Is Dragon Ball Super's New Super Hero Story Arc Ruining Trunks?
Is Dragon Ball Super's new "Super Hero" story arc ruining the character of Trunks as we know him? If you haven't been following events in the Dragon Ball franchise recently, the new manga arc is serving as a prequel to the recent Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie that was released in theaters last year. Part of that story is providing expanded context about what was happening on Earth, while Goku and Vegeta were away fighting the epic battles of the last few manga arcs. And, as it turns out, Trunks and his buddy Goten were quite busy, indeed!
The first chapter of Dragon Ball Super's new Super Hero arc details how Trunks and Goten are spending their teenage years, balancing between the demands of school and teen angst, and their moonlight quest as costumed superheroes, keeping the city safe in their fathers' absence. Trunks, in particular, has been shown to be living a Peter Parker/Spider-Man kind of life, with his hero activities doing everything from getting him in trouble at school for tardiness, to costing him a date with the girl he really wants to take out. Needless to say, it's a very different side of Trunks than we've seen before – but is it a good new dimension of the character?
Trunks really became a breakout hit icon of the Dragon Ball series in Dragon Ball Z, which introduced us to Future Trunks, a young adult version of Vegeta's son, who grew up in the dark future overrun by Dr. Gero's androids. Future Trunks was a badass, sword-toting warrior from a dystopian future, where he was trianed and hardened by a Future version of Gohan. That Future Trunks character made a return in Dragon Ball Super (albeit slightly different), hailing from yet another dark alternate future, overrun by rogue Kai, Zamasu. Either way, Dragon Ball fans have come to know and love Future Trunks as THE definitive Trunks. The child version of Trunks was always a cute aside, but never anything close to the Future Trunks character.
Now, Dragon Ball Super's new "Super Hero" arc is re-defining Trunks entirely, making far less an echo of Vegeta, and more like Gohan, with his Great Siayaman super hero persona and work/life/fighting balance issues.
Is Dragon Ball Super Ruining Trunks?
In a recent interview, even Dragon Ball Super's mangaka, Toyotarou, admitted that he would never have thought of Trunks as a teenage character running around in a super hero costume, as that was not the impression of Trunks he had from Dragon Ball Z. It was actually Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama who insisted on Trunks getting this new elment of his character explored.
On the one hand, it should be akin to law to trust in Toriyama wherever Dragon Ball is concerned. On the other hand, Dragon Ball Super hasn't been without its fair share of criticism for not handling the larger ensemble of Dragon Ball Z character arcs as well as it has focused on Goku and Vegeta. That leaves plenty of room for doubt that this Super Hero manga arc centered on Trunks will revolutionize the character – especially since Trunks and Goten didn't play that much of a significant role in the Super Hero movie. Dragon Ball is sometimes weighted down by its own powerful iconography – and Future Trunks is a prime example of why.
Dragon Ball Super's new manga arc is free online to read.