One thing I hate about guys that complain about Mary sues is that they never complain about “Gary Stus.” For example, Light Yagami was kind of a Gary Stu. He had an IQ of 215–230, he was handsome, the most popular kid in his school, and his family was upper middle class. Jace Wayland from Shadowhunters is an arrogant, brooding bad boy who’s a master martial artist, who women fawn over, and is basically the fantasy of what men and women think a cool bad boy is. Tony Stark is a multi-billionaire with multiple armored, superpowered suits that basically make him Superman, and Superman himself is basically a god.
Are these characters bad? No. I love all of them, but let’s be real here… they could be considered male Mary Sues, and these guys never bring that up.
Now, not every character or show has to be relatable. Peter Parker works because he’s an everyman; however, the opposite can also be true, and people like fantasy escapism. That’s why soap operas about wealthy people or sitcoms about financially stable families are popular, because it’s a form of escapism this goes for Mary Sues and Gary Stus too.
I’ll give you a better Gary Stu example - Superman. The guy was originally designed to be all-perfect, all-knowing, all-seeing and incredibly strong with a reinforced moral system for good. He has to always be the one saving the day, he’s got the looks and that ran for a very long time. Up until the 90s did we get ballsy writers to actually kill him off temporarily, but even then he came back shortly after renewed.
Quite frankly, I don’t like Superman that much for that reason. Sure he’s been going through different arcs in the past 30 - 40 years that challenges his mystique but I can’t care enough for him to even feel slightly in favor of him.
Batman is more of my level. Sure, he has his fair deal of plot armor, but his origin has always been that he was just a guy who has a lot of wealth and wears a bat suit while wielding lots of technology at his disposal. He can still get his ass kicked, he can still be succumbed to everything a normal human would suffer with and isn’t too afraid to admit that he’s human who would need help from more capably powerful heroes.
I recently got into Superman because of the new movie and I watched all the other live action Superman films, including the old serials. I’m way more interested in Lois Lane than Superman. I expected her to just be a damsel in distress but she is far more interesting than that. Depending on the film, she fulfills the role of a damsel in distress sometimes, a romantic partner to Superman/Clark sometimes, someone trying to unmask Superman sometimes, and a heroic reporter trying to uncover the villain’s plot sometimes. She is brave and heroic but also sometimes very impulsive. She can be a bad girl sometimes. In the Richard Donner cut of Superman 2, she shoots Clark to trick him into revealing himself. In the 1948 serial, she gets Clark falsely arrested so she can get a scoop herself. She has a dark side. I’m surprised to see a boy scout like Superman/Clark is in love with someone who has such a bad side. She’s ultimately a good person but she is quite impulsive