My Hero Academia Season 8 Unmasks the DC Villain Who Inspired All For One

My Hero Academia is deep into its endgame now. Season 8 is eight episodes in and basically closing out a nine-year run. Episode 4 hits the brakes for an All For One origin hour, and it lands with a very specific vibe: this guy is powered almost entirely by hate for the One For All line. If that sounds familiar, it should. It is basically the Eobard Thawne playbook from DC.

All For One vs. Reverse-Flash: same energy, different universes

Reverse-Flash, aka Eobard Thawne (yes, Professor Zoom), is the Flash's archnemesis who time-hops out of pure jealousy and spite. All For One operates on a similar frequency: an archnemesis to One For All users who blames them for tearing him away from his brother, Yoichi. I have no idea if Kohei Horikoshi meant to echo Thawne, but the parallels are loud.

How each villain weaponizes obsession

Thawne started as a Flash superfan, tried to copy Barry Allen's origin, and instead spiraled into the one thing he was 'destined' to be: the Flash's personal nightmare. And because killing Barry would take his powers off the table, Thawne commits to a different strategy—wreck the man's life across time, even if it shreds the timeline. For All For One, the switch flips when Kudo rescues Yoichi. From there, he turns every One For All user into a target, zeroing in on Kudo with unnerving fixation.

• Reverse-Flash: a former admirer who recreated the Flash's accident, cracked, and embraced being the archnemesis when he realized he could not be the hero.
• Reverse-Flash: cannot kill Barry without losing his own powers, so he opts to break Barry instead—across eras, timelines, and memories.
• Reverse-Flash: murders Nora Allen and frames Henry Allen for it in 'The Flash: Rebirth' by Geoff Johns.
• Reverse-Flash: time-travels to Barry's childhood and steals his best friend, Doug, so Barry grows up without that lifeline.
• All For One: treats Yoichi like property; after Kudo pulls Yoichi out, AFO blames every One For All successor and makes it a generational war.
• All For One: reserves special hatred for Kudo and wipes out Kudo's entire bloodline to make sure that legacy never continues.
• All For One: grooms and manipulates Tenko Shimura into Tomura Shigaraki from birth to death, targeting him because he is Nana Shimura's grandson and nudging his father into becoming an abuser.
• All For One: needs a successor to topple All Might—the only One For All user to actually beat him—so he engineers Shigaraki's rise to finish the job.

Why this flavor of villain works

This is what happens when a character never lets go of a grudge (therapy would have helped). All For One's hate is rooted in loneliness and a warped sense of ownership over Yoichi. He never forgives Kudo and the One For All line for taking away his 'only companion,' and he hates Kudo so much that Bakugo's resemblance to Kudo sends him over the edge. That obsessive tunnel vision is a big reason AFO plays as one of shonen's most effective main villains.

Thawne is cut from the same cloth. He blames Barry for living the life he wanted and decides to poison every version of that life rather than build his own. He is cunning, relentless, and petty at Olympic level. And for the record: whatever James Gunn does with Superman, even a peak Lex Luthor is not matching Thawne's spite per minute.

The bottom line

Both characters are proof that straight-up, irrational hatred can fuel some of the most compelling villains—no twist required, just relentless, personal vendettas executed with precision.

Is All For One operating at Reverse-Flash caliber for you? Tell me where you land.

My Hero Academia is streaming on Crunchyroll. The Flash is available to rent on Prime Video.