One-Punch Man fans may still be recovering from the debacle that was season 3 of the anime, but that hasn’t stopped the manga from getting back on track lately with its Neo Heroes Saga in full effect. Past the seemingly endless rewrites to retcon and nerf the absurd powers of Empty Void, the Tonari no Young Jump manga adaptation of ONE’s iconic webcomic has its Hero Association in a tough spot.

Thanks to the efforts of the emergent Neo Heroes organization, the new One-Punch Man villains have been undermining the Hero Association while presenting a palatable, organized, empowered alternative. While it’s clear to the reader that something’s amiss, the intent hasn’t been fully laid-out in Yusuke Murata’s adaptation. However, the latest battle with a sudden onset of five Dragon-level threats may be the latest strong indicator that the Neo Heroes are poised to fully win over the public’s trust.

One-Punch Man’s Villains Feed Off the Heroes’ Latest Blunders

While the Neo Heroes have still yet to reveal their deepest intentions, or indeed their unseemly underlying methods, One-Punch Man fans know their role as the latest antagonist group is clear enough. Their cybernetic enhancements, albeit still less complex than Genos’, give an unnatural edge, but result in diminished humanity, instability, and high dependency on their benefactors. But these are all beneath the surface; the Neo Heroes are the public darling, chipping away at the Hero Association for reasonably pointing out its flaws, and presenting themselves as a corruption-free, safer alternative.

Starting in One-Punch Man chapter #226 (224 for VIZ readers), five Dragon-level threats emerged in multiple cities across the supercontinent. Dubbed Heavy Smoker, Big Fam of Darkness, Machine God Mirror, Eel Dragon, and Aggregation/Conglommero, these monsters represented a broad spread of threats, from environmental destruction, to infestation, to simple mass collateral damage and civilian harm. The Hero Association dispatched fighters to handle each of the threats, but they fail almost universally to stop citywide destruction, losing the public’s trust in the process.

While fighters like Suiko’s battle against Mirror has yet to be fully shown, multiple issues have emerged so far. Tanktop Master seemingly held his own against Heavy Smoker and his clones, inhaling as much harmful smoke as possible before Flashy Flash, newly empowered by his Ninja Village visit, finished the enemy off. Yet, the city was lost to the haze, forcing greater evacuations in the process.

Meanwhile, Genos’ fight against Big Fam of Darkness, unsurprisingly, results in catastrophic damages to his cyborg body as well as massive property damage to the surrounding area. While his destroyed body is a series-long running gag at this point, a serious problem emerges when onlookers, seeing the destruction and Genos’ body, wonder whether even Hero Association top brass would handle another similar wave. They even name-drop the Neo Heroes, hailing their arrival as One-Punch Man chapter #228 ends.

This Neo Heroes element is a running trait to these fights as well. While their leader, Blue, is notably also fighting Eel Dragon, himself witnessing massive damage to the city, the rest of the fights are all Hero Association-led efforts. The most egregious public-facing incident in particular was that of S-Class #2 hero Tatsumaki grinding the entirety of City P to sand and dust. Arguing it was the only way to destroy the enemy swarm, this does little to convince the journalists on the scene, who instead ask why she didn’t wait for the Neo Heroes.

The Neo Heroes Are on a Charm Offensive

With their recruitment efforts in overdrive, gathering the likes of Metal Bat, Superalloy Blackluster, and Wild Emperor (formerly Child Emperor), the Neo Heroes make a logical case for themselves as a Hero Association alternative. Despite their elements clearly concealing blatant corruption including organized crime bosses and cult leaders among their leadership, the Neo Heroes’ appeal to the public is hardly meeting much opposition thanks to their tactical approaches.

Neo Heroes typically focus less on individual heroes fighting largely alone, instead deploying groups often numbering three or more. Each of their members wear a high-tech body suit to enhance their strength, and they’re often led by prominent figures like idol/hero Wavygyaza (VIZ: Webigather) whose public-facing antics often make society trust them more. What’s even worse for the Hero Association is, they recognize these traits as directly targeting multiple disadvantages of theirs.

The Neo Heroes, as noted by the Hero Association, commonly choose leaders like Axel or Raiden to run their teams, able to draw on each other for support, being an overall safer approach and notably more organized. Judging from many fights during the Monster Association Arc, or indeed much of the Demon or Dragon-level, or even God-level threats faced by anybody except Saitama, the Hero Association has seen firsthand the flaws of spreading their heroes, even the highest-ranking ones, so thin. Their strength in numbers is impressive, and it’s only going to become a bigger existential threat to the Hero Association as the Neo Heroes Saga wears on.

What’s worse, with characters like Sweet Mask suddenly having their reputation in tatters, the Hero Association is sorely lacking in leader-type heroes to similarly win over the public in their escapades. Instead, they’ve got astonishing raw power like in the case of Tatsumaki, but on the flip side, she is such a dangerously loose cannon that the ruins of City P aren’t even her first destroyed city. Even Saitama, with all of his incredible strength, is a poor excuse for a public spokesperson, and others, like Blast, remain elusive despite being widely trusted by the public.

So the Neo Heroes have the Hero Association on the backfoot when it comes to the public’s approval. As One-Punch Man releases new chapters in the weeks ahead, it’ll be interesting to see the nefarious downside to Neo Heroes’ lofty promises. After all, if Wavygyaza’s extreme heat signatures are any indication, trusting oneself to become a cyborg in service to the Neo Heroes certainly seems to have its drawbacks, and they’ve yet to be fully discovered.