Friday, November 23, 2012

VALKYRIE "Conclusion"

Heroic teen aviator AirBoy, who controls the futuristic aircraft "Birdie", encounters the AirMaidens, a team of German aviatrixes who have been shooting down Allied aircraft.
Though he manages to defeat their leader, Valkyrie, in one-on-one combat, he is forced down by superior numbers, and is captured by the Luftwaffe.
Rankled by AirBoy's victory over her, Valkyrie tortures him to learn the secret of controlling his aircraft.
But, some of her squadron, sympathetic to the captive teen's plight, manage to hide AirBoy.
The AirMaidens who betrayed the Nazis are ordered put to death, and Valkyrie, to save her teammates, goes to where AirBoy is hidden...
Valkyrie would return several times during AirBoy's run in Air Fighters Comics and his own title.
When Airboy was revived by Eclipse Comics in the 1980s, Valkyrie assembled a new team of AirMaidens including a new incarnation of Black Angel, and a female version of SkyWolf called La Lupina.
The revival was succesful enough to warrant a pair of Valkyrie mini-series and an Air Maidens one-shot.

While the writer of this Golden Age is unknown, this introductory tale from Hillman's Air Fighters Comics #14 (1943) was illustrated by Fred Kida and Bill Quackenbush.

NOTE: there was a second Nazi aviatrix named Valkyrie during the Golden Age. 
She appeared in the only issue of Spotlight Publishers' TaleSpin (1944) as the nemesis of the one-shot hero FireBird, as detailed HERE!

Be here next week, when we present another tale of classic comic grrl power!

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