The My Hero Academia spin-off manga, Vigilantes, is an enjoyable read that sheds a light on another aspect of superhero culture, the vigilantes.
While My Hero Academia: Vigilantes takes place before the events of the main manga’s story, it does have ties to the original series. One important link between the two is Hero Killer Stain, one of the main antagonists of the series and a character who has had a prominent role in the second season of the anime.
His origins are still unknown, but in Vigilantes, fans get a glimpse at what caused Stain to become the Hero Killer.
SPOILER ALERT! Those who haven’t finished the second season of My Hero Academia or caught up with the manga should not proceed.
In Vigilantes, the Crawler is in a fight with a villain when he’s saved by a sword-wielding hero who lends his aid until the cops arrive. He introduces himself as Stendhal the vigilante.
The two go their separate ways, and The Crawler is enamored by the new vigilante in their town. At the end of Chapter 9, Stendhal catches up to the villain they fought earlier and gives a speech claiming the villain’s lack of conviction is his greatest crime before proceeding to kill him.
Stendhal has a stack of photos of civilians with superpowers who seemingly used the power-enhancing drugs that have been plaguing the city. His next target is Soga Kugizaki, the bully that has been torturing The Crawler since Chapter 1.
We don’t see Stendhal again until Chapter 10, when Soga is approached by the villain distributing the drugs. She tells Soga about a murderer who slaughtered a ton of Yakuza, warning that he may be next. Soga says he doesn’t need the drugs to take the murderer on and that’s when Stendhal appears before them.
The villain injects Soga with the drug and makes him into a monster, which catches The Crawler’s attention. The Crawler hears Soga’s rampage and slides onto the scene to see Soga and Stendhal about to fight.
Stendhal tells The Crawler to stay out of it, as he’s going to kill Soga. The Crawler won’t stand for it and stops Stendhal. As The Crawler tries to escape with the injured Soga, Stendhal stabs The Crawler in the leg. This is the first time we see the connection between Stendhal and Stain.
Stendhal takes the knife that drew blood on The Crawler and licks the blood from it, activating his quirk: the same one Stain has.
The quirk paralyzes The Crawler, and Stendhal is ready to kill both Soga and The Crawler when Knuckleduster appears to protect them.
We’re likely to see more of Stendhal and his transformation into Stain in the next chapter of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. Fans of My Hero should be reading this spin-off to get more information on the hero world before Izuku appears. You can read all of the chapters of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes on the official Viz Media website.
Are you reading Vigilantes? Are you interested to see Stain’s transformation? Let us know in the comments section below.
