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Well.
I scored a 56 on the Mary Sue Litmus Test for my self-inserted character in the x-men fan-fic. Apparently, anything over 50 generates the response "kill it dead."
The trouble is, I'm not really sure if it's applicable to this character- and my character has lots of flaws that make her more realistic because hey, she's me and I have low self-esteem, she NEEDS flaws.
Okay, first of all, a Mary Sue is a fanfiction term for a character that is basically a glorified version of the author, a wish-fufillment fantasy taken to ridiculous levels. They are traditionally gorgeous, brilliant, powerful, sexy, etc, etc, all rolled up into one, and their flaws are things like "too gorgeous" or "can't be mean to people." They make reading a boring slog of "why do I care that this person's life is great" and they usually get it on with various canon characters (that's the ones that were in the original book or, in this case, comic). 
And yes, I fully admit that I totally inserted myself into my x-men fanfiction, because let's be honest here, it's easier to write about a character you know. That's why the hardest part of the first three books was the research on blood and disassociative identity disorder and the hardest part of the three I'm working on now is figuring out how a man would think in various situations.I'll even allow that there's some wish fulfillment in there, I mean, living in a fantasy world is why I write in the first place.
BUT.
I'm totally honest about myself. The character doesn't just share my interests, she shares my flaws- like she can't say no to her friends, even if it's not in her best interest or in the best interest of the world at large, and she's generally trusting of authority unless someone else tells her not to be. She's more decisive and handles scary situations better than I think I would, but that's just because the plot would kinda falter if the main character hid in the bushes for the duration of the big battle scene. AND she looks like me- flaws and all. She's not overweight anymore, like I am, but honestly, X-men have training like all the time and you can't do an hour of intense
physical training once a day for months and not either die or get some sculpting to your body. She has skin problems and her hair and eyes are a boring brown like mine, and she has a boring name and no back story because she's ME and I don't really have a back story as such, just "grew up in your typically WASP household with married parents and no real strife." She's smart but she counters that by being clumsy and not that athletic, and she sucks at the combat sessions and at using her powers because they're new to her and she obviously doesn't have them mastered yet.
I go on in a lot more detail, but I'm being nice and trimming this entry.
Of course, in all of this there's the ultimate fact that it's just fanfiction, and no one will ever read it unless I give up on my real wish-fulfillment fantasy, admit it's never going to get published in a million years, and post it on a fanfiction website. So honestly, it doesn't really matter what it says. Still. I'd hate to think of myself as a Mary-Sue writer, the bane of fanfiction readers the world over. I dunno, maybe I should find someone to check it over for me and determine if it sounds ridiculous (er, that is, any more ridiculous than X-men canon, which is pretty damn out there).It's currently over 400 pages in Word and possibly complete drivel, for all I know. Any volunteers?
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