Spy x Family continues winning people’s hearts and minds with its ongoing manga series filled with action, romance, and drama. The manga has over 38 million copies in circulation, with the fifteenth volume hitting Japanese stores on March 4th, 2025. Each volume cover features a character sitting on or near a piece of furniture, a running theme throughout the many covers. Each character on a volume cover has a unique chair that best exemplifies their personality. Volume 15 has the character Martha Marriott on a wooden chair next to a small table with tea and some letters. Spy x Family’s author, Tatsuya Endo, goes over the new cover and how it connects to a heartbreaking arc in the manga on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
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Endo cites that Volume 14 and Volume 15 go together, with the author imagining the image of Volume 15 placed on the left of Volume 14. The fourteenth volume cover contains the character Henry Henderson, who sits on a dining chair reminiscent of the furniture at the Robie House museum in Chicago. Next to him is another small wooden table with a tea set with no letters. Endo writes that he thought of using a Swan Chair for Martha but went in a different direction. When volumes fourteen and fifteen are put side-by-side, with Martha on the left as Endo advised, it appears Martha and Henry are having tea together.
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Henry and Martha’s Heartbreaking Connection in Spy x Family
Henry and Martha are supporting characters in Spy x Family, with Henry, the History teacher and the housemaster of Dormitory 3 for the Eden Academy, and Martha, the caretaker of a student named Becky Blackwell. The two share a history, which is covered in the Love and War arc in the manga as depicted in Volumes 14 and 15. The arc has Martha reminisce about their school years together, depicting their young romance that ended dissatisfactory.
An all-encompassing war often looms over the Spy x Family world. The war caused the divide between Henry and Martha when they were children. Henry was dedicated to educating the future generation, believing he could end the war if he could change the hearts and minds of his students. In contrast, Martha wanted to be part of the combat as a soldier and chose to take part in war after graduation. Martha had a crush on Henry and wanted to confess to him on multiple attempts, but one thing and another always led to her never admitting her real feelings to him.
She would end up writing letters to him while they were separated. The letters are referenced on the tea table on the cover of Volume 15. Henry then got word Martha perished, leaving him devastated. Martha was actually still alive, but it was during this period Henry ended up marrying someone else named Lucia. Henry and Martha remained friends after the latter returned from war, with Martha becoming close to Henry’s wife. However, their relationship is marked by melancholy, leaving readers with the prospect of what could’ve been.
There’s Still Time for Henry and Martha
Henry has become a widow, making him a bachelor once again. He is still close to Martha, with the two often sharing playful banter. While Martha expresses not having any regrets about how their lives ended, the story hints there could still be time for the two childhood sweethearts. Two are seen dancing together in Chapter 96 of the manga, and the two continue to have tea together.
While this conclusion may not be what fans ultimately wanted from the arc, it was still cathartic and a powerful world-building exercise in Spy x Family. The best part is, the story is clearly far from over, with potentially even more poignant arcs featuring its beloved characters to come.
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