Airboy

Airboy first appeared in Air Fighters Comics #2 (cover-date Nov. 1942) as the costumed identity of David 'Davy' Nelson II, the son of an expert pilot. Within the stories Davy inherits a prototype flapping-wing aircraft and an associated uniform from inventor Brother Francis Martier, a Franciscan friar who created and tested the plane and was killed during its trial. Davy adopts the name 'Airboy' and uses Birdie to help the Allies in World War II; the character continued in Hillman Publications' Airboy Comics through May 1953 and was later revived by other creators and publishers after the original copyrights lapsed.

Airboy is depicted as a youthful, costumed aviator (the personal name David/Davy Nelson II). He wears the uniform he inherited alongside his aircraft; the plane Birdie is visually distinctive in the stories as a prototype aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Series visuals also include recurring supporting figures such as the German aviatrix Valkyrie (visually noted for a green tunic, jodhpurs and riding boots) and the swamp-monster ally the Heap, reflecting the mix of realistic and fantastical imagery in the comics.

As presented in the comics, Davy Nelson II is an expert pilot, an expert mechanic, and skilled in hand-to-hand combat. His primary equipment, Birdie, is described in sources as a highly maneuverable prototype aircraft that flew by flapping its wings, equipped with claws for grappling and twin machine guns, and portrayed as seemingly summonable by radio. The series places Airboy in aerial combat against Axis forces and against an array of fantastical antagonists (immortal occultists, cyborgs, brains-in-jars, and mould-encrusted Airtombs), and in postwar stories he is retooled to fight other perceived threats such as Communists.