The Four Color Media Monitor

When Marvel abruptly changed Moira Mactaggart into a mutant in the X-Men pages a few years ago, they diminished the significance of the notable co-star, turning her into yet another superpowered being for the sake of it. Now, as reported by ComicBook, it appears DC is doing something similar with 3rd Flash Wally West's wife, Linda Park:

Heading into the issue, readers of The Flash already know that Linda has been dealing with a bit of a power surge all of her own as she's been shown to have developed speedster powers of her own. It's something that doesn't really have an explanation but has allowed Linda a new way to connect to her heroic husband. It's also important context to keep in mind for the end of the issue.

After reading Linda's novel, Wally decides he wants to support and celebrate his wife. He gets a babysitter for their ids and asks her want she wants to do next to which Linda replies that she has a "crazy craving for sea salt caramel gelato". It's a very specific craving and Wally reminisces that when she was pregnant with their twins, that's what she craved all the time and he had to run all over to get it for her. It slowly dawns on both of them that if she's craving that same very specific thing now it might just have the same meaning again and the end of the issue finds the couple wondering if Linda is, in fact, pregnant.

With another child, right? While I think child-bearing is important for keeping the world going in real life, and marriage is a great thing too, I think what the unbearable Geoff Johns set up nearly 2 decades back didn't help the Flash in the long run, because while marriage is great in adventure fare, it doesn't always avail serial fiction until you actually start drawing things to a close. If anything, story quality in the years since has been poor, since, lest we forget, Wally and Linda were kicked to the curb for at least a decade in favor of Barry Allen being revived, in storylines that went nowhere fast, and forcibly changed his history so it'd be more grisly. That it occurred in-story is no excuse. Amazing if the stories now told with Wally are avoiding that. But if Barry's status quo from the time Johns corrupted it still stands as canon, this isn't going to alleviate anything, and chances are PC still holds even in these Wally tales.

Newsarama also confirmed this abrupt change to Linda's status as a civilian co-star:

Wally spends the majority of the one-shot actually reading Linda's book, which puts a thin layer of fiction over their actual life together. After he's done, he surprises her as she comes out of a meeting about her upcoming book tour, and takes her on a date around the world – which is extra special this time because she's now a speedster like him.

And doesn't that dilute the value she represents as a civilian co-star like Moira MacTaggart did before she got turned into a farce, and yet just another mutant in X-Men? If this continues for as long as DC is still around, then like Marvel, they're making a joke out of past creations, turning civilian co-stars into just another superhero-like character, leaving them undistinguished from their costumed co-stars. Besides, isn't Jesse Quick good enough for the role of a lady speedster?

Labels: dc comics, Flash, msm propaganda, women of dc