One-Punch Man Just Revealed its Most Explosive Duo Yet

Warning: Contains spoilers for One-Punch Man chapter #158

In the latest chapter of One-Punch Man, the former hero-hunter now turned into a monster, Garou, revealed a connection with an unexpected hero that he clashed with in the past, hinting at a relationship between their powers.

Garou is one of the main characters of the hit manga by One and Yusuke Murata, walking the line between hero and villain. A former student of the S-class hero Silver Fang, Garou is a martial arts prodigy who, due to a strong but twisted sense of justice, hates heroes and actively went hunting for them. After a series of gruesome fights and near-death experiences, Garou broke his “limiter”, a natural obstacle to an individual’s growth, and obtained unbelievable power, at the price of almost completely turning into a monster. During his days as “Hero-Hunter”, Garou clashed with S-class rank 15 hero Metal Bat, seriously injuring him, but the two have now teamed up to take on the threat of the monster Sage Centipede.

During the current Monster Association arc, Garou found himself entangled in the battle between the heroes and the monsters. In his desire to fight stronger opponents, he fought with Monster King Orochi, being beaten to almost death, but after recovering he experienced full “monsterification”, obtaining amazing strength. After both Orochi and his mastermind Psykos were defeated (by Saitama and by the combined efforts of the S-class heroes, respectively), however, a new threat emerged: a colossal creature calling himself Sage Centipede. To protect some bystanders, including a child he had bonded with in the past, Garou stepped in and took on the creature, receiving unexpected assistance from Metal Bat, who just got out of the hospital where Garou put him.

After some understandable bickering, the two team up, but the sheer size of Sage Centipede, his tough armor, and his regenerative abilities make him a difficult opponent. Finally, Garou and Metal Bat combine their attacks, revealing something unexpected about their powers. Metal Bat, in fact, fights using something he calls “fighting spirit”, which makes him stronger the angrier he gets and the more damage he takes. This is very similar to Garou’s own process of powering during a fight, and his “limiter break”. In chapter #158, commentary provided during their fight explains that, despite the vast difference in raw power between the two, the nature of Garou’s and Metal Bat’s power is extremely similar. For this reason, their attacks resonated and amplificated each other, allowing for an explosive increase in destructive power, which allowed Garou to take out Sage Centipede’s regenerative core.

While Metal Bat was still taken out during the clash and Garou keeps on fighting, the revelation that their powers are similar opens interesting questions regarding the nature of heroes’ powers and their relationship with the process of “monsterification”. The S-class heroes have all overcome the inherent limits of a human body in some way or another, just like Garou did on a much bigger scale. Metal Bat’s “fighting spirit” is just a way to cheat human limits, but for a limited period of time. One-Punch Man also has one hero who has hypothetically completely removed his “limiter” and obtained limitless strength, the protagonist Saitama, who will hopefully be back in action in the next chapters of the manga and will probably clash with Garou in the near future.

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