Flash #246

Overall- Much of this issue dealt with Flash's wife Linda, and her gradual move towards death's door. After being poisoned by Queen Bee, Linda now lays near death in the JLA headquarters. Much of this comic was flashbacks, showing how Wally and Linda first met, got together, married, had kids, etc.

The non flashback parts of this comic dealt with Wally trying to figure out why Queen Bee wanted him out of the way. He discovers that Queen Bee stole a device that is a gateway to the Speed Force, and with Wally gone, she would be able to access the amazing speed powers held within the Force. Before Wally can dig further into this discovery, he gets a call from Dr. Midnite, who tells Wally to get back to the JLA base, because Linda had taken a turn for the worse.

Wally rushes back, and watches as Linda's condition deteriorates further. Wally decides to make a desperate last attempt to save his wife and heads to Raven, asking her to take him to see the Spectre. Before Wally can even plead his case, the Spectre tells him it is Linda's time to die, and he would do nothing to help.

As this was going on, Red Arrow was watching Wally's children outside the JLA base, and was attacked by Queen Bee, who was masquerading as Linda. Before Red Arrow realized that that wasn't the real Linda, Queen Bee was able to teleport away with Wally's kids.

This was a pretty sad comic... After reading this comic, I'm now beginning to wonder exactly what direction DC and series writer Alan Burnett are going. I always figured that with Barry Allen returning during Final Crisis, Wally was going to get killed off in order to make room for Barry. Now, I'm not so sure... If Linda was to die, I could see Wally giving up the Flash mantle and just concentrating on raising his children. If something happens to his kids, Wally would be devastated beyond words, and once again would probably quit. Of course, maybe Wally will trade his life for Linda's if Spectre was receptive to that idea. I guess the bottom line is that there are ALOT of directions DC can go with this storyline, and most of them don't look very good for Wally and family! Then again, maybe Wally will save Linda and the kids and just take some time off from the world of super heroics. This would allow Barry the opportunity to reclaim the Flash mantle, while giving Wally the happy ending he deserves. For this comic book, I'll go with a score of 7 1/2 out of 10. Here's hoping DC goes the happy ending route as this series apparently comes to an end next issue.