Saitama vs Blast? - an unpopular opinion! (No major spoilers)

This article is divided into three sections:-

• Why is Blast so mysterious and popular?
• What you need to know about Blast without any big spoilers from manga or webcomic?
• Is Blast stronger than Saitama?

One Punch Man is filled with heroes and villains who are very strong and have very interesting super powers. I was interested in knowing all of their back stories or origin stories to know how and why they became who they are now, but among all of these awesome characters there's one hero that is very mysterious and is hardly talked about, yet very popular in this manga series! and that's the Number 1 S-ranked superhero Blast.

Why is Blast so mysterious and popular?

In One Punch Man all the heroes need to register under an institution named "Hero Association" in order to get incentives for their "hero work", and there the heroes are assigned with assignments according to their capabilities and according to their "hero ranks". There are total 4 ranks namely "S","A","B" and "C", in which "S" is the highest and "C" is the lowest rank. Blast is the number one S rank hero making him the most capable hero (atleast according to Hero Association) among other S rankers. But he almost never shows up on any meetings nor does he comes to fight with other heroes no matter how strong the enemy is until season 2 of the anime, and all this builds up the mysteries and fan theories around this controversial hero!

What you need to know about Blast without any big spoilers from manga or webcomic!

Most of the S rankers haven't even seen the number one hero themselves, so we don't need to emphasize on the grim chance of any other heroes seeing him, and all this builds up the mysterious nature of this character. But in manga, he has made his appearance and his fandom page describes him as, " a tall man with a very muscular build, spiky gray hair, and a slight beard. He wears bulky armor with large shoulder pads, a large cape worn out at the bottom, and emblems of his name on his chest and the backs of his shoes. His gloves have circles on the back of his fists, which form an infinity symbol when he presses them together to teleport. His suit has mild damage, presumably sustained from his many battles. He also wears shades and has a scar running across his face between his eyes. The outline of his iris is a wavy black pattern, as opposed to just a consistent outline seen in other characters."

Blast is a very easy-going person, as he (like Saitama) does his hero duties as a hobby and was very comfortable with other heroes too. All of his abilities aren't disclosed yet, but he possesses immense speed, reflexes and is immensely strong too. According to Fubuki, Blast is stronger than the number five S rank hero, King. In the databook, Fubuki speculates that Blast can shoot lasers from his eyes and rules over psychic powers, and has the ability to command trillions of robots. She hypothesizes that he could beat the rest of the S-Class all at once. Blast possesses the ability to generate portals which allows him to move through another dimension or transfer objects. All I can tell you about blast without much spoilers into future events is that, he is faster and stronger than almost all the characters we have ever seen in the anime except for off course Saitama. 

Is Blast stronger than Saitama?

Blast's limits haven't been shown yet just like Saitama, so its pretty hard to know who's stronger. And making assumptions as such without knowing everything about both characters is not something that I am interested in.

Popular opinion is that ,"The best way to compare them, currently, is by observing their battle with Elder-Centipede. Whereas both of them won, Blast had to put in much more effort than Saitama and still failed to kill Elder-Centipede, while Saitama effortlessly killed this monstrosity. That is why we think that Saitama is the winner here."

And here is why I don't agree with that, now this whole thing about Blast putting effort or trying to capture it was never mentioned in the official VIZ translation. It was a slight translation error caused in the translated manga which is more accessible and thus popular, which brought in the argument stated above. The official translation just says that "Blast injured it gravely in the past, but it managed to escape underground". We don't know anything else about that battle or if it even was a battle. We don't know why Blast injured the Elder-Centipede or how Blast did so.

Who knows if Blast gave Elder-Centipede (Who was not controllable by Bang, Genos and Bomb combined) a grave injury unknowingly, and that too alone?

Now low-key, I think Saitama has to be stronger as it is almost the whole point of this manga series.

Note - I figured you won't want any more detailed article about Blast, where I write everything I know about him with spoilers to Manga and Webcomic! If you want an article as such, Comment below!

Also let's hear what are your theories are about the number one hero in the comments!!