Summary
Quick Links
The following contains spoilers for the end of My Hero Academia.
Despite pro heroes at the beginning ofMy Hero Academiawarning about being too reliant on support items, by the end of the show, we see that many of our favorite heroes are doing exactly that.
At the end of Season 7,All Might can stand up to All for Onethrough the use of his Armored All Might form, and we see that Deku can rise to the top of the pro hero rankings, relying only on a battle suit after what happened to his powers after the final war arc. Given how flexible support items have become compared to Quirks, will future heroes be relying on technology more than on their biological Quirk factors in the world ofMy Hero Academia?
The Strongest Heroes Use Them
Support Items Can Seemingly Do Anything Now
Our first introduction to support items inMy Hero Academiais through the character of Mei Hatsume during the UA Sports Festival in Season 2. She manages to clear the preliminary race and make it to the tournament bracket despite being from the support course, thanks to her innovative support inventions. Without these support items, she would not have advanced so far in the Sports Festival, as her own Quirk, Zoom, is not combat-oriented.
In the beginning, support items were merely ways to mitigate the drawbacks of Quirks or give a Quirk user more options in battle.Katsuki Bakugo designed his hero costumewith support item gauntlets in mind, since he was keenly aware of how his power output was subject to his body’s limits.
“That’s right, these gauntlets aren’t just for show. They’ve been storing up my sweat inside for one monster blast.” -Bakugo bragging to Midoriya during mock battles in Episode 7.
However, as the series goes on, we see support items become truly unmatched in their potential benefit to heroes, allowing even those without powers to stand up to the toughest villains. This progression of support items is exemplified in Season 7, when All Might dons a suit of armor to become Armored All Might.
“You’re getting wailed on by someone who’s Quirkless!” Armored All Might facing off against All for One.
The suit manages to replicate the Quirks of the members of Class 1-A, who, despite being students, are some of the strongest heroes on the battlefield. All Might is able to leverage his nearly 40 years of experience as the top hero and his familiarity with his students' Quirksto prevent All for One from rushing ahead of him,even without having a Quirk to properly fight against him.
Support Items Overtake Quirks?
What the Future of the Hero Profession May Look Like
“No matter how many gadgets you got, a Quirkless human has no way of standing up to power like this.” Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi watches as All Might strides into battle with no powers of his own to call upon.
Despite earlier warnings in the series of pros relying too heavily on support items, Armored All Might seems to be a tipping point where support items are shown to be able to compete with Quirks on the highest level. Unlike Quirks, support item technology can be more easily replicated. It’s possible that the future of heroes will bepeople donning suits just like All Might’s, making Quirks less important for hero work.
A hint of this is seen in the epilogue chapters of theMy Hero Academiamanga, where Deku is given a suit to enable him to continue hero work despite losing all his abilities. With just Deku’s hero experience and this power suit, he is able to rise to the top echelons of pro-heroes in the following years. In a recently released five-page one-shot manga, Deku was revealed to be the number four-ranked hero, following up on Chapter 431, which left off at the end of the final manga volume.
Despite not having the power of One For All anymore,Deku was ranked higher than Bakugo, thanks to the power of his support suit and hard work. It seems very likely that future heroes will be relying on the power of support items much more as the next generation of heroes comes onto the scene. Support items have essentially become transferable Quirks in terms of power at this point in the series. If the story ever continues in some way, Quirks may be less important in future battles.
My Hero Academia
Cast
In My Hero Academia, some humans have superpowers called quirks. Izuku Midoriya, nicknamed Deku, is not one of them. Deku has always idolized heroes like the number one hero, All Might, and since he was a child, he has always wanted to be a hero. However, his lack of a quirk has always held him back, but a chance encounter with All Might after discovering a classmate in danger sets Deku on the path to becoming a true hero. My Hero Academia centers around Deku and a class of heroes-in-training at UA. This school shapes young quirk users into future heroes through fake rescue missions, combat training, and other hero-tempering tasks. With young Deku inheriting the “One-For-All” quirk, he will learn what it means to be a true hero while facing off with dastardly supervillains.
