Dragon Ball Super’s Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc has continued with Chapter 53 of the series and the scope of the battle has changed. Now that New Namek’s destruction has handed Goku and Vegeta such a heavy loss that they have ventured to different points in the universe to train in their own ways, planet Earth has been left relatively defenseless as Planet Eater Moro and the escaped Galactic Patrol prisoners continue their search for planets with powerful ki. But as fans know well enough by now, Earth still has a fighting chance.
Although they were caught by surprise and woefully unprepared, the series is teasing not only a major fight with all of Earth’s defenders, but more specifically teasing a major comeback for Gohan fans have been wanting ever since Super began.
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Chapter 53 of the series sees three of Moro’s prisoner scouts come to Earth and manage to take the Z Fighters by surprise. Krillin and Piccolo were waiting for Gohan to arrive, but Moro’s fighters arrive before then. They’re much more powerful than they initially seem as both Piccolo and Krillin struggle to do any decisive damage to the powerful prisoners. It turns out Merus was the only one able to capture them the first time, and he’s not around.
But both Piccolo and Krillin have a lot of confidence in Gohan, and this confidence is rewarded when Piccolo is saved from a fatal blast by him. Piccolo even says that with Goku and Vegeta gone, Gohan is the strongest fighter left on Earth and now he’s going to have to prove himself. Fans have been hoping Gohan would have an opportunity to gain the same level of power of Goku and Vegeta, and hopefully the next chapter will do just that.
Gohan did manage to impress with his performance in the Tournament of Power, and he was much more of a capable fighter in the manga version of the events than in the anime. While he never quite got a notable enough victory in the anime before his elimination, the manga release gave Gohan a pretty significant moment in which he declared he was going to strengthen his powers as a human rather than rely on his Saiyan heritage. This might have earned him the designation of the third strongest on Earth, but the real challenge is to come.
Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings, and 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 and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super’s big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
