The Caped Baldy (One Punch Man Web Comic VS The Manga) ****Super Spoiler Alert****

WARNING***SUPER SPOILER ALERT*** WARNING. DO NOT PROCEED

 

So yesterday, I’m feeding my hungry hungry baby (she made 2 months August 3,2016  :D) while falling through the rabbit hole of YouTube, and instead of discovering those dreaded cat videos,

 

I stumble across some good ol fashion One Punch Man theories. Since I am all caught up on the manga, I felt more than qualified to participate in this discussion. Boy was I wrong. All I heard was Blast this and God that and blah blah blah. I was so confused that I Googled what was being discussed and discovered the web comic. Words cannot express how excited I was to read more into the One Punch Man story. It felt like Christmas! I was so excited that I immediately texted my friend about the discovery.

(Pretty sure that isn’t an accurate account of how One Punch Man came to be, but that’s how I pictured it in my mind, so it must be true:p)

 

After binge reading the rest of the web comic, I have to apologize.  The illustrations aren’t terrible. Well, on first impression, some of them look like something my little nephew might have done if somebody gave him a crayon and he was all jacked up on Mountain Dew (Shake and Bake). But seriously, the illustrations get much better the more you read. I do have to point out the illustrations because there is such a jarring difference between the web comic and the manga. I will even say that if you are a purely One Punch Man manga reader, it’s possible you may see the illustrations and choose to stay away. Don’t do it! Be tough and stick it out because you will truly be rewarded in the end. The only real gripe I had with the illustrations were the action segments. When shit gets real (i mean really crazy like we all know One Punch Man fights can be), it’s sometimes hard to follow the action. And IT DEFINITELY GETS REAL.

Also, when I first started reading the web comic, it took me a while to recognize faces, but this may be because I did not start at chapter one in the web comic. Aside from the most recognizable (Saitama, Genos, etc.), you may initially struggle to recognize some of the sub characters. But, as I previously mentioned, the illustrations get much better. Do not let what I have said deter you from reading the web comic. Once you get past the initial shock, you are in for a treat.

 

Past the initial shock……

 

I started reading the web comic somewhere around chapter 55, and I immediately noticed a difference. The pacing is totally different. In the manga, it seemed as if they treated Garou and the monster association as two separate arcs. In fact, the manga seemed to have abandoned Garou’s story line altogether (maybe because it is releasing some filler chapters. Wait, is the tournament considered filler? Well, point being, I feel like we haven’t seen Garou in the manga in awhile. After the encounter Garou had with Saitama in the manga, I thought that was the end of his story).  But the web comic seems to treat Garou and the monster association as one thing. The same thing goes for the monster association. In the manga, the leader of the monster association has not been revealed, but it seems the web comic revealed the leader much earlier than the manga.

Psycos, the leader of the monster association, was a huge letdown. Some of her minions, like evil natural water for example, were much more entertaining (evil natural water was devoid of emotion or any human characteristics. It simply was a body of water that murdered people, and IT was more interesting than Psycos) and much more powerful than she was. There is one interesting aspect of her though and it seems like it may be key to the future of the One Punch Man universe. When she acquired her powers, she developed a third eye which allowed her to see into the future. Whatever she saw in the future caused her to completely reevaluate life and become a villain. What did she see? Maybe she saw something so powerful that she knew the only chance she had to stay alive would be to align herself with it/him/her. What if she saw an evil Saitama? What if she saw God and he/she/it was evil. Whatever she saw, I can’t wait to find out what it was. So, I guess she is useful for the time being.

In my opinion, the biggest reveal that did not happen in the manga yet was the somewhat explanation of the origin of the mysterious beings. I am sure that the manga will touch on this at some point. This reveal didn’t happen in the manga yet, despite the manga being past the point where it was revealed in the web comic. In chapter 56, the scientist from the house of evolution reveals that the transformation into mysterious beings happens on a cellular level. Transformations can happen for three reasons:

 

A) Animals can become mysterious beings or gain power through pollution.

B) People who have been experimented on/ operated on can gain enormous power (For example Genos and Zombieman.

C) Others can turn into mysterious beings through obsessions.

 

This makes me want to start over from chapter 1 of the web comic. I want to see if there was anymore key info that was skipped in the manga.

 

Garou

 

Garou is an awesome villain and he is a good opponent for Saitama. The one issue I’ve had with Saitama from the very beginning is that he can’t fight. He is INSANELY strong and athletic but he can’t fight. He literally has no technique. His only understanding of defense is to use his speed and not get hit. How many times have we seen Saitama take a super mega ultra blast in the face without even trying to dodge or block in any way. We’ve seen it a lot, and he does it because he can. I’ve always thought that if Saitama came across somebody who could actually fight and was powerful, this person might give him some go. That person is Garou. I enjoyed every part of their fight. Garou being an expert martial artist was a good match for him. He was able to exploit Saitama’s lack of technique. Saitama is not a hero who is out here throwing energy balls or ultra beams. He beats you with in-your-face hand-to-hand combat, just like Garou. Garou is simply much better at it. But in the end….well we all know the end right?

 

King

 

Besides Saitama, King is the funniest character in the One Punch Man universe. How he has managed to keep up his facade for so long is beyond me. At the end of the web comic, when King is tasked with defeating Evil Natural Water, I almost choked from laughing so hard when he abandoned his comrades yet again. King’s character leads me to question the validity of the Hero Association. How could they possibly rank King an S class hero when he is clearly not worthy to be a hero at all. How can he be considered a top Hero if no one has ever seen him fight. Are the other S class heroes worthy of the rank? Or is the Hero Association a joke like King?

If you have never read the web comic, I seriously encourage you to do so. I seriously enjoyed it just as much as I do the manga, and I’m looking forward to reading more of it.

About the Author: Phil Purkett Jr.
Founder and Creator of Some Guy in Space. Second of his name. Real cool dude. Sexy.