Zelina Vega’s Cosplay Countdown: WWE Star Turns up the Heat in My Hero Academia Look (Exclusive)

Throughout the month of October WWE Superstar Zelina Vega is teaming with ComicBook for a special series, sharing first looks at her cosplays as the Halloween season draws closer. For those unfamiliar with Zelina, she’s a huge fan of all things nerdy. Whether it’s video games, anime or manga, she incorporates her favorite nerdy things into her in-ring looks. Over the course of the past few weeks, she’s shared jaw-dropping cosplays from Sailor Moon, Naruto and Tokyo Ghoul.

This week, Zelina stuns as Shoto Todoroki, one of the fan-favorites from the My Hero Academia series created by Kōhei Horikoshi. You’ll probably notice that this isn’t the first time she’s made a nod to the character — on recent episodes of WWE Raw, she’s made several tributes to him. Now she’s taking it up a notch, rocking a blue jumpsuit that’s similar to his own.

She completes the look with a the menacing burn which Shoto obtained the injury when his mother, Rei, poured boiling water to his eye. She encountered abuse from Shoto’s father, causing her to snap and pour the water on the side of his face that reminded her of his father. In a moment of panic, she tried to cool it down with her Quirk but all it created was an ice burn which has become his recognizing mark.

“I couldn’t do Halloween this year without doing Shoto Todoroki! Anyone who has seen my hair in recent months can automatically tell who my favorite character is from My Hero Academia,” Zelina told ComicBook. “My friends who had seen the series before I did knew that I would love him right away. Aesthetically, his hair matching his power and personality is DOPE. Guess you can already tell that I have a thing for mysterious, tortured souls.”

Who is My Hero Academia‘s Shoto Todoroki?

As one of the most beloved My Hero Academia characters, that fans have always believed in strongly and connected with, Shoto is also very powerful and skillful. While he battles with his own demons due to his upbringing that has caused him to grow cold as he’s gotten older, he’s also undergone tremendous growth. He’s able to use his fire and ice capabilities that yield him impressive results; he also fares extremely well in his academia which is no easy feat.

His complicated family life and hatred for what others wanted him to be versus what he wanted to be is very relatable and tugs on the heart strings a bit,” Zelina continued. “His journey to acceptance and power is very fun to watch. Fire and ice is also very relatable to this Latina. I’ve always said that I had two sides to me, and you don’t want to piss either of them off!”

For those following along on Zelina’s social media accounts, this year’s Halloween Cosplay Countdown began with Gojo Satoru on September 14th. Keep up with all her cosplays past and present (like her Queen of the Damned Akasha look) on her X and Instagram!