So I've been wondering this for a while. I really Like My Hero Academia, and it's the same with Worm and One Punch Man. All of them are excellent cape punk stories with one being a compelling love letter to the superhero genre, one being a hilarious parody of superheroes, AND Anime, and one being a grimdark exploration of everything surrounding superheroes. obviously none of these things are perfect. but I'm not looking for perfect, I'm looking for great. Good is enough, but great is better. But which one IS better? well I'm here to start with the question, starting with...
STORY
Notice how I said story instead of plot. Because I won't just be focusing on just the events that happen, I'll also be focusing on the themes, the emotions, the who, what and where, rather than just the how, when, and why. The entirety of what happens, what happens to the characters, the whole thing.
Now I didn't read all of Worm. (Up to Arc 26) So I won't be judging what happens beyond that. Only before. But I believe I read enough to make an apt comparison, especially considering everything after Arc 26 isn't popular with fans. So, I'll probably be kinder to it in all fairness.
Also, I feel the need to say spoilers for all of these stories.
Now for starters, let's begin with ONE, his story is kind of barebones. It's starts off with the backstory and daily life of Saitama. then when Genos shows up, the formula is made. Villain shows up, Heroes have to stop them, heroes fails, Saitama comes and one punches the threat. there's not a lot of story there. and the Plot resembles a Phineas and Ferb episode. there are moments of heart in the Manga, but those moments aren't ONE's doing. and even if they were, we wouldn't know that. Now ONE's Webcomic did have moments of heart. Like Saitama speech to Garou, but there few and far in between.
And ONE came up with the tournament arm in the Manga...
Yeah...Don't think I could give this to him...
Now with Wildbow, he has the same problem. but for different reasons. you see, Like ONE when he let's characters bounce off each other, it's really entertaining and even insightful. but because it's a web serial, the audience of his work require entertainment so they have a reason to keep coming two times every week. so he short changes, characters moments for action, he short changes emotions for events, he short changes story for plot He wouldn't have gotten this popular without it. and I never would've heard of it. despite this, it doesn't do any favors for the story. I don't know if it's the same with his other stories, I'll have the comments inform me if that's the case. If it is, that's not good. he had to do it to get popular the first time. but it's no longer necessary with his fanbase.
Maybe it's his writing style, maybe it wasn't but it is now, maybe neither are the case but he believes he has to do this to keep his fanbase. either way, it hurts the story. While I enjoyed the fast pacing, it wasn't the best for the story. there's never a moment to breathe, never a moment to calm down and let the characters be characters. we always have to move to the next plot beat. and make the characters suffer. but more on that later. we move from The Slaughterhouse Nine to Dragon, move from Dragon to Coil, and RIGHT AFTER COIL MOVE TO A FAUX ENDBRINGER. Wlidbow just doesn't know when to give the characters a break
Last is Kohei Horikoshi. To start this, he actually focuses on the character moments, from the first chapter we get invested in Deku's arc because he focuses on the emotions of Deku and him not having a Quirk. starting on a great jumping off point. now that's not exactly fair to Wildbow and ONE, they did the same thing. the difference is Kohei Horikoshi keeps doing it, like after Bakugo loses to Deku, After Uraraka loses to Bakugo, actually the WHOLE sports festival, after the fight with Hero Killer Stain, he has a lot of downtime in his works and lets the Characters develop. every time a there's a arc focused on a villain, there's a arc focusing on them trying to become heroes. that's what Wildbow needed in his works, some downtime. and he puts in a lot of Character development in these arcs. and even some plot development. Which is what ONE's desperately needed.
Not to mention, each arc is well structured, speaks to the themes, and the who, what and where is more interesting than Bullied, introverted, ruthless, teenage girl fighting complete monsters in city with too much racial tension. or an ordinary, everyman fighting one dimensional monsters in a city that gets destroyed every episode. Sorry, I'll always prefer Idealistic, Cowardly first, now brave, teenage hero fighting against villains who receives as much development as him in a bright and vibrant city.
This round goes to Kohei.
Action
Action, the crux of nearly every superhero story, the spectacle, the battles, the thing the put butts into seats. only question is...which writer does it better?
Now I know your all screaming "ONE. ONE. ONE." And I bet you're saying that because of the Manga with it's gorgeous artwork and paneling, or because of the anime with it's beautiful, even orgasmic animation. but ONE'S work of fight scene is kinda...inferior... at least compared to the anime...
but that doesn't invalidate it, of course, ONE, sill has a chance of survival in this competition. So where to start?
Well, let's first start with Wildbow. Wildbow has a problem with fighting scenes. Specifically with the imagery and the spacing.
For one, the clinical, kind of dull prose doesn't rally capture the beauty of superheroes. Neither the creative powers, NOR the flashy costumes. so it's hard to imagine the costumes, and, more importantly, it's hard to imagine the POWERS. when all the heroes are attacking Leviathan, it's hard to imagine all the powers at play, IT's hard to imagine how Hookwolf looks when he attacks Skitter. the prose is clearly Wildbow trying to find his style and being new to writing (I know Wildbow has been writing for years before he wrote Worm. But Worm was different, I don't even know if the other stories had a plot. They were, to my knowledge, just Wildbow writing the most messed up things he could imagine, it might've not even had developed characters, so it doesn't count.) And as for the spacing, as if you had a hard time trying to imagine what their powers looked like, just try to imagine where everything is! This is a problem with superhero prose where one of the characters fights a team of people, or ANOTHER team fights a team of people, or an ARMY fights one big monster. which happens FOUR TIMES. it's hard to tell where everything is and what's happening. you also don't get a sense of the characters with this action scenes, but more on that later.
now with ONE, since I'm using the webcomic you might be thinking he's the last one here. but he's actually not. you see, ONE still has some good moments in his Webcomic. and unlike Wlidbow, you can actually tell what's happening, you can see the powers, I heard somewhere in the 'Worm - Good or bad?' thread that superheroes are visual storytelling as much as they are textually ones. and I agree. I don't agree with his reason, he doesn't really go into the complexity of what visual storytelling can do like with lighting, symbolism, and just what the shot looks like. but I still agree. I read some superheroes prose, but I will always prefer it in a visual medium, because more often than not, they'll flounder in a textual one. and that's coming from someone who written superhero stories' in a textually media. So ONE has that ahead of him.
"But Ultimate!" I hear you cry. "That's a difference in media! that doesn't make ONE a better writer than Wildbow! it makes him better at drawing! which should be obvious!" and I would agree. it's really is a difference in media.
But ONE shows character through the action. Saitama's bored nature, Genos' efficient pragmatism, Tornado's brutal personality. It's all shown through their actions. With Wildbow, it's actually the same. Skitter's creativity, Regent's jokester attitude, Tattletale's recklessness. The Undersiders personality are all shown through their actionsand no one else! look at Clockblocker's interlude, does anything he does in his fight against the Travelers show his character? what about Kid Win? Vista? Shadow Stalker? ok maybe Shadow Stalker. what about Weld? Their actions don't show their personalities, with ONE, it's like that with ALL of the characters. even if the fighting style is similar, their personalities are still shown through actions. with Wildbow. it's practically nonexistence.
Now for Kohei Horikoshi, he gets action right AMAZINGLY. For one, he's better at drawing at ONE, so the action is more clear. of course that's drawing not writing. So it doesn't count. Not to mention all their set pieces are similar, both their main characters show their personality through their actions. So what does Kohei Horikoshi have that the others don't?
Creativity.
Now I know what you're thinking. "Wildbow has WAY more creativity than Kohei Horikoshi." and while I don't agree with that, I think they're as creative as one another. I think what's more important is unlike Wildbow, he shows actions through all of the characters, (even the mooks!) and unlike ONE, he has a lot of creative powers. it's the best of both worlds. And because they only have one power. (unless you count their Charles Atlas Superpower) the fight turn into battles of strategies I imagine JoJo would be like. Especially from Deku. Deku sometimes resorts to pure strength. (his infamous fight with Muscular comes to mind.) However, Deku for the most part, uses effective, creative, and most importantly, SMART strategies to beat his opponents. it's quite impressive. Now it happens with Skitter too. but With Kohei Horikoshi. it's with everyone, just mainly Deku. even the air-headed Uraraka gets moments of strategy. And with how long long Worm is, there's not a lot of strategy that makes me go. "Wow! that was clever!" it only happen a few times over the course of 20 arcs. over 500,000 words!
So with that in minds. Action goes to Kohei Horikoshi.
DIALOGUE
Now dialogue should be easy to do. We know how people talk, we do it all the time. Yet all these writers have problem with it. this isn't going to be too long since their dialogue is for the most part ok. so you won't be getting a long analysis.
First, let's start with Wildbow. Wildbow's dialogue is good. it shows character through characterization, and comedic beats, each character has dialogue that sounds like it could come from only them, it feels natural. and it moves forward the plot.
however it isn't perfect. The dialogue a time can feel forced through exposition. but this doesn't happen often through the whole one million words. it does happen enough for you to get annoyed by it.
As for ONE, (told you it would be short) it basically the same. except he has one (heh) thing above him. his dialogue is funnier! I mean even in the first chapter. He could get a laugh out of you with Saitama bemoaning that he took his enemy down in one punch. And hell, it could even get TWO laughs out of you, if the villain getting mad over Saitama terrible motivation. (I'm just a guy whose a hero for fun) gets a laugh out of you. The dialogue manages to do everything Wildbow does, but it's WAY funnier. ONE had a great sense of comedic timing. That earns him a point.
Now Kohei Horikoshi is basically the same. shows his characters character, feels natural, and it's funny. it has dialogue that sounds like it could only come form the character. it doesn't have any forced exposition, for the most part. so he has one over Wildbow. But ONE's dialogue is funnier. so what does Kohei Horikoshi have above the other two?
Subtext.
Except for plot twist, That don't really hit because of lack of build up, (as much as you guys LOVE "hey! no swearing!" It just confused me. because Bonesaw not swearing has not been an established enough character trait. she only said it once. So I forgot it. I just thought Tattletale didn't like swearing for the time being) there's not a lot of subtext. but in My Hero Academia, there's load of subtext. it's not subtle all of the time. in fact, maybe the reason I think Worm doesn't have a lot is because it's not very subtle or not very good. But My Hero Academia succeeds it. Like in Deku's talk to Endeavor, his line to Todoroki during their tournament match, or nearly EVERYTHING Bakugo says after his second fight with Deku. he uses Subtext out the wazoo, and he's good with it as well.
So dialogue goes to Kohei Horikoshi.
(If your sensing a theme, don't worry, I'm not bias. I just think the writing of My Hero Academia is superior to the others in these aspects this competition. but don't worry. you might be surprised this time.)
CHARACTERS
Characters. Usually the most important part of anything. Unless it's a mystery or a horror, characters matter. More than anything. So how do these capepunk stories add up?
For starters, let's begin with ONE again. His characters are likable, but don't have a lot of depth. Saitama is a three dimensional character, as is Genos, Fubuki, and even Sliver Fang. despite this. not a lot of his characters are anything besides two dimensional. In the Manga? Maybe, but in the webcomic? No. it's only a few.
Now with Wildbow, his characters have more depth, and happen to be more complex. Characters that don't have purely good of bad qualities, characters that deal with tough moral issues, or characters that do things for multiple reasons, ALL these things make the characters more complex. And Wildbow does all of them. Which means his characters are good, right? Well, not exactly. Now the problem is most of the way that Wildbow makes his Characters more complex is handling complex situation with no right-or-wrong answer and grey morals. Like with Taylor. I don't have a problem with it in concept, I have a problem with how it's presented. For example, the main character Taylor often bad things for the greater good, which is fine. but it doesn't really make her a compelling character. it would've been more interesting if she was a villain for herself, oh really, for someone who she care deeply about. And slowly started doing it for herself. or maybe she did it for information like in canon, but discovered she liked being a villain, with the money, the power, and the prestige it has. and started becoming a nearly pure evil villain, not really in scale or actions, but in attitude. Otherwise it make her too good when all the bad things she done were for the greater good, and even WORSE things would happen if she didn't do them. it makes her kind of boring.
Now characters doing things for the greater good can be interesting. Like Lelouch from Code Geass, or the SCP Foundation. Or even Alexandria from the same series. The difference is they all ooze character conflict, character development, and have plenty of introspection to make them interesting. Taylor just does bad things, thinks it's bad justify it, and then does next horrible things. Always escalating so that the next horrible thing is worse. so it's a odd double effect. Her actions make too much sense to be interesting, and her Character doesn't ooze enough introspection to be interesting.
it's weird, A lot of the other characters are actually more interesting than Taylor and get more development. they're more contradictory, in a way that makes them believable instead of inconsistent, and you understand them better. even though you stay in Taylor's head for over one million words!
What about Kohei Horikoshi? Well, his characters are more developed. Nearly every character gets their backstory revealed, feels human, and changes as the Manga moves forward. But their not as Complex as Wildbow's. Wildbow's characters are complex because of the situation he puts them in, and the excellent writing.
Uraraka just doesn't feel as complex as Tattletale. Same with Iida and Grue. Or Todoroki and Bitch. The only characters that makes it to the same level of complexity are Bakugo and Endeavor. because they don't change automatically but they still change. but they're the only ones. Of course the only complex characters in Worm are The Undersiders and a couple of the heroes. however that's more than My Hero Academia. So does Kohei Horikoshi have anything above Wildbow?
Yes: Emotional Investment.
Let me explain. From the first Chapter your invested in Deku, right when you learn about Deku backstory, You're invested in him. when you hear about Uraraka backstory, you're invested in her, Same with Todoroki, same with Iida, even with the villain. He can make you feel sympathy for some vile people, even in Spacebattles, you see people having sympathy for them, and Spacebattles hates stuff like that.
I wasn't invested in Taylor, I found her interesting, same with Bitch, Tattletale, Grue, or any of the other characters in Worm. I was invested in seeing Deku become the best hero. in seeing Uraraka beat Bakugo. in seeing Twice perish at the hands of Hawks, (hey, I said spoilers) these were characters that I cared about and wanted to succeed or at least live. Which makes it more engaging.
I don't know whether Kohei Horikoshi or Wildbow should win. So I'll just leave it as a tie.
CONCLUSION
So let's tally up all the victories to see who wins.
Story: Kohei Horikoshi
Action: Kohei Horikoshi
Dialogue: Kohei Horikoshi
Characters: Tie between Kohei Horikoshi and Wildbow.
So I think the winner is clear.
KOHEI HORIKOSHI WINS!!
Although Wildbow comes at a close second due to him only, just BARELY being beaten by Kohei Horikoshi. and
ONE comes in dead last.
But what do you think? What do you think of my analysis? what are your opinions of these series?
Tell me with your comments! I'm open to constructive criticism.
STORY
Notice how I said story instead of plot. Because I won't just be focusing on just the events that happen, I'll also be focusing on the themes, the emotions, the who, what and where, rather than just the how, when, and why. The entirety of what happens, what happens to the characters, the whole thing.
Now I didn't read all of Worm. (Up to Arc 26) So I won't be judging what happens beyond that. Only before. But I believe I read enough to make an apt comparison, especially considering everything after Arc 26 isn't popular with fans. So, I'll probably be kinder to it in all fairness.
Also, I feel the need to say spoilers for all of these stories.
Now for starters, let's begin with ONE, his story is kind of barebones. It's starts off with the backstory and daily life of Saitama. then when Genos shows up, the formula is made. Villain shows up, Heroes have to stop them, heroes fails, Saitama comes and one punches the threat. there's not a lot of story there. and the Plot resembles a Phineas and Ferb episode. there are moments of heart in the Manga, but those moments aren't ONE's doing. and even if they were, we wouldn't know that. Now ONE's Webcomic did have moments of heart. Like Saitama speech to Garou, but there few and far in between.
And ONE came up with the tournament arm in the Manga...
Yeah...Don't think I could give this to him...
Now with Wildbow, he has the same problem. but for different reasons. you see, Like ONE when he let's characters bounce off each other, it's really entertaining and even insightful. but because it's a web serial, the audience of his work require entertainment so they have a reason to keep coming two times every week. so he short changes, characters moments for action, he short changes emotions for events, he short changes story for plot He wouldn't have gotten this popular without it. and I never would've heard of it. despite this, it doesn't do any favors for the story. I don't know if it's the same with his other stories, I'll have the comments inform me if that's the case. If it is, that's not good. he had to do it to get popular the first time. but it's no longer necessary with his fanbase.
Maybe it's his writing style, maybe it wasn't but it is now, maybe neither are the case but he believes he has to do this to keep his fanbase. either way, it hurts the story. While I enjoyed the fast pacing, it wasn't the best for the story. there's never a moment to breathe, never a moment to calm down and let the characters be characters. we always have to move to the next plot beat. and make the characters suffer. but more on that later. we move from The Slaughterhouse Nine to Dragon, move from Dragon to Coil, and RIGHT AFTER COIL MOVE TO A FAUX ENDBRINGER. Wlidbow just doesn't know when to give the characters a break
Last is Kohei Horikoshi. To start this, he actually focuses on the character moments, from the first chapter we get invested in Deku's arc because he focuses on the emotions of Deku and him not having a Quirk. starting on a great jumping off point. now that's not exactly fair to Wildbow and ONE, they did the same thing. the difference is Kohei Horikoshi keeps doing it, like after Bakugo loses to Deku, After Uraraka loses to Bakugo, actually the WHOLE sports festival, after the fight with Hero Killer Stain, he has a lot of downtime in his works and lets the Characters develop. every time a there's a arc focused on a villain, there's a arc focusing on them trying to become heroes. that's what Wildbow needed in his works, some downtime. and he puts in a lot of Character development in these arcs. and even some plot development. Which is what ONE's desperately needed.
Not to mention, each arc is well structured, speaks to the themes, and the who, what and where is more interesting than Bullied, introverted, ruthless, teenage girl fighting complete monsters in city with too much racial tension. or an ordinary, everyman fighting one dimensional monsters in a city that gets destroyed every episode. Sorry, I'll always prefer Idealistic, Cowardly first, now brave, teenage hero fighting against villains who receives as much development as him in a bright and vibrant city.
This round goes to Kohei.
Action
Action, the crux of nearly every superhero story, the spectacle, the battles, the thing the put butts into seats. only question is...which writer does it better?
Now I know your all screaming "ONE. ONE. ONE." And I bet you're saying that because of the Manga with it's gorgeous artwork and paneling, or because of the anime with it's beautiful, even orgasmic animation. but ONE'S work of fight scene is kinda...inferior... at least compared to the anime...
but that doesn't invalidate it, of course, ONE, sill has a chance of survival in this competition. So where to start?
Well, let's first start with Wildbow. Wildbow has a problem with fighting scenes. Specifically with the imagery and the spacing.
For one, the clinical, kind of dull prose doesn't rally capture the beauty of superheroes. Neither the creative powers, NOR the flashy costumes. so it's hard to imagine the costumes, and, more importantly, it's hard to imagine the POWERS. when all the heroes are attacking Leviathan, it's hard to imagine all the powers at play, IT's hard to imagine how Hookwolf looks when he attacks Skitter. the prose is clearly Wildbow trying to find his style and being new to writing (I know Wildbow has been writing for years before he wrote Worm. But Worm was different, I don't even know if the other stories had a plot. They were, to my knowledge, just Wildbow writing the most messed up things he could imagine, it might've not even had developed characters, so it doesn't count.) And as for the spacing, as if you had a hard time trying to imagine what their powers looked like, just try to imagine where everything is! This is a problem with superhero prose where one of the characters fights a team of people, or ANOTHER team fights a team of people, or an ARMY fights one big monster. which happens FOUR TIMES. it's hard to tell where everything is and what's happening. you also don't get a sense of the characters with this action scenes, but more on that later.
now with ONE, since I'm using the webcomic you might be thinking he's the last one here. but he's actually not. you see, ONE still has some good moments in his Webcomic. and unlike Wlidbow, you can actually tell what's happening, you can see the powers, I heard somewhere in the 'Worm - Good or bad?' thread that superheroes are visual storytelling as much as they are textually ones. and I agree. I don't agree with his reason, he doesn't really go into the complexity of what visual storytelling can do like with lighting, symbolism, and just what the shot looks like. but I still agree. I read some superheroes prose, but I will always prefer it in a visual medium, because more often than not, they'll flounder in a textual one. and that's coming from someone who written superhero stories' in a textually media. So ONE has that ahead of him.
"But Ultimate!" I hear you cry. "That's a difference in media! that doesn't make ONE a better writer than Wildbow! it makes him better at drawing! which should be obvious!" and I would agree. it's really is a difference in media.
But ONE shows character through the action. Saitama's bored nature, Genos' efficient pragmatism, Tornado's brutal personality. It's all shown through their actions. With Wildbow, it's actually the same. Skitter's creativity, Regent's jokester attitude, Tattletale's recklessness. The Undersiders personality are all shown through their actionsand no one else! look at Clockblocker's interlude, does anything he does in his fight against the Travelers show his character? what about Kid Win? Vista? Shadow Stalker? ok maybe Shadow Stalker. what about Weld? Their actions don't show their personalities, with ONE, it's like that with ALL of the characters. even if the fighting style is similar, their personalities are still shown through actions. with Wildbow. it's practically nonexistence.
Now for Kohei Horikoshi, he gets action right AMAZINGLY. For one, he's better at drawing at ONE, so the action is more clear. of course that's drawing not writing. So it doesn't count. Not to mention all their set pieces are similar, both their main characters show their personality through their actions. So what does Kohei Horikoshi have that the others don't?
Creativity.
Now I know what you're thinking. "Wildbow has WAY more creativity than Kohei Horikoshi." and while I don't agree with that, I think they're as creative as one another. I think what's more important is unlike Wildbow, he shows actions through all of the characters, (even the mooks!) and unlike ONE, he has a lot of creative powers. it's the best of both worlds. And because they only have one power. (unless you count their Charles Atlas Superpower) the fight turn into battles of strategies I imagine JoJo would be like. Especially from Deku. Deku sometimes resorts to pure strength. (his infamous fight with Muscular comes to mind.) However, Deku for the most part, uses effective, creative, and most importantly, SMART strategies to beat his opponents. it's quite impressive. Now it happens with Skitter too. but With Kohei Horikoshi. it's with everyone, just mainly Deku. even the air-headed Uraraka gets moments of strategy. And with how long long Worm is, there's not a lot of strategy that makes me go. "Wow! that was clever!" it only happen a few times over the course of 20 arcs. over 500,000 words!
So with that in minds. Action goes to Kohei Horikoshi.
DIALOGUE
Now dialogue should be easy to do. We know how people talk, we do it all the time. Yet all these writers have problem with it. this isn't going to be too long since their dialogue is for the most part ok. so you won't be getting a long analysis.
First, let's start with Wildbow. Wildbow's dialogue is good. it shows character through characterization, and comedic beats, each character has dialogue that sounds like it could come from only them, it feels natural. and it moves forward the plot.
however it isn't perfect. The dialogue a time can feel forced through exposition. but this doesn't happen often through the whole one million words. it does happen enough for you to get annoyed by it.
As for ONE, (told you it would be short) it basically the same. except he has one (heh) thing above him. his dialogue is funnier! I mean even in the first chapter. He could get a laugh out of you with Saitama bemoaning that he took his enemy down in one punch. And hell, it could even get TWO laughs out of you, if the villain getting mad over Saitama terrible motivation. (I'm just a guy whose a hero for fun) gets a laugh out of you. The dialogue manages to do everything Wildbow does, but it's WAY funnier. ONE had a great sense of comedic timing. That earns him a point.
Now Kohei Horikoshi is basically the same. shows his characters character, feels natural, and it's funny. it has dialogue that sounds like it could only come form the character. it doesn't have any forced exposition, for the most part. so he has one over Wildbow. But ONE's dialogue is funnier. so what does Kohei Horikoshi have above the other two?
Subtext.
Except for plot twist, That don't really hit because of lack of build up, (as much as you guys LOVE "hey! no swearing!" It just confused me. because Bonesaw not swearing has not been an established enough character trait. she only said it once. So I forgot it. I just thought Tattletale didn't like swearing for the time being) there's not a lot of subtext. but in My Hero Academia, there's load of subtext. it's not subtle all of the time. in fact, maybe the reason I think Worm doesn't have a lot is because it's not very subtle or not very good. But My Hero Academia succeeds it. Like in Deku's talk to Endeavor, his line to Todoroki during their tournament match, or nearly EVERYTHING Bakugo says after his second fight with Deku. he uses Subtext out the wazoo, and he's good with it as well.
So dialogue goes to Kohei Horikoshi.
(If your sensing a theme, don't worry, I'm not bias. I just think the writing of My Hero Academia is superior to the others in these aspects this competition. but don't worry. you might be surprised this time.)
CHARACTERS
Characters. Usually the most important part of anything. Unless it's a mystery or a horror, characters matter. More than anything. So how do these capepunk stories add up?
For starters, let's begin with ONE again. His characters are likable, but don't have a lot of depth. Saitama is a three dimensional character, as is Genos, Fubuki, and even Sliver Fang. despite this. not a lot of his characters are anything besides two dimensional. In the Manga? Maybe, but in the webcomic? No. it's only a few.
Now with Wildbow, his characters have more depth, and happen to be more complex. Characters that don't have purely good of bad qualities, characters that deal with tough moral issues, or characters that do things for multiple reasons, ALL these things make the characters more complex. And Wildbow does all of them. Which means his characters are good, right? Well, not exactly. Now the problem is most of the way that Wildbow makes his Characters more complex is handling complex situation with no right-or-wrong answer and grey morals. Like with Taylor. I don't have a problem with it in concept, I have a problem with how it's presented. For example, the main character Taylor often bad things for the greater good, which is fine. but it doesn't really make her a compelling character. it would've been more interesting if she was a villain for herself, oh really, for someone who she care deeply about. And slowly started doing it for herself. or maybe she did it for information like in canon, but discovered she liked being a villain, with the money, the power, and the prestige it has. and started becoming a nearly pure evil villain, not really in scale or actions, but in attitude. Otherwise it make her too good when all the bad things she done were for the greater good, and even WORSE things would happen if she didn't do them. it makes her kind of boring.
Now characters doing things for the greater good can be interesting. Like Lelouch from Code Geass, or the SCP Foundation. Or even Alexandria from the same series. The difference is they all ooze character conflict, character development, and have plenty of introspection to make them interesting. Taylor just does bad things, thinks it's bad justify it, and then does next horrible things. Always escalating so that the next horrible thing is worse. so it's a odd double effect. Her actions make too much sense to be interesting, and her Character doesn't ooze enough introspection to be interesting.
it's weird, A lot of the other characters are actually more interesting than Taylor and get more development. they're more contradictory, in a way that makes them believable instead of inconsistent, and you understand them better. even though you stay in Taylor's head for over one million words!
What about Kohei Horikoshi? Well, his characters are more developed. Nearly every character gets their backstory revealed, feels human, and changes as the Manga moves forward. But their not as Complex as Wildbow's. Wildbow's characters are complex because of the situation he puts them in, and the excellent writing.
Uraraka just doesn't feel as complex as Tattletale. Same with Iida and Grue. Or Todoroki and Bitch. The only characters that makes it to the same level of complexity are Bakugo and Endeavor. because they don't change automatically but they still change. but they're the only ones. Of course the only complex characters in Worm are The Undersiders and a couple of the heroes. however that's more than My Hero Academia. So does Kohei Horikoshi have anything above Wildbow?
Yes: Emotional Investment.
Let me explain. From the first Chapter your invested in Deku, right when you learn about Deku backstory, You're invested in him. when you hear about Uraraka backstory, you're invested in her, Same with Todoroki, same with Iida, even with the villain. He can make you feel sympathy for some vile people, even in Spacebattles, you see people having sympathy for them, and Spacebattles hates stuff like that.
I wasn't invested in Taylor, I found her interesting, same with Bitch, Tattletale, Grue, or any of the other characters in Worm. I was invested in seeing Deku become the best hero. in seeing Uraraka beat Bakugo. in seeing Twice perish at the hands of Hawks, (hey, I said spoilers) these were characters that I cared about and wanted to succeed or at least live. Which makes it more engaging.
I don't know whether Kohei Horikoshi or Wildbow should win. So I'll just leave it as a tie.
CONCLUSION
So let's tally up all the victories to see who wins.
Story: Kohei Horikoshi
Action: Kohei Horikoshi
Dialogue: Kohei Horikoshi
Characters: Tie between Kohei Horikoshi and Wildbow.
So I think the winner is clear.
KOHEI HORIKOSHI WINS!!
Although Wildbow comes at a close second due to him only, just BARELY being beaten by Kohei Horikoshi. and
ONE comes in dead last.
But what do you think? What do you think of my analysis? what are your opinions of these series?
Tell me with your comments! I'm open to constructive criticism.
