Re: Amazon Tech level
You're really one of my favorite posters here, have I mentioned that?
DCU Magic laws have pretty ingrained bartering rules.
Only for muggles.
That's a bit of a blanket statement, yes; magic is the single least consistent thing in the DCU, which is saying something, and the Vertigo wall really doesn't help. But the basic rule is, yeah, the norms have to suffer for it. The folks who live it don't. If (to use a recently posted example) incredibly normal rube-ass nobody Danny Coleman wants to teleport, he's gotta spend days of his life studying, pay in blood and pain every time he casts the spell, and die an early painful death from the process. It's not safe or easy, it's brutal and costly. On the other hand, if fortunate-to-be-born-metahuman Charlie Gage-Radcliffe wants to teleport, she's just gotta do it. Any time she wants. For free, and in fact it not only doesn't cost her, it heals her. Or a more B-list comparison: Daniel Cassidy was born human. Tremendous, terrifying power was his, at the cost of his soul. Zatanna Zatara was born homo magi. Tremendous, terrifying power is hers by birthright, and as easy as picking up a spoon.
Diana is *made* of magic. If it's water, she's an amphibian - it's her element, she belongs there, it's easy and intuitive and proper for her. There's no cost for her to fly, to be fast or strong or heal the way she does. It just works for her, because that's her world and it's supposed to. It's actually weird that the amazons aren't the same way and seem so strangely detached from all things mystical. That sense of magic being integral to their daily life is the one thing the v3 reboot (::spit::) actually did right.