All this talk about Mary Sues.. where would we be if Lee or Kirby didn't project their desires onto their creations, did anyone run the Mary Sue test on Eisner's Spirit? Comic's by and large are wish fullfillment, we relentlessly depict our want's with minute detail, I think the term is still a better term for novel's comic's usually have at least a touch of "preferential treatment" of their material..
I guess in reference to Buster's observation about plot-driven and character-driven comics, you can pass with Mary-sue easier in a story where plot or something other than the character is central. Like, in a story where plot is central, it's better to have a straight man for character, so not to detract from plot. But the problem with wish fulfilment comics is, usually, noone is interested in our personal wishes very much. What we dream of in our heads is usually childish, cliche, egocentric and, in general, sounds better in our heads than it does on paper. I don't think there's anything wrong with having such dreams, but when you decide to let them out in a comic form, you have in mind that it's going to be read by other people.
Though I do think that that test was going a bit too much in details and going about formal stuff without questioning the mothives author might've had and context they used it in, you gotta think about it: many simptoms appear there for a reason: they're often used without particular reason, unnecessary, and as such they seem rahter lame.
Biggest sin ever, in comics, novels and movies, is having a character that can do no wrong. For example, this book I read once when I was sick- called Jude's Law- is the epitome of just that. Jude (an actor/boxer who was perfect in every way) had fallen for May, an overweight but pretty, quiet museum curator. She was all shy and "Oh, how can you possibly like a fat girl like me, you suave, sexy hink" and he was all "You're so beautiful to me" and it made me puke. He bought her clothes (they were perfectly in styule, they fit perfectly, they flattered her perfectly AND he was rich so he could afford it), he helped her deadbeat brother out of a jam with the mob (by using his l33t fighting skills, oh the manliness), he loved her unconditionally and was always faithful. The one fight they had? Because he kept saying she was beautiful and she didn't believe him so he got mad.
Heh heh, doesn't sound so perfect to me. I think that most of girls would eventually leave a guy who insists on telling them how they're beautiful and so on, if nothing than because he'd eventually bore the hell outta them. Actually sounds more like a suck-up than that he really means it.
(bringing back the villain from the previous chapter) before the cut on the LJ posting of the comic, promising nakedidity and dancing girls:
