My Hero Academia Graphic Novel Volume 12 cover image

One day, 80 percent of the population manifests superpowers called “Quirks.”  If someone wants to be a superhero, he or she enrolls in the Hero Academy.  What would a person do, however, if he were one of the 20 percent born Quirkless?  Middle school student Izuku Midoriya has no chance of ever getting into the prestigious U.A. High School for budding heroes.  Then, Midoriya meets the greatest hero of them all, All Might, who gives him a chance to change his destiny…

As My Hero Academia, Vol. 12 (Chapters 100 to 108; entitled “The Test”) opens, Midoriya and the other students in Class 1-A have reported to “Gym Gamma” a.k.a. “Training Kitchen Lab” a.k.a. “TKL.”  There, each student will learn to develop his or her “ultimate move.”  The “ultimate move” is the “finisher,” a hero's most unique technique.

To help them, Mei Hatsume, a student from the “Support Course,” uses her skills to assist the students in developing improvements in their costumes.  And Midoriya, due to injuries to his hands and arms, needs a new costume design, but the extra attention Mei gives him may be more than he can handle.

Then, the next hurdle for the students is the “Provisional Licensing Exam.”  The kids from Class 1-A will join hundreds of students from different hero academies who are vying in the first round for 100 coveted spots in the second round.  Who will pass... or fail in Class 1-A?

[This volume includes bonus art and an afterword.]

THE LOWDOWN:  The My Hero Academia manga is one of the best superhero comic books in the English-speaking world.  It may be the best superhero graphic novel series for young readers, and it is such a delight that it will please us older types, also.

My Hero Academia Graphic Novel Volume 12 is one of the series' best entries.  Creator Kohei Horikoshi efficiently executes three subplots:  the ultimate moves training; the costume redesigns, and the “The Test” for the “Provisional Licenses.”  Vol. 12 truly marks an important part in the progress of the narrative and especially in the evolution of Izuku Midoriya.

Caleb Cook's translation and English adaptation makes the shifts in focus and in subplots a breezy read in what is really a packed volume.  John Hunt delivers some of his best lettering by giving Vol. 12 the explosive graphical soundtrack that it needs, especially during “The Test.”

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of superhero comics and of shonen battle manga will want to enroll at the Shonen Jump school, My Hero Academia.

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