MHA: The Hero-Killer Stain Reappears in New Manga Art

The pro-hero killer Stain returns in a new piece of My Hero Academia art.

The new full-color illustration of the villain was shared online by Twitter user @Atsushi101X and will officially appear in Volume 33 of the series, which will be released in Japan on Feb. 4. The character appears with his trademark katana and his Tartarus Escapees arc costume, which features a white jacket and new armor padding.

The new art is the latest preview to be released from My Hero Academia's 33rd collected volume. The volume's full color cover art, which features the series' central protagonist, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, in his intimidating vigilante costume, was revealed earlier this month, followed by a motion-comic trailer of the volume's events.

The character of Stain plays a key role in the events of the Tartarus Escapees arc. The character was first introduced in Chapter 41 of the manga and the first season of the anime. Stain believes that the world's former top ranked pro-hero, All Might, is the only figure who truly lives up to the ideals of a hero, and that the other pro-heroes are all motivated by self-interest and are unworthy of the respect and fame they have received. The hero-killer is one of the first major super villains that Deku, Shoto Todoroki and the speedy Tenya Iida are forced to face, with Deku's All Might-esque powers and idealism earning the villain's respect throughout the course of their battle.

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and made its debut in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump in 2014. The series, which is set in a world where most humans are born with super powers known as "Quirks," has become one of the most successful manga franchises of the last decade, spawning multiple spinoffs, an anime adaptation, and a series of video games. The series' latest movie, World Heroes' Mission, was released worldwide in 2021 to the best box-office performance in the franchise's history. It was recently announced that the manga had surpassed a global circulation of over 65 million copies.

Horikoshi's ode to western super heroes and Japanese tokusatsu shows has entered its final act, however. At the latest Jump Festa convention, the author released a statement that revealed that, barring any unforeseen delays or hiatuses, he was expecting to complete the series sometime before the end of 2022. Prior to the official announcment, the manga had already begun wrapping up several long-running story threads, including revealing the identity of the traitor within UA High School and setting up plans for the heroes' final battle with the series' main antagonist, the power-hungry All for One.All five previous seasons of the My Hero Academia anime are available for streaming through Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll and Funimation. A sixth season is scheduled to premiere in late 2022. The first 30 volumes of the manga are currently available in English from publisher VIZ Media.

Source: Twitter