Warning: contains spoilers for My Hero Academia chapter 360!
The manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump is hinting at a major upcoming fight in My Hero Academia. The magazine features many different manga series, but one of its most popular is My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi. The series is currently in its final arc and is thus featuring a lot of eagerly anticipated fights.
The manga’s latest chapters have featured an all-out war between the heroes and villains of the series. As such, My Hero Academia has been following a fragmented storytelling style, generally focusing on one fight at a time, causing various ongoing plot threads to be unmentioned for chapters at a time. The series just left the fight between the villainous mastermind All For One and the ragtag combination of Endeavor, Hawks, Earphone Jack, and Tsukuyomi on a cliffhanger, with All For One apparently on the brink of defeat, about to enact a desperate plan, likely involving the character of Eri. Immediately after that, the manga showed Deku flying towards a mysterious object in the distance. This has spawned a variety of theories as to what exactly Deku saw, but the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump heavily implies that it is All For One.
The cover of Weekly Shonen Jump #33 of 2022 depicts Deku about to punch a mysterious figure shrouded in darkness. While it is unclear exactly who this is, their outfit resembles All For One’s outfit, and their glowing, floating shoulder armor likewise resembles All For One’s mask. If it is All For One, this suggests that his desperate plan with Eri succeeded and healed him. This cover image could of course represent a metaphorical battle between the forces of good represented by Deku and evil represented by All For One, but it is more likely a direct clash between Deku and All For One.
This confirmation helps save fans weeks of speculation, as the latest chapters are focusing on another fight entirely. While that fight is extremely compelling, featuring the fan-favorite character Bakugo fighting the insanely powerful Shigaraki, mysteries surrounding the cliffhanger immediately prior to it could potentially detract from the enjoyment of the battle for readers anxious to know what happened. So by essentially including confirmation that Deku is now fighting All For One on the cover of Weekly Shonen Jump, Horikoshi can ease the minds of those readers and devote more page time to the Bakugo and Shigaraki fight itself.
There is some precedent for using covers to flesh out aspects of a manga that can’t fit into the actual chapters themselves. One Piece for instance tells entire story arcs using its covers. But using the cover of the entire Weekly Shonen Jump issue has the added benefit of giving the fight between Deku and All For One greater weight while also enabling Horikoshi to focus on other important events in My Hero Academia's immediate story - not to mention building tension for the franchise's epic final fight.
My Hero Academia is available to read from Viz Media.