The hero was the costumed identity of crack pilot Davy Nelson II, and created by writers Charles Biro and Dick Wood with artist Al Camy.

Chuck Dixon, writer of the 1980s revival, would describe Valkyrie as "a cross between a Milton Caniff siren and Veronica Lake", and declare her the "sexiest character of Golden Age comics bar none".

His friend, inventor and Franciscan friar Brother Francis Martier, had created a highly maneuverable prototype aircraft that flew by flapping its wings, like a bird; it also had claws for grabbing opponents, twin machine guns and could be summoned by radio.

[12] Airboy confronted such weird antagonists as the mysterious Misery – whose mould-encrusted Airtomb imprisoned the souls of dead pilots – and his bad girl nemesis, Valkyrie, a whip-wielding German aviator clad in jodhpurs and riding boots.

[12] Allies included the prototypical comic book swamp monster, the Heap, a World War I German aviator transformed into a shambling creature after crashing in a bog.

The other Air Fighters were a host of colourful heroic Allied pilots – the wolf-cowled Skywolf and his unit, consisting of a Cockney known as Cocky Roche, overage Royal Air Force veteran the Judge and Morse code-communicating mute Free Pole The Turtle, who all flew combining 'semi-planes' and fought the cyborg Half-Man; the vengeful Flying Dutchman, who warred with the Deathless Brain, the cerebrum of an English-speaking Imperial Japanese Army officer that operated out of a jar equipped with tentacles; the blaze-depilated Bald Eagle and his fatalistically-named 'Flying Coffin' plane; the improbably armour-suited Iron Eagle and his similarly ironclad but still flightworthy plane, who battled Nazi arson enthusiast Firebug; and English aristocrat Black Angel, who operated out of a secret hangar in her castle with partner Black Prince, with whom she fought the sadistic Baroness Blood and the son of Grigori Rasputin.

However, unlike properties owned by the American major publishers of the period the creative staff of Airboy would retain ownership of their work, and any additional characters created for the series.

[7] Mullaney, Yronwode, Truman and Dixon worked together on the initial idea, and opted to update the action to the present day and have Davy Nelson III, son of the original Airboy, take over his father's legacy.

[13] Supporting characters Valkyrie, Misery and Skywolf were all included, while Truman updated Hirota – a Japanese pilot who was the first 'kill' for Nelson Sr. during Air Fighters to now serve as his batman and tutor to his son.

Realising Valkyrie's plunging neckline and sultry looks were an important draw, Dixon devised a storyline where she was kept in suspended animation by the villain Misery, allowing her to remain youthful while also providing a plausible reason for David Nelson II's fall from grace.

[7] He briefly considered omitting Airboy's possibly sentient aircraft Birdie as it was too far fetched but ultimately Truman persuaded him it was part of the character's charm, likening it to the Batmobile.

The update to the modern day allowed Dixon to have the Air Fighters' escapades reference the Cold War foreign policy of both the USA and the USSR, albeit through thinly-veiled fictional countries.

[7] Airboy was initially published in an innovative format of a 50c bi-weekly consisting of 16 pages, allowing Eclipse to undercut Marvel and DC (a typical 32-page colour comic from "the Big Two" cost 75c).

[17] However, Woch felt the schedule was causing a drop in the quality of his work and left; Bo Hampton drew two issues before Ron Randall took over as regular artist.

[18] Airboy #25 spotlighted concerns about California's environment, leading to mainstream news coverage of the issue on CNN,[19] while #28 set up crossover one-shot Airboy-Mr. Monster Special, pairing the characters with Michael T. Gilbert's Mr.

;[21] the series was soon collected in a trade paperback, Valkyrie – Prisoner of the Past, with a new painted cover from Gulacy,[22] and was followed by the one-shot sequel the Air Maidens Special, featuring art from Elmore.

[28] A further spin-off, a limited series focusing on the Heap and written by Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein, was mooted[25] but instead appeared as a back-up in Airboy #38–40,[29] featuring art from Carmine Infantino.

[30] Skywolf would graduate to his own Vietnam War-set three issue mini-series in 1988, written by the prolific Dixon and drawn by Lyle,[31] while Valkyrie would also receive a second mini after the previous year's success,[32] with Anderson joining as artist.

He soon discovered his father's mothballed plane and uniform and teamed up with a number of the surviving Air Fighters to face many of the same enemies as David Nelson II, as well as South American dictators, Soviets, pirates and corporate criminals.

However, it was later learned that the trademark for Airboy had expired when Eclipse folded, and that despite Mullaney and Yronwode indicating otherwise in interviews to prevent rivals from using the character, the remainder of the Air Fighters canon remained in the public domain.

[13] As a result in 2007 Moonstone Books announced plans to revive the World War II version of the character in new stories written by Chuck Dixon.

[64][65] After reaching its first goal Airboy #51, introducing appeared in October 2019, featuring art by Brent McKee[66][67] and variant covers by Paul Gulacy, Jim Steranko, Graham Nolan, Don Perlin, Matt Kindt, Andrew MacLean, Dalibor Talajić and Emma Kubert.