My Hero Academia 90 Review: Distraction

My Hero Academia, Chapter 90: Taking His Hand

Betcha they won't settle this just because
their moms have the same name

The battle rages on between All Might and "Sensei", which is what all the cool kids are calling All For One. It's a pretty cool battle, with Sensei noting how much All Might's power has dropped -- he's still insanely powerful, of course, but as All Might himself mentioned during the first Noumu fight, it's apparently so far degraded compared to how he was in his prime. 

Sensei apparently can combine the quirks he stores in his body, and when he launched All Might like halfway through the city (some Man of Steel level of destruction is happening right now) with a combination of an air propulsion quirk, muscoskeletal coiling, four instantaneous impact quirks and three physical strength amplification quirks. So, yeah, applying Shigaraki's video game logic, Sensei can just summon all the superpowers like stacking buffs. It's a pretty cool concept, and while it's not exclusively new to My Hero Academia, it's a pretty cool one. Sensei even mentions some limitations, that he's not used to all the quirks he recently acquired. Presumably Ragdoll's quirk and maybe Best Jeanist's quirks are both within Sensei as well.

Sensei's fingertips like crack open to reveal these long stabby-finger-things that jump-start the prone Black Mist and does a 'forced quirk activation'. Sensei mentions that the gloopy teleportation thing can only take people to his present location, and send them to someone he is intimate with, so there's a reason they keep Black Mist around.

It's very, very interesting that Sensei really treats Shigaraki like a pupil instead of going all supervillain and going all 'don't fail me again, weakling!' Hell, even when a mook like Magne talks back, Sensei calmly and quite politely explains what's going on to him.

The remaining still-conscious villains (basically everyone except Dabi, who got shrunk into pocket-size) gang up on Bakugou, and while Bakugou manages to give them a bit of trouble, jumping around and evading them, Team Midoriya notes how All Might is distracted by the fact that, y'know, a bunch of supervillains are trying to kidnap Bakugou again. And All Might going to save Bakugou ends up with him getting thrown around a bit by Sensei.

Midoriya wants to go in, and Iida understandably stops him. We get a short moment of strategizing, and Midoriya quickly puts together a plan that doesn't involve fighting -- which in itself is surprising - and manages to get everyone along with him. Well, Momo just kinda watches. Iida and Midoriya use their speed and strength quirks respectively to break through the wall they were hiding behind, and launch straight up into the air with an ice-slide thing made by Todoroki. By being in the air they make it so the villains aren't aware of them... until Kirishima calls out to Bakugou. I do like how sensible it is, really, for Kirishima who indeed get paired up with Bakugou relatively often, and Midoriya points out that Bakugou will only instinctively reach out for someone he considers his equal. And if it was Midoriya holding his hand out, as so much more dramatic as it would be, there's a chance Bakugou would just be pissed off.

So yeah, Team Midoriya pulls off a rescue that doesn't lead to them being seemingly overpowered or ultra-stupid or only saved by the plot. A rarity that this kind of intelligent plotting happens in manga. So yay! Now get back to showcasing more of Sensei's insane powers, because, damn, I really want to see more of him.