My Hero Academia Surprises with Villainous Nightwing Easter Egg

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has reached the climactic battle of its final arc as Koichi is trying to do everything he can to save Kazuho from her current villainous self, but the newest chapter revved things up a notch as Koichi officially met the main villain of the series that has been behind many of the terrorist attacks he has helped foil in the past. But what was unexpected about this meeting, however, was the small Easter Egg referencing famous DC Comics character Nightwing's costume. This is already on top of several DC Comics parallels set up for the villain already!

Chapter 81 of the series sees Koichi officially meet Number Six as the villain reveals that he was behind Kazuho's explosive bug rampage. He's been manipulating her as part of a grander scheme to get more notoriety as a hero in the hero world. Part of his plan was to use Kazuho's defeat as a grand introduction to his new heroic persona, O'Clock II (that is already a reference to DC Comics superhero The Flash). Doing so, he also reveals a new costume for himself.

Showing Koichi his official new look, this costume is a dead ringer for DC Comics' Nightwing if slightly more villainous. This could be a coincidence, but considering how this spin off has already included tons of non-apologetic references to Western superhero comics, famous My Hero Academia scenes, Thomas the Tank Engine, and more, this is most likely an intentional callout to the famous member of the Batman family.

Speaking of the Batman family, Chapter 81 of the series also features a far more direct Easter Egg referencing another Robin with an image mirroring Batman: Death in the Family's now infamous Robin death scene. These allusions to DC Comics paints the kind of picture Number Six is trying to invoke as the villain wants to shift the perspective for Koichi and Kazuho to make them the villains tragically killed in the battle with a burgeoning young hero. He's literally trying to write his own superhero story.

Did you catch this shout out to Nightwing's costume in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes? Did you think this was an Easter Egg for another hero or villain instead? How have you been enjoying Number Six as a villain so far? 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!