Dragon Ball Super has given Trunks a brand new nemesis in the latest manga chapter “A Rival Appears!” – and surprise, surprise, it’s an evil android!
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The new Dragon Ball Super arc “Super Hero” acts as a long-form storyline for the recent Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, better explaining how Dr. Hedo and the Red Ribbon Army developed a powerful new generation of androids. The first chapter of the new story arc revealed that Trunks and Goten have taken on the superhero personas of The Great Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 (respectively). The pair of would-be heroes got sucked into a case of investigating sabotage to Capsule Corp. tech – a scheme, it turned out, was being perpetrated by Dr. Hedo’s zombie androids!
Well, after Hedo’s Alpha wave of creepy androids get dealt with, the good doctor decides to send in a second wave of android, with a bit more finesse. Enter the humanoid android, “Beta 1.”
Using a ridiculous alias (“Beyta”) Beta 1 is sent undercover as a new student at Trunks and Goten’s high school. Hedo’s analysis of the superhero raid points him to the local high school and its students; Beta is sent in as a good-looking charmer, who secretly observes the students for Hedo. It doesn’t take the evildoers long to discern that Trunks is most likely the culprit, and sneaky Beta 1 begins forcing situations to see if Trunks will expose his superhuman abilities in public. The hijinks continue all throughout the school day until Goten mistakenly gives a hint of his own Saiyan strength, making Beta think he is the real threat.
The climax of the school day sees Beta 1 going full evil android (mech suit and all) and battling both Trunks and Goten in their respective hero personas, leaving the villains confused about how is truly behind the mask. However, Beta 1 isn’t quite done yet: he limps back to Hedo having been thwarted in this first attempt, but Hedo pledges to build new androids that will be every bit as good as superheroes in the public eye…
There has been some question about whether or not Dragon Ball Super is getting too comedic in this latest arc. That debate aside, the Super Hero arc is definitely presenting a very different version of Trunks than we now from Dragon Ball Z days; it remains to be seen if Beta 1 is going to evolve into Trunks and Goten’s “rival” as the chapter title implies – or if he’s just a funny one-off as we work our way down the line to Hedo’s eventual “gamma” line of androids…
Dragon Ball Super’s new “Super Hero” arc is free to read online.
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