My Hero Academia Drops Hilariously Subtle Spider-Man Reference

It goes without saying, but My Hero Academia is one of the biggest superhero series out there these days. The manga has taken over the industry as one of its most popular with fans putting it in the same tier as One Piece and Attack on Titan. In the West, Izuku is become a favorite of superhero fans, and the creator of My Hero Academia should be thrilled by such. After all, Kohei Horikoshi is massive comic book nerd, and it pushed his series to make a rather subtle nod to Spider-Man as of late.

So, take a moment and pause! If you can guess which UA Academy hero was connected to Spider-Man by Horikoshi, then you will win some serious bragging points with your friends!

Okay, now let’s move on. Recently, My Hero Academia published an all new book which acts as an analysis guide for the series. The novel was picked up by Aitaikimochi who translated new information relayed by the guide, and it was Sero who got the all-important reference to Spider-Man.

According to the novel, Sero “deeply respects that one Hero who lives in America who can shoot spider threads.” Of course, the nod is kept vague for copyright reasons, but the writer of My Hero Academia knew what he was doing. When you think about web-shooting heroes in the U.S., you think of Spider-Man. Fans are already making jokes about whether Peter Parker exists in the My Hero Academia universe or some version of him at least. After all, there is a massive Spider-Verse out there, so there is always a chance Sero really does look up to a version of the hero in his world.

Do you think My Hero Academia would fit into the Marvel Universe? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015. The much anticipated fourth season of the anime will be debuting on October 12th.