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All Might vs. Superman: How Our Heroes Are Different

I find Witchblade's situation to be particularly ironic, because one of the artists on a Witchblade run ended up doing the very snarky, funny Witchblade spin-off Switch.

I'm a fan of superheroes and been so for years, decades, even- so naturally I loathe both of these series. L-o-a-t-h-e, yeah, that's right. Spider-man, Batman, Superman I'm fine with those guys but...

With One Punch Man, I couldn't get into the "murder as side affect of comedy" that's the core of the first few episodes. Take Mosquito Woman, please. Whether a woman who gained the sucking powers of... you know the drill here... or a mosquito made sentient... no, all thinking is moot because her existence, and all the people she killed... for some reason... was to be the punchline for a very lame joke.

Wow, it's a superhero parody on the level of the Tick, just missing all the things that made the Tick great, like comedy, passion and intelligence. Not from the Tick, from Arthur but someone has to have the leash or you end up the guy with all the power and no responsibility. And with great power...

Comes My Hero Academia which I lost interest in a record "next episode preview" at the end of the first episode. The world presented as being mostly superheroes so logically the guy to follow would be the hero who does it without any powers. In a world of Superman, Batman is the interesting guy. Right?

Ah, WSJ, you follower of the lowest common denominator, you. If you were going to do that then do that from the start, then just do it because the world was also set up so origin stories was obsolete. Hey, were you born? Well, 4 out of 5 chance you have some random power. It's like the author had his own idea but then his editor said:

"No, do this, it'd be more popular. Remember MxO?"
"Yeah, that series was awesome!"
"Don't be that series, it was cancelled."

My second favorite part is the origin stories so, yeah, neither series does much for me there either. My favorite part were the repeat villains- fan of the rogues gallery, yo!- so, yeah, killing them? Yeah, really doesn't do it for me.

Some of our heroes aren't above killing bad guys as a measure to prevent future crimes or endangerment of innocent lives, often descending into vigilantism in the process. Some of their heroes spare their adversaries too often, thinking that by being humbled in battle they can reform and change their ways.

I feel like this article is missing a discussion of how in both MHA and One-Punch Man, the regulation and legitimizing of superheroics leads to a class of people who, despite being officially labelled 'heroes', have less-than-heroic motivations, either greed for money or a lust for fame and power. MHA in particular plays on this tension, and it's a fairly important thematic consideration from the very first chapter of the manga. While both of these series do feature very Japanese power structures, they're also pretty sharply critical of them, and in both cases those power structures are supported by the efforts of one exceptional man, who is either perpetually trapped in obscurity (Saitama) or who is essentially an outside force (All Might). Society may look up to the hero institutions of their respective series, but they're ultimately powerless to address major problems and a source of many problems themselves.

There are quite a few differences to take into account, likely the biggest one being Western superheroes tend to use a lot of violence to get things done, whereas Japanese ones could be pegged as not using enough force to solve criminal problems. Some of our heroes aren't above killing bad guys as a measure to prevent future crimes or endangerment of innocent lives, often descending into vigilantism in the process. Some of their heroes spare their adversaries too often, thinking that by being humbled in battle they can reform and change their ways.

Yeah, I must again call some projection bias here. People seem really attached to this idea of Midoriya being set up as a Batman-type character who turns out better than all the other heroes by sheer determination, ignoring the fact that this was never to premise of the story in the first place.

Mankind has developed superpowers known as "Quirks" with 80% of the population having some kind of superpower. These new abilities see the rise of both superheroes and villains. A prestigious school known as the The Hero Academy trains superpowered hopefuls into the heroes the world needs. Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he's part the 20% without a Quirk. Unwilling to give up his dream, he plans to take the exam and be accepted into a high school for budding heroes. Through a series of serendipitous events, he catches the eye of the greatest hero, All Might, who agrees to train him.

The appearance of "quirks," newly discovered super powers, has been steadily increasing over the years, with 80 percent of humanity possessing various abilities from manipulation of elements to shapeshifting. This leaves the remainder of the world completely powerless, and Izuku Midoriya is one such individual.

Since he was a child, the ambitious middle schooler has wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Izuku's unfair fate leaves him admiring heroes and taking notes on them whenever he can. But it seems that his persistence has borne some fruit: Izuku meets the number one hero and his personal idol, All Might. All Might's quirk is a unique ability that can be inherited, and he has chosen Izuku to be his successor!

Izuku has dreamt of being a hero all his life—a lofty goal for anyone, but especially challenging for a kid with no superpowers.

Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he hasn’t got an ounce of power in him.

Are you sure you didn't get that mixed up? Because Japanese heroes are usually the ones that kill without hesitation. It's usually the comic heroes making excuses for their rogue galleries to keep them around. Toku heroes usually kill someone each episode even if they beg for forgiveness or are just being used by the villain. Batman defended the Joker when he got put on Death Row by the police, and Spider-Man leaves villains for the police rather than just killing them and moving on.

johan.eriksson.9003 wrote:

Yeah, I must again call some projection bias here. People seem really attached to this idea of Midoriya being set up as a Batman-type character who turns out better than all the other heroes by sheer determination, ignoring the fact that this was never to premise of the story in the first place.

Yes, "projection bias"...or, you could've been been lead to believe that Batman = Midoriya due to the synopsis given for the series.

ANN wrote:

Mankind has developed superpowers known as "Quirks" with 80% of the population having some kind of superpower. These new abilities see the rise of both superheroes and villains. A prestigious school known as the The Hero Academy trains superpowered hopefuls into the heroes the world needs. Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he's part the 20% without a Quirk. Unwilling to give up his dream, he plans to take the exam and be accepted into a high school for budding heroes. Through a series of serendipitous events, he catches the eye of the greatest hero, All Might, who agrees to train him.

Sounds like it contains a character without a power to me. But, lets look elsewhere.

My Anime List wrote:

The appearance of "quirks," newly discovered super powers, has been steadily increasing over the years, with 80 percent of humanity possessing various abilities from manipulation of elements to shapeshifting. This leaves the remainder of the world completely powerless, and Izuku Midoriya is one such individual. Since he was a child, the ambitious middle schooler has wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Izuku's unfair fate leaves him admiring heroes and taking notes on them whenever he can. But it seems that his persistence has borne some fruit: Izuku meets the number one hero and his personal idol, All Might. All Might's quirk is a unique ability that can be inherited, and he has chosen Izuku to be his successor!

Hmm, no mention of his power...does sound like the guy without a power is being given a massive honor by his "Superman".

Funimation wrote:

Izuku has dreamt of being a hero all his life—a lofty goal for anyone, but especially challenging for a kid with no superpowers.

Yes, you labeling this purely as a bias view seems very disingenuous to me.

VIZ wrote:

Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he hasn’t got an ounce of power in him.

While this may not have been the premise of the story, it's certainly a major point made in the plot synopsis on some pretty big anime websites. Hell, 2 of the licensors for the series sell this point. It's a guy without powers, so of course some people will actually expect...a guy without powers. This is what was "sold" to them.

It's very hard to call this "projection bias" when this is the plot synopsis given. If there was no mention of the character not having a power, then I can see why anyone would think someone else was projecting something that was never there onto the series. But, this doesn't seem to be the case at all.

johan.eriksson.9003 wrote:

Yeah, I must again call some projection bias here. People seem really attached to this idea of Midoriya being set up as a Batman-type character who turns out better than all the other heroes by sheer determination, ignoring the fact that this was never to premise of the story in the first place.

Yes, "projection bias"...or, you could've been been lead to believe that Batman = Midoriya due to the synopsis given for the series.

ANN wrote:

Mankind has developed superpowers known as "Quirks" with 80% of the population having some kind of superpower. These new abilities see the rise of both superheroes and villains. A prestigious school known as the The Hero Academy trains superpowered hopefuls into the heroes the world needs. Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he's part the 20% without a Quirk. Unwilling to give up his dream, he plans to take the exam and be accepted into a high school for budding heroes. Through a series of serendipitous events, he catches the eye of the greatest hero, All Might, who agrees to train him.

Sounds like it contains a character without a power to me. But, lets look elsewhere.

My Anime List wrote:

The appearance of "quirks," newly discovered super powers, has been steadily increasing over the years, with 80 percent of humanity possessing various abilities from manipulation of elements to shapeshifting. This leaves the remainder of the world completely powerless, and Izuku Midoriya is one such individual. Since he was a child, the ambitious middle schooler has wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Izuku's unfair fate leaves him admiring heroes and taking notes on them whenever he can. But it seems that his persistence has borne some fruit: Izuku meets the number one hero and his personal idol, All Might. All Might's quirk is a unique ability that can be inherited, and he has chosen Izuku to be his successor!

Hmm, no mention of his power...does sound like the guy without a power is being given a massive honor by his "Superman".

Funimation wrote:

Izuku has dreamt of being a hero all his life—a lofty goal for anyone, but especially challenging for a kid with no superpowers.

Yes, you labeling this purely as a bias view seems very disingenuous to me.

VIZ wrote:

Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he hasn’t got an ounce of power in him.

While this may not have been the premise of the story, it's certainly a major point made in the plot synopsis on some pretty big anime websites. Hell, 2 of the licensors for the series sell this point. It's a guy without powers, so of course some people will actually expect...a guy without powers. This is what was "sold" to them.

It's very hard to call this "projection bias" when this is the plot synopsis given. If there was no mention of the character not having a power, then I can see why anyone would think someone else was projecting something that was never there onto the series. But, this doesn't seem to be the case at all.