My Hero Academia Graphic Novel Volume 13 cover image

Eighty percent of the population has manifested 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. 13 (Chapters 109 to 118; entitled “A Talk About Your Quirk”) opens, Midoriya and his classmates in Class 1-A enter the next phase of the “Provisional Licensing Exam.”  Those who pass this second of two phases will receive their “provisional license” and have the legal right to act in a heroic capacity during emergencies – even with a professional hero's guidance.

However, to pass, the students must rescue victims in a simulated disaster area that was the site of a terrorist attack.  Each civilian that they have to rescue in this simulation is a “professional rescuee,” but the students still have to treat each one as if he or she were a real victim.  If that were not complicated enough, there are also villains ready to attack.

Then, someone close to Midoriya challenges him, but Midoriya does not want to fight.  Plus, All Might visits an imprisoned adversary who has a lot to say...

[This volume includes bonus four-panel comics.]

THE LOWDOWN:  I'll start by saying what I always say:  the My Hero Academia manga is one of the best superhero comic books in the English-speaking world.  I say this because it is truer than true.

My Hero Academia Graphic Novel Volume 13, like Vol. 12, is a turning point volume.  Our hero, Izuku Midoriya, is growing up faster than we realize, but creator Kohei Horikoshi keeps up the intensity in that process of growth.  Even the examinations and test are battle manga-ready or are at least action-oriented.  Kohei offers us some intrigue and conspiracy, and the ending of this volume is the kind of killer cliffhanger that assures Kohei that his regular readers will return for the next volume.

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.

A+
10 out of 10