And so it begins. Where the RRA saga was a tone changer in Dragon Ball, with more serious and deadly antagonists (even if Goku was able to tear through them with ease for the most part), it remained an adventure story. To me, this saga marks more of a genre shift, into more of a proper superhero story. Characters actively seeking out injustice/a threat, coming together to form more of a team, and the larger world starting to take notice.
This is largely because some of his spells are similar if not the same, but Sivana really reminds me of Babidi now that he’s got magic. Tiny little guy, huge ego and ambitions, and a menagerie of minions. With Mind of Piccolo pulling double duty as both Dabura (intelligence, loyalty, being more level-headed) and Buu (ancient evil, sealed away, goal of the evil wizard to unleash). In part from the overlaps of the latter two and Demon King Piccolo anyways. And it’s the start of their partnership. Piccolo does quite a bit to feed Sivana’s ego, with Sivana happily going out of his way to repay him with kindness beyond what is necessary for their mutual goals. If not for the tags and later content, I’d probably think Piccolo’s playing him. If there is to be a later betrayal, you’ve definitely made this bond seem genuine. But then, make way for the new supervillains.
As someone whose main exposure to the character was the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon, I’m definitely not used to Slade/Deathstroke being such a non-threat. Faintly amusing. Still, he was definitely more challenging than Silver had been.
It’s a really strong characterization moment to have Clark, well aware of how powerful a cyclone is due to experience, go from fleeing and trying to find shelter to immediately dropping everything to save the soldiers who had just tried to kill him. And it pays off, with at least one of the soldiers he saved feeding him. Followed by Red Tornado getting a fussy caring mother moment, which was very funny. Red Tornado, our first Red Ribbon Android of many. I really enjoyed them overall, they added a significant level of threat to each Red Ribbon arc and a sense of progression as each Android was capsulized, in addition to the Dragon Ball hunt. I also liked that they added enough opponents to the RRA’s roster so that everyone could contribute. Instead of, like in Dragon Ball, Goku doing almost all of it on his own. Once again, much like Kon, both people to be saved and stopped.
For Red Tornado specifically, (s)he definitely made a strong impression. The sheer scale of her power was incredible, setting the bar for the Androids as a whole with Clark pulling out his biggest Kamehameha and it still not being enough. The tragedy of her situation. The great efforts made to save her at great personal risk, with failures leading to a triumphant success. And, while it’s not clear how much of that was ‘Red Tornado’ vs. Abbigail, the contrast of a more lethal hero vs. all of Clark’s efforts to keep the RRA soldiers alive. While I’m unfamiliar with the comics and All-Star Squad in general, if she fought in WW2, it would take little to convince me that she has killed before.
Comment on Dragon Ball: Superman - The Red Ribbon Saga
UltimateBlackAce on Chapter 14 Mon 02 Oct 2023 04:11PM UTC
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