In the popular manga and anime series called My Hero Academia, the main protagonist, Izuku Midoriya aka Deku, started as a relatively pathetic character, and in the series’ precursor story, his prototype makes his My Hero Academia counterpart look downright admirable! Being a salesman of superhero items not only makes Jack Midoriya come across more feeble overall, but the fact that he’s always physically on the down and out certainly doesn’t help matters either.
As seen in Kohei Horikoshi’s 2008 one-shot simply titled My Hero, this story shows fans the humble beginnings of what will eventually become the current My Hero Academia manga. And while most of the characters, ideas, world-building details, general story beats, and more might feel familiar to fans when reading this “chapter zero,” it’s Deku who’s shown to have changed the most from narrative to narrative.
Starting off by depicting an attack by a kind of being known as an “aberrant,” this story sees Jack Midoriya as he quite literally stumbles onto the scene mid-fight, much to everyone’s confusion. Just as clumsy and awkward as Izuku Midoriya is at first shown to be, this version of the character is as similar to the “real” Deku as he is different, giving fans an intriguing avenue when comparing the two.
Described as a “weak, puny salaryman” Jack is portrayed not as a Quirkless hero like his later interpretation, but as someone who sells unique and helpful items to the heroes of the world in the hopes of assisting them in their fight against these evil aberrants. Anemic, whiny, timid, and a bit of a pushover of sorts, Jack Midoriya still strives to one day become a hero like his Izuku counterpart, just instead going about it in a far different manner.
Shown throughout this one-shot as a slightly older, more “corporate” version of the character, Jack is often seen as something lesser by the people around him, an unfortunate problem that the My Hero Academia Midoriya can wholeheartedly relate to. And like that version of the character, Jack’s admittedly illegal way of becoming a hero in this story shows that while he might be far more pathetic overall, he still has the same drive for doing good in a world that needs way more of it.
So although Izuku Midoriya has grown past his pathetic nature in the real My Hero Academia series, his initial characterization as Jack Midoriya was far worse. My Hero Academia has changed a lot since Kohei Horikoshi’s first attempt at bringing the story of selfless heroes to life, and for Deku, in particular, things have changed for the better!
