to the face, would he, who has survived planetary explosions and collisions, die from something only powerful enough to match something like a nuke? I think most people would suggest that someone like Captain Marvel or Black Adam could take a magical nuke to the face and shake it off because of their magical nature.

I suppose the real question is this: does magic treat Superman as something with the stature of a normal human being, or is it something merely to penetrate his bio-electric aura?

People greatly over-exaggerate his vulnerability to magic. He actually has a resistance to magic. Not a big one, but one none the less.

Well I know this isn't the comic verse, but in JL Superman was ****slapped by Hades, and never came back to try and fight him again.

The whole magic concept is kind of a mess for Superman. The basic explanation is that he is not "weak" to magic, he just doesnt have an special invulnerability to magic. Still, he is Superman taking the hit.

Say Superman was hit by a Magic Lightning Bolt. A Magic Lightning Bolt would kill a normal person immediately, and Superman's lack of Magic invulnerability would mean that he too should take the full force of the blast (not just tank it). This means it could theoretically kill him, or logically, just cause damage he could recover from (being Superman receiving the injury), BUT THAT DOESNT MAKE SENSE! His invulnerability is nearly perfect, and sure he has a healing factor, but bypassing his invulnerability means he should be susceptible to death as anyone else, minus account for molecular density. So, as

@awesam

said, he is still resistant to magic, just not as resistant as he is to physical trauma. Frankly, since it doesnt make any sense, I think they should do away with it, what other character has three common weaknesses?

Basically what everyone else said. Superman himself acknowledges that magic is one of the few things that could harm him, but he's still durable against it - just not to the extent he is against non-magical attacks.

Well... the thing is he’s not really weak against magic, because in some stories he fights against magic users, but still manages to win against them. And I have also seen that using magic doesn’t have the same effect as using kryptonite. in this case kryptonite can kill superman, but magic can’t.

The effect of magic on anybody varies with whatever imagination of the writers and can be whatever.

Explained like this:

Character: Superman:

P. def: 99.

M def: 1

This.

No Superman is GOD in DC, He created the DCU and then created himself inside of it. This is the Gospel of the Dc Fanboi.

You complain he has weaknesses.. but let us see.
He has survived fighting three gods at once while a magical sword was impaled through his chest and a magical arrow in his back. He won and was completely fine.

He was shot in the head by a Kryptonite Bullet.. and is completely fine afterwards.

Red Sunlight has no real effect unless its plot driven. He has flown through Rao who's system is nothing but Kryptonite and Rao is a Red Sun and still fought SBP.

So which of the three is this insane weakness that can mean his downfall.. because as I see it DC says he has weaknesses but then goes out of their way to show that they don't mean jack sh*t to their God.

Superman's powers and weaknesses have no scientific explanations bec. he is based on magic characters Hercules and Samson. Samson also had a nonsense weakness of losing his powers when his hair is cut short.

@perpetr8rmike: I blame bad writing.

@zombiemowlcher: So do I, to bad that seems to be 90% of DC's writing

@perpetr8rmike: I don't care what the comics say, Superman died fighting DoomsDay. No healing coma BS.

@perpetr8rmike: I'm not complaining about anything: this was all pure curiosity. I completely understand all things comics are purely fictional completely at the mercy of the writers.

@hart7668: Not saying you where specifically I was being more general. I have seen people complain that he has too many weaknesses. But yeah like I pointed out his weaknesses mean nothing.

Magic is dumb, it's whimsical with no rules. This guy can lift a hammer but someone twice as strong can't. Why? Cause someone said some magic words or sprinkled fairy dust on it.

@dayvid3: Superman is a Sci-Fi character so Fantasy should always be outside of his league.

Magics his only other weakness because the others are hard to find

Personally I feel like magic should be a legit weakness, but whatever. I can't even count how.many people think a "green rock" is stupid. And for.real, how often are you gonna trick him under red sun lamps or get him on a planet with a red sun? Really?

True, I think they shouldn't mix realities

I think a lot of people think the overuse of the stupid green rock is a big part of it. Apparently all the debris from a planet a million billion miles away landed on earth :/ The red sun thing should be retconned. Isn't it really the lack of yellow sun that causes the problem? And that they make happen way too fast

@dayvid3: As compared to what? We have seen Superman fly through a Red sun, absorbing its radiation and then fighting another super powered foe inside the field of the sun and be fine. If anything his abilities deplete to slowly for it to be a real weakness.

Maybe I'm thinking too much of the cartoons where it means instant weakness. But again, I'm still unclear if the red sun is actually negative or just the absence of yellow sun that's supposed to be bad

@dayvid3: If he is outside of a Yellow Sun system he is still powered by the Yellow Sun he stores up in his cells. Red Sun radiation replaces the yellow sun energy in his cells thus depowering him as without Yellow Sun he has no powers. but they later advanced this to be that Blue Suns give him TWICE as much energy as Yellow, I think White Suns gave him new abilities and H'el was exposed to Black Suns and got all kinds of new abilities beyond Superman. So the Red Sun needs to be a REAL threat to Superman or get ride of it.

But Hel kept his other weird powers after spending some time on Earth. Seems like it varies wildly, toss it :)

@dayvid3: Very true but we cannot confirm H'El is truly one of them or if he is lieing. Either way Magic is only a sometimes weakness.

Magic comes from a level of reality perpendicular to the physical reality. Superman's powers are based in the rules of DC physics, which allows his cells to store energy much more densely than normal cells. If a magic-wielder were to cast a spell that could turn a regular human into a frog, it would make sense that such a spell would only irritate Superman since the complexity and intensity of his physical structure is at some exponential level higher than the average human.

I remember the bronze age had many stupid weaknesses and better to save the brain cells and avoid thinking about them. Wonder Woman would lose her powers if she was bound by a man. The Martian would lose his powers even on just a cigarette lighter. Superman had more powers in a blue sun but less powers in an orange sun and all of these various sun color mythology was just nonsense.

They really should get rid of, or lessen, Superman's magic vulnerability.

@deaditegonzo: @awesam: Well, I think in the New 52 he IS actually weak against magic now, meaning it effects him more than others. I recall in the recent Batman issues there was a side story at the end where Batman and Superman are fighting some type of mystical ghost creature, and its very presence was killing Superman while Batman was unharmed. Superman even stated the magic was killing him, so maybe he's more weak than vulnerable to it now.

WHATEVER.

Isn't he as susceptible to magic as any normal person is?

Martian Manhunter's weakness explanation is even dumber.

I guess it is dependant on what level of magic and the source of magical power its derived from as to how much it can hurt Superman. Say for instance Black Adam starts throwing his magic thunderbolts at Supes it would cause some damage but not fatal as opposed to lets say a full powered Dr. Fate or and Unbound Spectre both of which are users of extremely high end magic which would most likely be able to kill Superman.

I just wanted to speak to this point. . . Wonder Woman is one of the strongest characters in the DCU and has the strength to deliver the kind of force necessary to break Superman's skin. The same blade in Batman's hands shouldn't garner the same effect. This topic has come up before : http://www.comicvine.com/superman/4005-1807/forums/can-superman-be-killed-with-a-magic-bullet-727438/#28

Here was my thought on the magic bullet.

That's interesting. . . . I have to catch up on my Batman reading.

Yeah, this is what I'm driving at too.

Harry Potter ... flawless victory

LOL. . . . can he account for Superman's impossible speed? :D

So is the moral of the story is that, while Superman isn't invulnerable to magic, his massive durability still can render it relatively ineffective?

Yes. Unless it's EXTREMELY powerful magic...usually...I think... :P

A genetically induced fear so great that he THINKS fire will kill him, and therefore, it will?

in the new 52 didnt magic make him sick by just being around it?

@perezite: Writers like to ignore it. He's already unstoppable, taking away his one weakness isn't cool.

It wasn't always genetic in all interpretations. In some it was a psychological fear only too MM. I don't think there needs to be an explanation though. He's not invulnerable the same way Superman is. Just say his species shapeshifting is vulnerable to fire and be done with it.

Yeah, that's what I think.

@press_oblivion:

He got nauseous just being around it though so i am not sure what they are planning

@w0nd: Ugh . . . sounds like more inconsistency is in the future for Superman.

@press_oblivion: seems that way lol..

Do you remember which issue?