Linda Park (DC)

Latest revision as of 04:18, 12 April 2023

Linda Park-West and her husband Wally West in The Flash 2022 Annual v1 #1.

Linda Park is a female comic character who features in DC Comics

Biography

Origin

Linda Park was a female human born in the modern age as the daughter of Lisa Park and John Park.

She came to meet Wally West when she was sent to Swainsville, New Mexico, to cover the Porcupine Man incident. She ran into him again in New York while covering a series of killings of homeless people by the mysterious Comforter. She perceived him as arrogant and unconcerned for real people. (The Flash v2 #31)

Tina and Jerry McGee were working on their artificial intelligence project when they got a call from Wally. His friend Linda Park had seemingly been possessed by the ghost of an Irish bard named Seamus O’Relkig, and he needed them to look through university employment records to find out the current address of Al Desmond, the former Dr. Alchemy, since he was the only expert in magic that Wally knew of. Mason made Linda some cocoa and she thanked him again for looking after her. The next day Wally and Linda approached Desmond’s crumbling home in Morningside Heights when O’Relkig took possession of Linda, and he came on strong to Wally, telling him Linda fancied him and they could make love. Wally was having none of it, and was relieved when Linda regained control of herself. They met with the disheveled Desmond, who was disheveled and intensely working on a lab project. Wally didn’t realize he wasn’t talking to Albert, he was talking to evil 'psychic twin' Alvin who’d learned they were coming over and had tied up Albert Desmond and locked him in the closet. Alvin told them he was furtively trying to transmute elements, but found it impossible without the Philosopher’s Stone. He believed Linda’s story of possession, saying psychic energy like what he shared with his 'twin' was similar to the spiritual energy that would explain a ghost. He used an instrument of his own invention that detected energy pouring off Linda, and started getting handsy with her. She yelled at him to back off, and he disappeared into another room. Linda was furious at Wally for taking her to see a madman, and Wally changed into Flash, hoping to shake some sense into Desmond. Desmond emerged from the other room as Dr. Alchemy, armed with his Philosopher’s Stone, and tried to kill Flash, first by turning him into chalk, and then by turning everything in sight into boiling steam. Flash tossed lab equipment ta him, distracting Alchemy, and giving him time to run behind him and knock him out. Flash found the captive Albert and freed him. Albert bemoaned that anytime his life got on track Alvin showed up and ruined everything. Flash tried to reassure him that with Alvin going to jail his troubles would be over. (Flash v2 #40)

Linda’s morning talk show was supposed to feature Albert Desmond talking about his life as a reformed supervillain with Flash as another guest to give his perspective. Desmond no-showed, and Linda was fuming. The network was about to bump her show to cover a hostage situation when Flash came up with the idea of handling the situation live on Linda’s show. He zipped back and forth between the station and the hostage standoff, bringing police Lt. Cleveland and the hostages in for interviews with Linda before disarming the hostage-taker Wilfred Petty and bringing him in. He said his sister had been turned to solid gold during a bank robbery, causing him to snap and decide to kill his tax attorney Benjamin Harrison Hughes. Flash suspected Dr. Alchemy, and he and Linda went to check in on him in prison. The only thing in Desmond’s jail cell was a salt figure, and O’Relkig possessed Linda, informing Flash that the salt figure was never alive. Flash wasn’t convinced, fearing Albert had gone rogue again and killed Alvin, so he called up Tina McGee, who said there was something fishy about the whole “psychic twin” business. Tina tried to tell Flash there was something wrong with the A.I. project, and everyone around her seemed to be turning into a stranger, but Flash brushed her off. Flash decided to call up Harrison, asking if he could help with his tax situation. Harrison said Flash’s taxes might be a bit too much for him to handle, but Flash insisted he’d be fine. Flash asked Linda if he could talk to Seamus, who took over her body and led Flash straight to Dr. Alchemy. Alchemy turned the road under Flash to tar, and then the air around him to stone, crushing him. Albert Desmond, having once again taken the identity of Mr. Element, freed Flash with his element gun. He fought Alchemy, but was overwhelmed, with Dr. Alchemy proclaiming that he didn’t just use the Philosopher’s Stone, he was the stone. Flash realized that when Albert reformed a part of him missed his old ways, and the Philosopher’s Stone responded by creating Alvin Desmond. No jail could hold him because the Stone could just let him crumble to dust and create a new Alvin elsewhere. Mr. Element reconciled himself with his darker instincts and wrested the Stone away from Dr. Alchemy, who in a flash of light was turned into the concrete from which the Stone last created him. Albert used the Philosopher’s Stone to return the teller Alchemy had turned to gold to normal. She hugged Albert, and Flash said he’d really proved he could be a hero. (Flash v2 #41)

Eventually, Linda received a call from her ex-husband Rick, about Royal Industries, his employer. He had found out some information, and wanted her to come out to Harriston, Massachusetts to investigate. Wally and Linda travelled there together, but found Rick's body in the morgue. Flash helped Linda solve the mystery of his death, despite him being upsted learning about Rick for the first time. (The Flash v2 #103)

Flash

As a married couple, Linda and Wally tried to live a normal life, but Flash was always needed when serious troubles struck in town. (The Flash v2 #170) Linda was later reporting on the irregular activities of Keith Kenyon and she tried to contact the Pied Piper, unaware that she had been marked as the next victim of the Cicada Cult. (The Flash v2 #171)

Their time together was disturbed though when Wally suddenly found himself to be sleep-running and claiming that he had encountered the ghost of Johnny Quick. He debated on what to do on the matter and whether to tell the fallen speedsters daughter Jesse Quick but decided not to as he believed she blamed him for her fathers death. However, Jesse arrived at the scene after having a feeling to meet the Flash regarding her father. At the same time, Tina McGee arrived who revealed that her husband had started taking Velocity 9 and become the Speed Demon again. Thus, the Flash along with Max Mercury and Jesse Quick went to stop Jerry McGee who was on a rampage. Whilst with Tina, Linda came to confirm her suspicions that she and Wally once dated many years ago but the matter did not bother her. Wally later managed to restore Jerry McGee back to normal and also helped Jesse Quick say her final goodbyes to her father whose spirit had tried to have one final moment with his daughter. (The Flash Annual v2 #11)

Afterwards, Linda was taken to S.T.A.R. Labs for a medical check-up to make sure that she was well after the Thinker taking control of her where she discovered that she was pregnant. (Flash v2 #188) She later took a ride back to Keystone City with a study partner called Cliff who she had known over the coming weeks. Despite their work being study, she came to feel that his intentions were more of a romantic nature and she attempted to talk to him about it during the drive. At that moment, Keystone City was beset upon by a giant beanstalk whereupon Linda was shocked to find out that 'Cliff' was actually Brother Grimm who had made a new plan to take over Keystone and get revenge on the Flash. This involved kidnapping his love Linda to become Grimm's princess in the magical kingdom of Eastwind. Brother Grimm's powers quickly determined though that Linda was pregnant with the Flash's child and intended to terminate the pregnancy but was stopped by Wally West. He battled Grimm to save Linda whilst Hawkman cut down the magic beanstalk thus severing the link between Eastwind and Earth. This led to Brother Grimm's defeat as he was shunted back to his kingdom whilst Linda, Wally and Hawkman returned back to Earth. (Flash v2 #191)

She was in the hospital where she made a full recovery with the babies being unaffected. Linda decided that in celebration the two of them should tell all their friends about the pregnancy. (The Flash v2 #197) Afterwards, she went to meet the Garricks and Allen's where she and Wally told them that Linda was pregnant with twins. It was then that they heard mysterious sonic booms affecting the city that were caused by a new villain going by the name of Zoom. (The Flash v2 #198) The villain intended to harm her when Bart Allen attacked him but despite the young speedsters power he was unable to defeat Zoom. The supervillain then abducted Linda and took her to the city to draw out the Flash where he claimed that he wanted to teach Wally West the meaning of tragedy in the hope of him becoming a better hero. Despite the Flash's speed, he was unable to outrun Zoom who then decided to enact his lesson by creating a terrible sonic boom that sent Linda flying into a car. The badly wounded Linda was later taken to hospital to recover from her injuries where the doctors informed her that she had miscarried the twins with Zoom later informing Wally of this during their next subsequent fight. (The Flash v2 #199) The Flash managed to defeat Zoom and was by Linda's side as they grieved the loss of the children with Iris West-Allen comforting her as well. Wally later made a deal with the Spectre Hal Jordan to remove all memory of the Flash's secret identity as he believed this contributed to their recent tragedy with Linda even forgetting that her husband was the speedster. (The Flash v2 #200)

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. (The Flash v2 #225)

Post-Flashpoint

Linda Park-West reunited with her family in The Flash v1 #786.

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Linda Park

After the events of the Dark Nights, the Park-West family tried to settle down and return to normality. Wally decided to resign as the Flash and, after discussing it with Linda, also cut himself off from the Speed Force. (The Flash v1 #768)

Overview

Personality and attributes

She loved the thrill of journalism and missed it after leaving that career. However, the experiences Wally had gone through after his secret identity was publicly known and how the media had hounded him as a result. This led to her not having that feeling anymore as she did not see the new the same way as she did in the past. (The Flash v2 #198)

Linda came to like her time in medical school. (The Flash v2 #198)

Powers and abilities

At the time, she was pregnant and it was believed her unborn child was the source of her Speed Force related powers. (The Flash v1 #788)

Notes

• Linda Park was created by William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRocque where she made her first appearance in Flash v2 #28 (July, 1989).

Alternate Versions

• In Countdown Presents: Lord Havok and the Extremists v1 #3 (2008), an alternate version of Linda Park was shown as being the Flash from her world who joined Monarch's Multiversal army that sought to challenge the Monitors with her accompanying several warriors to attack Tracer of the Extremists.
• In Flash Forward v1 #4 (2019), an alternate version of Linda Park was shown to inhabit a world within the Multiverse. This version had access to the Speed Force and became a speedster who took the superhero name Lightspeed. Though capable of incredible speed, she was unable to travel across universes and came to meet Wally West during his own travels across the Multiverse. The two worked together to save two Earth's from crashing into each other where Lightspeed saw Wally's memories. She shared a kiss with him before he departed to continue his own travels to reunite with his Linda Park.

In other media

Television

• In The Flash, Linda Park made a cameo appearance in the 1990s live-action television series where she was portrayed by actress Mariko Tse.
• In Justice League Unlimited, Linda Park appeared in the animated television series set in the DC Animated Universe during the episode "Flash and Substance" where she was voiced by actress Kim Mai Guest.
• In The Flash, Linda Park made an appearance on the live-action series set in the Arrowverse where she first appeared in the pilot played by actress Olivia Cheng but later returned in a recurring role where she was played by actress Malese Jow. In the episode "The Darkness and the Light", the Earth-2 Doctor Light was that world's Linda Park who operated as a thief until she became a Metahuman and gained the ability to manipulate light. Though becoming a criminal, she was noted to not kill and fought numerous battles with Jay Garrick. This was until Earth-2 Park was taken by Zoom through the breach onto Earth-1 where she was sent to kill Barry Allen. Doctor Light was shown to be scared of Zoom and intended to escape where she sought to kill Earth-1's counterpart to take her place. This eventually brought her into a conflict with Earth-1 Flash where she was defeated with the assistance of Earth-2 Harrison Wells.

Appearances

• The Flash v2: (1989)
• The Flash Annual v2:
• Flash Forward v1:
• The Flash v1:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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