Right from One-Punch Man’s first season, Garou has been an interesting character, different from both the heroes and villains in the Monster Association. Intending to become a terror to society that will change their perspective of heroes, Garou performed astonishing feats, only to be defeated occasionally by the bored B-Class Hero, Saitama.
Surprisingly, Garou was still able to deal significant damage to the members of the Hero Association. Eventually, Garou hit his limit as a human and significantly evolved into a powerful monsterified villain to become "absolute evil." Garou's latest cosmic power-up visibly altered the long-standing power scale in the One-Punch Man series. But to what extent?
The Hero Hunter – An Idealist
Garou was once Bang's student who excelled in different areas of martial arts. However, he left the academy to establish his ideal involving heroes and their impact on society. According to Garou, heroes are the real danger to society since they give humans a "false sense of hope," which prevents them from seeing the real truth. Constantly irritated by this fact, Garou decided to take it upon himself to become absolute evil. On his path to achieving his ideals, he successfully put powerful heroes out of commission. Example-wise, he defeated the powerful S-Class hero, Tank Top, and other equally powerful heroes.
Unfortunately, after achieving a string of successes, he was involved in a first battle encounter with Saitama. To be fair, it was more of a one-sided attack than a battle. In Garou's battle against Saitama, he was knocked unconscious after he received a single hit from the supposedly middle-ranked hero. The same fate replayed after Garou tried to defeat the make-believe S-Class hero, King. Saitama stopped the Hero Hunter right in his tracks with another epic one-punch strike. Regardless of these developments, Garou continued with his goal – even after receiving a beating from his master, Bang. In fact, it was these actions that triggered Garou's monsterification that was first revealed in the Monster Association Arc, a stepping stone leading to his final God-given cosmic form.
Cosmic Garou – The Game Changer
Comparing the recent Garou-oriented developments in One-Punch Man to the Hero Hunter in the early stages of the Monster Association Arc, fans can rightly conclude that Garou’s previous forms were inferior. However, despite their inferiority, they still helped Garou achieve awesome feats. In his monster form, Garou could rival powerful members of the Monster Association. These developments gradually led to him defeating the Dragon-level monster, Centisennin, by slicing the monster into two with a single chopping movement.
The victory, however, was short-lived as Garou soon met Saitama – a constant thorn that prevented him from achieving his goal as an idealist. A battle ensued, with Saitama gaining the upper hand. In the process, Garou evolved further in his monsterification as if tweaking the established concepts of biology through sheer willpower and determination. Sadly, regardless of the power evolution, Saitama emerged the victor against Garou in his monster form. This unfruitful saga forced Garou into a state of despair, allowing God to step in and take advantage of this opportunity to defeat. Garou accepted God’s offer allowing him to become something unfathomable among heroes & villains.
This is where the Hero-Villain power system tilts. In the One-Punch Man universe, regardless of the constant battles between heroes & villains, there is a subtle balance between these two groups; just as good can't exist without evil. Although Saitama has the power to change this power balance, he doesn't as he keeps to his usual daily life, occasionally butting in to defeat any unlucky villain that he encounters. Contrary to Saitama, Garou openly threatened the balanced system with his new form, powers & abilities. Adopting an appearance likened to the universe, Garou was able to execute moves that made the once-powerful Psykos shiver with fear. Note that Psykos isn’t your day-to-day villain; she was able to rival the number 2 S-Class Hero Tatsumaki with her telekinetic abilities that destroyed city-wide locations.
Psykos' fear was justified as she noted that Garou's powers were similar to Homeless Emperor but on a different scale. This showed that God gave Garou significant powers to defeat Saitama – an obstacle in his path. In chapter 165 of the One-Punch Man manga, Garou was able to display shocking powers even comparable to the eruptive level of a star explosion. This reference in the manga depicts just how powerful the Hero Hunter has become in his path to become “absolute evil.” Towards the end of the chapter, Garou’s presence terrified a good number of S-Class heroes. Even Flashy Flash remarked that running away from Garou was useless because the aura the character emitted depicted a sense of despair.
In chapter 165, Garou has finally achieved his goal of becoming absolute evil – something that transcends the common hero-villain narrative in One-Punch Man. Even Saitama, the powerful hero, was briefly overpowered by Garou. However, despite the awesome power-up chapter 165 offered, a bugging question remains in the mind of fans: Now that Garou has become absolute evil, what's next? Hopefully, Chapter 166 further heightens this exciting development that has the potential to be the best in the series.