DRAGON BALL SUPER VOLUME 2

Story by: Akira Toriyama | Art by: Toyotarou

Volume 2 of DRAGON BALL SUPER picks up where the first book ended, with Goku fighting Frost in the Universe 7 and 8 tournament. Goku appears to have the upper hand for the duration of their fight, until Frost abruptly turns the tables and knocks him out of the ring. Piccolo steps in to battle Frost next, and while he puts up a semi-decent showing, it's a foregone conclusion that he will lose as well -- and he does, in fairly short order. But the defeats of Goku and Piccolo allow Jaco's sharp eyes to spot the fact that Frost is using a poison-tipped needle against his opponents in violation of the tournament's rules. Frost is about to be disqualified, but Vegeta, Universe 7's next fighter, tells him to remain in the ring. Vegeta steps in, and swiftly eliminates Frost.

Much as I love DRAGON BALL, there is something about it which continually drives me nuts, and that's the "power creep" that runs throughout the saga. I understand that its genre requires the villains to become more and more powerful and the heroes to do likewise in order to beat them. And here we are, in the latest incarnation of a story that started with a kid who, while extraordinarily powerful, was still basically human -- and who is now able to harness the power of a god to fight his battles. I should note that, while I find the level of power on display in later DRAGON BALL (Z) and all of SUPER to be absurd, that doesn't bug me all that much. What gets me is the way certain characters are left way, way behind in the dust as these stories proceed

In early DRAGON BALL, Goku was the protagonist and maintained his position as the series' strongest fighter most of the time. But Yamcha, Krillin, and Tien were never that drastically far behind him (Tien was in fact Goku's equal when he first appeared). Then Piccolo came along and joined the good guys and became the second most powerful warrior. By the time of the Android/Cell storyline, Vegeta was a member of the team as well and had become number 2. Gohan spent a moment as the strongest fighter, but when the Boo saga hit, it was generally Goku at the top again, most of the time. And ever since, DRAGON BALL has been the "all Saiyans, all the time" series -- and that's what bugs me.

My favorite heroes in DRAGON BALL are Tien and Piccolo. At various points, both were bad guys and were a match for Goku. Then they became good guys and were swiftly left behind as the Saiyans took over the show and became the stars. Occasionally, Toriyama found ways to make Tien and Piccolo relevant: Piccolo received a power-up in the Freeza saga and one in the Cell saga, each time briefly becoming the strongest fighter -- but by the time of the Boo saga, he was relegated to the position of elder statesman, mentor to younger warriors, and ultimately, spectator to the big battles. I've long felt that Toriyama had a soft spot for Tien -- even long after he was left behind by the other characters, he got moments to shine: in the Cell saga with his dramatic "Neo Tri-Beam" scene, and in the Boo saga where he saves Gohan's life. Even in the RESURRECTION "F" movie, he gets to take out a small army of Freeza's soldiers by himself. And, as we'll later see, he is among the few human fighters who will enter the "Tournament of Power" that closes out the DB SUPER series.

But what I don't get is why Toriyama had these guys hit ceilings in the first place. There seems to be some unspoken rule in his head that all the non-Saiyan characters must plateau at some point while the Siayans keep smashing through their limits over and over again. Why can't Piccolo get another big power-up and fight alongside Goku as an equal again? Why can't Tien or Krillin learn some new technique to make them relevant once more? They'll all get big moments as SUPER proceeds, but those moments will also always come with an implicit message that these guys are not, and will never be, as good as the Saiyans. It's a little frustrating, and it leads to scenes like Piccolo's fight with Frost, in which he's told very pointedly by Goku before entering the ring that he doesn't stand a chance -- and indeed, his fight lasts only a few pages during which he shows off all his powers (which once were cool and useful but which now mean nothing) before being defeated.

Anyway, back to the story at hand: Vegeta next battles a Saiyan from Universe 8 named Cabba, and the kid unlocks Vegeta's paternal instincts, as he helps Cabba attain the Super Saiyan form before beating him. Then Universe 8's greatest assassin, Hit, enters the ring and makes quick work of Vegeta. Goku, reinstated due to Frost's victory over him being illegal, next fights Hit. Hit proves to be nearly more than Goku can handle thanks to his time-skipping powers, and the hero is only able to beat him by changing into his Super Saiyan God form (a departure from the anime, in which Goku beat Hit using Super Saiyan Blue instead).

Hit is a character I really like -- he's like Piccolo 2.0 in a way; even something about his body language and character design remind me of the Namekian warrior. And for a while, he's Goku's equal (though in a perfect -- and laughably quick -- example of what I discussed above, he'll be hit by power creep as well before long). After proving himself Hit's equal, Goku realizes that the fighter must have some assassin tricks up his sleeve that he can't use due to the tournament's "no killing" rule -- so he tells Hit that he wants a rematch, then steps out of the ring, throwing the match.

This means Beerus's "champion", Monaka, must battle Hit. But Monaka has no power; he's just a chump selected by Beerus to make Goku and Vegeta believe that there's an even stronger fighter out there... which seems a questionable strategy. While very funny, does this really make any sense? Why not pick a guy with at least some rudimentary fighting skills and/or power just in case??

Monaka enters the ring and reluctantly throws a punch at Hit, who feigns defeat in order to even the score with Goku. Universe 7 wins the tournament and Beerus uses his prize, the Super Dragon Balls, to wish for Universe 8's planet Earth to be restored -- ostensibly to annoy his brother Champa, but I suspect there's some sibling affection involved as well.

The volume's final few chapters are actually setup for the next book, so I'm going to stop here. Next week we'll look at the rest of volume 2 as well as all of volume 3.