Warning: SPOILERS for chapter #180 of One-Punch ManOne-Punch Man just showed its unique qualities as a manga with an apparently inconspicuous side story. While Saitama and Tatsumaki are having their big and flashy brawl, they crash into a building and inadvertently save the A-Class hero Feather from a dire situation. In just a few pages, One-Punch Man tells readers just enough to care about Feather and his plight, setting up the stage for the comical conclusion of this side story.
On the surface, One-Punch Man looks like an action-paced shonen manga that mixes superheroes and comedy. In fact, this is a big part of the product, and one of the reasons why it's so successful. However, One-Punch Man's author, ONE, is a master storyteller who has proved time and time again that he can take a story about a bald guy punching monsters and make it a lot more than that. Most of the time, Saitama does not even look like the protagonist of his own manga as the story focuses on other characters, mostly the professional heroes of the Hero Association.
Feather's Side Story Shows The Qualities Of One-Punch Man
Chapter #180 of One-Punch Manga took this habit and pushed it to a whole other level. While Tatsumaki keeps using her powers to test Saitama, who is most annoyed by the situation, the perspective of the story moves to another hero who had only appeared once before, A-Class Rank 34, Feather. The hero is in trouble, wounded and cornered after attacking alone the hideout of the criminal gang Iron Fist, in order to rescue a woman. Feather finds out that this was actually the gang boss' woman, and he has been tricked, but he stoically accepts and gets ready to fight the entire gang and the boss in his "climax as a hero". Feather's heroic moment gets spoiled by Saitama and Tatsumaki crashing into the building and then taking out all the criminals without effort.
This brief sequence is considered one of the best by fans who have read the webcomic because it highlights some important qualities of the series. While fans are used to One-Punch Man focusing on different characters such as Garou or Genos, Feather is obviously an extra who is completely inconsequential to the manga's overall story. His little adventure in this chapter was used mostly for comic relief, but it also showcases how good ONE is at presenting characters and situations and making readers instantly care about them, despite the lack of details. The past four chapters of the series have all opened with this shift in perspective and little side stories, almost like the authors want their readers to focus not on the flashy battle between two of the strongest individuals in the world. Saitama and Tatsumaki, but on what's going on around them.
This is exactly what makes One-Punch Man so good. ONE has proved with his other series, Mob Psycho 100, that he excels at the portrayal of compelling characters and their feelings, which is not easy to do in a comedy context. While One-Punch Man is foremost a bombastic action comedy series, its characters are what ultimately set it apart from other similar products, even when they are short-lived extras, such as Feather or an idol boy band superhero team. In chapter #180 of One-Punch Man, Feather had his few pages to shine and dream of being the "main character", before reality came crashing down in the form of Saitama and Tatsumaki, reminding him of his role as a comic relief.