Linda Park
26 years ago - Linda Park is born.
4 years ago - 22-year-old Linda graduates & begins her career as a reporter in Keystone city, and marries Wally West.
2 years ago - 24-year-old Linda's first novel is published, a sci-fi romance novel called "Best-Laid Plans",
now - 26-year-old Linda's labor is trigger when Wally West uses her as a lightning rod to ground himself and return from running directly into the Speed Force to outrun time itself and save her from Hunter Zolomon. their twin children Irey West & Jai West are born.
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There's a surprising amount of content to unpack in Linda. She is at once a fascinating re-imagining of a superhero's love interest while also being hemmed in by some of the more tired tropes afflicting this sort of character. Despite this, within Linda are the foundations of a fantastic new take on this sort of character and of a superhero's supporting cast in general.
To begin with, the thing that makes her stand out is that she was introduced as a sort of antagonist to Wally. There are lots of reporters in the DC universe, but generally they work WITH the heroes of the book. Linda and Wally were immediately at odds with each other. It established her as her own character with her own agenda and her own agency. Also, she was undeniably a minority, and clearly depicted that way. We should point out that one unique thing about Wally is that he was never too concerned with his secret identity. Different writers have played that element up to varying degrees of success, and it's been removed from continuity more than once, but generally it's accepted as true. |
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A long-time trope of the romantic interest of various superheroes is that they have to maintain a secret identity to protect their loved ones. As Wally and Linda grew closer over time, it turned that idea on it's head, because Wally wasn't avoiding telling her the truth to protect her, he was avoiding a RELATIONSHIP to protect her.
This seems like a tiny difference, but the implications are huge. The fact that it somehow became a standard trope of comics that these characters (almost exclusively men, because sexism) maintain relationships with women that they are lying to on a regular basis should really be way more off-putting than we let it. Whatever else Wally was doing, he wasn't lying to Linda. Denying his feelings for her and his desire to be with her is still pretty lousy, but at least there's an element of heroic sacrifice to it. Also, as Linda wins him over and CHOOSES to be with him despite the danger, and they choose to enter a relationship with the full knowledge of the possible implications, it might be one of the most honest and forthright relationships to grow in comics. There's a purity to it that feels more genuine than so much of what we see elsewhere. When Wally is lost to the speed force and is able to find his way back by focusing on her, it could have been a pretty hackneyed story decision, but instead it felt completely real. |
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Unfortunately, over time, Linda fell victim to some of the tired story elements that often wind up making the love interests of various superheroes carbon copies of each other. While she and Wally chose to face the danger of being in a relationship together, as those dangers played out she wasn't always written as someone who could handle them. She occasionally displayed the sort of fortitude that had allowed her to make this choice in the first place, but she just as often became a sort of victim du-jour. The trust and mutual respect that was the foundation of their relationship was soon giving way to the one-sided victim/protector paradigm that plagues superhero relationships.
Also, depending on the artist, she was starting to occasionally be drawn in a way that hid her status as a minority character. It was fine making her look asian when she was an antagonist, but not everyone seemed comfortable with the love interest being anything but a slightly ethnic looking white woman. Thankfully, these are exceptionally easy mistakes to correct. By allowing the fact that Wally doesn't really commit to a secret identity, we can let Linda be the bold, self-assured character that chooses to be in a relationship with the man she loves no matter the danger. We've removed all the retroactive rewrites that remove the general knowledge of Wally's identity from the public at large, and any mention of Linda being lost to the timeline. She's a savvy journalist, a committed career woman, a loving wife, and a new mother to little Irey & Jai. Some stories are better the less you mess with them. |
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