That's all true, but try replacing "Zatanna" with "Green Lantern", and then replace "MB all her moves to be safe" with "MB all his moves to do good damage"
Being meter-dependent isn't a handicap, it's a play-style.
It's always a shock to my system when I go to another character forum and see that having punishable specials is considered such a huge negative.
My specials for Lex:
Orbital strike- Punishable both regular and MB after forward dash
Probes- Punishable both regular and MB
Mine- Punishable
Corp Charge- Punishable
Grav pull- Punishable
Lance Blast- lol
Welcome to playing a setup based character. Your moves are punishable. It's the game's way of telling people you are supposed to use these in specific circumstances.
As for being slow: I believe she has the fastest teleport in the game.
Jump over downed enemies for a fake crossup, levitate, backwards tele-cancel, 2 in the air, connecting with a b2,1 into a full combo- who the hell can block that?? Not many are going to be able to block forward, then backwards, then low to avoid all of those hits. Her air teleport+levitate basically makes it an airdash on steroids.