Yes, Shadow, I once posted a parody Mary Sue:
Clark stared with astonishment at the beautiful young woman before him. True, she was gorgeous enough to stun anybody, but that was not the reason for his current state of stupefaction. Some four inches shorter than his own height of six feet, she was actually standing eye-to-eye with him -- because her dainty, pink-varnished toes were hovering four inches off the ground.
She could fly! She had super-powers like his!
"How...?" he stammered. "I don't -- who are you?"
She smiled softly, her perfect white teeth flashing in the starlight. "I am your twin sister," she said, her musical voice piercing through his veins with an uneasy thrill.
"My twin sister?" Clark repeated. He found that he could not take his eyes off her -- her lovely blond curls that cascaded over her slim shoulders, her cerulean blue eyes that sparkled like the most pristine of seas, the ruby lips curved in a smile that cast an enchantment over any male that ever saw her. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Even though Lois told him that he was okay-looking -- well, maybe a little more than okay-looking -- how could he possibly be the twin of the vision of perfection that stood before him? His stomach squirmed uncomfortably as he realized that his adoration for her was not even remotely brotherly.
"Yes," she affirmed. Her long, silky eyelashes fluttered momentarily, and Clark watched, entranced, as a single tear, the shape and sheen of a perfect diamond, slowly slid down the alabaster skin of her cheek. "It grieves me, Kal-El, that we have never met before."
"Why?" he asked, anguished. "Why was I never permitted to see you? And how did you arrive here on Earth?"
She lowered her eyelids for a moment, wondering what to say. She knew it would be too difficult to explain that she was really his twin sister from an alternate universe, where Lara had died in her teens and Jor-El had come to earth and married Bruce Wayne's twin sister, who had given birth to a girl rather than a boy. She understood that this strange truth was the cause of Clark's feelings of unbridled passion towards her; after all, they were not really brother and sister at all. Yet she, knowing that she was Clark's counterpart from another universe, realized how wrong it would be to requite his love. No, it would be better if he remained ignorant of the warped reality of their existence and continue to believe they were sister and brother.
"The story would be too long to tell," she demurred, her voice lowering to an octave that sent shivers down Clark's spine. "But I have come to help you in your battle for truth, justice, and better fashion sense. "
She paused for a moment, wondering if she ought to mention her amazing spiritual powers, powers that only a female Kryptonian could possess. But with her typical modesty, she decided to remain silent. Why make Clark feel insecure? She would only demonstrate her awesome abilities, so far beyond Clark's own, if circumstances demanded a deus ex machina on her part. The opportunity would most likely arise some time in the very near future, anyway.
"I will be honored to have you on my side," Clark said, humbly and huskily. "But tell me, please -- what is your name?"
"I?" Her smile once again flashed in the starlight. "I am Haz-El."
Blame it on Jenni, who once suggested on IRC that I should use the nick "Haz-El" instead of "Hazel."
But that's only one kind of Mary Sue -- the "adult" version, so to speak. Then you've got this kind, photoshopped by the indomitable Zoomway:
![[Linked Image]](http://www.kryptonknights.com/fanfic/marysue.jpg)
That's the kind that brings LnC together, rather than gets in the way. Although she's doing a pretty good job of getting in the way in that pic, isn't she?
Her backstory will often include a rewriting of canon that allows her to have helped one of the main characters do something crucial in the past. The real litmus test for Mary Sue, I think, boils down to this: if the author's OC (that's original character) trumps the regular characters at every turn, and if the regular characters are either OOC (out of character) to make the OC look good or simply stupid for the same reason, you've got yourself a Mary Sue.
Hazel
Anyone who's sick of Mary Sues will love it.
