Women And Comics

In my last post, I started off ranting a bit about women and comics.  I will paste it below:

"As I get older, I, like many others, find myself in front of news stories about gender equality and see people raving back and forth about whether or not there is a problem, just what the problem is, and if there is a problem how should it be solved.  This is something which comes up a lot in entertainment mediums and particularly in movies, video games, and comic books.

The arguments generally are, 'Should women have greater representation?' 'Do women already have enough representation?' 'How should we represent women?' 'Should we cater to social pressure?' 'What about writer's rights?' 'Is it a comic distributor's responsibility?' and many others I'm sure you're already aware of.  Many people see this as a pretty simple question with simple answers of 'yes' and 'no.' In truth, the problem is far more complex and while some recognize that, many others simply make their answers more complex to fit the role rather than explore the situation at hand.  Some will give a 'free market' answer along the lines of, 'Men read comics predominantly, and so comics cater to men, and so long as men read comics then comic companies should cater to them.'  Others will respond, 'No, women are equal and are treated as second string.  Women don't read comics because there are no comics for women.'"

I finished it with a lame ass, "The answer... NEXT TIME!" sort of bit because I really wanted to talk about Marvel's Agent Carter.  But this is something I do wish to talk about.

Women and comics is something of a very sensitive subject for many reasons.  Some take direct offense, some just discomfort, some take it up as a sword, some take it up as a shield, and really it's just a very controversial subject to most who look at it.  As I quoted above, several questions are raised in regard to this subject both for, against, and even indifference to it.  These questions become more numerous, and in some ways more polarized, as women continue to expand their role in the comic industry and comic companies want more female readers, a market attempted and failed at several times.  And it's not because comic companies haven't sort of tried, from launching short lived series with female leads to launching the Tsunami imprint which hoped to attract manga readers which have a large female following.  The reason the comic companies keep falling flat is mainly because they keep relying on old formulas which have appealed only to young and just under middle aged men, or have had men write series they believe women would like, under-represent women in their ranks, and even fans just brushing this off.  This isn't to say only men write and like comics and related movies, but so few women do that I might as well be and some companies are worse than others.  Traditionally, the Big Two have been called out for lack of diversity with Marvel being yelled at harder for being the worse of the two.  DC has been a little better than Marvel with showcasing and continuing to hire premier female talent in the likes of the wonderful artist Amanda Conner and fantastic scribe Gail Simone, while Marvel's arguably largest female writer was Louise Simonson back in the 90's with some featured artists and writers here and there. DC has been very consistent with women having something of a large presence via Wonder Woman, the Birds of Prey with Oracle in particular, the current World's Finest with Power Girl and Huntress, Power Girl running the Justice Society, Black Canary as chairwoman of the Justice League, strong Batgirl titles. While Women in Refrigerators, Identity Crisis, and some other bits of oddities DC has come up with, they have remained not bad as far as women go.  They do have the most female characters, though one may argue they are generally female counterparts to male heroes, something Marvel doesn't do as often.  However, DC is more willing to press on and give these characters voices such as Batwoman, Batgirl, Black Canary, and well... Oracle, which are pretty much all people I mentioned above.  Renee Montoya got a lot of panels as the Question as well.  Marvel on the other hand tends to have brilliant female titles, but like all their more brilliant titles Marvel tends to fumble, forget to advertise, and quickly cancel books without real support.  She-Hulk has had at least two volumes which were both critically acclaimed and both were cancelled for under-performing because Marvel basically relied on word of mouth to get that sold.  It didn't help they didn't make them part of the larger Marvel Universe like they do with any other book they care about succeeding.  This is pretty reflective of how Marvel handled anything concerning women both in and out of books.

As Tim Hanley points out, Marvel's upcoming "Woman's Month" will temporarily increase how many women actually worked for them as creators and artists.  He goes on to say, "You can use one hand to count the number of women writing Marvel comics right now, and then use the other hand to count the number of female interior artists, and you won’t use up all of your fingers." And this is damning, because this is the state some people are outright content with.  Some people honestly believe that since some women are succeeding, the job is done.

Bust out the aircraft carrier with the "Mission Accomplished" banner, strap on your flight suit, and strut your stuff because the fact Marvel hires any women at all should be a sign of of a job well done and not simply just progress milestone towards a brighter future.

It pains me to see people who see things like this and say, "There. Are you happy?  We now have some women in comics and so the problem has been solved.  Can we stop complaining about this?" like some people did when a visually black man became president and some people felt that erased all the racial problems with the United States somehow.  Or when people defend the male focus of the industry because of sales statistics while pushing out the context in a short sighted way.  Early in 2014, Kevin Feige made a comment that Marvel wasn't making female centric movies simply because Marvel was just too busy making movies, and many fans pointed to the idea that Marvel had a structured idea and basically if a woman character wasn't really in it then Marvel really was too busy.  Smartly enough, someone did say that if Marvel did have this plan years ago why didn't they just simply plan a woman into it?  It's a good question, because Marvel simply put the Black Widow as second fiddle to Iron Man and the Avenger's movie and her representation in the Avengers was by far the worst of them when they could have had her tied into more movies like they did with Fury.  Maria Hill was just there to say there was a woman other than the Widow, and her part was negligible and pretty much there to make Nick Fury look smart.  Kevin Feige since then has gone on to talk about the responsibility of the industry to push diversity since the backlash of idiocy his excuses have generated (there's been more than just this one such as just not being sure when it can be done), and now there is a Captain Marvel movie confirmed a few months later.  But the explanation is crap because Feige claims it's been in the works as long as Guardians of the Galaxy was despite him saying before the idea of this movie was sort of kicked around but there were no plans at all.  This gives the idea that this Captain Marvel movie has been in work for a long time when it clearly hasn't and was only really pushed ahead after Marvel was getting barked at for its not making female oriented movies.

Now allow me to back up a few paces and talk about the good Marvel has done with women characters and comics.  Four characters jump right to mind: She-Hulk (duh), Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Squirrel Girl.  The first two have been sort of in and out of the Marvel spotlight for years and years with everything from them being Avengers to them breaking down, to having their own series off and on.  She-Hulk has commonly been pointed out as a very smart book under Dan Slott and unfortunately was cancelled due to low interest.  Carol Danvers had much the same problem under her Ms. Marvel books, though the relaunch under Captain Marvel has been met with applause and whistles of glee for a strong woman. Ms. Marvel is a new book not about Carol Danvers, but about a teenager named Kamala Khan who is Marvel's first headlining Muslim character and something of a very unique character in how she doesn't necessarily fit the Marvel mold of women.  Finally is the recently launched The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl who both humorously and confidently goes about being a superhero with a conspicuously big and conspicuously awesome butt (though that's only in her disguise to hide her tail).  The latter two are great and perfect examples of what can be done with female characters at Marvel, and while I don't think they'll be supported and eventually cancelled, I do hope I'm wrong.  But four characters and four books aren't really enough to fix this problem, just enough to start us in the right trend.

But in short, the way women are still regarded isn't right, it isn't good, and this sort of problem will forever ensure a terrible projection for the future of comic books.  Women readership is growing, and if the industry wishes to maintain or further this demographic, it needs to better acknowledge this beyond the here and there bits and pieces. The debate, points, and solutions are far more complex and wide spun than this little article can have and I hope to talk about this more because I haven't even talked about the idea of responsibility, fan backlash and entitlement, why these problems even exist, and why we sometimes refuse to acknowledge them. 

Normally I feel good after ranting a bit (the point of the blog), but honestly I don't this time.  Heck, I just focused on Marvel when there is so much more across the comic spectrum to talk about.  So unfortunately I will have more posts on this.

How You TOO Can Get Into And Enjoy Reading Comics: Encyclopedia Comica

For the final hard bit, and quite possibly one of the most damning.

How to Get Into Comic Book Reading

Don't be Stupid and Lazy

Does this seem familiar to you?  Judging by the sheer amount of responses I get when the question "Why don't you read comics?" is posited, there's a good chance you have made these faces before when contemplating getting into comic books.

Most comic books (particularly of the superhero variety) are beyond packed with an extremely extensive history which may extend back as far as 60 years or more in some cases.  Now if you're Marvel, you count everything which isn't stated to be retconned.  If you're other comic universes, you reset every once in the while and sometimes keep the old continuity in line when wanted in completely confusing ways.  What problems does this create?  Shit tons of problems, because now newer readers have no freaking clue where to start.  I hear this often.  While the whole "where to start" can be solved with, "Pretty much any arc," it's hard to justify when you say 12's a great jumping point for Blue Beetle because it deals with Jaime's discovering he's part of an alien conspiracy and his source of power is an alien source.  New readers will wonder just what the hell's been going on, why he's the third Blue Beetle and just figured this out, and maybe why the second Blue Beetle didn't have this power.  See, long histories create snarls of continuity which become extremely hard to follow.

Don't fret.  Because while continuity is important, it's not exactly all -that- important.  Why? Simple.  Continuity is subject to prevailing sales of story lines.  For instance, let's say Iron Man originally had his origins in the Vietnam War, but that dates him.  Simple solution, retcon it to a more recent or even just simply vague conflict.  That's a soft retcon.  A hard retcon would be like resetting an entire universe after Tony was manipulated by Immortus to be a bad guy, was replaced by an alternate universe teenage version, shunted to an alternate dimension after a conflict, and then brought back as good ol' Tony Stark from a series of storylines nobody has to remember.  If you were a brand new comic reader, would you think that's extremely important to anything which has been going on recently?  (I'll give you Onslaught given AXIS, but none of the rest before or after matters).  The answer is no, because it doesn't.  What about when Spidey doubled his strength, got stingers and organic web shooters as part of The Other storyline?  Retconned out with Brand New Day.  And that's just the retcons you can forget about.  What about Stark Solutions?  One of the failed companies Stark started?  Remember his rehab armor from one of his several stints of questioning whether or not he should be Iron Man?  How about when his armor was so poorly shielded it tried to kill him?  None of these were retconned, and yet none of them matter.  Some of their plot points might matter, such as Stark's alcoholism, his Armor Wars, the Ultron Iron Man, etc., but for the most part nothing really does after a while.  Remember when Rhodey was Iron Man, or when Rhodey was a big ol' cyborg, or when Rhodey wore the Eidolon War Wear which was lost in time?  Remember when Guy Gardner lost his ability to use a Green Lantern ring, but it turned out he was half alien and could make weapons all Random style, but lost that power?  Nobody else really does, nor really wanted to remember.  Anybody remember when Cyborg when full robot and blah blah blah? That sort of stuff doesn't matter, and worrying about knowing all of that gets in the way.

"Mak, if what you're telling me is true then I don't need to know anything about the characters?"  Yes and no.

It's helpful to know their origins, because origins have a tendency to come up time and again with revelations and the like.  The important thing is to just know the basics, because the rest will come and go as needed.  Just pick up in any old story line, especially one that is marked "Bold new direction!" or a new #1 that comic companies are just oh so happy to slap on comics because they like fucking with and confusing fans.  The thing is, as you read these comics you'll realize they're supposed to be unfolding new tales for the character, and when something is referential you can either look it up online or then go and specifically search for stories concerning this event.  Such as the character of Hush.  If Hush comes up and everybody is all "Oh no!  It's Hush!  Batman's long lost friend, blah blah blah!" If you're so interested, you'd go look up Batman: Hush and just enjoy it that way.  

Comics don't necessarily need to be all read at once, and I find this mindset is common with new fans and particularly with manga fans who sometimes feel a whole series needs to be read.  I'm not joking, in some of my "travels" I've witnessed veteran manga readers not wish to start ongoing series because they have like 800 chapters in the story to read.  And while mangas tend to have a slightly more integrated and needed story, most of it doesn't matter.  I'd almost hazard none of it really does.  In fact, Bleach is more enjoyable when you read it arc by arc and assume they're all stand alone as opposed to one story Aeon Flux style.  One Piece sort of matters, but not so much you'd feel stymied picking it up after the timeskip if you simply knew Luffy lost his brother and everybody got their asses kicked.  The story does well with catching people back up.  Naruto completely betrays it's earlier stuff and you can easily not care what the first half was about beyond the basics.  That's just how comics in general are (manga are comics, just Japanese comics).

So here's the bottom line for new comic reading:  Just pick a character you think you might enjoy.  Like light hearted fare?  Pick up Superman.  Like Batman?  Self explanatory.  And if you get confused along the way, consult the internet and look for back issues when that comes up.  Don't pull your hair out thinking you'll need to know everything.  

You can have all of these, and still have nowhere near enough X-Men to know everything about the X-Men

How You TOO Can Get Into And Enjoy Reading Comics: NERD!!! NERD, NERD, NEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRD!!!!

Two down, two to go.  This one I'm not so comfortable with because it's actually a pretty complex topic I cannot do justice to here.  But I'll say what I can.

How To Get Into Comic Book Reading

 You are such a nerd, and I don't mean it in a good way

In a day and age where some people equate being a "nerd" is "cool" and "trendy," and even valued in some places, it strikes me as odd when people really don't want to be identified as one by their peers. People go to their workplaces and schools and talk about how awesome Guardians of the Galaxy was, and how they saw it a couple times and bought the DVD, but when people make mention of reading the comics?  Well, they've crossed some invisible line that separates okay and weird.  There are excuses, and the work environment might determine this like if you're a cute girl into cute anime/comic characters and adorn your desk at a video game company as compared to a tiny guy like me at a healthcare company who puts up comic themed posters and sometimes wears comic shirts and sometimes is made fun of.  The gender doesn't matter, but the images help when determining which environment is more accepting.  And before you say "Mak, but it sounds like your environment doesn't value that sort of thing at all," that's untrue, and that still wouldn't influence the people around me even if it were.  It's a cultural thing.  Either way.

When I was but a wee lad of my early 20's, I'd hang out with some friends at my local comic shop.  Well, more like fellow travelers also there to pick up comic books on comic release day, we didn't hang out outside of this particular location.  One time, one guy said it was sort of nice to go to a comic shop that was slightly off the beaten path because nobody would really see him and therefore nobody would make fun of him, going on to further say he never really gave comics a chance until his son showed an interest in them because he always felt they were for "nerds." 

A small aside, I don't think comic books are for nerds or geeks or trend setters or whatever.  I think they're for everybody.  Everybody should be able to enjoy comics, and comics anymore don't seem to cater to anything but the dollar so it's not like major companies even really try to appeal to any particular niche crowd outside of those who might enjoy comics.  So... anybody again.  It's not like you have certain "enjoyment" qualifications you need to make before you have achieved your nerd certificate.  Back to the deal.

I felt bad for the guy because one he was still "in the locker" as I've heard before, but because he spent a large part of his life not even trying something because he didn't want to be made fun of.  And whether you think you're thick skinned or not, nobody actually enjoys being bullied/made fun of/laughed at/whatever.  Nobody does.  Let's say you go to work tomorrow you big tough guy and some of your coworkers bash you for your decidedly poor taste in sports team wear.  Now, that's a different sort of rivalry normally, but I mean outright make bad fun of you.  Not the, "Ha ha, your team sucks," as much as, "Your team sucks, and by extension you must be the product of your mom fucking a pig to get an outcome as shit as you are if you like that team."  Now clearly this rarely doesn't happen to this extent, but this is something potential fans of comics fear.  And it's a valid fear.  These people, already afraid of being the victim of this, have seen it in fellow coworkers.  Ever have a friend who's a little too much into Breaking Bad or Bones or some other "it" show like Big Bang Theory?  They sometimes are made fun of.  Why?  Because sometimes people just like making fun of other people, and the less socially acceptable makes it more likely to be made fun of or teased.  Or maybe it stems from being made fun of in high school and they want to avoid it.  Maybe.

Big Bang Theory.  Another thing I did sort of want to address, but not fully on this post.  Oh, get off it.  You know what I'm going to say, and while I'm not going to out and out say it's a bad thing, it does deter people in a separate way.  TBBT is a show built up of stereotypes, and while not as bad it is to "nerds" as black people to a show about other black people who live on welfare, are illiterate, can't control themselves sexually, are lazy, and are violent criminals.  Like I said, not an apples to apples comparison, but a similar idea.  The reason you don't see this fictional black show and you do see TBBT theory is because making fun of "nerds" is still an okay thing to do.  Now, I'm not calling for some revolution where nerds are placed in some sort of civil rights deal like sexual orientation, race, and religion finds footing, but keep in mind this is what people fear.  People watch TBBT and think that's what nerds might be and potentially what they might become, despite the fact pretty much everybody knows nerds aren't exactly that way.  People still don't want to be associated with a "Raj" or even worse be considered a "Raj" (a topic for another day in how that's ridiculous).  I have been asked whether I'm a Leonard or a Sheldon to which I usually reply I'm an Irwin Schwab and we all have a laugh when they have no clue what I'm talking about.  Why?  Because comic fans rarely are like TBBT cast.  Nobody is.  Go to your local comic shop (with your safari equipment) and actually look at these people.  Talk to them.  If you've ever even seen a comic convention on the news you realize they look like people who traverse fairs and Disneyland and restaurants.  They behave like everyday people.  Why?  Because they ARE everyday people.  And this stigma that they'll be treated like idiots on a television show or be equated to them drives people away from even trying this sort of thing out.  Nobody wants to be equated to that (unless you mean the actors, in which case I would because they're RICH).

The truth is you'll be made fun of for anything because people just make fun of others with varying degrees of acceptance (again, there are certain cultures you cannot do this to because that's crap).  So long as you continue to play life as normal while enjoying comics this will eventually go away. 

Now if you go to your job or school and cry from the rooftops about the revival of your very soul after reading a few comics, you're going to get made fun of for being a raving lunatic.  That's a different story.

How You TOO Can Get Into And Enjoy Reading Comics: Content, I No Want!

Gonna try to tackle all four today.  Wish me luck!

How to Get Into Comic Book Reading

I'm Not Really A Fan Of Superheroes

 

I've heard this complaint before as well.  People may like the Captain America, Batman, Superman, etc. movies, but they're not actually fans of superheroes, and so reading comics is out of the question.  This is a point which makes quite a bit of sense to me.  Batman Begins had all the tightly well crafted tale of an urban vigilante without all the tie ups of Robins, Batgirls, Apokoliptian minions, magic, aliens, etc.  It was something of a vigilante tale wrapped up in superhero garb.  Avengers appealed because of a limited tale which garnered good will via multiple smaller movies leading into one big one.  However, the story of Spider-Man having to run in fear because the mystic totem hunting Morlun is coming after him, or the story of a man who can change himself into any chemical chain, or the story of space conqueror whoever fighting earth heroes assembled into teams seems weird or something unappealing.

I find it a tad odd because people read science fiction novels, follow heavy handed drama of forensic scientists, read horribly written vampire fantasy, or even love stories about boys who grow up in magical boarding schools.  If those were on paper shared with pictures though?  Forget it.  Because all of those stories have very superhero ideas.  The genius and socially incapable detective who is just lovable enough in Bones has several parallels with Batman if Bones was merged her FBI husband and decided to wear a cowl.  Harry Potter is a chosen one in a universe filled with people who specialize in certain magics who bands with others to try and stop an oncoming darkness which reflects himself as he also struggles with the dilemma, sort of like any superhero story in recent memory dealing with the Avengers, or the Justice League, or really any hero team. And I won't lie, these are something of a stretch because Batman does have romance and drama stories, but they're not exactly as dripping thick as a Bones episode (which is a good thing), and Harry Potter was beyond tightly written story filled with adventure that didn't involve bright colors outside of wand battling as opposed to beam vision and fist killing.

This I actually get.  The idea of superheroes can seem very childish to many people.  Lacking in maturity, culture, taste, growth, context, etc.  It's why people don't go about watching shows about Sesame Street after the age of 8 or whatever.  It is a stigma which will be covered in the next article, but it's one that crosses over into how people straight up won't give them a chance.  This isn't about how people view readers as much as how people view the characters.  People see them as boring, one dimensional, bleh sort of endeavors.  Who cares that Superman punched that meteor out of the sky, doesn't he do it twice a week?  Yawn.  Another alien invasion.  Geez I really wish they'd up the ante and have Batman start a relationship with a married woman like the time he did that exact thing with Orion's wife, but instead of the natural curve of that relationship I want something forced like we find out Orion is a totally okay guy who was just troubled and wants her back and not the freaking Dog of War for New Genesis and the story suddenly becomes about the love triangle brought about by this indecisive woman's inability to choose which penis she wants more because gosh she just has so many feelings.  Or better yet, we should have a story about how Tony Stark and Clint Barton fight over which is the better man for the Wasp by engaging in long staring contests, pissing contests, abusive relationship tactics, and overall overly emotional dialogue appealing to an indecisive Wasp that even the 60's comic books would find a little contrived while said Wasp really wants both because both represent something she wants rather than realizing life is significantly more complex.  That or at least have it about a bunch of kid heroes who are learning from their elders in proper usage of their powers while dealing with teenage things like growth, crushes, self image, and a conspiracy to kill them all.  Wait, we called that one Avengers Academy.  (I'll admit, nowhere near as well done as Harry Potter)  Drama, romance, strife, heartache, death, dying, struggle, racism, all things covered in comics.  Captain Marvel (not the DC one, the Marvel one) actually straight up died from cancer as opposed to just getting hit too many times.  Dr. Light was an out and out rapist who assaulted Sue Dibney (the Elongated Man's wife) on the Justice League Watchtower, seeing future versions of present characters faced with what they may become if they continue their path.  Things all inside of comics.  Strong stories, messages, great action, wittiness and thought, all of it can be found there. And it doesn't even have to contain superheroes.  

There is a perception that comic books are just about superheroes, and it couldn't be further from the truth.  It's just that superheroes make up the bulk of comic sales and get all the movies and such.  There are several comic books which are either superhero-esque or have nothing to do with superheroes at all.  Some are Slice of Life, some are romantic, some are sci-fi, some are horror, some are even comedic.  Some of those will have superheroes or superhero elements, and some will just be about normal people living in normal or supernatural situations.  

A problem is people see "superhero" over the broad stroke and assume it's all just one story, rather than just a section of story telling.  It's the same belief which would have you think all horror stories are "Alien" or all action stories are "Divergent."  Rather than realizing Alien is Sci-Fi Horror as opposed to supernatural horror like Nightmare on Elm Street, and how Cobra fits under action as action adventure where Divergent falls under dystopia, coming of age action.  And this is the same with superheroes.  People see superheroes and they think "Super Friends," not Squadron Supreme or the Watchmen, or the more mature Batman/Iron Man/Captain America stories which were converted into extremely profitable movies people raved about concerning complexity and content.  Which leads to the final bit.

Another problem is people see comic books as primarily kid stories, and so why would you want to give a kid's story a chance?  I mean, doing that would be like adults watching Adventure Time, Spongebob Squarepants, Gravity Falls, freaking Jimmy Neutron, etc.  And we all know right and proper adults wouldn't give those shows the time of day.  Sarcasm mode off.  Superheroes are for all ages, and are primarily aimed at 15-35 year olds which means there's rarely any threat on getting stories about how you should drink your milk and exercise.  

Seriously, if you want to know superheroes can cross over extremely mature themes, comedy, and explicit content all at the same time while well written?  Go out and buy Bomb Queen right now.  If you want a smartly, dramatic, powerful science fiction sans superheroes?  Go out and buy Saga right now.  There's so many different comics that you'll most likely find something you can get behind and enjoy.  Even if it's the Walking Dead.

Superman and Magic

Three posts?  One week?  I clearly have some time finally.  Perhaps I should actually be using this time to further my life, or help others, or just continue to blather on.

A pal of mine a couple days ago talked to me about ScrewAttack's Death Battle between Kirby and Majin Buu and stated Superman was lucky he didn't have to fight Buu.  I told him he was right because Buu would turn Superman into food via his junkfood attack, though I disagreed that would completely remove Superman due to how Vegetto was capable of continued fighting and Superman might be capable of the same.  It's a weird idea, since Superman is nothing like any of the characters there but that didn't matter.  My pal decided that wasn't the factor he was talking about.  He felt Buu should win since his power is fueled by and made up of MAGIC.

I about got up and slapped my buddy for that one.  But I couldn't since I really can't blame him for thinking that way and because of several other legal and physical reasons (I don't want to get beat up).  I can't believe people still believe this and that I'm doing a post on this.  So let's just do this.

Superman and how magic IS NOT a weakness

This will be easiest if I say that magic isn't a weakness of Superman as much as it is just a vulnerability of Superman.

"You just did it!  You just freaking admitted magic is a weakness!"

No.

No.

NOOOO!

Vulnerabilities and weaknesses overlap, but are not the same thing.  So let me try again.  There is no inherent weakness to magic in Superman.  If magic were truly a weakness of his, then magic should be listed as a weakness to Batman, the Flash, the President of the United States, Tony Stark, Captain America, Spider-Man, and pretty much any character who doesn't have a power which resists magic like...say... Captain Marvel Shazam (not the wizard, though he should too).  Why?  Because none of those characters have inherent resistance to magic, which puts them on the same field as Superman.  If we had to make a scale of 0-10 of magical resistance with 0 meaning no resistance and 10 meaning you're the omnipotent being of creation, Superman, Batman, and all humans would rest on 0. 

"But Mak!" you whine, spitting out Mountain Dew in contempt while using your smuggest and righteous tone, "I've read a comic once, and I know for a fact magic was stated as the outright reason for Superman's defeat!"  Sure, you did read that.  This is why I can't blame my friend for thinking that way.  Comics does itself no favors.

DC Comics has something of a continuity editing board, meaning that if someone tried to tell a Superman story where Superman tried to tell the tale of how his powers suddenly grow to project fire from his mouth and was born in Australia, the editors would fire back saying "No, change that."  The problem is this doesn't always work, and this is compounded when writers and editors don't quite understand what they're seeing/doing.  Let's not mince words, not everybody who works in the comic field understands the characters they manage or write about.  It just happens, and some writers who take over characters sometimes only know the bare bones or just what they've heard about characters.  When this happens, we have events of CIS, PIS, WIS, etc.  Then we have events where Captain Marvel punches out Superman because he charged his fists with magic, and magic is the reason as opposed to the fact Captain Marvel simply boosted his physical power output.  Or when Supergirl and Power Girl are separated by Alan Scott's ring because his barrier is made up of magic and since it's just a barrier shaped of magical energy the two Kryptonian powerhouses cannot move past it.  These are bad representations because if these were true then anybody, ANYBODY, could put on a magic ring which just sort of puts a little magic in their system and wail on Kryptonians (and presumably Daxamites), or just learn a basic barrier spell and trap Superman in a forever cage he could never escape from personally, facilitating a need for Batman and some sort of anti-magic spray.  

"But Mak, this is in the pages, it happens, therefore it's canon."  This is lazy and really just speaks to how people want a character to fit their mold without understanding what this implies.

Just as often, if not more often, Superman is also shown bashing through magical barriers, shrugging off magic fireballs, and otherwise just living.  "But Mak, the magic has to be done TO him!" YES!! We are half way there.  "No no.  I mean the magic has to come into contact to him."  And that's where we restart.  That's not true.  It's not.  Let's go back to the whole CM punching Superman deal.  Some will say it was the magic in his fists which put him down, or the magic lightning bolt which hurt Superman (lightning hurts Superman anyway, since his body isn't rubber and his nervous system is electrical like ours), but that's bunk.  Why?  Easy.  Living on Earth should then destroy Superman.  Earth is the focal point of magic in the entire universe, and it pervades it, and it is filled with magical heroes many of which have come into contact and have served alongside Superman.  It's why the Rock of Eternity is on Earth, because Earth has so much freaking magic.  Let's not even put into play that Captain Marvel is always a magic being, charged and ebbing with the stuff, and should render Superman unconscious every time they shake hands, let's look at the issue where Billy used the lightning bolt to weaken Superman because it was magic and how it pretty much goes against the rest of the issue.  Superman was being possessed by Eclipso. ECLIPSO.  Eclipso the proto-Spectre.  Eclipso is a ridiculously powerful magic being who decided to infuse Superman's body with the entirety of it's power.  MAGIC power.  If the whole "Superman is weak to the presence of magic" bit was correct, Superman should have straight up exploded if not just went all Raiders of the Lost Ark and melted into a pool.  

So let's spell out what magic and Superman do when they interact.

Superman is simply subject to the effect of the magic spell if it moves past his physical durability.  For instance, if you were some sort of magician which specializes in fire casting magic and you sent explosive fireballs at Superman, they would effect him as any explosive fireball would.  Not because Superman has a resistance to magical fire, but because Superman is normally resistant to the effects of that spell.  The source of the fire is magic, and unless the intended spell is to burn literally everything rather than just be magic caused fire, it will not effect Superman in any abnormal way.  The same goes for lightning, ice, water, etc.  However, if the intended spell is something like a sword which cuts anything or has a spell which increases it's cutting power to levels above Superman's natural durability, then Superman will be harmed.  If the spell makes people go to sleep, Superman will go to sleep.  If it's a spell that lumps a chunk of magic like a big rock, then chances are Superman can punch it into space.  It isn't hard.  It shouldn't be this hard to explain.  It shouldn't be this hard to understand.

Magic was used to show how people can exploit and work around Superman's near invincibility as a character.  Telepathy, magic, emotions, things like that as ways of showing Superman can't just walk into every fight and punch things until he wins.  Recently in the New 52, Superman had to fight Captain Comet and Comet pretty much shut him down.

So where is all the banter about Superman having an increased weakness to telepathic characters?  The matter is, telepathic character interactions are easy to map out.  Is the opposing character telepathic or stated with overt telepathic resistance?  Then 9/10 times the answer is obvious.  But magic and Superman are so intertwined with confusion on how magic works that is creates a lot of confusion and poor writing.  When it was introduced as a vulnerability for Superman some confused the idea as Superman having some sort of weakness like Kryptonite because that's how weaknesses tended to be presented for the Man of Steel.  Unknown variable causes negativity which then must be a weakness.  Kryptonite, Red Sun energy, etc.  Especially given how immediate it works, and everybody just being used to Superman tanking anything which comes his way.  It sucks because people see it and say, "Well, it's Superman.  If he can't even resist it a little it must be a weakness.  That's how Superman works!"  But it's not.  And I have no clue how people still think this.  Newcomers to comics see older fans say things like that and the cycle restarts, but I have no clue how older comic fans still say this.  Fanboyism?  Enforced internal ignorance? I have no clue.

Please enjoy this:

Once upon a time, a weakness of Superman's was not knowing how to teach lessons that made sense. And modesty