'Dragon Ball' Fan Art Gives Piccolo and Gohan a Perfect Comic Book Makeover

Dragon Ball fans love to see the close connections formed between the Dragon Fighters of Earth - and since the days of Dragon Ball Z the team has truly become a family affair. Both Goku and Vegeta have recruited their sons for epic battles (Gohan, Goten, Trunks), while former foes have become close friends (Vegeta, Piccolo) and there have even been some foes turned married couples (Krillin and No. 18, Vegeta and Bulma).

However, the most iconic relationship in Dragon Ball lore is probably the series best father/son relationship, between Piccolo and Gohan! Well, one fan has captured that Gohan / Piccolo bond in perfect comic book style - as you can see below:

Substitute Dad pic.twitter.com/U4j5jqTB4p

— Gerald Parel (@GeraldParel) January 3, 2019

The aesthetic scene here is a perfect mimicry of certain mordern comic book artists' style - or even the "living art" style of certain video games. If nothing else, it looks like something akin to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, in the sense of taking something like the Dragon Ball Xenoverse games, with comic book art layered over it.

Whatever your take on the inspirations, there's one thing that's clear; it's a pretty spectacular piece of artwork! The slight tweaks to both Piccolo and Gohan's designs are also pretty on point. Piccolo looks a lot tougher and more badass than he ever has (with a little Arabic flavor thrown in?), while Gohan's imitation of his mentor and trainer is also pretty cool-looking and badass.

There is one major problem with this artwork, however: as fans have pointed out, the caption of "Substitute Dad" is kind of dead wrong. There is an entire sub-genre of Dragon Ball fans art, memes, and discussion threads all dedicated to celebrating Gohan's "real" father being Piccolo, in every way that matters. Goku father skills have constantly been called into question, as he's often been too preoccupied with training, battling, or you know, being dead, to be a very involved and nurturing father to Gohan - or his littler brother Goten.

Meanwhile, Piccolo has been there for Gohan at some of the key moments in Gohan's life - be it the showdown with Cell, the fight against Majin Buu, or most recently training for the Tournament of Power. In that latter case, the Dragon Ball Super showed much more love for Piccolo's role in Gohan's life, by having Gohan fight in the ToP wearing Piccolo's colors - as opposed to the anime, which had Gohan robed in Goku's iconic orange.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is now in theaters in Japan. Funimation will be bringing the film to theaters in the United States on January 16th. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.