My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi reveals a Spider-Man 2 scene was one of the inspirations behind his hit manga

Manga sensation My Hero Academia recently wrapped up with the publication of its final chapters at the start of August. Now, in a new interview with ComicBook, creator Kōhei Horikoshi has revealed that part of his inspiration when creating the manga came from a scene in Sam Raimi’s classic superhero movie Spider-Man 2.

When asked about the real world heroes who have inspired him, he instead responded, “This may be slightly different from the purpose of your question, but there is a scene in Spider-Man 2 starring Tobey Maguire, in which Spider-Man stops a runaway train. There, ordinary passengers see Spider-Man’s true face. But then a child hands him the mask he found and says, ‘I won’t tell anyone.'”

The scene in question is indeed a standout moment from the 2004 film, as New York City bystanders step in to help their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. According to Kōhei Horikoshi, this scene “depicts the answer to the question, ‘What is a hero?’ A hero is a person who helps ordinary people, and ordinary people who help them in turn. I think this is the answer to the question, and there is nothing more to it than that.”