The Invisible Plane: Yay or Nay?

[Fuzzy Mittens]

Kind of going off the robot plane thing and all - what if the invisible jet was a character as well as a vehicle, like talking robot voice and everything?

This was actually a thing briefly during Post Crisis where they made the invisible jet a sentient invisible shapeshifting thing that had the default form of an invisible fortress of solitude floating in the sky https://comicvine.gamespot.com/wonderdome/4005-10913/

[Agent 86]

Yay - yes.

I honestly don't understand why the invisible jet is so controversial and why so many writers are unwilling to use it. Yes, it's a little corny if only the jet (not the pilot or passengers) is invisible, but that's easily rectified by making the jet AND everything inside it invisible.

To me, the creation and use of the invisible jet makes perfect sense. Steve Trevor crashes his plane on the island. The Amazons are intrigued by his plane. They repair or rebuild it, but at the same time improve it using Amazon technology / magic (or a mystical combination of technology and magic). Hey presto, we have the invisible jet.

Diana, who has the superpower of flight, can use the invisible jet for any number of purposes - first and foremost for travelling with others who aren't capable of self-flight (e.g. Steve Trevor). Diana can also use it to travel to places where she wants to undetected (e.g. to a hostile country on a rescue mission). Diana can use it when she simply wants to rest or use her time to undertake research, liaise with others, etc while travelling elsewhere. Sure, she could multi-task and pilot the plane while looking over files provided by Batman while on the way to a Justice League mission, but why not simply have the option of putting the plane on auto-pilot while she assesses an enemies weaknesses or prepares her weaponry. Finally, within reason, I'd be happy if the invisible jet flew faster than Diana is capable of flying (at least over substantial distances) and if taking the invisible jet meant that Diana didn't expend energy on self-propelled flight which means that she'd be in tip-top shape for battling when she reached her destination.

I'd also be happy if it was capable of travelling underwater and possibly to undertake minor space travel, as required.

I'd even be open to the invisible plane operating as Diana's mobile armoury of sorts - she could store additional costumes / armours and weapons in the plane. So, if she's heading off to battle a pack of evil gods, then she can throw on some real armour and grab her sword and shield. But, if she's confronting some agitated protestors, then perhaps she puts on a diplomatic cloak and leaves her sword and shield behind.

To me, the invisible jet should be as iconic to Wonder Woman as the Batmobile is to Batman.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I have always been a fan of a Wonder Woman that can glide on the wind, but doesn't completely negate gravity in the way Superman and GL do, so the invisible jet makes perfect sense for travelling long distance at great speed

[The Dying Detective]

I have always been a fan of a Wonder Woman that can glide on the wind, but doesn't completely negate gravity in the way Superman and GL do, so the invisible jet makes perfect sense for travelling long distance at great speed

But she can fly now which makes the Invisible Jet a little redundant now if it was a matter of giving it to someone who has a reason to use it then it works.

[Powerboy]

It makes no sense in the continuity already established by the first movie, so I think it would come off as forced goofy fan service in the second, especially with Lynda Carter having a role.

I would say that if we are talking about the movies, the plane would make no sense. It's akin to my reaction to it in the television show. There's an island of amazons living at a Bronze age level but they have this one anachronistic piece of super advanced technology for no reason that is ever explained.

In the comics where the island is scientifically advanced, it's a different story.

[Koriand'r]

The last time I remember seeing the jet was Gail's run when it flew through a big bad to end an arc. I didn't like it then, I don't like it now. In Bronze Age stories it's fine, it can be cute in fan art and is acceptable in WW merchandise because it's a recognizable part of WW iconography, but in modern day stories, no. It's just too corny.

I'm all for invisible tech, but the jet as I've seen it is lame. If they can reconfigure it into something fresh and cool that's different. I did like the morphing aspect of the crystal technology, but not as an invisible jet. As has been pointed out before modern tech and sci-fi stories have already made it obsolete, so there has to be a way to make it new. Like this...

WW INVISIBLE toy.jpg

The argument that she needs it to fly around passengers or equipment is disingenuous. She never does that. We can barely get Ferdinand, Artemis, Donna or Cassie in the book, much less enough characters so that flying them around in an invisible jet is necessary. A.R.G.U.S. has transportation for that anyway. I'd much rather the Mental Radio and Magic Sphere were brought back. They both have more useful applications for modern day adventures.

[CRaymond]

I think the Invisible Jet makes a lot of sense for Steve Trevor tho. He's a spy and a pilot.

[DrNewGod]

My Wonder Woman, in the Marston tradition, is jet-setting adventurer, who needs an I-Jet to haul her friends to bizarre, exotic places, ..ALL over the world. I'm not reading a comic about a lone-wolf vigilante, skulking in the shadows, by himself. I'm reading Wonder Woman - that's kangas, transistor tiaras, African twin sisters, indestructible bracelets, gun-slinging morbidly obese cowgirls, purple rays, savage Aphrodite-worshipping Amazons, a buncha' other crazy stuff that doesn't fit together...

And invisible jets! And proud of it!

Calling Robot Plane...!

Agreed, and well said! DC ditched the plane after the CoIE reboot because Perez wanted to rip all technology beyond simple machines out of the Amazon's culture and bond them more tightly to a literal interpretation of Ancient Greek Mythology, so giving WW the power of flight became necessary. As good as Perez's run was, that's a turn for WW that I've never liked for three reasons:

1. It abandoned a distinctive and long-standing part of WW's image
2. It imitated Marvel's Thor, rather than letting WW rock her own vibe.
3. It stripped from the Amazons the sense of being a society that had grown more advanced than the rest of world (like Marvel's interpretations of Wakanda over the last 20 years), and made them more victims of divine whims and schemes

If it were up to me, I'd interpret The I-Plane almost as a limited AI that also functions as an inertia generator. No physical controls, but by psionically interfacing with it, an Amazon can mentally direct its motions. The shape of it would be flying wing (to exploit aerodynamic effects for efficiency's sake), with neither thrusters nor propellers, that basically just increases its inertia to hover or increase (decrease) speed. But then, nobody at DC's asked me, so...

[Dr. Poison]

What really cracks me up is when someone who bashes the Invisible Jet because Diana can fly supports Diana riding a pegasus.

[The Dying Detective]

What really cracks me up is when someone who bashes the Invisible Jet because Diana can fly supports Diana riding a pegasus.

If you want the Invisible Jet to stick you need to have a reason that makes sense for it to even stay there in light of Wonder Woman being able to fly.

[Incognito]

I wouldn't mind the Invisible Plane, Diana could use it for places she cannot travel to or locate very far from her reaching, I think Steve should have the Plane but any one of the two could work. The Invisible Plane to me should look like a quinjet from the Marvel Movies, where it has stealth tactics and flight speeds, I had thought to myself that her having a jet would not make sense if she could fly under her own power or gliding in air currents, but then I realise that it can be useful for space or underwater (the plane could have a function, where it morphs into a hydroplane) because IIRC Wonder Woman cannot survive and adapt in space or underwater, she can hold her breath but she cannot survive.

If it were up to me, I'd interpret The I-Plane almost as a limited AI that also functions as an inertia generator. No physical controls, but by psionically interfacing with it, an Amazon can mentally direct its motions. The shape of it would be flying wing (to exploit aerodynamic effects for efficiency's sake), with neither thrusters nor propellers, that basically just increases its inertia to hover or increase (decrease) speed. But then, nobody at DC's asked me, so...

Your ideas for the Invisible Plane reminded me of Miss Martian's Bio-Ship from Young Justice.

[DrNewGod]

...If it were up to me, I'd interpret The I-Plane almost as a limited AI that also functions as an inertia generator. No physical controls, but by psionically interfacing with it, an Amazon can mentally direct its motions. The shape of it would be flying wing (to exploit aerodynamic effects for efficiency's sake), with neither thrusters nor propellers, that basically just increases its inertia to hover or increase (decrease) speed...

...Your ideas for the Invisible Plane reminded me of Miss Martian's Bio-Ship from Young Justice.

Hm. I hadn't thought of that. If anything, I suppose my thoughts on it were most influenced by the Lynda Carter show's first season, where WW would gesture at the plane to suggest guiding it, but there didn't seem to be any control devices or propulsion sources.

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[WonderScott]

Kind of going off the robot plane thing and all - what if the invisible jet was a character as well as a vehicle, like talking robot voice and everything?

Finally a place to incorporate IRAC from the 1970s television series! It's the AI for the I-Jet. Lol!

[WonderScott]

What really cracks me up is when someone who bashes the Invisible Jet because Diana can fly supports Diana riding a pegasus.

Lol, right?!

I mean, in my Wonder mythos Diana has the I-Jet, and a pet pegasus, and a pet kanga. She can have all those things and use/have them for different reasons, because: she's Wonder Woman.

There are lots of great uses for the I-Jet, by Diana or her supporting characters in the title.

[WonderScott]

If you want the Invisible Jet to stick you need to have a reason that makes sense for it to even stay there in light of Wonder Woman being able to fly.

Why does Batman need a Batmobile when he can run from rooftop to rooftop or swing around the city on decel cables?

It's a creative piece of her arsenal of Wonder concepts that writers can find a creative use for. (Just like they do with Batman and all his toys.)