I’d go for “Poochie”… First, because it is born out of a corporate decision, not from the reader’s own choice. Also, the name sounds ridiculous, and these characters look ridiculous to the average reader, who can’t figure why the other characters think he /she is so “cool”

An example of this, for me, are Spielberg’s “Tiny Toons” or “Animaniacs”, always in that “hey! Ain’t we funny and cool!” pose which wasn’t funny or cool at all: they just vampirized previous characters who had been tested and tried through the years and earned, bona-fide, the love of spectators

(And there’s no better example than Cable. His powers, his background, his personality– nothing was actually interesting about the guy except that suddenly all of the long-established characters in every x-book were in awe of him, so the fans were, too.)

Yeah, Wolverine has certainly been ‘Jonathaned’ over the years, but I don’t think that makes him a Mary Sue.

I mean, in his literary “life” Wolverine has been (and forgive me if I flub here) a spy, a super soldier, a victim of experimentation, a ninja, a samurai, an adventurer, a post apocalyptic hero, a hard core crime noir tough guy complete with eye patch, and a space hero. He’s been a gruff father figure and a berserker killing machine. And for the ultimate anti-authoritarioan loner, he’s been on at least 4 super teams that I can think of (compare to stiff boyscout Cyclops who’s been on what one? Two if you count X-factor and even then that was just the classic x-men rebranded).

Wolvie went from being a guy with metal claws who could heal to being effectively immortal, super strong, and having the most precious and ubiquitious substance in the Marvel U (which became the benchmark for “unbreakable” essentially) implanted in him. And when he lost that, they gave him bone claws that could carve up rock. His lifespan was extended so he could be born in a Victorian novela and live long enough to fight World War II, the Cold War and pretty much every other “greatest generation” event in the 20th century. Plus, he’s had an affair with just about every “perfect woman” archetype possible.

And to top it all off, he was the archetype for every ’90s badass “post bronze age” hero in look and attitude.

I mean check out this quote from his bio on Wikipedia (which I don’t normally trust but this included a reference from Wolverine #51) that his physical and mental state was “equivalent of an Olympic-level gymnast performing a gold medal routine while simultaneously beating four chess computers in his head.”

Come on. Popular icon or not, that’s beyond a Mary Sue or a Marty Stu. That’s Wolvie.

Why? “Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you.” That’s not too obscure a reference.

Plus, as a woman’s name, it bears a general similarity to the ‘Mary Sue’ phenomenon it’s related to.

Great point. They were trying to push Tim Drake as great from the get-go, and it worked.

Might be hard to tell, because if it did work, people would tend to forget that the popular character was at first “rammed down their throats.”

To take one possible example, maybe Hawkeye? From obscure Iron Man antagonist to fan-favorite Avenger? (To this day, that *first* “New Avengers” team with Cap, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch, looks like a remarkably gutsy move by Marvel.)

The Connor Hawkes and Drakkons of the world though are the guys who are the reverse, the writers push the exposure first in hopes that fan popularity comes later. (Has this ever worked?)

“http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/3234/marysueft9.gif”

Not all self-insertions are necessarily Mary Sues, or even Pet Characters. For example, the “Grant Morrison” character in Animal Man is a self-insertion, but neither of the other things.

The Fonz was a supporting character on Happy Days who:

-overtook the main characters.
- the writers favored.
- was defined as being “the coolest.”
- jumped the shark.

I realize Fonzie was legitimately popular, but the term could fit. Comic book (and other serial media) writers try and make their favorite character a Fonzie.”

Your right that Fonzie was overused, but he was actually cool.

Poochie is to Fonzie what Daken is to Wolverine.

The Fonz was a supporting character on Happy Days who:

-overtook the main characters.
- the writers favored.
- was defined as being “the coolest.”
- jumped the shark.

I realize Fonzie was legitimately popular, but the term could fit. Comic book (and other serial media) writers try and make their favorite character a Fonzie.

This is what I’m talking about. Wolverine isn’t forced in people’s faces in a desperate attempt to make him popular. He IS popular and he’s in a lot of books because it makes them sell more.

He’s the anti-Poochie. He’s the character people try to emulate when they create a Poochie.

Got it right. Wolvie is popular so he gets ridiculously preferential writing treatment. What Brian’s talking about are characters that get the ridiculously preferential writing treatment first because the writer desperately WANTS to make the characters popular. I think “Trophy Wife” is the best term I’ve heard so far. I’d also like to nominate such characters be called “Hard Sells” as the writers are pulling out all the stops to get you to buy in.