I was picked to review My Hero Academia because my love of superheroes runs down to the deepest molecule. At first blush, shonen tropes and Western superheroes seem totally at odds. With rare exceptions, a shonen hero is a teenager and trains for a goal. Superheroes are, with rare exceptions, adults and too uber-competent to need much training. Sure Batman has had a lot of training, but in the very first Batman story, heʼs already a “strange legendary creature of the night.” Basically, shonen characters look like the hero-in-waiting Midoriya, and superheroes look like his mentor, All Might (capes, tights, big muscles, bigger grins).

In tune with some shonen conventions, My Hero Academia takes place in a school setting, albeit one for superheroes.  But their powers are called Quirks, and most of the people on the planet have them. This brings up an interesting concept—if legions of people have powers, the world would change in plenty of ways not pertaining to crime fighting. For instance, one of the minor characters, Lunch Rush, has the power to make gourmet food out of cheap food, which in real life would be far more useful than bulletproof flesh. With eighty percent of all humans given some kind of superpower, the Quirkless twenty percent must be REALLY looked down upon, which makes life hard for Midoriya, who has no powers at all. 

But Midoriya is without a doubt the plucky youth a great shonen manga needs! Although he was born without a Quirk, his fateful encounter with All Might changes everything. And thus the training sequence begins! But not your normal training sequence at all, instead one that is very unusual for a manga or a superhero comic. The confidence-lacking Midoriya is the perfect student for the wise and self assured All Might. All the interactions between the two are heartfelt and give the story, which is fantastic, some much-needed grounding.  

And like many superhero origin stories, this can be read as metaphor. Superman is the immigrant. Batman is the child raging against adult cruelty. And now we have the newest and most relatable hero, Midoriya—a young kid among more powerful kids. By most relatable, I mean I am fairly certain most SJ readers are not aliens raised in Americaʼs heartland, just as I am equally sure a lot of SJ readers were the last in their middle school to grow facial hair.

Like many comic books that are not a Marvel or DC, My Hero does backflips to avoid using the word “superhero” for reasons I will not spoil. Eventually, Izuku finds out he may not need to be born with a Quirk to be a hero. It's kind of the standard “kid who never gives up” bit, but Horikoshi Sensei pulls out a superhero comic trick I did not expect him to use. I really thought All Might was just a Superman analogue, but All Might is not Superman, who is bulletproof even when he is disguised as Clark Kent.

Artistically speaking, All Might and several other heroes look just like one would think a young manga artist would design a superhero. Aside from the ever-present smile, All Might comes right out of a 1990s superhero character design. Spiky hair, big boots and pouches. Superheroes have always worn boots, but any superhero with spiky hair was made in 1989 or later. Yet All Mightʼs non-super form looks like an Eiichiro Oda character that has not eaten for weeks. An interesting design to analyze, especially from an American comic book fan's perspective. 

My Hero Academia is an almost perfect amalgam of superhero and shonen, mixing the best parts of both. I wholeheartedly recommend it for both manga and Western comic fans. My sole complaint with it is we see very few supers for a world that is 80 percent super, but I'm sure that will change as the series continues. I wanna see more heroes! 

You can see if your Quirk is buying cool graphic novels by picking up My Hero Academia  volume 1 here! 

by Rob McCarthy