Why TO BE HERO X Is About Stepping Away From Legacy

One of the most enduring ideas in superhero comics is legacy. Wally West, the hero of Mark Waid’s run on The Flash , is inspired by his predecessor, Barry Allen. Miles Morales follows in the footsteps of Peter Parker after his death. Deku in My Hero Academia inherits his abilities from All Might, just as his archnemesis Shigaraki is empowered by All For One. TO BE HERO X is no exception to this trend. NOTE: Major spoilers for TO BE HERO X throughout! RELATED: How TO BE HERO X Tackles Heroism Nearly every one of TO BE HERO X 's main characters has an important relationship with their parent or predecessor. Lucky Cyan, Little Johnny, Loli, Queen and Dragon Boy all have fathers, uncles or guardian figures. Ghostblade is a father himself (and so is Little Johnny to his alien friend Big Johnny). Lin Ling is haunted by the shadow of Nice, just as Nice was once inspired by the hero Smile. Then there’s Yang Cheng, who is influenced both by his “uncle” Rock and by the establishment hero E-Soul he means to replace. This lines up nicely with director Li Haoling and company’s previous work on the donghua Link Click . Many episodes of that series were about parents: distant parents, grieving parents, dead parents and even meddling martial artist parents. Familial relationships are the show’s most important ingredient alongside time travel and murder mysteries. TO BE HERO X , though, complicates these relationships, because many of its “children” are being exploited by their guardians. Lucky Cyan’s father initially appears kind, but is revealed to be a cult leader who uses Cyan’s powers to expand his following. Queen’s father treats her well, but has also been involved with DOS’ corrupt dealings. Uncle Rock, who mentors both Yang Cheng and Dragon Boy, is using them as game pieces in his plan to recreate the anti-Superman, Zero. Even “positive” parental relationships in the series are inevitably doomed. Loli’s dad supports her scientific career even if he repeatedly pulls rank to keep her out of danger. Little Johnny’s father is, by all accounts, a positive role model. Sadly, both are murdered by other heroes, as are Cyan’s birth parents. Ghostblade is an interesting case in that he is a “bad dad,” yet sympathetic. He’s a hired assassin responsible for killing Little Johnny’s father. His partner also divorced him for being a bad husband and dad. Once his daughter grows up, though, Ghostblade does his best to support and understand her from afar, even though his sensory issues ensure that he has a difficult time communicating. Despite his best efforts, he fails to protect her from an injury that leaves her hospitalized, even as he saves Little Johnny’s life. RELATED: Why TO BE HERO X Gets Superheroes Relationships between heroes are just as fraught in this series as familial ones. Lin Ling discovers, after inheriting Nice’s role, that his cape is as much a burden as it is a privilege. Nice himself was inspired by Smile, the kindest of the heroes, and yet indirectly poisons him with the corruptive substance Fear. Their respective stories bookend TO BE HERO X , proving that no matter how good your intentions, there is no solace to be found by following in your predecessor’s footsteps. TO BE HERO X then is the thematic opposite of Link Click in that its families are all fractured or poisonous. Children either lose their parents (Loli, Little Johnny), overcome their parents (Lin Ling), or are betrayed by their parents (nearly everybody else). Why this great change? To me, it’s because the guiding force in this series is Trust Value, which gives people superpowers, but also demands that they conform to other people’s expectations. The “father” of the whole setting, then, is Zero, a man who became the most powerful hero in the history of the world... and then its most dangerous villain. Zero’s turn toward evil began when he killed another hero for defying his rule. Left unsaid, but just as horrifying, is the role that the public likely played in his evolution. Heroes, after all, cannot help but act according to how they are perceived. If the populace sees Zero as a monster, Zero must act like a monster, and so on in a self-reinforcing feedback loop. Zero’s death at the hands of E-Soul leads to the founding of the Heroes Association and the annual Heroes Tournament. We learn from X in the finale that these organizations were meant to prevent another Zero from ever being created. Unfortunately, the violence and trauma embedded in these systems by Zero’s turn cannot help but perpetuate the same cruelty these organizations were designed to stop. RELATED: TO BE HERO X's Anthology Approach Is a Great Way to “Expand” a Universe That’s the flip-side of legacy. The father or mother or uncle figure who meant so much to you, who made the road you are walking, becomes the albatross around your neck. Like how Wally West is nearly undone when a villain pretends to be Barry Allen, back from the dead, just to hurt him. Or how spider-heroes in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are haunted by canon events. Or the way that All Might, the man that Deku admires so much, has his own complicated past. The thing is, as much as Wally West wants to see Barry Allen again, as much as he wants to be Barry Allen, he can’t. Wally West is Wally West. That’s the lesson he has to learn in Mark Waid’s Flash run. TO BE HERO X is even more ruthless to its characters; within its corrupted world, any Wally West who holds a Barry Allen in their heart is always punished. So what do Lin Ling and his colleagues do? They break the rules. Every character in TO BE HERO X defies society’s expectations in their own way. E-Soul becomes a top-ranked hero despite his initially low Trust Value. The talking dog Ahu proves to himself that he can be more than just a circus clown. Lucky Cyan chooses to become a pop star instead of a cult leader; at the same time, she forms a close bond with Queen. Little Johnny and Ghostblade do their best to be good fathers, while Loli earns her father’s respect (as well as the respect of the Hero Commission for surviving the Ruins Incident). As for Nice: well, as the ending reveals, he didn’t die. RELATED: Which TO BE HERO X Character Are You? Then there is Lin Ling and X, who do the most to defy the Heroes Association. Lin Ling gives up the role of Nice to become The Commoner, a hero of the people who is empowered by his own comparative weakness. X, on the other hand, decides to compete in the Hero’s Tournament rather than forfeit. Not because his fans demand it, but because he’s determined to make his own choices no matter what destiny others want for him. That’s what TO BE HERO X is all about: rejecting the path set before you by family and society to become your own person, regardless of the consequences. As the theme song “JEOPARDY” goes: “See the table in the kitchen that you planned my future on/but you knew I was something else/Turned around and the kid had gone.”

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