Linda Park (comics)

Linda Park (also Linda Park-West) is a fictional character in the DC Universe. She is best known as the girlfriend and later wife of Wally West.

Linda Park
Linda Park
Interior artwork from The Flash Secret Files & Origins 1 (November 1997  DC Comics)
Art by Phil Jimenez
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceFlash (vol. 2) #28 (July 1989)
Created byWilliam Messner-Loebs
In-story information
Full nameLinda Jasmine Park-West
PartnershipsWally West

Linda Park made her live appearance on the first and second seasons of The Flash played by Malese Jow. Her Earth-2 counterpart became Doctor Light.

Publication history

Linda Park first appeared in Flash vol. 2 #28 and was created by William Messner-Loebs.[1]

Fictional character biography

Linda Park is a Korean-American television reporter for Keystone City and regularly deals with Flash, whom she does not like. During their initial meeting she constantly hounds Flash about the recent thousands of dollars of property damage caused by his battle with the Porcupine Man. Despite this, Linda and Wally became friends on her first job for Keystone City's KFMB Channel 4, when they team up to investigate the Celestial Enlightenment Ranch, a spiritual-retreat scam. After Wally helps Linda deal with her apparent possession by the spirit of an 800-year-old Irish bard named Seamus O’Relkig, they become close and soon begin dating. Flash's love for Linda has brought him back many times from the Speed Force.

After many obstacles—such as Wally nearly being killed by the Black Flash and Linda being abducted and all memory of her erased by Abra Kadabra (the last requiring the aid of an alternate version of Wally to return home and convince Kadabra to reverse the spell)—they marry.[2]

She eventually became one of the hosts of the television program The Scene, which is similar to the (real life) program The View. Her co-hosts included Vicki Vale, Tawny Young, and Lia Briggs. Two episodes were shown in which they interviewed Wonder Woman on her career, which was shown in that title comic.[3][4] Shortly after the Wests moved into a new apartment after their old house was destroyed by Magneta, Linda left her journalism career, her relationship with Wally having made her unable to reconcile the public's right to know against the superheroes’ chance to resolve a situation before people started to panic, instead studying medicine with the intent of becoming a pediatrician.

Linda soon became pregnant with twins, but during the early months of her pregnancy she was attacked by Zoom, which caused her to miscarry the twins.[1] After Zoom was defeated, Wally asked the Spectre (whose host at the time was Wally's longtime friend Hal Jordan) to remove knowledge of the Flash's identity from everyone's memories, but Jordan's increasing lack of control of the Spectre meant that even Wally and Linda forgot who the Flash was.[1] After she remembered, Linda left to rethink her life. She returned to Wally after taking some time away. A later battle between Zoom and Flash spontaneously restored her pregnancy when Zoom and the Flash travelled back in time to their original battle, Zoom unintentionally taking the brunt of the sonic boom generated by his past self and thus protecting Linda from the worst of the attack, and she gave birth to the twins upon Wally's return to the future.[1][5]

Wally and his family disappear into the speed force. Art by George Pérez.

In Infinite Crisis #4, a battle with Superboy-Prime caused Wally to disappear. He appeared in front of Linda, telling her he is disappearing. Holding the twins, Linda kissed Wally as they disappeared. It was later revealed by Bart Allen, returned by the Speed Force, that Linda is still alive, albeit in an alternate reality living in its version of Keystone City where time flows apparently faster (as shown by Bart reappearing in IC #5, where from his point of view, four years had passed). There, she is raising her twins with her husband.

Recently, seven members of the Pre-Crisis Legion of Super-Heroes were discovered in the 21st Century by the Justice League of America. The seven Legionaries were sent back in time on a secret mission, in which they were to use seven lightning rods, which would be struck by lightning, killing one member and resurrecting another. The Legion was successful in their mission, and surprisingly all seven Legionaries survived. However, there was an unexpected bonus. Wally, Linda, and the twins managed to 'ride' the lightning bolt and return to their homeworld, alive and well. In All Flash #1, the names of the West twins are revealed to be Iris and Jai.

In The Flash #231, it is revealed that, from three months into their "exile", the West family had been living on an alien planet that had previously been saved by the Flash. Linda has extended her medical knowledge with the advanced science of the aliens, thereby gaining the skills necessary to stabilize the speed-related powers of their children.

In "The Flash: Rebirth" miniseries, Linda has apparently returned to her journalist career, as she reports on the festivities in honor of the return of Barry Allen.

Linda and her children are part of the small resistance cell operating out of the 'Hall of Justice' during the events of the Final Crisis.[6]

DC Rebirth

Following the events of Flashpoint, Wally and Linda's relationship is erased from existence as the 'original' Wally West is replaced by a younger, biracial version of himself. However, during DC Rebirth, the 'original' Wally (revealed to be the new Wally's older cousin) returns in his Kid Flash uniform, having been trapped in the Speed Force since Flashpoint until Darkseid's demise disrupted reality enough to allow Wally to escape. He attempts to reach out to his old friends and allies, reaching out to Linda after seeing her attempting to get an interview about the death of the New 52's Superman Linda stating that she is a reporter for a news site trying to make a reputation to support her mother and pay off her student loans but his effort to contact Linda fails and disrupts his existence further, as this Linda has no recollection of him. After he is restored to reality following his meeting with Barry, Wally initially decides not to make contact with Linda until he knows more about their enemy, but after he restores the memories of the original Titans, they suggest he talk with Linda.[7]

Other versions

In Lord Havok and the Extremists #3, a version of Linda with the powers of the Flash is shown to be a member of Monarch's army.

In other media

Television
  • Linda Park makes a brief appearance in the pilot of The Flash 1990s live-action series, portrayed by Mariko Tse. This version is a Central City reporter.
Linda Park as she appears in Justice League Unlimited.
  • Linda Park makes a minor appearance in the Justice League Unlimited animated series episode "Flash and Substance," voiced by Kim Mai Guest.
  • Two versions of Linda Park appear in live-action media set in the Arrowverse, portrayed by different actresses.
    • Introduced in the series Arrow, she is portrayed by Olivia Cheng.
    • While Cheng also appears as Park in the pilot episode of The Flash, she is replaced by Malese Jow as of the episode "Crazy for You". Following this, Park becomes a recurring character in the first two seasons. Jow's version of the character is a Central City reporter who enters a relationship with Barry Allen before he eventually breaks up with her. In the episode "The Darkness and the Light", Linda is targeted by her Earth-2 counterpart, Dr. Light, a super-powered thief who was sent by Zoom to kill the Flash. While the villainess aims to kill her Earth-1 counterpart and assume her identity to escape Zoom's control instead, her plan fails. She is defeated by the Flash, but escapes captivity.[8] In the episode "Enter Zoom", following Earth-2 Linda's escape, Barry convinces Earth-1 Linda to disguise herself as her Earth-2 counterpart in an attempt to capture Zoom, revealing his identity to her in the process. After Zoom kidnaps Linda and the Flash rescues her however, she moves to Coast City.

Miscellaneous

References
  1. Jimenez, Phil (2008), "The Flash", in Dougall, Alastair (ed.), The DC Comics Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 124–127, ISBN 978-0-7566-4119-1, OCLC 213309017
  2. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 269. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.
  3. Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #170 (July 2001)
  4. Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #188 (March 2003)
  5. Flash (vol. 2) #225 (October 2005)
  6. Final Crisis #3-7 (September 2008-March 2009)
  7. DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot (May 2016)
  8. "New The Flash Promo Reveals Doctor Light's Identity". Retrieved 30 October 2015.
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