In My Hero Academia, Izuku Midoriya is the star, and the story is largely about his growth and progress as a hero in training. All the same, many supporting characters get a chance to show what they can do as well as get their own fully fleshed-out arcs, as seen with Ochaco Uraraka and Shota Aizawa. However, one character has gone overlooked: Vlad King.
In theory, Vlad is Aizawa's counterpart, being Class 1-B's homeroom teacher and a fully-fledged pro hero. While Vlad has the spirit of a hero and is a good coach to his students, his potential is wasted, as he never reaches the same heights as Eraser Head. At this rate, he might never get his big break.
What Can Vlad King Do?
Vlad hasn't had many chances to prove what he can do, but at least My Hero Academia fans know the basics. Vlad has a Quirk called Blood Control, living up to his namesake, Vlad Tepes (or Vlad the Impaler). With this Quirk, Vlad can freely control the movement of his own blood once it leaves his body, and he can harden the blood to form barriers or to trap his enemies.
He can either do this when he is cut or through the tubes in his hero costume, meaning he doesn't necessarily have to get slashed up before using Blood Control. It may also be noted that while Vlad's blood is outside his body, he suffers no ill effects of blood loss, and he can operate as though the blood were still inside him. This means that Vlad is unlikely to die from blood loss, even if he is badly wounded in battle. So far in the My Hero Academia anime, Vlad has not been seen doing this, but he is capable of it, should the occasion occur.
Aside from that, Vlad is also an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher who wants what's best for his students, sharing their (mostly) good-natured rivalry with Class 1-A. He was seen motivating Class 1-B's groggy students one morning at the forest training campground, driving them to do their best and look good while Class 1-A watched. While that's not bad, compared to what Aizawa has done, it's pedestrian.
How Vlad King Has Fallen Short Compared to Eraser Head
Vlad is by no means a disappointment as a teacher; rather, he has gotten too few chances to prove himself, especially when compared to what Eraser Head's done. Aizawa even has more depth to his personality, being disengaged and moody on the outside while secretly cheering on his students from the inside, like a proud father figure. Vlad's own version of that is shallow to the point of parody, and nothing is known of his personal history at all, like what inspired him to become a teacher.
Vlad has also taken part in very few battles compared to Aizawa. So far, he helped Aizawa take on a clone of Dabi, which Twice made, but that is pretty much it so far. Plus, he was largely in the background during the fight at USJ. By contrast, Eraser Head heroically stood his ground at USJ to defend his students from the League of Villains, and Eraser Head also took on Hitoshi Shinso as his student and gave Shoto and Momo a good fight during the semester's final exams.
Vlad's track record falls short of that, and wit the way things are going, Izuku may single-handedly make Class 1-B obsolete in the fight against Tomura Shigaraki as One For All's true power emerges. If things don't change soon, Vlad will be little more than Class 1-B's goofy teacher who makes biased commentary. With that, it could be that Vlad's cool outfit and vampire theme will be the most memorable parts of his character, and Class 1-B deserves a little more than that.
