New Dragon Ball Super Cover Art Pairs Goku with Bardock For a Fight

The Granolah Arc came to an end with the surprise return of Frieza, and while Black Frieza might be the talk of the town, Dragon Ball Super’s latest storyline featured a flashback to the early days of Bardock while still employed to the tyrannical despot. While Bardock did not return from the grave or reveal that he had accessed Ultra Instinct, Shonen Jump took the opportunity to highlight the father and son pair with new cover art seeing them fight side-by-side.

Bardock has been an interesting character in the history of Dragon Ball, first appearing during a unique Dragon Ball Z movie in which his final moments were chronicled before the destruction of Planet Vegeta and before Goku was sent to Earth. Depending on whether or not you consider it canon, Bardock’s story didn’t end here in Dragon Ball Z, as a special episode was created in which it was revealed that Goku’s father didn’t die as a result of Frieza’s energy ball but was instead sent spiraling into the past. Encountering Frieza’s ancestor on an alien world, Bardock would eventually become a Super Saiyan himself though this arc hasn’t been mentioned in the franchise following its conclusion. 

The upcoming October cover for V-Jump, a magazine tied to Shuiesha, revealed the side-by-side art of Goku and Bardock, seeing father and son Saiyans teaming up, which is an event that has never taken place in the likes of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and/or Dragon Ball Super:

Following the death of Gas and Elec at the hands of Frieza, the Granolah Arc came to a close, and while a new arc is currently being worked on, the return date for Dragon Ball Super has yet to be confirmed at this point. With Frieza’s new transformation, along with the new transformations introduced to both Gohan and Piccolo in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, there is plenty of territory for a new arc to cover when the series returns. 

With two full manga arcs yet to be adapted to the anime, Dragon Ball Super’s television series certainly has plenty of territories to cover whenever it should return.

Do you think we’ll one day see a canon team-up between Goku and Bardock take place at some point in Dragon Ball’s future? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Z-Fighters.