WARNING: The following contains spoilers for One Piece Chapter #1015 by Eiichiro Oda, Stephen Paul and Vanessa Satone, available in English now from Viz Media.
As One Piece’s Wano arc races towards its climax, many of the final matchups between characters are being set up. In Chapter #1015, two members of the Worst Generation, Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid, appear to team up, ready to take down Emperor of the Sea Charlotte Linlin, better known as Big Mom.
Law and Kid were first introduced during the Sabaody Archipelago arc as two of the newly appointed Supernovas, a group of eleven rookie pirates that had managed to earn a bounty of over 100 million before entering the New World. Both captains of their own crews, the Heart and Kid pirates respectively, the pair have a three-way rivalry with Luffy. While looking to escape from Sabaody, the trio of captains competed against one another in taking out marines. Fighting the marines, the trio began to take stock in one another, creating begrudging respect. As the three of them parted, Kid mentioned that he looked forward to seeing them in the New World.
While Law formed an alliance with the Straw Hats following the time-skip, Kid chose to align himself with Scratchman Apoo and Basil Hawkins. This led to Kid being captured by Kaido, as Apoo was revealed, in Chapter #981, as an informant for Kaido. However, despite being tortured and imprisoned, Kid did not break and join the Beast Pirates.
Freed during Luffy’s takeover of the Udon Prison, Kid joined the alliance to take down Orochi and Kaido. During the raid, Law and Kid once again joined forces with Luffy, along with Zoro and Killer, to take on Kaido and Big Mom. During the fight, the group’s rivalry was on full display, with the three captains even going so far as to take a direct hit from Big Mom as Luffy challenged the other two to see who could dodge it last. Kid also teased Law for his alliance with Luffy, calling him Straw Hat’s henchman, something Law seemed a bit insecure about himself.
After separating the two Emperors, the group split up, and in Chapter #1015, Law reaches Kid as he confronts Big Mom, proposing a temporary alliance. While this does seem to imply that the two will work together to bring down Big Mom, Kid will probably have some hang-ups about the idea, as he likely doesn't want to seem as though he needs any help fighting the Yonko.
Even with their prickly relationship, the Supernova duo makes a balanced pair for taking on Big Mom. Law’s intelligence and Devil Fruit abilities meshed well with Luffy’s hand-to-hand style of fighting during their fight with Doflamingo. Likewise, Kid’s newly revealed Jinki Jinki no mi is also well suited for hand-to-hand combat and will mesh well with Law’s tactics. However, according to Law, Big Mom’s Haki is too strong for his abilities to affect her, so he will have to work in tandem with Kid without affecting Big Mom directly.
While the young Supernovas are quite formidable, Big Mom is essentially a force of nature. The abilities granted to her by the Soul-Soul Fruit, combined with her mastery over all three forms of Haki, Big Mom has been set up as an almost unstoppable force. She's also able to use advanced Conqueror’s Haki, something Kaido mentioned is only usable by the “truly strong.” Going up against Big Mom in a battle of brute strength would put the rookie pirates in an almost unwinnable situation.
However, Big Mom’s most significant weakness is her childlike mindset, which does not leave much room for tactical thinking mid-battle. Most of what fans have seen of Big Mom in combat has essentially revealed that she depends on her overwhelming strength to win and not tactics. Basically, Law and Kid will need to outsmart Big Mom to defeat her.
In Chapter #924, Kaido also revealed that Kid could use Conqueror’s Haki. While Luffy is the only member of the Supernovas to have displayed the ability to use the advanced form of this power, a drawn-out battle with a Yonko would be the perfect place for Kid to learn the ability as well. As Big Mom can use this power too, it would give Law and Kid a hard counter to one of her abilities -- if Kid is able to pull it off.
