Why Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’s Villain is a Huge Disappointment

Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 have taken the lion’s share of attention when it comes to Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, but a massive villain waited in the wings to surprise anime fans entering theaters. The return of the Red Ribbon Army started plenty of debate amongst the fan community, but it seems as though the ultimate antagonist of the number one movie in North America today is unable to live up to the high expectations that were set on the character’s comeback.

Cell Max was unveiled as the major “big bad” of the movie but simply cannot live up to the original version of the character. Instead of making a comeback in a form similar to his “Perfect” self, this new iteration of the genetic experiment created by Dr. Gero is a mindless, rampaging kaiju that seeks to eradicate anything in its path without uttering a single word. Cell’s character in Dragon Ball Z might not have taken home any awards for being well developed but there was a charm to the union of the Z-Fighters’ DNA. As a villain, Cell almost had a personality to match his biological structure, looking to fight powerful opponents like Goku, but also harboring no problem with wiping the Planet Earth from the galaxy ala Frieza. There is a familiar villain from Dragon Ball Z history that Cell Max has quite a few similarities with at the end of the day and it certainly isn’t the creature’s namesake.

Bio-Broly was the villain of one of the most notorious Dragon Ball Z movies of all time, the eleventh film of the series that also ran with the name of the clone of the legendary Super Saiyan. Much like Cell Max, this off-shoot of Broly didn’t have much to say and his design was much worse than that of the original villain. Time will tell which is more reviled by the anime community, but we’re definitely torn at this point. Dragon Ball movies only have so much run time to deliver a story that introduces multiple new characters while also bringing new transformations into the mix, but imagine how much harder this new version of Cell would have hit if he remembered his past with Gohan and Piccolo and took the opportunity to drop some stinging commentary during their battle. 

On top of everything that’s wrong with Cell Max, another major one is his design. It really comes down to personal preference but this new iteration of Cell loses something by having him patterned after Cell’s second form, with a splash of red given to him and making the antagonist the size of Godzilla. Ultimately, it just doesn’t feel like Cell, which is perhaps the biggest sin, as fans have been waiting for the antagonist to make a comeback in a similar vein as Frieza and Majin Buu, the two other major villains of Dragon Ball Z. In the final moments of the battle, when Gohan transforms into his new Beast form and lets loose with a “Special Beam Cannon” of his own, this pivotal attack really loses something thanks entirely to Cell Max being an obstacle rather than a character and his somewhat goofy design. 

Will the original Cell ever make a comeback? There’s always a chance, of course, Dragon Ball after all is a series where death is basically a “state of mind” at this point, though we are crossing our fingers that Cell Max was a “one and done” affair.

What did you think of Cell Max? Do you think we’ll ever see the original version of the Dragon Ball Z villain? 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 Super Hero.