Monthly Archives: February 2012

Cute Couples: Wally West and Linda Park

2012/02/20
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Married superheroes are a rarity. There are a lot of reasons for this: not wanting to age the characters, not wanting to settle love triangles, writers/editors who find married couples boring.

It’s why I tend to be more interested in married relationships in comics. They are so incredibly rare that they immediately draw attention to themselves.

And a married superhero with kids? Good luck finding one outside of a What If? or Elseworlds story. (Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman being the most notable exception.)

Another notable exception – up until last year – was Linda Park and Wally West (the Flash). Their relationship was a nice demonstration of character development for Wally, who had a lot of flings as a teenager and a young adult. Wally went from a girl-crazy youth to a loving husband and father.

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Cute Couples: Blue Devil and Sharon Scott

2012/02/19
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Originally a stuntman / special effects artist, Daniel Cassidy ended up magically bonded with a Blue Devil suit (and later turned into a demon), so he can’t even pretend to be normal. You’d think that looking like a seven-foot tall demon (complete with horns and goatee) would hurt your dating life. Thankfully, the woman who Blue Devil was interested in was completely okay with the weirdness.

It’s sad how rare it is for a superhero to be completely honest with their civilian love interests. Or their costumed love interests, for that matter. It’s probably one of the reasons superheroes tend to suck at long-term relationships.

Sadly, Sharon just sort of disappeared after Blue Devil died and got turned into a demon. One less interesting female character, and one less interesting relationship. It’s sad how often this happens in comics to supporting cast members.

*Sigh* This is one of the problems with me getting introduced to comics through back issue bins. I get emotionally invested in characters and relationships that are long since gone.

Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted.

 

Picture from Blue Devil #7

Cute Couples: Alfred Pennyworth and Leslie Thompkins

2012/02/18
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I’m not much of a shipper. I tend to support canon couples, and shrug at any other pairings. Occasionally, I’ll look at a non-canon couple and think “aw, they would make a cute couple.” One such couple is Alfred Pennyworth and Leslie Thompkins (the DCAU versions, anyway).

This little scene in Batman Adventures #8 is what turned me into a Alfred/Leslie shipper.

The set-up: Bruce Wayne has been disguising himself as Matches Malone in order to infiltrate a gang. After he’s shot, he goes to Leslie to be treated, along with one of the other gang members, Eel O’Brian. Then Alfred storms in, looking for Bruce. And Eel recognizes him as Bruce Wayne’s butler.

Oops.

Thankfully, Leslie is a quick thinker:

Oh, get over yourself, Eel. I think their cover story is adorable. And given Alfred’s reaction, I doubt he would mind the pairing either . . .