My Hero Academia Explores Hawks' Dark Childhood in New Flashback

My Hero Academia explored Hawks' dark childhood in a flashback with the newest chapter of the series. Hawks has been one of the major fan favorites ever since he made his debut during the Pro Hero arc, but he's also been the most mysterious as it's clear from early on that he has a lot of darkness under the surface. Previous chapters of the series gave us insights into his past and resulting connection to Endeavor, but the series has finally given us a full look at Hawks' origin story. At the very least, it's another piece of the puzzle.

Chapter 299 of the series continues exploring the fallout of the Paranormal Liberation Front War and the ensuing mass prison breaks that were an immediate result, and with an update on Hawks' condition series creator Kohei Horikoshi also gave fans a better look into Hawks' dark past with an abusive family.

The chapter begins with Hawks revealing that he only saw heroes as fictional characters because of how poor quality of life he had early on. Hawks then reveals that his father murdered someone over money, and his mother helped him go on the lam. Thus they were both fugitives, and had a child in the midst of all of this. They treated him with disdain, and openly berated him.

He was broken inside until one day his father is arrested by Endeavor (and thus bringing about the deep emotional connection he has with his childhood hero), and he and his mother end up running out of their home. It soon appears as some shadow organization then essentially buys Hawks from his mother in return of creating brand new identities for them.

This is the end of the flashback unfortunately, but it does begin laying threads connecting to what we have already gleamed about the current Hawks. He's working for a faction of the Hero Organization on his own secret missions, so this might be a way to explain how he's so deeply embedded within the Hero Organization on a level the other heroes don't seem to be on.

But what did you think of this look into Hawks' dark past? Does it further explain some of his actions currently? Is it a complete look at his origin story? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!