My Hero Academia may have influenced Marvel and DC to "rebrand" heroes for the modern-day audience

Modified Jan 03, 2025 16:02 GMT

My Hero Academia may have influenced Marvel and DC to "rebrand" heroes for the modern-day audience — All Might, Spider-Man, and Deku as seen in the special illustration (Image via Marvel Comics, Shueisha)

As fans must know by now, Marvel Comics has a special connection with My Hero Academia. This is especially evident from all the collaborations that have taken place between the comic book publisher and the Shueisha series.

Even manga creator Kohei Horikoshi has admitted that Western Comics have inspired him. He has confessed his love for Marvel on multiple occasions and has credited the start of his admiration to the 2002 Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie.

Therefore, it is highly implied that Marvel and DC Comics inspire My Hero Academia. However, recent media from both comic book publishers have suggested that the tables have finally turned as Marvel and DC Comics may be getting influenced by the Kohei Horikoshi series.

Disclaimer: This article reflects the author's opinion.

Marvel and DC Comics may be drawing inspiration from My Hero Academia

Deku as seen in the anime (Image via BONES)

Over the years, it was very evident that Western comics like Marvel and DC Comics were the blueprint behind Kohei Horikoshi's hero manga series My Hero Academia. However, with the manga having been serialized for ten years, it seems like the Kohei Horikoshi series has finally reached the stage where Western comics have begun drawing inspiration from the manga instead.

As fans must know, Marvel and DC Comics are the original foundation behind the "hero" genre all across the globe. However, with the rising popularity of anime and manga, they, too, may have fallen behind when it comes to catering to the tastes of the modern-day audience. This could be why they may have started drawing inspiration from Japanese manga series, hoping to "rebrand" their heroes for the contemporary audience.

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For instance, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 game featured a fight between Miles Morales and Peter Parker. One of the scenes from this fight saw Miles Morales grabbing Peter Parker, jumping up the sky, and hitting him with his Bio-Electric Venom Power to pin him down.

This scene resembles the fight between Deku and Bakugo in My Hero Academia season 3. The sequence saw Bakugo grabbing hold of Deku, jumping up the sky, and hitting him with his Explosion Quirk in the same manner. While one could argue that Bakugo's attack was not inventive, even the cinematography for the scenes looked identical.

A similar instance was seen in the new Superman show My Adventures with Superman. This show featured a scene where Clark Kent punched a giant robot to save Lois Lane. The visuals for the scene were very similar to the My Hero Academia scene from the Entrance Exam Arc, in which Deku used his One For All Quirk for the first time to save Ochako Uraraka from the giant robot.

Additionally, as per netizens online, the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie was originally supposed to feature a Deku figurine. As fans may remember, the movie saw Gwen Stacy visit Miles Morales in his room. In this scene, she took a mint-condition figurine out of its box and placed it on the shelf.

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The figurine had many similarities with Deku's design, suggesting that it was originally meant to be a Deku figurine. With such pieces of evidence, one can only conclude that, while Western comics inspired My Hero Academia in the past, they have now started getting influenced by the manga series to "rebrand" heroes for the modern-day audience.