DRAGON BALL SUPER VOLUME 10

Story by: Akira Toriyama | Art by: Toyotarou

The action continues on New Planet Namek, as Vegeta challenges Moro one-on-one. During the duel, Vegeta extracts from Moro the fact that he plans to collect the Dragon Balls and wish himself back to his prime in terms of power (a goal quite similar to Piccolo's when he first appeared as an elderly demon in the original DRAGON BALL). Vegeta then reveals he's been holding back and attempts to kill Moro, but learns too late that the villain's life-draining powers operate passively, and he has sucked enough vitality out of Vegeta that he's unable to go Super Saiyan and finish the fight.

Moro easily defeats Goku and Vegeta, sapping thier life forces until both are at death's door, and growing younger and stronger in the process. He heads out in search of his Freeza Force minion, Cranberry, to find Namek's Dragon Balls. Time passes (a week total since Goku and Vegeta left Earth, and three days following their incapacitation). On Earth, Bulma contacts Jaco and orders him to send a ship to take her to New Namek. On Namek, Goku and Vegeta are revived by the Namekians, but are still considerably low on power. Moro has acquired six Dragon Balls, and defeated the Namekians' graeatest warrior (a fusion of dozens of powerful Namekians) with a single blow.

Goku and Vegeta catch up with Moro again, but before they can act, Merus appears in a Galactic Patrol ship. He engages Moro and quickly subdues him. Jaco then releases Majin Boo from the ship, but Boo now has the memories of the Kaioshin inside him unlocked. He attacks and easily gains the upper hand on Moro. But in all the chaos, Cranberry has escaped -- and just as Boo is about to finish Moro, the sky over Namek goes dark and Porunga the dragon appears. Cranberry has found the final Dragon Ball. Porunga offers him the customary three wishes, and the uncreative Cranberry first wishes to be restored to full health. Then he makes Moro's wish -- to have the ancient wizard's magic fully restored. Cranberry is next about to wish himself away from Namek forever, when Moro appears and kills him.

Moro makes the third wish instead, but it is unknown to readers at this point. Goku, Vegeta, and the rest show up, too late to stop the villain. Moro departs, but Boo senses he is still on Namek. The ancient Kaioshin fully inhabits Boo, and then he leaves with Goku and Vegeta to find and stop Moro once and for all.

The volume ends with a little 2-page recap of Cranberry's brief history: he was a member of the Freeza Force who journeyed to the original Namek in search of its Dragon Balls with Freeza and his men. But he was defeated by a Namekian warrior there, and then killed by Zarbon for his failure. But some time later, when Earth's Dragon Balls were used to resurrect al those killed by Freeza and his men, Cranberry returned to life and escaped Namek before it was destroyed. However he was eventually arrested by Jaco, setting up his appearance as an inmate alongside Moro earlier in this storyline.

I never thought of it before, but it's interesting how the specter of the Freeza/Namek Saga hangs over DRAGON BALL SUPER. In the original DBZ, the storyline was just one of many, occasionally referenced after it happened. In SUPER, we have a direct sequel to the Saga (which was, of course, notoriously not adapted to the manga), bringing Freeza and his warriors back and even featuring the return and final fate of Captain Ginyu. Now we have a new storyline set entirely (so far) on New Planet Namek (which basically looks and functions exactly like the original Namek), delving into the continuity of the original saga with Cranberry's return.

But at the same time, as mentioned above, Moro himself feels a bit like a Demon King Piccolo analogue, with a similar setup (roaming around in an airship with his henchman in search of Dragon Balls) and a similar goal (regaining the lost power of his youth). You might think sometihng like this -- rehashing Piccolo and Namek and mashing them together -- would feel derivative, but so far I really like this saga. Of course, those who read this site often will be aware that I love stories that rehash the past in new ways. I rarely like to see old stories "reskinned" and done over again more-or-less verbatim, but I'm always up for seeing the trappings and mood/feel of prior stories revisited. I've kind of always put it this way: I don't want writers to try to re-do the Stan Lee/John Romita Spider-Man beat-for-beat, over and over again, but I definitely do want to see them try to replicate the rhythm and "feel" of that run for the rest of eternity.

So given that, even if there is a bit of rehash going on here, I like the Moro Saga so far. I just hope we get more heroes involved at some point besides just Goku, Vegeta, and Boo. As I've mentioned before, I like seeing the other fighters get their moments to shine in the various DB storyline, and as SUPER goes along, it seems to have become the "Goku and Vegeta Show" even to an extent that the original DBZ never was by the end!

It does feel promising, however, that this saga has introduced the idea of numerous Namekians fusing together to make one ultra-powerful warrior. I could see Piccolo joining with some of the apparently more powerful Namekians from Universe 6 to become relevant again, but I imagine that would be further in the future, since I don't anticipate any universe-hopping in this storyline, and all the Universe 7 Namekians aside from one child are currently dead, having been wiped out by Moro.