DC Ties Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet to ‘Dark Nights: Metal’

Spoilers ahead for Dark Nights: Metal #5, on sale now.

In the penultimate issue of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo‘s multiverse-hopping epic Dark Nights: Metal, DC introduced a minor change to one of Wonder Woman’s most iconic accoutrements: her invisible jet.

First appearing in Sensation Comics #1 in 1942, the invisible plane was Wonder Woman’s primary mode of transportation in the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe, and while later versions have appeared, Wonder Woman has generally been able to fly (and thus did not regularly need an invisible plane) since the mid-’80s.

In Metal #5, The Man Who Laughs reveals to Wonder Woman that she has been shot with bullets made of 8th Metal, a substance which he tells the reader was used in the construction of Diana’s invisible plane “…if you have that on this Earth.”

The decision to tie Wonder Woman’s jet to the metals behind Metal is kind of an obvious one, in hindsight: the 9th/Nth metal that allows Hawkman and Hawkwoman to fly is wondrous itself, and if the jet comes from 8th Metal, it could help explain the plane’s silence: there was no traditional engine.

A super-science or quasi-mystical metal could also bridge the divide between the low-fi technology of Themyscira and the idea of a supersonic jet.

In its original form, the jet was something Diana designed while on Paradise Island; she used it to travel back and forth to man’s world.

In the post-Crisis interpretation, the plane was an alien “morphing crystal” which was actually sentient and able to respond to Wonder Woman’s thoughts. She did not realize for some time that the plane was alive, and later felt guilt about treating it like a simple tool. Wonder Woman’s mother briefly used the plane during a time-traveling mission, and later it would sacrifice itself to save thousands of innocents from a massive, oncoming tidal wave. Now “dead,” the plane — called Dome — is stuck in its plane form and can function in that way but is no longer treated as sentient.

There has been no sign of the invisible plane during the Rebirth era, but since DC has generally referred to its post-Rebirth publishing line as a “greatest hits” version of reality, it would be difficult to imagine such a fan-favorite concept being dumped.

Dark Nights: Metal #5 is on sale now. The finale will be in stores on March 14.