Is this character too perfect, underpowered, or what?

Character is a 23-year-old genius computer hacker who can compromise and secure almost any system. During her years in university, she was one of the brightest computer science/engineering students, involved in research projects in computer security, and often the talk of the department. She touched off controversy by criticizing her fellow students for their lack of political engagement, when one of them criticized her for her choice of boyfriend—instead of dating a fellow computer geek, she struck up a relationship with a smooth-talking and handsome polisci student; the two seemed to bond over their interest in political developments the world around.

She is generally amiable in personality, but has a bit of a commanding aura about her. She looks rather plain, but with a little touch of (deceptively) child-like cuteness.

In the time of the story, she and said boyfriend, now her fiancee, work as special agents for the world government organization, specializing in espionage. They are among a small group of special agents with superhuman abilities granted by implanted handwavium nanomachines; this group is not surprisingly the main cast. Her superhuman abilities are: (1) to transform her appearance into that of any other human, and (2) mental link with her partner (who is her fiancee), i.e. they can share thoughts and sensations remotely. She has no combat abilities apart from standard firearms and martial arts training, while the rest of the cast has often deadly and sometimes absurdly powerful combat abilities, such as super strength and speed, energy-based throwing-knives on demand, aerial bombardment capability, and ability to control electric/magnetic fields; each of them alone is capable of wiping out a small army, given reasonably favorable conditions (and sometimes even reasonably unfavorable conditions!).

Is this character sounding like a Mary Sue, or is she totally underpowered relative to the rest of the cast, or what?

Edit: Limitation on her first ability: She has to know what to transform into. She can't transform into someone whose appearance she doesn't know; the quality of the disguise is directly related to how much she knows of the target's physical appearance and how much time she has to put details into the transformation. This includes such things as birthmarks and fingerprints; she'll need to know about them to replicate them.

Her role in the story is as the perspective character—it is her logs of the events that you read. (As well as someone else's logs, later on.)

edited 25th Jan '11 12:49:06 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

Could go either way.

On one hand, you have an uber-talented computer specialist/hacker who basically gains superpowers, which- while not as strong as the rest of the cast's, could still give her a major advantage in any engagement-, and calls out the rest of her colleagues for not getting politically engaged (Uhhhhhhh what? Exactly why should her colleagues give a flying fuck about politics?)

But on the other hand, if the other characters are more physically powerful than her...

I guess it all depends on how you plan on handling the character.

How much do the other super human characters influence the story? Do they make important decision? Superpowers only count towards Mary Sue if she's the only one who has them.

I'm somewhat curious about that controversy in college. Does that affect the overall plot? If it comes to bite the main character in the ass, that would reduce the Mary Sue risk.

As the others said, the political thing is the only one seeming particularly suish. Her powers depend totally on the power level of the other people, but that kind makes her sound like a bitch. Especially because, her being the protagonist AND more or less perfect for a college student, it will be immediately assumed that she's supposed to be completely right.

She's not the protagonist.

Well, at least, not one of the primary ones.

As for that controversy in college, I kinda tacked that on last night as I was trying to flesh out her characterization. Do you have a better idea? The identity of her fiancee is fixed, though, for design purposes.

edited 25th Jan '11 9:28:02 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

My opinion of Mary Suehood is that yes, some traits do make it more likely (physical perfection, magic abilities etc.), But it's really all about how you write and focus the story. I think with the right spin on it, you could dodge Mary Sue status easily enough. I recommend 2 prescriptions:

1) Don't overemphasize her betterness, or make her say that her college colleagues are just jealous/don't understand her etc. If anything, make her coworkers point out her weaknesses, and even let her acknowledge them.

2) Devote time to giving her real human flaws, and not just an Informed Flaw. A good balance between likability and a helping of personality imperfection wards off Mary Sue status pretty well I think.

Take these twice daily on an empty stomach and talk to your doctor if symptoms persist. Hope that helps!

edited 25th Jan '11 2:12:57 PM by Boredknight