My Hero Academia Recruits Legendary Marvel Artist for the Anime’s Newest Episode

My Hero Academia has been no stranger to Western superhero comic influences, but the newest episode of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes took this even further by bringing in a legendary Marvel artist for some work for the anime. My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has been expanding on the hero world first introduced in the mainline My Hero Academia anime series, and has been revealing what the heroes had looked like before Izuku Midoriya and the others enrolled in U.A. Academy. This also includes a new look into the origins of hero society overall, and the newest episode dives into that even further.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes opened up even more about how heroes have boomed in the years since Quirks started popping up around the world, and the newest episode explained how the concept of superheroes began with its roots in the United States of America. To help illustrate the examples of these first American heroes, My Hero Academia actually recruited Marvel comics artist RB Silva (as announced with its official social media) for some legitimately incredible spreads for the anime series.

My Hero Academia’s Heroes Originally Come From America

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 7 officially introduces the mysterious Makoto Tsukauchi to the anime. Not only is she Detective Tsukauchi’s sister, but she reveals that she’s been doing research on the age of heroes overall. And through her, fans get a whole new look at the hero history of this world. It’s explained that when Quirks started to appear, vigilantes took to the streets to help restore societal order. It was then that only a few of the vigilantes would go on to be recognized as legal heroes. The Hero Licensing System itself actually began in Rhode Island, with only seven of the 189 vigilantes actually becaming officially recognized by the government.

This art from RB Silva comes during the explanation about America’s own vigilante turned heroes, and Makoto explains that it’s all sparked a debate among current theorists. Because while the prevailing thought is the fact that vigilantes that won public favor were eventually classified as heroes, there is a camp that believes the Hero Licensing System was instead made as a way to hammer down what classifies someone as a villain. Which is something My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has been tackling head on since the first episode of its run as it has argued the need to have vigilantes working outside of the hero system.

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My Hero Academia Has Gone Full Marvel

The central debate then is concerned about the government’s control over people and the use of their quirks, and this is something that has been a thread all the way through the My Hero Academia franchise as a whole. Now My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has been able to give just a bit of a bigger boost thanks to RB Silva, who has had plenty of experiencing illustrating Marvel works that deal with the idea of powers and societal control.

The illustrator has worked as a penciller, inker, and cover artist for many different works such as Superior Avengers, One World Under Doom, Rise of the Powers of X, and many more from across multiple titles and releases. His art stood out in the anime with its distinct look, and helps to make My Hero Academia: Vigilantes a can’t miss series. If you wanted to check out as it airs (and all of the episodes released thus far), you can find My Hero Academia: Vigilantes now streaming with Crunchyroll with both Japanese and English audio.