Mary Sue’s are the worst, I mean seriously. The only time a Mary sue is fun, is if you are the Mary Sue! Typically they lead to lazy writing, boring stories and a cheap way out of any situation. They are Typically an outcome of poor writing. What I want to investigate today is: Is Jack Reacher a Mary Sue, and if he is, Why does it work?

In Short, Jack Reacher is a Mary Sue. He is perfect in combat, perfect in genetics and almost always right. He is By far the most powerful character in the “Jack Reacher Books” and always gets himself out of a sticky situation.

So that’s it, answered. You can stop reading now if you would like, however I urge you to read on and uncover just exactly what is going on to make Jack Reacher work.

What Is A “Mary Sue”?

A Mary Sue is a character who is the best of the best, they can do no wrong, and always come out on top. They are unrealistically perfect, Overly Competent, have perfect morals and are never truly challenged.

This Type of character almost always results in boring storytelling, non existent stakes and overall just a dull experience. Think about it, would you rather pay to watch two tanks battle in an arena, or a tank and a scooter? The tanks right? No-one wants to see a landslide, it’s boring in lifeless. If your character just comes in and saves the day, or defeats every single enemy instantly your going to lose interest incredibly quickly, you’re story will be predictable.

How Is Reacher A “Mary Sue”

So We have established what a Mary Sue is, But how does Jack Reacher apply? How does he fit the title of Mary Sue?

So as I have stated before a Mary sue is always the best, They are Overly competent. Jack Reacher fits this to a T, the man is 6’5″ and 250 pounds, so there is virtually no-one who can challenge him on size. Pair that with his incredible fighting prowess and you start to realise he has no real challenge on physicality. Except for Paulie, but I will cover him very shortly.

So Physically Reacher has it covered, a great way to PREVENT him from being a Mary Sue is for him to be intellectually rivalled. This would lead to a Braun vs Brain type scenario, and have some uncertainty regarding the storyline. However Jack Reacher is also A genius as well, the man is an expert strategist, speaks at least 3 foreign languages and is pretty much always right.

Whilst this may seem boring, it allows the story to pivot to different angles. Paulie is a good example of this, he trumps Reacher Physically, so it means he must outsmart Paulie, meaning he isn’t just clean sweeping every scenario all the time. There is some aspect of challenge.

In Reacher’s Defence

I imagine “in Lee Child’s Defence” may have been more suitable for this but as Reacher says “don’t focus on what you did wrong, focus on how to make it right.”

It’s all well and good looking at Jack Reacher and saying “he’s the toughest, he’s the smartest, he always comes out on top, therefore he is a Mary Sue!” That may be true, but if you look at the context regarding his character you will see it works, hell 1 billion dollars and 100 million book sales kind of “works”.

The action/Thriller genre is full of Mary Sues: James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher. These are all great selling books and overall great stories, and that is because its not “If” the hero can beat the bad guy, it’s “HOW.” Plus part of the fun of jack Reacher is just because of how badass he is, you want to be him, and who doesn’t want to see a badass guy beat up bad guys.

Also The Genre he is in, the scenarios he gets into are tailored to his strengths. Jack Reacher has Flaws, in fact they are pretty obvious, he is terrible socially and a loner. Reacher may like being alone, but as a main character being poor socially is a flaw, Thankfully for Reacher, being antisocial actually adds to his badass persona. This Lack of social ability, proves that Jack Reacher is not perfect and not a 100% a Mary Sue.

In Short…

Jack Reacher Probably is a Mary Sue, he always is the biggest, he is always the smartest and most importantly he always wins. But A Mary Sue in Jack Reacher’s Genre isn’t a bad thing in fact it’s most likely a good thing, he is who you want to be, and why wouldn’t you want to be the best of the best.

Jack Reacher is a Mary Sue, But he’s a damn good one.