A Look Back at Wonder Woman's Iconic Invisible Plane at 75 Years Old
By Mark Rhodes
Wonder Woman, AKA Princess Diana of Paradise Island, created by William Moulton Marston, is without a doubt the most famous and influential female superhero in comics history. The past year 2016 saw her celebrate her 75th anniversary, and 2017 will see her come to cinematic life in a live-action feature starring Gail Gadot set during World War I. Wonder Woman’s iconic status today overshadows in some ways her origins, which were connected to early feminist thought that foreshadowed the women’s movement of the mid to late 20th century. So it was with Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane. The Invisible Plane made its first appearance in Sensation Comics # 1 in 1942. This creation was the handiwork of Princess Diana as a youth on Paradise Island. The idea being that the Plane could fly undetected at high speeds without necessarily having to engage in combat unless absolutely necessary (a theme of the early Wonder Woman stories set during World War II was the collateral damage of male-oriented military conflict). Of course, this notion foreshadowed late 20th to early 21st-century stealth aircraft. Besides being invisible, the plane could travel at more than 2,000 mph and was able to be activated and summoned by Wonder Woman’s tiara where she would board it or exit it from a rope ladder. As Wonder Woman’s narrative advanced in the comics, the plane evolved into an ever more sophisticated mode of transportation, being able to fly into space with minimal effort. Reflecting advancements in aviation in general, the plane evolved into a jet in the 1950s. The Invisible Jet continued to be a fixture in Wonder Woman stories as her main method of super speed, space travel, and inter-dimensional transport up to the 1970s. In the early 1970s, Wonder Woman’s writers gave her the power of pseudo flight, allowing her to glide on currents of air for short distances, and the plane’s “abilities” began to feature aspects that were heavily influenced by science fictions such as the capability to fly faster than the speed of light and the ability to “talk,” foreshadowing the artificial intelligence call and response of entities such as the Apple Corporation’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. The Invisible Plane’s appearances during the Modern Age have been more convoluted as DC has attempted to reboot its universe and continuity. Also, Wonder Woman’s powers have evolved to the point where she can fly as easily as Superman, so the need of an aircraft, no matter how sophisticated, was rendered mostly redundant. The current comic incarnation of Wonder Woman relies sparingly on the Invisible Plane (it appears in some stories in flashback), and there is some debate on Internet sites about whether the plane may make the final cut of the upcoming Wonder Woman feature. However, the Invisible Plane remains integral to the Wonder Woman/DC Comic universe and an important representation of scientifically inspirational aircraft in fiction. For more information on Wonder Woman’s origin, history, and evolution of her Invisible Jet, see two recently released histories and story collections of the Amazing Amazon Wonder Woman: A Celebration of 75 Years (DC Comics) and The Golden Age Wonder Woman Omnibus Vol. One (DC Comics).
Wonder Woman, AKA Princess Diana of Paradise Island, created by William Moulton Marston, is without a doubt the most famous and influential female superhero in comics history. The past year 2016 saw her celebrate her 75th anniversary, and 2017 will see her come to cinematic life in a live-action feature starring Gail Gadot set during World War I. Wonder Woman’s iconic status today overshadows in some ways her origins, which were connected to early feminist thought that foreshadowed the women’s movement of the mid to late 20th century. So it was with Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane. The Invisible Plane made its first appearance in Sensation Comics # 1 in 1942. This creation was the handiwork of Princess Diana as a youth on Paradise Island. The idea being that the Plane could fly undetected at high speeds without necessarily having to engage in combat unless absolutely necessary (a theme of the early Wonder Woman stories set during World War II was the collateral damage of male-oriented military conflict). Of course, this notion foreshadowed late 20th to early 21st-century stealth aircraft. Besides being invisible, the plane could travel at more than 2,000 mph and was able to be activated and summoned by Wonder Woman’s tiara where she would board it or exit it from a rope ladder. As Wonder Woman’s narrative advanced in the comics, the plane evolved into an ever more sophisticated mode of transportation, being able to fly into space with minimal effort. Reflecting advancements in aviation in general, the plane evolved into a jet in the 1950s. The Invisible Jet continued to be a fixture in Wonder Woman stories as her main method of super speed, space travel, and inter-dimensional transport up to the 1970s. In the early 1970s, Wonder Woman’s writers gave her the power of pseudo flight, allowing her to glide on currents of air for short distances, and the plane’s “abilities” began to feature aspects that were heavily influenced by science fictions such as the capability to fly faster than the speed of light and the ability to “talk,” foreshadowing the artificial intelligence call and response of entities such as the Apple Corporation’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. The Invisible Plane’s appearances during the Modern Age have been more convoluted as DC has attempted to reboot its universe and continuity. Also, Wonder Woman’s powers have evolved to the point where she can fly as easily as Superman, so the need of an aircraft, no matter how sophisticated, was rendered mostly redundant. The current comic incarnation of Wonder Woman relies sparingly on the Invisible Plane (it appears in some stories in flashback), and there is some debate on Internet sites about whether the plane may make the final cut of the upcoming Wonder Woman feature. However, the Invisible Plane remains integral to the Wonder Woman/DC Comic universe and an important representation of scientifically inspirational aircraft in fiction. For more information on Wonder Woman’s origin, history, and evolution of her Invisible Jet, see two recently released histories and story collections of the Amazing Amazon Wonder Woman: A Celebration of 75 Years (DC Comics) and The Golden Age Wonder Woman Omnibus Vol. One (DC Comics). 