Kohei Horikosi’s My Hero Academia is a melding of shonen manga and American superhero comic sensibilities. So...what do superhero comics and shonen manga have in common at the most basic level? Large casts in big fights!

The average American superhero has been around for about fifty years and exists in a shared multiverse with infinite versions of other superheroes who also have fifty years of history. You can make American superheroes fight each other for awesomely complex reasons! Conversely, our heroes in My Hero Academia exist in a shonen vacuum, so they fight for other great reasons, for example, this volume's school tournament!

After taking first in the qualifying rounds, Midoriya has a target on his back from other kids who are more experienced with their Quirks. Though Midoriya has received All Might's Quirk, there is some question as to the Quirk's effectiveness without proper training. When you come right down to it, the One for All Quirk seems like a form of super strength that also requires mental training to get around Newton’s second law the way Superman does. When Superman knocks the Hulk three blocks, he never thinks “Gotta do this just right or it will break my arm” the way Izuki does in his battles with Shoto and Shinso. If the All For One Quirk works the way I think it must, mental strength is about to be important to Midoriya as it is for many characters in this story.

Find out what happens in My Hero Academia volume 4, available now!

by Rob McCarthy