History Main / TokenFlyer

* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'': The original line-up provided an interesting take on this trope. Technically, ''all'' the members weren't limited to staying on the ground. Iron Man and the Wasp could fly, Ant-Man could get around by riding on winged ants, Thor could throw his hammer and hang on to the strap and be pulled along, and the Hulk could take giant leaps. Later, when the line-up was Captain America, Hercules, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch, ''none'' of them could fly.
* ''ComicBook/{{Checkmate}}'': [[FlyingFirepower Fire]] is this for the Black Side while Vertigo is this for the White Side.
* ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'': Of the original three members, Negative Man was the only member who could fly.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': The Human Torch is the only member of the team who can fly. His sister, the Invisible Woman, is sometimes depicted as being able to travel short distances [[NotQuiteFlight by riding on her force fields]] but doesn't do this as often.
* ''ComicBook/PowerPack'': Flying is the main power associated with the Velocity Powers, which Julie has most of the time. The 4 kids tend to switch powers however, so the role of the Token Flyer has been held by all four of them at least once.
* ''ComicBook/{{Slingers}}'': The team consists of Prodigy who possesses superhuman strength, Ricochet who is superhumanly agile, Dusk who possesses [[CastingAShadow shadow powers]] and Hornet whose suit comes with a JetPack that grants him flight.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': The original incarnation of the Sinister Six consisted of Dr. Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Vulture, Mysterio and Sandman. Electro was the only one who could fly under his own power. Vulture needed his electromagnetic harness to fly.

* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': The original four Titans consisted of Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad and Wonder Girl. Wonder Girl was the only one with the power of innate flight.

* ''Franchise/XMen'':
** The original five X-Men had Angel, whose only power was flight via his wings. Over time, more X-Men with flight (and other powers) were added to the group and Angel's powerset has needed to be expanded to avoid redundancy.
** ''ComicBook/NewMutants'': Cannonball was this for the team before Sunspot's powerset was upgraded to include flight.
** ''ComicBook/GenerationX'': Monet St. Croix is the only one of the kids who can fly.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Cinder is the only member of Salem's team with the ability to fly beyond Salem herself. This helps make the BigBad and TheHeavy stand out from the rest of their group, which have more down-to-earth abilities. [[spoiler:Magic gives people the ability to fly, so Cinder gains this ability at the end of Volume 3 when she steals the full power of the Fall Maiden. While certain characters can use their Semblance or weapons to propel them through the air, such as Ruby's SuperSpeed, Weiss summoning a Queen Lancer to ride or Nora sitting on her grenade launcher, none of them have an innate power of true flight like the Four Maidens possess. As magic-users, [[BigBad Salem]] and [[BigGood Ozma]] also have this ability, but Ozma gave up most of his magic [[SuperEmpowering to create the four Maidens]]; while it's implied he can still fly when fighting Cinder [[ResurrectiveImmortality as Ozpin]], [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar]] is new to Ozma's power and therefore doesn't use magic the same way.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Cinder is the only member of Salem's team with the ability to fly beyond Salem herself. This helps make the BigBad and TheHeavy stand out from the rest of their group, which have more... down-to-earth abilities. [[spoiler:Magic gives people the ability to fly, so Cinder gains this ability at the end of Volume 3 when she steals the full power of the Fall Maiden. While certain characters can use their Semblance or weapons to propel them through the air, such as Ruby's SuperSpeed, Weiss summoning a Queen Lancer to ride or Nora sitting on her grenade launcher, none of them have an innate power of true flight. As magic-users, [[BigBad Salem]] and [[BigGood Ozma]] have the ability to fly, but Ozma gave most of his magic [[SuperEmpowering to the four Maidens]]; while it's implied that he still had the power of flight while fighting Cinder [[ResurrectiveImmortality as Ozpin]], [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar]] is only just beginning to master his power, and so does not display the same ability for the heroes side, despite using the same magic as the Four Maidens.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Cinder is the only member of Salem's team with the ability to fly beyond Salem herself. This helps make the BigBad and TheHeavy stand out from the rest of their group, which have more... down-to-earth abilities. [[spoiler:Magic gives people the ability to fly, so Cinder gains this ability at the end of Volume 3 when she steals the full power of the Fall Maiden. While certain characters can use their Semblance or weapons to propel them through the air, such as Ruby's SuperSpeed, Weiss summoning a Queen Lancer to ride or Nora sitting on her grenade launcher, none of them have an innate power of true flight. As magic-users, [[BigBad Salem]] and [[BigGood Ozma]] have the ability to fly, but Ozma gave most of his magic [[SuperEmpowering to the four Maidens]]; while it's implied that he still had the power of flight while fighting Cinder [[ResurrectiveImmortality as Ozpin]], [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar]] is only just beginning to master his power, and so does not display the same ability for the heroes side, despite using the same magic the four Maidens wield.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Cinder is the only member of Salem's team with the ability to fly beyond Salem herself. This helps make the BigBad and TheHeavy stand out from the rest of their group, which have more... down-to-earth abilities. [[spoiler:Magic gives people the ability to fly, so Cinder gains this ability at the end of Volume 3 when she steals the full power of the Fall Maiden. While certain characters can use their Semblance or weapons to propel them through the air, such as Ruby's SuperSpeed, Weiss summoning a Queen Lancer to ride or Nora sitting on her grenade launcher, none of them have an innate power of true flight. As magic-users, [[BigBad Salem]] and [[BigGood Ozma]] have the ability to fly, but Ozma gave most of his magic [[SuperEmpowering to the four Maidens]]; while it's implied that he still had the power of flight while fighting Cinder [[ResurrectiveImmortality as Ozpin]], [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar]] is only just beginning to master his power, and so does not display the same ability for the heroes side.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Cinder is the only member of Salem's team with the ability to fly beyond Salem herself. This helps make the BigBad and TheHeavy stand out from the rest of their group, which have more... down-to-earth abilities. [[spoiler:Magic gives people the ability to fly, so Cinder gains the ability to fly at the end of Volume 3 when she steals the full power of the Fall Maiden. While certain characters can use their Semblance or weapons to propel them through the air, such as Ruby's SuperSpeed, Weiss summoning a Queen Lancer to ride or Nora sitting on her grenade launcher, none of them have an innate power of true flight. As magic-users, [[BigBad Salem]] and [[BigGood Ozma]] have the ability to fly, but Ozma gave most of his magic [[SuperEmpowering to the four Maidens]]; while it's implied that he still had the power of flight while fighting Cinder [[ResurrectiveImmortality as Ozpin]], [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar]] is only just beginning to master his power, and so does not display the same ability for the heroes side.]]

As the only member of Salem's subordinates with the ability to use magic, Cinder is the only villain who shares with Salem the ability to fly. She prefers doing so by using her fire magic to propel her with bursts of flame, but has once levitated with wind magic as well. This distinguishes both the BigBad and the TheHeavy from the rest of their group.

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* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': ''Pikmin 3'' introduces Winged Pikmin, a species of Pikmin that can fly as opposed to their land-based brethren. Although they are not as strong in combat as other species of Pikmin, excluding fighting airborne enemies, they are extremely useful for solving and most often bypassing puzzles throughout the game as they can carry objects in the air without having to worry about most obstacles and enemies.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HarryAndHisBucketFullOfDinosaurs'', only one of Harry's dinosaurs, Pterence the ''Pteranodon'', can fly.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'': As with ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'', Harold the Helicopter is the only series regular to fly. There were two planes (Tiger Moth and Jeremy), [[CharacterOfTheDay but they only appeared in a handful of episodes before vanishing]].

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':

** Wonder Woman is the only one among the five Leaguers originally brought in from the main universe with flight as an innate power. Green Lantern can fly but only because of his PowerRing.

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': Lex Luthor is the only member of the Insurgency not brought over from the Main Universe, who has the ability to fly, though using his [[PoweredArmor suit]] to do so. This stands in contrast to the [[Characters/InjusticeOneEarthRegime Regime]] where most of the members have the ability to fly.

In a show with a FunnyAnimal cast, the token flyer character will probably be a bird or flying insect, while a cast of prehistoric animals might use a [[PteroSoarer pterosaur]] instead.

** Pidgeotto is this during the Kanto Portion of the ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries", being such a token that it doesn't even evolve until its Final Episode with Ash. For the Johto portion of the run, Ash uses his Shiny Noctowl.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Of the five members in this iteration, only Starfire and Raven had innate flight of the team. Beast Boy can fly too but only by turning into avian animals and wasn't much use for combat.

** ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY'' shakes it up a bit, making Talonflame his second capture instead of his first, but nonetheless, the Fire Flying Bird fills this spot.
** Most Recently, in ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon", Ash catches Rowlet, who doubles up as both the Token Flier as well as the PluckyComicRelief.

* ''VideoGame/BugFables'': Vi is the only member of Team Snakemouth who is capable of actual flight. She normally does it only in the cutscenes [[spoiler:until Forsaken Lands, where Queen Elizant orders Vi to start carrying others around, allowing the team to fly over gaps.]]

In a show with a FunnyAnimal cast, the token flyer character will probably be a bird, while a cast of prehistoric animals might use a [[PteroSoarer pterosaur]] instead.

** ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'': All the Rangers [[SkySurfing Galaxy Gliders]] but Andros is the only one who can fly without one thanks to his [[PoweredArmor Battilizer]].

** ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'': Joel was an aerial stuntman before becoming a Ranger. It is fitting that his Zord is the only aerial vehicle while the others drive trucks and cars.

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': Lex Luthor is the only member of the Insurgency not brought over from the Main Universe, who has the ability to fly, though using his [[PoweredArmor suit]] to do so. This stands in contrast to the Regime where most of the members have the ability to fly.

* ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'': As pictured above, the protagonist team is composed of two chipmunks (Chip and Dale), two mice (Monterey Jack and Gadget), and one housefly (Zipper). Zipper is the only Ranger with innate flight, while the others require one of Gadgets's constructs to fly.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/th_30.jpg]]

When coming up with a team of of heroes, it can be very useful to [[SuperheroSpeciation to give them different areas of specialty]]. You have your [[SuperStrength strong man]], your [[SuperSpeed speedster]], your BadassNormal, your [[PsychicPowers psychic]] etc. And then you have your Token Flyer.

->'''Red Alert''': I'm so glad someone on our team can fly!
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TransformersWarForCybertronTrilogy'', ''Earthrise: Episode 1''

This can lead to issues if the group membership changes - if all Alice can do is fly, then Bob the FlyingBrick joins it can make Alice look redundant. Writers generally get around this by upgrading Alice in other areas to justify her staying on the team.

* ''{{Animation/BoBoiBoy}}'': Yaya is the sole member of the KidHero group[[note]] Not including the titular character's [[ElementalPowers elemental]] [[LiteralSplitPersonality counterparts]] who can fly ([[BlowYouAway Wind]]) or levitate ([[PlayingWithFire Fire]] and [[LightEmUp Solar]]), nor [[TheLancer Fang's]] secondary [[CastingAShadow shadow animal]] forms which can grant him flight. [[/note]] who directly possesses the power of flight, as well as super strength, later summed up as her being a GravityMaster.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': Vision is the only Avenger in this film with the innate ability to fly. The only other two Avengers who can fly, Thor and Iron Man, need external means to get airborne; Thor uses [[PowersViaWeapon Mjolnir]] while Iron Man uses his PoweredArmor.

* ''Film/FantasticFour2005'' and ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'': Johnny is the only one among the Four who can fly under his own power. Even when they get the [[FlyingCar Fantasticar]] in the second movie, Johnny prefers to fly on his own.

* ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'': Due to being stuck in hawk morph, Tobias is the best of the team at flying, even if they can all turn into birds. Once he regains the ability to morph, he can finally join the team in missions again, but his default body remains a hawk.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Aang is the sole [[BlowYouAway airbender]] in the cast, and as such the only one of the main characters (not counting TeamPet Appa) who is able to fly, either by using his glider-staff or by levitating through airbending. Unusually for this trope, he's also the main protagonist.