My Hero Academia is a popular shounen manga, but I believe its first chapter highlights some of the issues I see in shounen manga. What strikes me at first is how in the initial first page the author feels the need to tell the audience about the setting. It not only tells you about the setting but gives some explanation for it, in this case it says the age of heroes started after the sudden appearance of people with quirks, special abilities people started to be born with.
The problem for me in this instance is that these elements are all simply told to the audience in the first pages of the series, it feels so superficial that it hardly leaves any impression. It is a shoddy and honestly infantilizing way to set up the world within the series.
It also introduces the character poorly, the first look of the main character is him getting bullied by other kids with super abilities because he seems to be standing up for another student even though he is called quirkless. I do not dislike that initial introduction, but within the same chapter it explains what quirks are and why he is quirkless. The fact there is no real mystery about quirks or questions surrounding them quickly makes it feel like just a way to just set up the superhero world. It also doubles as a way to make the main character an underdog since in a world full of heroes, he has no special ability to speak of. It just feels too much like a device and not an element of the story.
However, why does he want to be a superhero? That is not given much thought over, it seems like it comes from what is displayed briefly in panels showing his childhood idolization of superheroes... It is quite a shallow way to build the main character's main motivation that is supposed to move the story forward. Perhaps, it might have been better to actually develop this, because otherwise once again it feels like an element to get the story going. Its basically to do this story, we need the main character to want to be a hero. In addition, his lack of any special ability makes the task to become here a lot tougher but that is the story... until he is given one? The fact he is given one does downplay his underdog status, which seems a bit counterintuitive in my eyes.
For me the problem is that this is such a poor start to the narrative. It is using a 'tell everything' form of storytelling in a visual medium that is awkward but ever present in shounen manga. For instance, why does the series need to explain in the first chapter that quirks started to appear which eventually led to a world of heroes? You can see that its a world full of heroes, you do not need to deliver that sort of information in the first few pages of the series... Exposition has been fed over time otherwise it feels just like simply the author's explanation for why the series has the setting. In general what this means is that in general the world the series takes place lacks any real depth. It seems like a template world of shonen battle manga but with a superhero makeover.
Black Clover has similar problems in its first chapter but let's go through the chapter together. The first chapter of Black Clover starts the story by narrating the defeat of an unknown mage that came to be called the Wizard King. Back in the present we see the celebration of the return of someone that is called the Wizard King. In the following page we see the celebrations from a place outside the city and two men working in fields comment on the rowdiness of the celebrations and say that the kingdom exists due to the generations of Wizard King that have protected them.
Then we are introduced to the main character, Asta, who talks about challenging Yuno, his friend, which serves as an obviously contrived way to tell the audience is not able to use magic. It also showcases that Asta and Yuno were left at the front of a church on the same day. Subsequently, there is an event that comes out of nowhere where 15 year old people receive their grimoires and Yuno receives his and Asta does not. However, after this another strikingly obvious contrived event happens when Yuno is attacked by someone that wants to rob his grimoire to sell it. The idea that there would be a black market of grimoire for the rich is believable, but I doubt the author thought of this as a macro event to hint at the inequality in the world that he could later develop... spoiler he does not.
A despondent Asta sees the attack on Yuno and tries to save him. After getting a beating by the robber he suddenly receives a black grimoire and a large blade that seems to annul magic, so he uses it to fight the man...
The way it starts off with a tale of the past is much more interesting than My Hero Academia. It has this battle which highlights this mage that defeated the demon who became the Wizard King. In the following page the author uses the celebrations and the perhaps awkward exchange between farmers to show the prestige and role of the position. I believe saying the demon was defeated was unnecessary,, it would have made the demon skull page a lot more impactful if that was what told the audience of the result of the battle. However, these first few pages do give a general understanding of what the title wizard king means without spelling it out... It is basically an army general, so not really a king.
After this the introduction of Asta and how we learn of his inability to use magic is mostly comical. However, his inability to use magic is shown to be notable which means magic use is quite widespread. That made me curious about how magic works, but all we are hinted at is that at Asta's age not being able to use is a strange which reinforces that being able to use magic is natural. It also says that grimoires are not necessary to use magic but they strengthen it which is less interesting, but it has its own implications... In a fight it might not be a bad idea to target the grimoire, because if they can be robbed from someone they are not naturally attached or an ethereal thing. I wonder if the author thought about this when he did that... Let's get back on topic.
We are also told Asta wants to become the Wizard King, which explains why the author decided to start with what exactly the title of Wizard King means earlier in the chapter. The audience does not know his motivations since they are not really shown, at least not in any serious way, so are we supposed to fill in his reasons for that? Perhaps, we are supposed to assume that this character from quite low class would idealise an army general figure?
Later we see that Yuno also wants to become the Wizard King, and a flashback acts to show his motivation. In this flashback we see that Yuno's necklace is stolen by someone because it is too nice for an orphan. Asta fights him and gets it back not without getting beaten up badly before though. Both them promise each other to strive to become the Wizard King. What this tells me is that both dream of moving up the social ladder from what seems to be their quite low status, and power is the easiest way. However, in this competition between the two friends, Asta is a clear underdog due to his inability to use magic whilst Yuno is talented in magic.
In comparison with My Hero Academia, Black Clover for me has the better chapter when it comes to narrative quality. However it is weaker when it comes to characters, when it comes to the main characters the author makes Asta too comical to take him seriously, and the spend on Asta's comedic antics means Yuno received zero to no attention. Midoriya and Bakugo leave a greater impression, one for his meekness yet his courage, and the other wants to become a hero yet seems to lack any heroic qualities.
In the character designs and art My Hero Academia also wins for me, it has a more distinct artstyle and the characters have iconic visual characteristics. Overall, whilst Black Clover eventually might be more competent in its first chapter with the narrative, it eventually leans on the major things that define action shounen manga such as characters, emotional and visual impact and My Hero Academia just plays those much better than it.
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