'Dragon Ball Super' Gives Jiren a True Batman Origin Story

The latest Dragon Ball Super episode finally revealed the backstory of Universe Pride Trooper Jiren, and it seems as though the fanbase wasn't all that impressed with it. However, Jiren's (somewhat generic) origin story does comes with big echoes of one of the most famous superhero origin stories around: Batman.

As we learned, Jiren was a happy, young, beanie-wearing alien kid, hanging out on his home planet, until tragedy changed him forever. Jiren came home one day to find an "evil-doer" had slaughtered his parents and entire village, and he was powerless to stop it.

Like Bruce Wayne, Jiren's life immediately got re-dedicated to obtaining strength in order to stop evil. He was taken in by a master and trained, eventually gaining the strength to face his family's murderer. It didn't work out, and now Jiren has become one of the strongest fighters in the universe, but still can't bring justice to his murdered family.

All of this reframes Jiren in a very Batman-ish light, no? Like the Dark Knight, Jiren has tried to recruit others to his unyielding cause of justice, and has reluctantly joined teams like The Pride Troopers, only to ultimately find himself back in the same place: an obsessive loner driven by a dark and often violent need to punish evil - the entire reasoning behind his Super Dragon Balls wish.

That association only makes Jiren cooler, in our humble opinion. The Pride Trooper has a growing fanbase thanks to his debut in the Tournament of Power, with some theorizing he could become a major main focus of the next Dragon Ball series. Giving Dragon Ball a proper Batman to Goku's Superman would be a fun balance - especially when you add Vegeta to that mix. It would be a wonderful "odd-trio" to watch.

Dragon Ball Super's "Universal Survival" arc is part of the recent simulcast agreement that sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation have scored. Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CST. Adult Swim airs the English dub during its Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m, and is now available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video.