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.
When Wally finds out that he’s going to be a father, his response is adorable.
I have seen that exact expression on people who were eagerly awaiting having a kid.
Naturally, since Flash has plenty of enemies, they don’t make this public at first. When the do make it public, they invite Wally’s aunt Iris, the Garricks, and Impulse over for a family gathering.
You gotta love the look on Bart’s face. “Wait, what?” You’d think someone from the future would be less shocked about the news.
On a side note, I love seeing Jay and Joan in the background there. They were unable to have children of their own (and had their adoptive son passed away shortly after they adopted him). They aren’t bitter about it. They’re just thrilled that Linda and Wally are going to have children.
The fact that Jay and Joan act as surrogate parents to a lot of superheroes probably explains their excitement: it’s like finding out they’re going to be grandparents.
Too bad both these couples and the kids got erased by the reboot. Oh, well. Here’s hoping they’ll be on Earth-2.
Pictures from the Flash #189 and Flash #198.
One Response to Cute Couples: Wally West and Linda Park