Warning: Spoilers for The Flash #16THE Flash is undoubtedly a great hero who saved countless lives, but even the Fastest Man Alive is far from perfect. Someone close to Wally West revealed his worst flaw, and it's a flaw shared by every hero in the DC Universe. Superheroes aren't infallible, and DC is finally acknowledging a glaring problem that's keeping them from being as effective as they could be.
The Flash #16 by Simon Spurrier, Vasco Georgiev, Matt Herms and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou begins with Wally's wife, Linda Park-West comparing each of her family members to Dungeons and Dragons characters. When it's Wally's turn to be given a role in her hypothetical group, she calls him "knuckle-dragging barbarian who rushes in, waving his club".
Linda describing Flash as a barbarian highlights his tendency to charge into battle without reading the situationwhich has had dire consequences for him in the past. This weakness prevents him from reaching his full potential, and the same can be said for most superheroes in DC history.
The Flash faces much-needed criticism for his recklessness in battle
Wally West's most frequent mistake is exposed by his own wife
The Flash's barbaric ways are on full display throughout this issue, proving Linda's point. Weather Wizard - one of Flash's strongest villains - disrupts Wally's family vacation and proposes a battle, and Linda tries to resolve the dispute amicably. She believes that the Flash and Weather Wizard would benefit from sharing information with each other about Skartaris' magical properties. However, Wally rushes past his wife to fight the Weather Wizard, ignoring her plea for peace. His reckless attitude costs him the chance to understand where his opponent is coming from and thus validates Linda's scathing criticism.
The battle between the hero and the villain progresses, and soon a mysterious force causes the Flash to be overcome by rage in the same way as the Weather Wizard. Before the mind control can escalate any further, Linda knocks some sense into the two of them - literally, in the Weather Wizard's case, when she hits him with a broken piece of her wand. Then, she declares, “The dreaded time has come when you must face the one thing all heroes and villains truly fear: constructive dialogue.” Linda's words point out a flaw that inhibits the Flash's heroism: most of the time, he solves problems through combat rather than conversation.
Flash's tendency to fight first and talk later has major drawbacks
Wally West would be a better hero if he communicated before fighting
While Linda acknowledges Flash's habit of rushing into battle is a new development, this flaw has been made known numerous times in the past. A recent example can be found in The Flash 2024 Annual by Spurrier, Amancay Nahuelpan and more. Here, the Scarlet Speedster traverses dimensional planes with his dodge power and discovers the secret of the "blobsphere" dimension he crossed into. Robots clearing the area explain that the peculiar entities are manifestations of feelings, and the Flash is shocked to discover their true nature after impulsively destroying many of them at first sight.
The Flash faced these "bubbles" in The Flash #6 by Simon Spurrier and Mike Deodato Jr., available now digitally and in collected formats from DC Comics!
If Wally had taken the time to study bubbles and learn more about them, he could have avoided killing innocent people's emotions. However, his desire to fight clouds his judgment, and this blatant carelessness affects innocents and criminals alike. In The Flash #5, when interrogating Gorilla Grodd, Wally refuses to see his perspective. Jai, Flash's son, has to step in and help him realize that communication is vital to civil conflict resolution. Wally is failing villains like Grodd by failing to listen to their side of the story, and his Justice League colleagues are no different in that regard.
Every Hero in the DC Universe Shares The Flash’s “Barbarian” Character Flaw
Linda Park-West criticizes superheroes as a whole, not just The Flash
Linda's reality check may be aimed specifically at her husband, but The Flash isn't the only hero guilty of resolving disputes with his fists rather than words. A common criticism of heroes is that they tend to operate with a black and white sense of justice. In their minds, people can be good or bad, and those who are considered evil need to be defeated. To achieve this goal, they fight these evildoers using the powers at their disposal. The childish morality of superheroes undermines their effectiveness by preventing them from making a genuine difference.
Just like the Flash, the Justice League heroes need to follow Linda's advice and make an effort to communicate with the villains.
Just like the Flash, the Justice League heroes need to follow Linda's advice and make an effort to communicate with the villains. Everyone deserves the opportunity to explain themselves - even those who are not strictly good - and fostering understanding between both sides can promote real change more than starting small battles. After all, superheroes' main mission is to help people, not hurt them; therefore, fighting should be the last resort and not the default option. Now that Linda has shown him the error of his ways, the Flash He must leave his barbaric impulses behind, otherwise he will be no better than a villain.
The Flash #16 is now available from DC Comics.