Dragon Ball Super: Goku is Taking Pages from Spider-Man in His Latest Fight

Goku’s latest fight has fans feeling some serious Spider-Man vibes. The Saiyan hero’s current battle is going down in Dragon Ball Super‘s latest arc, “Granolah The Survivor” where Goku and co. have come up against a ruthless new intergalactic crime family known as The Heeters. That family has its own secret weapon in the form of a diminutive little brother named Gas, who is actually a fearsome powerhouse (classic Dragon Ball). Thanks to a twisted Dragon Ball wish Gas is not the strongest warrior in the universe, and Goku has to pull out some Spider-Man moves just to hold his own! 

(WARNING: Dragon Ball Super Chapter 81 SPOILERS Follow!) 

In the latest chapter of the Dragon Ball Super manga, Gas is truly proving to be unbeatable in his new Super Saiyan-style form of transformation. Granolah ends up getting the most brutal end of things, as Gas stops toying with the last surviving Cerealian, breaking his arms, blinding him with laser blasts in both eyes, and letting Heeters leader Elec finish the job by shooting Granolah in the back, point-blank! 

Goku and Vegeta can’t do anything but watch helplessly, as they are still frozen by Gas’s strange new powers. However, Vegeta makes a self-sacrifice for Goku, giving his friend the last of his energy. Restored, Goku powers up to Super Saiyan Blue and goes in for another round against Gas!

However, if Granolah’s power as the (former) strongest in the universe wasn’t enough to defeat Gas, Goku’s SSB certainly isn’t, either. Gas uses his telekinetic abilities to literally hurl an entire small city’s worth of structures at Goku, which is where things go full Spider-Man. Goku has to make like the Wall-Crawler and leap between the huge incoming projectiles that Gas hurls at him. 

Dragon Ball Super gets even more specific in its seeming Marvel reference when Goku and Gas’s  fight takes on what seems like it could be an homage to director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 movie! 

As Goku hops the oncoming structures, he gets the unexpected surprise of Gas running an entire train through the air, which smashes into Goku and flattens him against the windshield. Reaching out to either side, Goku manages to flip up onto the train for a train-top battle with Gas – again, a scene which seems less like traditional Dragon Ball, and more like Spider-Man and Doc Ock’s train fight sequence in Spider-Man 2. 

While Marvel Comics references tend to be more at home in Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball Super mangaka Toyotaro is also a big Marvel fan himself. Do you think this was a purposeful homage or just a fun coincidence spotted by fans? 

Dragon Ball Super releases new manga chapters free online.