Tag Archives: Mary Sue

City of Reality

Posted on February 4, 2010 by | 2 Comments

One of the truly enjoyable aspects of webcomics is the utter freedom they give the cartoonist in both story content and concept. While the lack of editorial restriction does have a dark side (I’ve stumbled across comics that focus on school shootings, binge eating, and pointless graphic violence; these seem to rely on the subject matter to draw in readers rather than intelligent storytelling), this editorial freedom can also encourage cartoonists to indulge in philosophical concepts and story subjects that would likely not see print due to limited readership appeal. The utopian deconstruction webcomic City of Reality fits in the latter category, using both whimsical stories and more serious content to describe the utopian world of Reality, and several people who are part of the super hero organization SUEPR (though many of the “supers” use devices, rather than innate abilities).

No, that’s not a typo. The organization that deals with disasters, monsters, and other insanity is called “SUEPR;” I’m not quite sure what the acronym stands for, but the “Sue” aspect was deliberate, and several of the characters would be Sue-like characters, except for the deliberate deconstruction of the trope in general. Nor are the Sue-like characteristics universal with the entire cast; instead, it almost seems to be an innate aspect of the natives of Reality, in comparison with characters who emigrated from another world to live in Reality. Perhaps the best example of this lies with the leader of SUEPR 4, the teenage boy Todo.

Todo is, for a lack of better words, perfect. He’s handsome, articulate, compassionate, skilled, assumes the best of people and doesn’t judge them if they don’t meet those expectations. In short, he’s the type of character you’d hate (well, initially) if you stumbled across him in a fanfic or the like. But as the comic unfolds, it becomes obvious that Todo’s “perfection” is a veneer, and that the very aspects of him that appear so “perfect” in Reality end up hurting him (and his companions) when facing problems from other less utopian realities.

The two outsiders of the group are immigrants from worlds outside of Reality; A.V. is a young verbose lady who has a lot of talent and heart, but freezes up in social situations, while Hawk is an anthropomorphic dragonfly with a chip on his shoulder and the need to prove himself. It is these two that truly help the comic shine, with their reactions to the eccentricities of their new world (such as a sock puppet rabbit being the mayor of the City of Reality, or how everyone is just so nice to each other, even in the face of infidelity or being robbed.

Of course, A.V. and Hawk won’t be the only ones who’ll give double-takes at times. There are subtle and not-so-subtle images that will suggest how things could go; take the infidelity (which was told as a flashback story): when the guy is confronting his girlfriend after catching her in bed with another man, there is an one-panel flash to a handgun in the bedroom drawer. It’s never touched, and the two manage to talk things out (with the guy that was caught in bed cowering behind the bed looking quite nervous the entire time). Likewise, one of the very first things that happens in the comic is that a young girl is given a ride home by a shadowy complete stranger, taking a different route home than is normally taken… and she gets home safely and untouched. The entire world reeks of the Uncanny Valley effect; the inhabitants of Reality are (for the most part) human… and yet somehow not.

In many ways we’re being given a glimpse of the alien nature of a utopia. In order for a utopia to exist, people would have to resist those darker impulses that are a part of all of our lives… and do so consistently. And they do, with the exception of some of the immigrants from other realities where things are not so perfect. We’ve not seen A.V. react adversely to some of the almost inhuman decency among the citizens of Reality, though there are moments when you’re sure she’s going to comment, only to back away. Hawk, on the other hand, spends an entire chapter trying to break through their veneer of civility, only to finally conclude that somehow, Reality itself is one huge family (and not one of the more typically dysfunctional ones in our own world).

The rest of the cast plays primarily a background role; Froggie, a giant intelligent anthropomorphic frog is the scientist of the group, while Victor is the final member of SUEPR 4 and is, if anything, even more perfect and decent than Todo. Little has been done to date to expand on their personalities or backgrounds (though Victor is hinted at having a “mysterious past” which will undoubtedly become the basis of some future storyline). Finally, there’s Mayor Rabbit, a sentient sock puppet rabbit who single… um… handedly runs the entire government of the City of Reality. Much like the other natives of Reality, when he appears and talks about various things we catch brief glimpses that suggest things aren’t quite as perfect in Reality as appearances might suggest, but outside of a few disasters (all of which have been (indirectly?) caused by interactions with another reality called Magic World) we’ve had few glimpses at the possible darker side of Reality.

After the first two chapters (which introduce both A.V. and Hawk), the chapters tend to flow into each other. Indeed, the problems caused by Magic World products ends up being the motivation behind the CoR storyline that just concluded, where SUEPR 4′s three core members had to travel to Magic World to stop their own brethren, who are trying to eliminate the threat Magic World poses for Reality. Cartoonist Ian Samson manages to portray the members of SUEPR 1 as well-intentioned extremists that know what they’re doing is wrong… but that it’s for the greater good of Reality. Chapter 5 may be the best storyline yet in CoR, and undoubtedly we’ll see more of Magic World in the future, especially once Mayor Rabbit admits to the rulers of Magic World that some of his own were responsible for their own recent troubles.

Another interesting aspect of CoR is its update schedule: the comic is released twice a month with sizable multi-page updates. This helps create a better sense of story and continuity than even a daily update schedule would do. Samson has stated that this update schedule will be changing soon, but hopefully he’ll continue some form of multi-page update (perhaps similar to the update schedule of Sarah Ellerton’s The Phoenix Requiem).

City of Reality is one of those comics that will amuse, charm, and at times disturb you. It may also make you sit back for a moment and consider what Samson is saying here… and on the state of our own reality. For that alone I’d recommend it; the interesting deconstruction of just what a utopian world is and on the nature of “perfect” characters is just icing on the cake.

Addendum note: It appears CoR is switching to a MWF update schedule, for the time being.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged , , , , ,

Better Days

Posted on December 1, 2009 by | 11 Comments

I’ll admit I’m often reluctant to review adult webcomics. While I suspect the vast majority of my readers are over seventeen, I like to think of Tangents as a family-friendly review site. Still, I do have a growing number of adult webcomics that I read and enjoy, many of which would probably be considered “adult” because of nudity, sex, and in rare circumstances excessive violence. (This is actually rather sad when you think of it. What does it teach children when you hide away a woman’s breasts as something “shameful” but allow them to see people pull beating hearts out of some poor sap’s chest?) But I’ve rarely come across a comic I’d consider “adult” because of the content matter of the comic.

When I started reading the anthropomorphic comic Better Days (found thanks to a TV Tropes link), I had no idea of the ride that was waiting for me. The TV Tropes link seemed innocuous enough, and I’ve encountered teachers who let their beliefs bleed through into their teaching (I suspect many of us have). Unfortunately, those strips were the brief breath of levity in what was going to be a long and bumpy ride. BD has rape, tweenage sex (and that’s not a typo!), consensual incest between siblings (well, one instance that we know of), adultery (on more than one occasion), the depiction of armed military conflict, a man going into a mafia safe house and killing pretty much everyone there to save family, and more. If you’re easily offended, religious, or not conservative, you’re probably going to get offended by the content of the comic.

And yet, even with the growing Sueification of one of his main characters (Fisk) and the multiple injections of Drama in the comic (to the point that the mother once shouted “Is my life just a big lighting rod for drama!?” which I must admit I found quite amusing), there are some decent elements to the comic. For instance, when Sheila (the mother) was attacked and raped by an ex-boyfriend and her son (who was nine, and just starting to get his Sueification injections) went after the guy with a baseball bat, both Fisk and Sheila went into counseling afterward. Likewise, the incident of incest between Fisk and Lucy was intelligently done, and had long-lasting consequences, though perhaps not as severe as they could have been.

As for the adultery? Each time adultery occurs in the comic, divorce follows. Friendships are destroyed by it. Less realistically (perhaps) is how each incident results in a new stable relationship (Sheila ends up marrying the guy she slept with, though it takes a while for Fisk to forgive his eventual stepfather, and Elizabeth and Fisk end up together after she catches her new husband in bed with another woman… and possibly cheats on him in turn with Fisk). Likewise, while not technically adultery, when Lucy steals away a guy from his cheating girlfriend, that relationship ends up stable and happy. It’s a minor quibbling point, I know. The situation behind the adultery in the first story was logical, reasonable, and sad. The marriage wasn’t depicted as a healthy one, and the story itself was handled with considerable maturity. It’s just the end-result almost seems to say “adultery results in happily-ever-afters” which I’m sure was not the cartoonist’s intent.

Less forgivable is the “Sueification” of Fisk. He went from a “Crowning Moment of Awesome” in defending his mom from a rapist to James Bond (and I kid you not on this). The presentation of him fighting both in Desert Storm and in Bosnia were fairly well done, though the depiction of him in Ranger training fighting off a bunch of Marines in a training exercise was… pushing the boundaries. But once Fisk got recruited into a private intelligence agency to literally become a Bond-type… well, if you turn off your brain and go along for the ride, then you’ll probably enjoy it. Just… don’t think about it too much or you’ll start to find it annoying. Fortunately, outside of his initial recruitment into this corporate intelligence group and his taking out a bunch of Mafia (who admittedly were not expecting an ex-Ranger to invade with guns and grenades) to save a cousin they were using as a prostitute, we don’t see anything about his Bond activities. That’s likely for the best.

Amusingly enough, a couple years back cartoonist Jay Naylor pulled an April Fool’s prank by stating he was going to recast the crew as humans. The drawings he did were quite good (Naylor’s a talented artist who makes a living on his art, though sadly enough it’s the porn he draws that is how he makes his money) and I’m left to wonder just how much of an impact Better Days would have had if he’d drawn his characters as people instead of anthros. There is a degree of separation (similar to that found in science fiction and other forms of fiction) that comes with drawing the characters as non-humans. Just imagine the impact of seeing a nine-year-old boy taking a baseball bat to the man raping his mother… or of the brief images of the twins when they had sex that one time? Or the utter anguish of Fisk as his best friend was forced to move away because his mother slept with his best friend’s dad? Would these not have deeper meaning and more immediate impact if these characters had been human?

Then again, that degree of separation might help readers from becoming too offended by the story. It’s easy to say “it’s just a story” when you’ve cat-people and mice-people and the like as your cast. But seeing them as people… and it might have been too much for Naylor’s readers. And that’s a shame, because even with this degree of separation the stories hit hard. Better Days is one of those comics you’re either going to love or hate. It’s not easy remaining ambivalent about it. And while some aspects of the story could have been told better, and Fisk seriously could have been toned down… it’s worth reading. (Small note – Better Days concluded last year. Its sequel, Original Life, focuses on Fisk’s three kids and is a far more light-hearted tale which I’ll review later.)

→ 11 Comments

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged , , , , , ,

The Adventures of Wiglaf and Mordred

Posted on November 27, 2009 by | 1 Comment

It’s been said that good webcomics are comprised of one part inspiration and nine parts perspiration. While this is true (and there is much to be said of the hard work that goes into creating a good webcomic), it is that element of inspiration that is so essential to the truly good comics. Without that inspiration, the cartoonist often fails to put enough effort into a comic to let it build into a success. With The Adventures of Wiglaf & Mordred, the element of inspiration lies with the main characters, Mordred and Wiglaf, which cartoonist Liliy loosely based off of the mythical characters (with Mordred being obviously from the Arthurian mythos, and Wiglaf from the Beowulf myths) and mixed together to create a whimsical and fascinating comic.

Needless to say, both Mordred and Wiglaf bear little resemblance to their literary counterparts. Mordred is a moody and apathetic would-be villain, while Wiglaf is a hero who is perfect at everything he does (except for keeping friends). Of the two, I find Wiglaf to be far more interesting because of the dichotomy of the character. Here we have a character that could easily be considered a “Mary Sue” style character. He’s extremely handsome (to the point that women swoon over him). He’s very strong. He’s able to do amazing feats, up to and including learning how to play the piano on the fly and in a matter of minutes outplay a professional pianist. And yet Liliy manages to keep Wiglaf interesting by giving him one significant character flaw: he can’t keep friends.

If you think of it, this makes perfect sense. The one aspect of the classical Mary Sue character that readers can’t stand is their very perfection (and how they outshine even long-established characters and yet win the respect and admiration of others while doing so). But outside of girls swooning over Wiglaf, he lacks this trait. People grow to dislike him rather quickly because few people enjoy being second-best, and Wiglaf can’t help but be better than other people. It’s in his very nature. The very friendship between Wiglaf and Mordred began when the latest bunch of Wiglaf’s “friends” dumped him while Wiglaf was talking to Mordred. As for his and Mordred’s friendship, it’s… complex. It started out as desperation by Wiglaf and Mordred’s manipulations and evolved from there.

The funny thing is, of the two characters, I like Wiglaf far more than Mordred. Perhaps part of this is due to the apathy of Mordred, which lessens his appeal to me, or the fact I’ve not seen much character growth in Mordred. Ironically enough, the apparent Mary Sue has shown considerable growth over the more flawed of the duo. Maybe that’s because Mordred doesn’t try and yet not only has a deep relationship with Wiglaf, as well as the affections of a childhood friend who’s head-over-heels for him for no reason I can identify, along with being the focus of a sibling rivalry by two of his older siblings (both of whom dote on him to the point he has restraining orders against them during family events).

As time passed, the cast for WaM has likewise grown. We’ve met pretty much all of Mordred’s family by now (with nearly all of them villains as well), and much of the extended cast tends to work for them. However, there is one character who has proven an enigma and is described by Liliy as a “running gag that got out of control,” with that being Security, a tall blonde chap with an armband with “Security” on it who can appear anywhere at any moment. In many ways Security reminds me of Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation, with the exception that where Q was often judgmental, Security is mostly whimsical and oddly helpful. I’ve long said the best stories write themselves; likewise, the best characters write themselves… and Security took the pen out of Liliy’s hands soon after he first appeared, and has become its most delightful element. It is aspects such as this, and the artful creation of an enjoyable perfect character (who is still very flawed when you look closely) that makes WaM well worth adding to your reading list.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged , , , ,

El Goonish Shive

Posted on November 10, 2009 by | Leave a comment

I have noticed that I tend to have a love-hate relationship with the comic El Goonish Shive. At times I hold cartoonist Dan Shive to a higher standard than newer comics. One reason for this undoubtedly is because I’ve been reading EGS for a while, but for the most part it is because Dan has talent as a storyteller, and I expect more out of him than out of some new cartoonist just starting down this path. And while Dan tends to avoid darker, more dramatic storylines than many of the storyline comics I read, when he does start down the more dramatic path I’m left both anticipating what should be an interesting story and dreading the inevitable backflips the comic will do to avoid any lasting harm to its cast.

Let’s face it. Most cartoonists care a great deal for their characters, and it can be quite difficult putting them through events that leave lasting scars on their psyches. If Dan has a problem, it’s that he loves his characters too much, especially Grace (who I suspect Dan looks at almost like a daughter, which may also explain her descent into personality-nerfing innocence compared to earlier scenes of Grace which hinted at a playful knowledge of what sleeping with Tedd could construe among other things). But while I may be less-than-happy about Grace’s devolution into a flat caricature who shows no lasting harm from the events she’s gone through, the recent storyline with antagonists Magus, “Chaos,” and Abraham have proven more interesting.

Abraham’s story (and his quest to find and kill Ellen) has taken much of this year to tell. Indeed, from mid-June EGS has been embroiled in several fights, starting with Abraham’s fight with Ellen’s history teacher (who’s been hiding the fact he’s a half-elven wizard, but hey, no one’s normal in EGS). Dan managed to successfully juggle a fight scene since mid-June with Nanase trying to reach Ellen and then later to save her from Abraham after the wizard took out the half-elven history teacher. And while the final fight (with Nanase having been granted some sort of “Guardian Angel” spell with which she finally forces Abraham to surrender) was perhaps rushed and a tad anti-climactic, the resulting twist with Magus, Tedd’s father, and “Chaos” has more than made up for it.

It was surprising to see Mr. Verres appear on the scene and take out Abraham, and perhaps a bit dark for Dan’s normal tendencies in storytelling. While Mr. Verres hasn’t had anywhere near the screen-time of the majority of the cast, the few times we’ve seen him he’s appeared almost a whimsical trickster, hiding such things as aliens and magical beings through deceptions that seem so laughable they shouldn’t work at all. But despite that, few people believed that Dan would walk down that dark path and have Mr. Verres kill a helpless Abraham, even under the influence of “Chaos” and Magus.

One problem cartoonists occasionally struggle with is predictability in their comic. It is human nature for cartoonists to want to surprise their readers with unexpected plot twists. Unfortunately, unless a cartoonist is especially sneaky (such as the creative duo for Footloose, who managed to avoid leaking any significant hints that one of their main characters was really a girl), some smart reader will manage to put together enough pieces of the comic to anticipate the surprise, and then convinces enough other readers of the twist (through forums or other social networking media) that the cat is out of the bag before the twist occurs.

At that point, cartoonists have three choices. First, they can rewrite the storyline and create a different twist. The problem with this approach is that these rewrites often suck and make minimal sense. It’s literally the cartoonist pulling a last-minute shift out of a petty need to not be anticipated (and even worse, sometimes this second twist is likewise anticipated and the cartoonist either has to try and salvage yet another twist or swallow their pride). The cartoonist can also try to do a minor rewrite, sticking with the main twist but adding something unexpected that helps keep things fresh. Finally, the cartoonist can just keep things as-is, and trust to the story.

Ultimately, what is important is the story itself. While a writer or cartoonist may feel disappointed that their hard-wrought plans were discovered prematurely, in many ways this is a sign of good storytelling. While it can be easy to avoid leaking any hints, this can leave the story as damaged as changing the plot mid-stream. For that matter, even the most obvious of twists can work, so long as the characters remain true to themselves and grow in the telling.

It was obvious to me that Magus would not amplify Mr. Verres’s anger and cause Mr. Verres to murder a helpless man, even at the proddings of “Chaos.” While Magus seems desperate to be released from his prison between worlds, the few glimpses we had of him did not suggest he was evil. Instead, he’s yet another tragic figure who will inevitably achieve some form of redemption in the ultimately happy world that Dan Shive has created. Yet in doing so, Dan has remained true to Magus. The twist was obvious… and yet expanded the character and allowed him to grow.

I’ve been critical of Dan in the past, especially when it comes to Grace (who Dan needs to allow to grow up… while the loss of her “innocence” may not be what Dan wants, it’s what the character needs to stop being a shallow caricature and become a person, warts and all). With Magus, he’s avoided those pitfalls. Perhaps it’s because he’s not as close to Magus as he is to his favorites… but it’s a lesson Dan needs to take to heart so that the rest of his characters can fulfill their own potentials.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic commentary

Tagged , , , , ,

Dominic Deegan

Posted on November 26, 2007 by | Leave a comment

One of my major gripes about Dominic Deegan lies with the fact that Dominic often saves the day, whether directly or manipulating things behind the scenes. To be honest, it was getting rather tedious. I mean, who honestly wants to read a story where you know the good guy is going to prevail and not even get his clothes scuffed? It’s like watching the New England Patriots thoroughly trounce another football team by 20 points. What’s the point? Where’s the enjoyment? (Then again, I’m not big into sports, partly because I dislike the big wins. When the game is tight, it’s different. But landslide victories are boring, be they sporting events or stories.)

So I’ve been rather surprised with the latest DD where Dominic has proven fairly ineffectual against the Demon Siegfried in his attempts to corrupt his former friends Jayden and Milov and drag them into the depths of Hell itself. I’m unsure if Michael Terracciano finally listened to complaints about the almost Mary Sue-esque nature of his star character or if he nerfed Dominic so to focus the strip more on Jayden and Milov’s struggle against Siegfried, but there is a definite feel to the comic lately that suggests that we could very well see the Fall of yet another hero. Indeed, it’s entirely possible (if unlikely) that Siegfried could prevail against his former friends.

The best stories are those where you can honestly believe the hero’s life is in danger. This sense of mortality in the hero humanizes them, and creates tension surrounding the story. It makes the story worth reading, and something that captures the imagination. People like to root for the underdog. Nor do heroes always have to win. You can lose a battle or two and still win the war. And sometimes… the cost of victory is so high that it is almost better to lose. It is these close fights that draw readers in. This sense of danger has long been lost to DD… and it’s a welcome surprise to see it return once again. If Dominic remains more human and less protagonist demigod, then Dominic Deegan may once again be worth reading.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged ,

Webcomic Commentary – Mary Sue Syndrome in Comics

Posted on November 18, 2007 by | Leave a comment


I think one of the more dreaded accusations that can be leveled against a webcomic character is that of being a Mary Sue. For the minute portion of my readership who is unfamiliar with the term, Mary Sues are contrived characters borne of fanfiction that are better than the people around them, more beautiful than pretty much everyone else, and often wins the hearts of those around her, or at the very least grudging respect of antagonists*. While the term originated in Star Trek fanfiction, it has since crept through the literary genre until any character could find the label of Mary Sue turned against them.

This is perhaps a tad unfair, especially when Mary Sue accusations are leveled against non-fanfiction protagonists. Indeed, in some ways accusations of Mary Sueism smacks of sexism. One example lies in the Harry Potter character of Hermione Granger, who has been declared by some to be a Mary Sue due to her talents as an excellent student and general know-it-all (though it may be more accurate to portray Hermione as a literary device which allowed J.K. Rowling to present information dumps to both the reader and to Hermione’s friends). Think for a moment if Ron Weasley had been the “smart one” of the trio; would accusations of Mary Sue (or Marty Stu for the more rare male incarnation) have been put forward? Or would it be considered a literary tradition that comes close to cliché, but which is still long accepted?

This inversion is what leads me to believe Mary Sueism to be an inherently sexist belief. The characters most often accused of being Mary Sues are strong female protagonists; indeed, the mere fact that a female protagonist is as skilled as her male counterparts can result in a knee-jerk declaration that the character is a Mary Sue. If the female character ends up being better than her male counterparts, then accusations of Sueism climb exponentially, especially if this strong female character ends up being at all attractive or charismatic.


It’s easy in the webcomic field to find characters who, with a cursory glance, could be accused of being Mary Sues. These female protagonists often are the stars of their comics, are often drawn as attractive and talented, and even hold a number of qualities that the Mary Sue genre has come to embrace. The question of which accusations are legit and which are sexist in nature become more difficult until you apply a simple gender inversion test; often if the female protagonist was male, the former Mary Sue is transformed into a “traditional” male protagonist.

An excellent example of this lies with the character of Agatha Clay from Girl Genius. With a cursory glance she parallels the traditions of Mary Sueism: she is a powerful Spark (which is sort of a “technological wizard” and “mad scientist” combined), she’s unknowingly the daughter of a famous and powerful Spark, she wins the affection of her chief antagonist’s son, she has a number of tremendously colorful friends/allies, and naturally enough she’s a buxom blonde lady who is quite attractive. But what happens when you shift the genders?

If “Agatha” were “Arthur” Clay, then the fact that “he” is a powerful Spark (yet not the most powerful Spark) becomes merely a literary tradition, especially when you consider Arthur is untrained. His mysterious past becomes something he needs to learn about, and his parentage a possible burden because of the difficulty in living up to the legend of such heroic parents.

Let’s subvert the story a bit more and switch Gil Wulfenbach to Jillian Wulfenbach. Funny enough, Jillian may be accused of being a Mary Sue in this inversion of the genders (and why do I somehow see the Foglios laughing when they hear about this article and planning their next little “short” story along this theme? Nah… just my imagination), but in many ways Jillian would fit in the Evil Overlords list of things to avoid: the beautiful and talented daughter of the Overlord who switches sides. Arthur Clay would fit into literary traditions at this point rather than under the dark cloud of Mary Sueism.

So, why does Agatha get labeled as a Mary Sue when Arthur would not? I believe part of it lies with the fact that Agatha is better than most men in her ability as a Spark. What would, with a male character, be considered a natural part of storytelling tradition gets twisted through the inherent sexist nature of the Mary Sue label. A strong female character will end up getting the short end of the stick if they prove themselves to be better than most men, despite the fact that male protagonists get away with this all the time.


Other examples also exist. Anne Onymous from The Wotch is another favorite target of Mary Sue accusations. Part of this lies with the fact that the author chose Anne Onymous as her internet handle, and so enjoyed the play on words she used it as a character name as well. Add in the fact that author-Anne initially used the character avatar as her own visage (no doubt out of laziness of not wanting to create a whole new character to represent herself) and these accusations of authorial insertion and Mary Sueism seem justified. Again, an inversion of genders (perhaps ironic in this case considering how often genders get swapped in The Wotch) shows that the character is less Mary Sue and more a traditional protagonist.

Andrew Onymous would be a young inexperienced but powerful wizard with potent enemies lurking in the background and testing the young wizard. His beautiful comrades are often turned into guys because Andrew is a bit annoyed with them for some of their at-times catty comments about the male gender… so he switched them just to show them what it’s like to be a guy. While Robyn’s not too comfortable with being a guy, Jasmine has grown to enjoy being Sam. And we see another example of how looking at a character as a male turns a Mary Sue into just another literary tradition.

I’d be remiss in my critical duties if I failed to mention Chelsea Chattan of Clan of the Cats, especially in light of recent developments with the epic Dracula storyline. Chelsea is not only a powerful witch (if one suffering under a curse that will eventually result in her going mad and either killing herself or becoming a bloodthirsty killer) but according to recent events, she may also be the embodiment of an actual Goddess. Seeing that Chelsea learned this while in Hell due to Dracula’s manipulations… and also that the first vampire, Lilith, has been manipulating events to bring about Dracula’s final destruction, and I’m left to wonder of the validity of these revelations of godhood.

Switching genders again shows a powerful protagonist who is fighting hard against forces that are greater than himself. Much like Harry Potter, Charles Chattan is facing a foe that he cannot defeat alone. (Indeed, it seems very likely that it’s Chelsea’s brother-in-law Paul who will strike the final blow to cut down Dracula, having created a stake out of something he truly believes in. For that matter, as Chelsea’s under Dracula’s control at the moment, it’s likely that her family will help her remember who she is, and fight off Dracula’s control. Hmm, being reliant on others… is that a Mary Sue trait?)


This is not to say that there aren’t actual Mary Sue characters in webcomics. MMOB: Minding My Own Business had a character who (while male) quickly embraced the traits of Mary Sueism to a degree where even though male, the character moved beyond acceptable male protagonist traits and into the realm of Mary Sueism. I’m sorry, but anyone who kicks the ass of a kickboxer with no martial arts training at all (and not by ambushing the guy) and who has the affection of a half dozen female characters, (as well as for other reasons I commented on earlier) has moved past the line of a badass character and into full-blown Mary Sueism.

Indeed, ironically enough MMOB has a male protagonist who, upon being female, becomes even more of a Mary Sue than before… and this is another sign of the sexist nature of the Mary Sue label. Reidar is bad enough as is. So then, why does turning Reidar female make things worse?

Mary Sueism is a problem with character writing. It is a corruption of decent storytelling, and threatens to transform a character from something sympathetic into a mere caricature. A strong protagonist isn’t a Mary Sue, whether male or female. Rather, Mary Sues are characters who rely on specific character traits and cliché plot points to create a cheap sense of sympathy for the character, often to compensate for shoddy writing skills. In the hands of a skilled writer, these very traits that are the core of a Mary Sue can be utilized in creating a three-dimensional protagonist with a story that captivates and enthralls most readers. It doesn’t matter if the character is male or female.

For this is the problem with the Mary Sue label. Gender matters. The mere fact that you can change a character’s gender and have her seem acceptable shows the inherent sexism within this characterization type. Strong women are not Mary Sues. To accuse them of being so not only is a slight against women, but against good storytelling.

* Debate over the exact definition of “Mary Sue” differs from person to person. Some believe that Mary Sues need to be authorial insertions; while others feel the character type needs a far more precise definition. Still, for a quick and dirty definition of Mary Sue, mine will work. My thanks to the Wikipedia and TV Tropes definition of Mary Sue, which possess fairly concise definitions of Sueism.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic commentary

Tagged ,

MMOB: Minding My Own Business

Posted on June 8, 2006 by | Leave a comment

(From MMOB: Minding My Own Business. Click on image to see it full-sized. Warning: the comic contains adult situations, extremely cynical and biting humor, and a lot of politically incorrect humor. Reader discretion is advised.)

Every so often, there is a comic out there that when you start reading it, you go “oh my God, I cannot believe they did that.” You start laughing, one of those nervous laughs of “this is horrible but hilarious, I can’t stop reading!” and next thing you know, it’s four in the morning and you’re halfway through the archives. One of the kings of this is Something Positive (though Questionable Content sometimes manages that as well), and S*P managed to do it so well I doubted I’d find its match. Thus when I happened across MMOB: Minding My Own Business, I quickly put aside the other strip I was reviewing and started a massive archive crawl.

Early MMOB was raw, passionate, and powerful. It was almost a combination of Blues Brothers and Something Positive mixed with a massive dose of cynicism. The hero of the comic, Reidar, is a DJ at a radio station who is always wearing a mobster-style hat and dark sunglasses, as well as a tie and dress-shirt. I mean, he’s on vacation and he’s still dressed in a dress shirt with tie.

The early comics revolve around Reidar and Janice and Erika, two girls who’ve hooked onto his life for no apparent reason other than the fact he wouldn’t jump in the sack with Erika despite her doing everything but stripping naked and jumping the guy. It’s not until four months later that we meet one of Reidar’s friends, Daniel.


Daniel himself is the start of a trend in MMOB in which all of Reidar’s male friends have zero luck with women. Reidar himself slowly descends into the maw of Mary Sueism as we learn that not only do Janice and Erika want him (and indeed start dating him at the same time) but also his co-worker Jo-ann, a long-distance girlfriend named Heidi whom he’s trying to remain faithful toward, another girl named Anita that knew him from high-school, and finally Lisa, who appears out of the blue and is all depressed because she wrongly thinks he’s gay. Not only does he have all these women chasing after him, but he’s able to beat up kick-boxers without training of any sort. He’s one third owner of a nightclub, and a popular radio DJ. In short, he descends into Mary Sue territory and only his sardonic and sarcastic wit manages to keep the comic from losing all entertainment value. (In that, my friend Steve disagrees.)

That hard edge to MMOB has softened. As things start going better for Reidar, he and the comic become “nicer” in some ways. The male cast started succumbing one by one to finding women interested in them. Daniel actually finds someone first, due to a dating service application Reidar filled out as an example for his friend. (That’s right; Daniel’s date is thanks to a description of Reidar. So once again it’s Reidar Sue’s ability to attract any woman he meets or who even hears about him that draws in the girl.) Sarcasm aside, Miriam’s attracted to Daniel because he’s nice, not because of anything Reidar does. Indeed, she doesn’t even care that Daniel didn’t fill out the application for the dating service.

Chris (who goes by the name “Light” in the nightclub he owns with Reidar and their partner “Moon”) has also run across a young lady interested in him despite the fact he’s rather shallow and self-centered. Of course, he’s not completely two-dimensional (which is one of the saving graces of this comic). Even in his shallowness Chris has a sense of morality. He considers girls who have boyfriends to be off-limits to fantasize about (and no doubt to hit on). The cynic in me says it’s to avoid being beaten up by angry boyfriends, but even so, how would they know he was daydreaming about their girl? It’s an interesting twist that transforms this character from caricature to person.


While Reidar is losing his cynical edge as things improve for him romantically (and I’m not going to spoil it for you, though some of those links might), Chris and Moon remain fairly resolute with their insults and zings back and forth. Some of these insults are rather nasty, in fact; I wonder at times how these two can remain friends with the insults they throw at each other. However, it may be because they’re such good friends that they’re able to heap abuse on each other. (Whether Chris’s new relationship will soften him remains to be seen.)

Oh, and the girls who were at the core of the early strips? After two years away from the comic (which translates to a couple of weeks in-comic), they reappear having fallen in love with each other and are willing to give up Reidar as a boyfriend. Considering he never did anything with them and started avoiding his apartment to stay away from them, I don’t think he is very disappointed.

Unfortunately, the problems with MMOB may never be resolved. Rainer Koreasalo has gone on several hiatuses of late, and has been thinking of moving on to other projects. The first signs of this were at the sudden splurge of sketches he started putting up instead of comics. Eventually these sketches started to tell their own story paralleling what was going on in the comic itself.

Koreasalo is also worried at how the number of characters in the comic has skyrocketed. Each character wants their own story told and keeps pulling the comic in different directions. Hopefully instead of ending the comic he’ll cut back on his regular (pre-hiatus) update schedule and work on both his new ideas and the current book.

No matter what his final decision, the truth is that MMOB has lost a lot of the hard edge that drew me in originally. Characters grow and mature in time. But there is a way to retain that hard edge even as the characters grow. Other comics have walked this path and continue to hit hard with comics that shock and scandalize even as they entertain. If you don’t mind relationship comics and the softer edge that this comic has taken, then MMOB will continue to entertain you. But if you’re here for hard cutting humor like that found in Something Positive, you may be best suited reading the first couple of years of the comic and then leaving after Anita appears on the scene.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webcomic review

Tagged ,