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meganbmoorefyi( in case anyone here doesn't know, though I suspect most on my flist do), Gary Stu is the male equivalent of a Mary Sue...a wishfulfillment type character for whom the writer tends to sacrifice other characters of the same gender in favor of, and alter other characters to make their character seem better. Mostly found in fanfics, but as fans of comics and TV series and other mediums where TPTB and casts tend to change know, they exist in canon, too. And they gobble up and destroy everything they touch.
See: Patrick Gleason in Witchblade.
Now, I love Ron Marz's current run on Witchblade. He gets the core concept...a strong, intelligent female cop who becomes the keeper of an ancient, destructive, mystical weapon and gets stuck involved in all sorts of supernatural capers. His stories are great and his Sara is the strongest, most intelligent, capable Sara we've had. And for that, I love him and his run.
The problem is his own characters. Or one.
The curator? Doesn't bother me. In fact, I rather like him and it's about time Sara met someone in the supernatural world who doesn't want to kill or control her, either by choice or force(there's Magdalena and Jackie, but that's more "peacefully coexist and hope we don't have to kill each other one day" and "reluctantly coexist but call me if you need me" respectively) Dani? Not big on her yet, but she doesn't bother me. She's not being portrayed as Sara's match, much less as being better than her. In fact, Dani is portrayed as having worlds to go before she's on Sara's level, and I don't think we're even SUPPOSED to like her yet...she's portrayed to us the way she appears to Sara...a brat who apparently has no manners and is in no way ready to be the bearer of the witchblade. We're not supposed to look at her and go "hey, she'll be a cool wielder," we're supposed to look at her and go "how the heck is she actually going to be a competent wielder of the Witchblade?"
But Patrick Gleason? A whole other story.
When he first showed up, I liked him ok, but I assumed he was just a temporary stand in for Jake, who he was obviously just another version of. Of course, by the end of THAT arc, it was obvious Gleason was staying and Jake was gone, at least for a bit. Now, here's the thing...Witchblade is one of those books where part of the appeal is that all the characters are inherently messed up. With Jake, his thing was that he was a nice, earnest guy and a good cop who did his best, but he was also a screw up who was hopelessly in love with a woman(Sara) who, while she loved and valued him more than pretty much anyone else, was never going to love him the way he wanted her to. Jake's love for Sara is "you are my true love, lets go make babies" while Sara's love for Jake is "you're the sweetest guy I know and the little brother I never had and probably the best person I know." He knew there was this world out there he knew nothing about, and that Sara was involved with it somehow, and he hated that she was keeping secrets from him, but he stood by her side and did what he could to support her. Jake was an incredibly imperfect character who did what he could, and for that, I loved him(and, you know, he's a nice guy and a total sweetheart)
Which brings us to Gleason. By his second issue, he seemed to pretty clearly be little more than Marz's idea of what Jake SHOULD be like, and who had a chance with Sara. But the thing is, he has no flaws, the guy's perfect. Big supernatural world? No problem. He takes everything in stride and reacts to everything perfectly. I mean, he wasn't even phased by the fact that his girlfriend(who completely should not be his girlfriend because, frankly, if Sara was ever going to fall for a normal guy, she would have long ago) who hasn't had sex in a year(Megan interprets as: the last time Ian was around and sane) is pregnant. His girlfriend's hot british-assassin-ex shows up and he gets shooed off? He has no problems with that, which isn't natural, for a cop OR a guy. All he is is a collection of "perfect guy" mannerisms and is boring in the extreme. What little bits of personality he has are "improved" bits borrowed from Jake.
Now, if he were his own, original character, I wouldn't mind him as much(even if Jake served as the starting point, as long as he became his own character), but he's an inferior version of Jake who we're supposed to see as Jake being done right. All Marz is doing with him is doing his version of what he thought Jake and Sara should have been like from the beginning, and it's boring and it doesn't suit Sara at all.
And I won't get into the character and relationship assassinating Jake and Ian went through to make this guy look good.
See: Patrick Gleason in Witchblade.
Now, I love Ron Marz's current run on Witchblade. He gets the core concept...a strong, intelligent female cop who becomes the keeper of an ancient, destructive, mystical weapon and gets stuck involved in all sorts of supernatural capers. His stories are great and his Sara is the strongest, most intelligent, capable Sara we've had. And for that, I love him and his run.
The problem is his own characters. Or one.
The curator? Doesn't bother me. In fact, I rather like him and it's about time Sara met someone in the supernatural world who doesn't want to kill or control her, either by choice or force(there's Magdalena and Jackie, but that's more "peacefully coexist and hope we don't have to kill each other one day" and "reluctantly coexist but call me if you need me" respectively) Dani? Not big on her yet, but she doesn't bother me. She's not being portrayed as Sara's match, much less as being better than her. In fact, Dani is portrayed as having worlds to go before she's on Sara's level, and I don't think we're even SUPPOSED to like her yet...she's portrayed to us the way she appears to Sara...a brat who apparently has no manners and is in no way ready to be the bearer of the witchblade. We're not supposed to look at her and go "hey, she'll be a cool wielder," we're supposed to look at her and go "how the heck is she actually going to be a competent wielder of the Witchblade?"
But Patrick Gleason? A whole other story.
When he first showed up, I liked him ok, but I assumed he was just a temporary stand in for Jake, who he was obviously just another version of. Of course, by the end of THAT arc, it was obvious Gleason was staying and Jake was gone, at least for a bit. Now, here's the thing...Witchblade is one of those books where part of the appeal is that all the characters are inherently messed up. With Jake, his thing was that he was a nice, earnest guy and a good cop who did his best, but he was also a screw up who was hopelessly in love with a woman(Sara) who, while she loved and valued him more than pretty much anyone else, was never going to love him the way he wanted her to. Jake's love for Sara is "you are my true love, lets go make babies" while Sara's love for Jake is "you're the sweetest guy I know and the little brother I never had and probably the best person I know." He knew there was this world out there he knew nothing about, and that Sara was involved with it somehow, and he hated that she was keeping secrets from him, but he stood by her side and did what he could to support her. Jake was an incredibly imperfect character who did what he could, and for that, I loved him(and, you know, he's a nice guy and a total sweetheart)
Which brings us to Gleason. By his second issue, he seemed to pretty clearly be little more than Marz's idea of what Jake SHOULD be like, and who had a chance with Sara. But the thing is, he has no flaws, the guy's perfect. Big supernatural world? No problem. He takes everything in stride and reacts to everything perfectly. I mean, he wasn't even phased by the fact that his girlfriend(who completely should not be his girlfriend because, frankly, if Sara was ever going to fall for a normal guy, she would have long ago) who hasn't had sex in a year(Megan interprets as: the last time Ian was around and sane) is pregnant. His girlfriend's hot british-assassin-ex shows up and he gets shooed off? He has no problems with that, which isn't natural, for a cop OR a guy. All he is is a collection of "perfect guy" mannerisms and is boring in the extreme. What little bits of personality he has are "improved" bits borrowed from Jake.
Now, if he were his own, original character, I wouldn't mind him as much(even if Jake served as the starting point, as long as he became his own character), but he's an inferior version of Jake who we're supposed to see as Jake being done right. All Marz is doing with him is doing his version of what he thought Jake and Sara should have been like from the beginning, and it's boring and it doesn't suit Sara at all.
And I won't get into the character and relationship assassinating Jake and Ian went through to make this guy look good.