A recurring image in My Hero Academia, especially in the first few dozen episodes, is the broken body of Deku. We see Izuku Midoriya's form get twisted and battered in a variety of gruesome ways, his limbs and digits often left bruised and hanging after he's pushed himself up to and past his limits over and over. It shows that MHA has an obsession, especially when it comes to Deku, with the confines of human flesh and how a hero or villain reaching their true potential and achieving greater things often means warping and even destroying their skin, muscle, and bone.
This is certainly the case in Episode 42, in which, during the Forest Training Camp arc, Deku meets League of Villains member Muscular, whose blend of pride, viciousness, and brutality makes for a lethal combination. But while, as fights go on, we usually see Deku's body start to fall apart, Muscular is the exact opposite. His quirk is Muscle Augmentation and as his strength increases, his body quickly becomes layered by more and more muscle, going from bodybuilder to a borderline shapeless mass of malicious flesh over the course of their battle.
This power obviously brings to mind the Batman antagonist Bane, whose use of the steroid "Venom" evolves his body type from "particularly jacked luchador" to "7-foot-tall throbbing bicep vein." But while Bane's finishing move is usually to pick up Batman or any other billionaire ninja that he can find and crack their spine over his knee, Muscular's endgame when fighting Deku is simply crushing him with his mass. He envelops Deku with his bulk, driving him down into the mountain.
And despite Muscular's fantastical power, this manner of eliminating Deku is anything but. He's smothering Deku, a far cry from something like "Death by genetic abomination" or "Death by dude who can decay stuff with his hands." It's awful and primal and real, and with it, Muscular goes from being "Buff-kugo" to representing Deku's entire struggle to be more than human. He continuously taunts Deku for being too weak, and accepting his demise for a second, Deku apologizes to All Might and his mother for being unable to win. His quirk wasn't enough. His passion wasn't enough. He, who has spent most of his life without a Quirk, wasn't enough. And now he will die a very human death.
The fact that he's saved by Kota, a troubled child who's obsessed with and disgusted by heroes and quirks, who distracts Muscular long enough for Deku to rally and deliver a jaw-shattering punch is also telling. A quirk saved Deku, but Deku will never be invulnerable. Like his idol All Might, Deku will not be defeated by his drive giving out or his integrity being tested, but by his physical form failing. He will age, his body will become injured and tired, his abilities stressed from overuse. His ultimate defeat or his retirement, whichever comes first, will likely be due to something which is, again, very human.
Deku vs Muscular has all the trappings of a very traditional fight formula — David vs Goliath. The former is an ingenious, energetic underdog and the latter is a towering, boastful monstrosity who is just begging to be sling shot'd (or punched, or lasered, or flame thrower'd) in the noggin. There's a reason that fiction keeps going back to this. The contrast between the two warriors is visually obvious and you can easily apply any metaphors you want about strength and determination to it. But Boku no Hero takes it a step further by making it about the horrors of weakness, the sinking feeling of suddenly realizing that you cannot push back, the claustrophobia of mortality.
Also, it's like, a super rad anime fight. My Hero Academia is no slouch when it comes to punch-fests that I really enjoy, and watching Deku vs Muscular is no different. So even if you read all of this, lean back in your smoking jacket, and say "Pish posh. This all sounds like just two dudes throwing down," you're likely to dig it.
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Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!
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