Dragon Ball Super How the New Super Hero Arc Can Connect the Manga and Movies
Dragon Ball Super has revealed its next upcoming arc, which will be called the "Super Hero Arc". Beginning in December 2022 in the pages of the Dragon Ball Super manga, the Super Hero Arc is one that comes with an incredibly conspicuous name attached to it. After all, Dragon Ball Super is just coming off the release of its second highly successful feature film – which just so happens to be titled Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Toei has been vague about confirming any direct connections between the Super Hero manga arc and Super Hero movie, but there are several simple and connections that could really tie this next manga arc with both Dragon Ball Super films, as well as the most recent manga arcs that came before!
Clearer Timeline
One of the biggest concerns about Dragon Ball Super right now is the series' timeline. Dragon Ball Super has always faced the challenge of needing to finish its story in a way that syncs with the final flash-forward epilogue of Dragon Ball Z; the last few years have complicated the matter even more by making the Dragon Ball Super manga the sole venue of the canonized storyline, with the feature-films wedged in somewhat vaguely between manga arcs.
The Dragon Ball Super "Super Hero" manga arc could finally pull threads together into a more clear timeline of the most recent events in the series. Right now, there are two distinct stories taking place in DBS, in two very different venues:
- Goku and Vegeta having left Earth to train with Beerus and Whis, and defeat new intergalactic threats like the escape of Galactic Prison inmate Moro (a "planet-eating" sorcerer), or the scheming crime syndicate The Heeters, who tried to use Goku and Vegeta's Saiyan past to trick them into a brutal new fight – all of which led back to the threat of Black Frieza, who is now more powerful than ever. (As seen in the last two Dragon Ball Super manga arcs.)
- How the rest of the Z-Fighters of Earth are faring while Goku and Vegeta are away from Earth, when new threats like the Red Ribbon Army start to rise again (seen in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero).
The Dragon Ball Super "Super Hero" story arc can bridge a much-needed gap that currently exists. It's clear that the manga's Moro Arc takes place just after the events of the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie and the Granolah Arc begins right off the heels of the Moro Arc's epilogue. The events of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero seem to take place just before the Granolah Arc begins; so this manga Super Hero Arc could run its story on Earth, as events of the Granloah Arc unfold off-world. If that's the case, it would help the manga and movies all finally converge on a point where the major characters can all reunite – during or after the events of the Super Hero Arc – when Goku and Vegeta finally come back to Earth.
That would be a great point from which to launch a whole new Dragon Ball Super anime series, or, possibly, a window into having Goku decide to move on as Earth's protector. After all, the Dragon Ball Z epilogue featured elements like Goku training his replacement (Uub) and Goten and Trunks stepping up as Earth's defenders – all of which are now being sewn into the Dragon Ball Super's most current sotrylines. The Super Hero Arc could be a key piece of setting up that "future" version of Earth we saw at the end of DBZ.
Everybody Back On The (Power) Level
If nothing else, Dragon Ball Super is already teasing some significant changes for Goten and Trunks in the Super Hero arc. Those two are the last of the major fighters from the Dragon Ball Z era that are due for a much-needed power upgrade and a new story premise, and if they indeed get it, then Dragon Ball Super will finally be (mostly) balanced out in its long-uneven power leveling.
It's been no secret that Dragon Ball Super gave all of its attention (and power) to Goku and Vegeta, leaving characters once thought to be future inheritors of the series (Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and Pan) on the sidelines. However, even while Dragon Ball Super's most recent manga arcs have had both Goku and Vegeta open new doors of power, the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie unlocked crazy new powers in both Gohan and Piccolo. If this "Super Hero" manga arc powers-up Goten and Trunks (as it's already teasing), then all of the key characters (Saiyan and Namekian) will be powered up to a level where they are all arguably on equal ground again, for the first time in long time. It would definitely be a nice change of pace.
Dragon Ball Super's "Super Hero" arc begins in December.