DRAGON BALL SUPER VOLUME 3

Story by: Akira Toriyama | Art by: Toyotarou

As noted last week, we begin our look at DRAGON BALL SUPER volume 3 with a quick summary of the final few chapters from volume 2, which set up this book's main storyline.

A major story arc in the original DRAGON BALL manga (and it's DRAGON BALL Z television adaptation) was the "Cell saga", in which Trunks, son of Vegeta and Bulma from the future, returned to the present day to battle some androids alongside Goku and friends. As DB SUPER volume 2 closes out, we return to Trunks' future to find that a new threat has appeared, and he wears a familiar face: Goku, dressed all in black, is now a bad guy bent on ruling the world. He battles Trunks, kills Bulma (off-page), and apparently kills Trunks' love, Mai (the future/adult version of Emperor Pilaf's henchgirl, who you may recall has been inexplicably reverted to childhood along with Pilaf and their other pal, Shuu, in these pages). So Trunks climbs back into the old time machine and returns once more to the present, seeking help.

Which brings us to volume 3: Trunks tells the present-day heroes about "Goku Black", then following a bit of investigation to determine where the villain came from, Vegeta and Goku return to the future with Trunks to aid him.

I've gotta say, something about these Future Trunks time travel stories really brings out the best in Akira Toriyama's plotting. Early DRAGON BALL was generally well-plotted as well, but after a while it simply became an exercise of "introduce villain, heroes fight villain, villain gets stronger, heroes fight villain again," repeated over and over. But the original Future Trunks storyline -- the "Androids/Cell Saga" -- is very well plotted, with some time travel hijinks, twists and turns as far as who the real villain is, and so forth.

(The fact that this is due in part to editorial interference -- Toriyama's editor at the time initially didn't like the androids, then didn't like the second group of androids, then thought Cell was ugly, etc. -- is neither here nor there when the strength end result can speak for itself.)

As a result, the Androids/Cell Saga is my favorite part of the DRAGON BALL Z era -- and, having seen the entirety of the DRAGON BALL SUPER anime, the Goku Black Saga is my favorite part of that series as well. Both these storylines feature a certain amount of intrigue which just isn't present in the vast majority of the DRAGON BALL saga. Whether you're talking the bait-and-switch of which androids are the real threat followed by the mystery of who or what Cell is (and Piccolo's solo investigation of same), or the origin of Goku Black and the joint investigation of Beerus, Whis, and Kaioshin into that mystery, these sagas represent, for me, Toriyama's highest point in terms of plotting.

So -- as noted a moment ago, Beerus, Whis, and Kaioshin (with Goku tagging along) play detective and figure out that Goku Black is actually Zamas, the former Lord of the Northern Galaxy in Universe 10 (equivalent to Universe 7's Kaio-Sama/King Kai character DB fans have known for years), who is currently in training to become the Kaioshin of that universe. It seems Zamas despises mortals and wants to see them all wiped out -- but, ironically, he needs Goku's power to carry out his plan and, in Trunks's timeline, he has acquired it thanks to a body swap courtesy of the Dragon Balls.

Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks meet up with Mai in the future and the battle begins -- while in the present, Beerus, Whis, and Kaioshin pay a visit to Universe 10 and Beerus, in his role as a destroyer god, kills Zamas after eliciting a confession from him regarding his plans, ensuring that Trunks' future won't come to pass in the main timeline. The volume concludes with Goku Black -- who is the future version of Zamas from the main timeline -- joined by Zamas from Trunks' future to battle Goku and Vegeta as Trunks and Mai watch.

Zamas reveals that he has made his own wish with the Dragon Balls and is now immortal -- and together, Black and Zamas get the better of the three Saiyans. Trunks sends Goku and Vegeta back to the present to further prepare themselves to battle Black and Zamas, and the book comes to an end.

I will say, much as I love this storyline, I feel the anime does a better job of telling it. It has more room to breathe on TV, and the build-up feels more ominous as a result. Which isn't to say the manga version is bad -- it gets all the information out and makes sense -- but it's simply condensed to a point where everything feels like it's happening faster and some of the building menace behind Zamas is lost. Notably, the TV version of the investigation into Goku Black's background carries with it this sense of suspense and slowly building dread, which that manga just doesn't match.

Though admittedly, the apparent failure of the manga to attain the atmosphere of the anime could also be due to the fact that, having already seen the story play out on TV, I know where everything is headed -- which is seems Toriyama and/or Toyotarou may have realized as well, because as we'll learn next week, the manga's version of this story is about to begin deviating from the anime in some fun and unexpected ways, keeping it just as surprising, even for one who already watched the animated version.