Izuku Midoriya: Origin

Years ago, a small Izuku Midoriya put himself between Katsuki Bakugo and another child, and was mocked for playing hero without a Quirk of his own. In the present he is a third-year junior high student watching professionals wrestle an enormous villain. The world got this way after a Luminescent Baby was born in Qing Qing City, China; comparable births followed everywhere until superhuman ability became the norm rather than the exception, and heroism became a career.

Kamui Woods pins the Giant Villain with Lacquered Chain Prison before a crowd, explaining the man had used his Quirk for illegal ends, only for Mt. Lady to steal the finish with Canyon Cannon and announce her debut to a wall of cameras. Izuku scribbles notes furiously; a bystander guesses his ambition and wishes him luck, and Izuku cheerfully promises to try his best. At school a teacher hands out career forms while acknowledging the whole class wants the same thing, then reminds them Quirks are off limits during hours. Katsuki objects to being lumped in with anyone, boasting about his mock exam score and declaring he will eventually surpass All Might. Someone mentions Izuku has his sights on U.A. High School too, and the room dissolves into laughter. Told studying alone will not get him into the hero course, Izuku explains he is not competing with Katsuki, only chasing a dream he has held since childhood, because he will never know unless he tries. Katsuki calls the exam impossible for him while the class sneers.

Elsewhere a villain flees a scene, and to a bystander's remark that such people never stop coming, All Might answers that they do, because he is here. Back at school Izuku retrieves his notebook, and Katsuki blows it apart, pitches it through the window, and tells him to abandon U.A. and jump off a roof. Picking it up, Izuku remembers watching footage of All Might's debut rescue of over a hundred people and telling his mother he wanted to be the same, then a doctor pointing to his pinky toe, which carries two joints, as proof he was Quirkless. He remembers rewatching the video in tears, asking Inko if becoming a hero was still possible for him, and receiving only her apology.

Walking home, Izuku is engulfed by the escaped Sludge Villain and saved by All Might, passing out in the process. He wakes to his idol and asks for an autograph, only to find one already in his notebook. As All Might turns to leave, Izuku latches onto his leg and rides along. On a rooftop, he asks whether someone without a Quirk could still be a hero. All Might deflates into a nearly skeletal figure, revealing a wound taken five years earlier and lecturing the boy on what the profession demands: a pro must be ready to gamble his life at any moment, which he judges impossible while Quirkless. Heading down the stairs, he discovers the captured villain gone and explosions rising across the city. Meanwhile Katsuki, whose friends suggest he pushed the bullying too far, is seized by that same villain.

Heroes flounder against the sludge wearing Katsuki's body. All Might, out of time and power, curses himself for wasting both. Izuku reaches the crowd, recognizes the villain as the one he was rescued from, and silently apologizes for causing the situation. Then he meets Katsuki's eyes and runs in while heroes shout at him to stop, throwing his bag and improvising from his own notes. Asked why he came, he answers that Katsuki looked like he was begging for help. All Might shields him from the counterattack, admitting he had scolded the boy for a failing that was his own, and ends it with Detroit Smash. Afterward the pros berate Izuku for recklessness and praise Katsuki for resisting, and Katsuki tracks Izuku down to insist he never asked to be rescued and will not be looked down on. Finally All Might finds Izuku again and tells him he was the one who changed the outcome, Quirkless or not, moving to save someone before thought could intervene, exactly as the greatest heroes always have. Then he tells the weeping boy he can become a hero.

The chapter establishes the Quirk phenomenon, tracing it to the Luminescent Baby of Qing Qing City, and introduces Izuku as a Quirkless middle schooler determined to reach U.A. High School anyway. The Quirks belonging to Inko and Hisashi are also introduced.

Izuku meets All Might face to face for the first time, learns of the wound that limits him, and is told his ambition is unrealistic before the Sludge Villain takes Katsuki hostage.

Detroit Smash finishes the Sludge Villain. Having watched Izuku charge in without hesitation for Katsuki's sake while possessing no Quirk at all, All Might delivers the verdict Izuku has never once heard, that becoming a hero is within his reach, and the boy breaks down in tears.

Published July 7, 2014 in issue 32, the chapter opens Volume 1 and the Entrance Exam arc. Its 51 pages, 54 in volume form, make it the longest in the series against a typical fifteen to twenty. Episode 1 and Episode 2 of the anime adapt it, and a VOMIC version aired between January 11th and January 31st, 2015.

The debut roster is large: Izuku, Katsuki, Tsubasa, Slugger, Airjet, Death Arms, Kamui Woods, the Giant Villain, the Luminescent Baby, Backdraft, Mt. Lady, the Sludge Villain, All Might, Inko Midoriya, and Dr. Tsubasa all appear for the first time.

Several background details are borrowed from elsewhere. Silhouettes of famous American and Japanese superheroes appear, among them Spider-Man, Superman, Wolverine, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, Devilman's Akira Fudo, and Gekko Kamen. Tatouin Station is named after Tatooine, Aldera Junior High School derives from Alderaan, and the BVLGORI advertisement plays on BVLGARI.