• Wonder Woman’s ability to fly is not a natural power granted to the Amazons of Themyscira, but rather the result of powerful artifacts and gifts from the Greek Pantheon of gods, especially her half-brother Hermes.
  • The invisible plane has long been Wonder Woman’s primary means of transportation, allowing her to travel undetected. Its origins varied between versions, but it was often given to her by Athena or transformed from mythical creatures.
  • In the DCEU, Wonder Woman finally gains the ability to fly. Wonder Woman 1984, using the power of his Lasso of Truth to cover vast distances and navigate the skies. The film also cleverly references the iconic stealth plane.

Can Wonder Woman Fly? This seems like a simple enough question, but depending on who you ask, you may get different answers. As many DC Comics fans are well aware, the legendary heroine Wonder Woman (also known as Diana Prince) is an Amazon from the mythical island of Themyscira. The Society of Women Warriors is well known in the DC Universe for being unrivaled fighters who value their many ancient traditions and secrets. One of these secrets, of course, is not the ability to fly, since the Amazons were not endowed with such a gift. The same can’t be said for Diana, who has various powerful artifacts that give her the ability to soar above the clouds like her Justice League teammate, Superman.

Wonder Woman usually flies in her invisible plane

Wonder Woman in her invisible plane
Image via Warner Bros.

Wonder Woman sometimes manages to fly without the use of this iconic vehicle, but the stealth plane has long served the hero’s main mode of transport. As the name suggests, Diana chose a plane that could turn completely invisible, allowing the Justice Leaguer to travel around the world virtually undetected. In more recent iterations, the inside of the plane is hidden from those outside, but in the early days, Wonder Woman could still be fun to be seen sitting on an invisible plane, making the stealth aspect a bit simplistic.

The origins of the invisible plane have varied over the years. In fact, the original version didn’t even have the correct origin, as Diana simply discovered the unusual technology by accident. On Earth One, Jet has a much more fantastical origin story. Greek goddess Athena gives Diana a pegasus before turning the winged horse into a jet for a more modern way to travel the world. In the current New 52 DC continuity, the aircraft takes on its most personal origin yet. Here, the plane that eventually becomes the Invisible Plane is the same plane that Diana’s historical love interest, Steve Trevor, crashes on Themyscira. This major event in DC Comics history effectively launched Diana’s superhero career as Wonder Woman, so the fact that her iconic plane is the same one that indirectly began her heroic journey is quite the example of dramatic irony. This version of the plane is also repaired using the Eighth Metal, a slightly weaker but still inhumanly strong cousin of the Nth Metal.

Being a demigod makes Wonder Woman especially powerful

As mentioned above, the Amazons cannot fly, probably because they have no need for such an ability since they would never want to leave their small and secluded island. However, as many probably know, Diana is no ordinary Amazon, as her father is none other than the patriarch of the Greek Pantheon of gods, Zeus. This effectively makes Wonder Woman a demigod., and especially powerful is the half-Amazon, half-Greek God. While her divine heritage does give her unique abilities such as superior strength and endurance, it is not something that immediately gives her the ability to fly.

What her heritage gives her is a connection to her. family members and allies in the Greek Pantheon of Olympus. We have already mentioned that Diana’s half-sister Athena gave the hero an invisibility plane in some versions, but this is not the only divine help she received during her long, decades-long career. She also received gifts from other members of the legendary group of gods such as Zeus, Poseidon, Hephaestus, Artemis, and even from her longtime rival and nemesis Ares. However, the source of one of her most useful abilities is her half-brother Hermes, the swift Messenger of the Gods.

Greek god Hermes helps Wonder Woman fly

Comics about Wonder Woman and Hermes
Image via DC Comics

Regardless of continuity, whenever Diana is given the ability to fly, it is always thanks to her sometimes deceitful half-brother Hermes (sometimes called the Greek equivalent of Mercury). Like most Greek gods, Hermes is often driven solely by his desires and desires, being more than willing to betray his half-sister Diana if it helps him in the long run. However, when he decides to help, he usually does so by giving Diana some surprisingly powerful artifacts - the Sandals of Hermes. Thanks to the magical wings attached to the shoes, Diana is capable of flying at incredible speeds.. The speed is so fast that she sometimes manages to keep up with the well-documented speed of the Flash and Superman.

Sandals are the most common way Diana gains the ability to fly, but the New 52 continuity also offers a unique twist on the turning point in Wonder Woman’s career. As in previous versions, it is Hermes who still grants Diana this ability, with this version of the Messenger God being even more dubious and deceptive than his alternate versions. However, this variant of Hermes gives Diana this ability, this time simply by piercing Diana’s skin with one of his magical feathers. This allows Diana to fly virtually anytime and anywhere she wants, no longer needing special shoes to do so.

Is Wonder Woman flying in the DCEU?

In the DCEU, which will soon be relaunched thanks to new studio heads James Gunn And Peter Safranwe see Wonder Woman for the first time (Gal Gadot) to arrive correctly Wonder Woman 1984. Well, technically it kind of glides, but still. The episode where she takes to the skies for the first time takes place shortly after “Maxwell Lord” (Pedro Pascal) causes pandemonium throughout the world, fulfilling the wishes of every person, leaving Diana and her lover Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) with a difficult choice. Diana cannot use her full power while her desire to bring Trevor back remains, so she must give up her desire if she hopes to stop the Lord. Reluctantly, Diana does just that and uses her Lasso of Truth to take to the skies. As soon as she does, she sees that she can use the power of the Lasso as a kind of engineusing clouds to travel long distances. Earlier in the film, when Diana and Steve steal the plane, we also get a pretty clever nod to the famous stealth plane when Diana is able to make the plane translucent so they can avoid unwanted attention.