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  1. #1
    BANNED Iron_Leopard's Avatar
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    Default Why does Wonder Woman fly?

    This really bothers me for some reason.

    When did this start and what's the explanation?

    I don't like her and Wonder Girls flying.

  2. #2
    Extraordinary Member AmiMizuno's Avatar
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    Easy to put her on par with many superheroes that started to fly. It started in Perez she was blessed by the gods. Why shouldn’t she fly? Dc doesn’t really give her her anymore. The movie version she can’t fly

  3. #3

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    Some time in the late 50's, Wonder Woman began "gliding on air currents" which is, for all intents and purposes, flying. Not 100% certain of the exact year, but I think the first instance of Wonder Woman defying gravity was 1959.
    Then when DC rebooted after Crisis on Infinite Earths in '86, they just had outright flight be one of Diana's powers.

    Creative reason? Can't say. Maybe the writers figured "why not" and/or got tired of the Invisible Jet--which, if we're honest, was little more than a means for Wonder Woman to fly without her actually having the power of flight.


    Personally, I prefer a Wonder Woman who flies.

  4. #4
    Still only crumbs...... BiteTheBullet's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Iron_Leopard View Post
    This really bothers me for some reason.

    When did this start and what's the explanation?

    I don't like her and Wonder Girls flying.
    You'll have to answer the question 1st, why does Superman fly? He didn't actually start out that way.

  5. #5
    Mighty Member My Two Cents's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Iron_Leopard View Post
    This really bothers me for some reason.

    When did this start and what's the explanation?

    I don't like her and Wonder Girls flying.
    If she put a cape with a giant S, would it than be fine ?
    Seemed ok for a dog and a horse and a cat back in the sixties
    Last edited by My Two Cents; 09-22-2018 at 06:40 PM.

  6. #6
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    I don't think there's any reason she needs to fly, but I think it was inevitable because Donna Troy was in Teen Titans at the time and flying (sorry, "gliding on air currents") in every issue. It would be like if Robin could do some very important and impressive thing that Batman couldn't.

    I'm sure that's not the only reason Pérez had her fly, but in Teen Titans he not only drew Donna with the power of flight but all the Greek gods as well, so it seems like flying was the way he envisioned this type of character and setting.

  7. #7
    Father Son Kamehameha < Kuwagaton's Avatar
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    I've never mentioned it, but it always feels really weird to me, too. Same as Batman swinging on a plain rope without a grappling device. I think it's the effect of seeing her in such general pop culture terms with free flight not being prominent. I own maybe 60 WW comics, have seen the tv show and the movie, and it's just not something I consider her doing until she's right there doing it.

  8. #8
    Extraordinary Member CRaymond's Avatar
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    Because Perseus flew.

  9. #9
    Mighty Member Fuzzy Mittens's Avatar
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    Well the silver age version was indeed able to glide on air currents though this was specifically a skill that all Amazons posessed and were even shown Amazons from thousands of years ago were also doing it. Funnily enough its established that Diana is actually pretty bad at gliding compared to other Amazons because shes so used to using the invisible plane that shes out of practice.

    Perez as I recall made it so that the gods blessed Diana as she was born and among them was Hermes blessing her with speed and flight. Though to be honest I always thought this was a bit surreal because he was making so much effort to lean into the more mythological type of stuff and a fantasy angle yet gave her a means of flight that wasn't an artifact like winged sandals. Instead it made her seem more 'generic superheroy' which is a bit amusing since he was making a concious effort to distance her from that stuff.

    Then you had new 52 where Hermes gave her the power of flight like five issues in which means she was superheroing for years without having flight, begging the question of how she got around, and when in continuity his run was supposed to have happened since she was flying in Justice Leagues first issue and I think in Ruckas second run.

    Personally I could go either way with the flight. I don't think its a vital power of Wonder Womans and don't really see how it could be considered diminishing for Wonder Woman if she couldn't fly. On the other hand its how alot of people percieve her so it would be fine to have it.
    I find it kinda neat in a way that the silver age was this transition period where she couldn't fly but could glide if there was wind, meaning she could use it in some storylines but she was still able to be in situations where she was trapped in a situation where only flying could have gotten her out of things the easy way

  10. #10
    Incredible Member Amazon Swordsman's Avatar
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    Is this really a question on this forum? A better question is why shouldn’t she fly? If you’re going based on the notion that she needs a lack of power(s) to distinguish herself, she’s already not as strong as Superman, not as fast as flash, and apparently not as smart as Batman. Does this not distinguish her already, even though it’s negative?

  11. #11
    Ultimate Member SiegePerilous02's Avatar
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    In my ideal version of the Wonder Woman mythos, she doesn't fly at all for the first few years of her adventures and relies exclusively on the Invisible Plane. Then she gets full blown Superman-style flight from Hermes later on, and only keeps the jet around for traveling with companions that she can't carry all at once without it being cumbersome, or lets Steve or Etta fly it. I would skip the "gliding on air currents" thing altogether.

    As for why people question it, it's because she didn't get the gliding thing until a decade or so after her first appearance, still prominently used the Invisible Plane throughout the Silver and Bronze ages, and only got full blown flight in the 80s (four decades or so after her creation) due to the Perez reboot. And before that she had two very prominent other media appearances where she didn't fly. As with many things in the WW mythos, chalk it up to being the most all-over-the-damn-place franchise starring a major Big Two character of all time.

  12. #12
    Boisterously Confused
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    I don't mind so much that WW can fly, but the reason behind it bugs me a bit.

    Superman was given flight because he was in an arms race with several other superheroes (most notably, [the real] Captain Marvel) to be the most super of superheroes. Wonder Woman was given flight as a necessity of stripping The Amazons of their pre-Crisis high-tech/magic-mishmash culture, and The Invisible Plane with it.

    That annoys me not just because it wasn't the WW I grew up with, but because Perez' whole approach converted The Amazons from women who'd forged their own destiny into pawns of deities. Reduced agency has always seemed like a bad look for WW to me.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrNewGod View Post
    I don't mind so much that WW can fly, but the reason behind it bugs me a bit.

    Superman was given flight because he was in an arms race with several other superheroes (most notably, [the real] Captain Marvel) to be the most super of superheroes. Wonder Woman was given flight as a necessity of stripping The Amazons of their pre-Crisis high-tech/magic-mishmash culture, and The Invisible Plane with it.

    That annoys me not just because it wasn't the WW I grew up with, but because Perez' whole approach converted The Amazons from women who'd forged their own destiny into pawns of deities. Reduced agency has always seemed like a bad look for WW to me.
    I don't think she was given flight because of the lack of advancements. She had a sort of flying power back in the Golden Age and it's been common for superhero characters to become more powerful as time goes by to compete with advances in technology.
    Last edited by Agent Z; 09-23-2018 at 09:30 AM.

  14. #14
    Ultimate Member SiegePerilous02's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Agent Z View Post
    I don't think she was given flight because of the lack of advancements. She had a sort of flying power back in the Golden Age and it's been common for superhero characters to become more powerful as time goes by to compete with advances in technology.
    I don't think it's really a coincidence that full blown flight was given to her during the same reboot that stripped the Amazons of their tech and erased the Invisible Plane, or the need for it in the first place.

  15. #15
    Mighty Member Fuzzy Mittens's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SiegePerilous02 View Post
    I don't think it's really a coincidence that full blown flight was given to her during the same reboot that stripped the Amazons of their tech and erased the Invisible Plane, or the need for it in the first place.
    Yeah, that reboot was a pretty huge nerf to Wonder Woman and the Amazons as a whole. Prior to that all of the Amazons had abilities on par with Diana and it was actually possible for someone like Orana to simply prove herself to be better than Diana and take the title of Wonder Woman. Those days where she could contact her fellow Amazons telepathically and an Amazons abilities were something anyone could learn and be trained in certainly made things interesting.

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