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Art by BK-81 and DBZ Warrior

"We will reenact legendary encounters!"
Goku

Dragon Ball Multiverse is a Fan Sequel Web Comic set ten years after Dragon Ball Z (ignoring Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super). Goku, Vegeta and their children are contacted by the Vargas, a race who discovered a way to travel through Alternate Universes and want to hold a tournament reuniting the strongest fighters of The Multiverse. The heroes, always looking for new challengers, naturally accept. The main appeal of the comic is the potential for Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and What If? stories.

Originally available in both French and English, but now it can be read in 35 different languages, most up to date. It used to be updated 3 times a week (Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday), but due to the creators recently becoming overwhelmed by the amount of work to do, it's been reduced to twice a week (Wednesday and Sunday). The website can be found here, but the story starts here.

The many universes are numbered from 1 to 20, being called 'Universe 1' and so forth (our heroes come from Universe 18). For the sake of simplicity, it will be sometimes shortened to U[Number] (like "U16") and similar characters will be called U[Number] [Character name] (like "U13 Vegeta")

Dragon Ball Multiverse also had several spinoffs released:

  • Namekseijin Densetsu explores the past of the Nameless Namekian. It was released on May 15, 2021.
  • Chibi Son Bra Does Her Best! stars Son Bra of Universe 16 and features the rest of the characters in a Super-Deformed style while featuring a more comical take on the tournament's story. It was released on January 31, 2022.
  • 321Y: The story takes place 321 years after the events of Dragon Ball and tells the story of a young boy named Tambo who goes on a quest for the titular orbs so he can find his Missing Mom. It was released on September 6, 2022.
  • Bardock Tales Kai explores Bardock's life as a Saiyan in Frieza's army while incorporating aspects from various stories featuring him. It was released on November 21, 2022. The story is complete as of January 29, 2024.
  • Dragon Ball Blancoverse: A fan comic starring Gohan taking place shortly after the events of the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. It was released on March 20, 2023.
  • Dragon Ball Multiverse Colors: The main comic rereleased in full color with new pages expanding on the story. It was released on May 30, 2023.
  • Super Dragon Bros. Z: A parody of Dragon Ball starring Mario and his friends. It was released on January 8, 2024.


Dragon Ball Multiverse provides examples of:

  • Absurdly Sharp Blade:
    • Tidar's (from U19) God Blade which he used to effortlessly cut Uub's arm and the whole arena in a single swing. And that one pales in comparison with the Ultra armor used by his comrade Xeniloum.
    • Special mention should go to the Krillin vs. Salza battle, which seems set up answer the question of which ki-blade is sharper: Kienzan or the Salza Blade.
  • Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Retroactively became a case of this. Multiverse began long before new Dragon Ball content would enter production, so many of the explanations for certain plot points never had a chance of matching up to canon.
  • Action Mom: Goku's mother, Hanasia, one of the Saiyan Elite, is this in spades. If Bardock wasn't awesome enough, it's really easy to see where Goku gets his power from when you see Hanasia on the battlefield.
  • Actually a Doombot: Pretty much any time something really bad happens to a Buu, there are more fragments of it lying about.
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • Downplayed with the Saiyans as a species. According to supplemental material from Akira toriyama, the average Saiyan was weaker than Raditz. In this continuity, Raditz is considered a below average loser, so the Average Saiyan in the multiverse is stronger than Raditz.
    • Super Saiyan 2 plays this straight as it has a 500x multiplier from base form (Databooks originally said it's 100x), but Super Saiyan 3 zig zags this. On one hand, Word of God eventually retconned it to have a 5000x multiplier from base form, which's much higher than the original manga's 400x (Though that was mentioned only in databooks, never in the manga itself). On the other hand, its power drain is ridiculously exaggerated, to the point that the stronger a character is, the less time it remains active (Vegetto can only maintain it active for a few seconds and Gotenks defuses surprisingly quickly when using it), something that was never implied to have been the case in the original manga, and if anything it contradicts it since Gotenks could keep SS3 active for longer than Goku in Buu saga. Much like the example above, this increases the average power level, as every SS2 and SS3 level character from the original manga is now much stronger so they can still be at around the same level.
    • Buu in general has two perks the original manga lacked, the first one is the ability to keep the memories of people they absorb, in the manga, Super Buu only has access to Fat Buu's memories, as he remembers fighting other characters as Fat Buu, but fails to recognize Dende and his healing abilities despite absorbing Gotenks and Piccolo. The second one is the ability to divide himself into many small Buus that are just as strong as him. The closest thing to an ability like this in Buu saga is Fat Buu creating a bunch of mini Buus after Vegeta's self destruct, but they immediately reform into a singular Buu. Not even the more pragmatic Super Buu ever divided himself in such ways and if anything, he's shown to manually control his separated body parts. While this could be said to be an ability he learned later, U4 Buu is capable of doing it despite never seeing Zen Buu use it.
    • "Vegetto's technique that can kill Buu" is far deadlier in DBM, with Zen Buu himself eventually saying it's disintegrative energy, and it's strong enough that Super Saiyan 2 Bra used it and accidentally hit Gohan and a weakened Vegetto, it seriously hurt both of them. In the original manga that technique was just a simple kiai.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Oozaru form, went from having a 10x multiplier in the original manga, to 2x in DBM.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The novelization is this, with more detailed conversations, longer fights, more explanations, more events and even a side tournament. In a few cases the comic can feel like a Compressed Adaptation even though it's the original one because some lines of dialogue are cut for pacing while the novelization has full dialogue. Essentially the novelization is very much like the anime adaptation of the original DB manga with what they add plot holes created by change of plans included. For a specific example of the expanded dialogue:
    From the comic:
    From the novelization:
    “What!? That’s not possible!” Babidi exclaimed, frightened. “And you just sat back and watched?”

    “Buu attacked, but even he couldn’t defeat the Saiyan. We only have a minute to prepare, and we don’t have the power to fight him off. But, you might be able to trap him somewhere and get rid of him for good. That would make one less strong opponent for us to deal with.”
    • The Full Color release promises to add new pages which will expand on the comic's story.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The novelization vastly expands the events and characterizations. While it's supervised by Salagir so that nothing contradicts the manga, when DBM is such a Long Runner, it's inevitable that later events end up contradicting what was expanded much earlier in the novelization:
    • In Chapter 11 of the novelization, Bojack is willing to forgive Bujin's defeat because he "did not want to repeat the same mistake he did by killing Bido for his incompetence", which implies Bido was killed by Bojack's own hands in some sort of You Have Failed Me moment. Chapter 18 of the manga reveals that Bido was killed by Vegeta's Final Flash, and Bojack only "killed" Bido by inaction due to not warning him of the danger.
    • In Chapter 32 of the novelization, Kat is stressed after her previous defeat and wants to go back to U6 immediately, with the other girls agreeing to do it when the first round ends if they're all disqualified by then. Chapter 85 of the manga reveals that the only reason why they're there is because Mai needs to stay more than 30 hours near Bojack to weaken him, which would have been impossible if they all left early. Mai's spell isn't brought up when Kat asks for leaving.
    • In Chapter 42 of the novelization, Broly's internal monologue mentions him having personally killed Goku in U20. Chapter 81 of the manga reveals that Broly never killed Goku directly, since Goku was absorbed by Buu before Broly had a chance to kill him.
    • In Chapter 110 of the novelization, Bardock's internal monologue after his fight with U8 Cold says that the Saiyans wouldn't have been able to defeat U3 Cold, had the latter shown the same power as U8 Cold. This implies that the U3 Saiyans had a fight against U3 Cold, similar to the one against U3 Frieza, where the Saiyans only gained the upper hand because Cold used a reduced form. Chapter 64 of the manga reveals that both Cold and Coola were killed by Legendary Super Saiyan Broly. Considering how powerful the Legendary Super Saiyan transformation is in DBM, it's doubtful U3 Cold would have stood a chance against Broly even if he had transformed into his final form.
    • Probably the worst example. In Chapter 127 of the novelization, after the battle between U13 Kakarotto and U18 Vegeta where the former gets badly beaten, Raditz says Kakarotto's wounds are enough to kill him in a few hours unless he gets healed. He's also worried about Vegeta killing both Raditz and Kakarotto after the tournament in a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness moment. Chapter 74 of the manga reveals that Kakarotto is immortal, and the other U13 Saiyans know it. Raditz may not like seeing Kakarotto agonizing from his wounds, but he shouldn't be worried about him actually dying from them. And it's obvious Vegeta already wanted to kill Kakarotto before the tournament; he hasn't done so because he outright can't, and nothing has changed in that regard. Before chapter 74, this particular section of the novelization was often brought up in discussions about Kakarotto's immortality by opponents of the theory.
    • However, it's also averted at one point in the most unexpected possible way. In the novelization, Buu's attempt to take control of the tournament after Vegetto's defeat is vastly expanded, and he has time to force U16 Gohan and Cell to fight before Gast Carcolh subdues him. During said fight, Cell hatches four more Cell Jrs against Gohan, only for Gohan to kill them immediately (so as not to interfere with later events as shown in the manga). One would expect a plot hole to appear when the Dragon Balls are used after the second round to revive all deceased: since the second Cell Jr secretly killed by Cell is also revived, the novelization has no other choice but to revive the four novelization-exclusive Cell Jrs as well. However, those four extra Cell Jrs eventually don't end up causing problems, since manga Majin Cell hatches more Cell Jrs to bolster Babidi's forces during the Majin rebellion. The novelization easily gets rid of the potential problem by claiming the new Cell Jrs were those already existing four.
  • Adapted Out: While this fancomic adapts many of the villains from the non-canon movies, is quite noticeable the creators ignore characters from the first three movies (Garlic Jr., Dr. Wheelo, and Turles, who is noticeably absent in the alternate universes where the Saiyans are alive). From the comical universe with joke characters from non-Dragon Ball series, Kuriza, the son of Frieza is not adapted but Neko Majin is.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: The first Cell Jr.'s death by his own father's hands. Especially after he had a Hope Spot of becoming more powerful.
  • All Animals Are Dogs: Or cats, in this case. It's revealed in the novelization that the Vargas enjoy being scratched and will start purring.
  • All There in the Manual: The official novelization and official fanfictions telling the story of U12, 14, and 16 reveals bits of information unavailable in the main comic. Presumably the most important of them will be revealed later in the main comic or in the specials.
  • Alternate Continuity: The main Dragon Ball protagonists come from one where the author combines many of the movies with certain twists in order to fit. However, the comic has rarely touched upon some of the more interesting stories, presumably out of suspense. One arguable point is that the author has complaints about things that didn't make sense in the original story. Now, despite having alternate universes be the ultimate fan fiction tool, Universe 3 is strange. In this universe, Bardock gets his psychic powers in a different method and leads a successful rebellion against Frieza.
  • Alternate Universe: In total there are 20 competing in the tournament, each going down a different path in DBZ history (Goku becoming evil, the Namekians fusing to form a Super-Namekian, etc).
  • Alternate Universe Fic: Even before many of the fancomic ideas were shown to be outdated by modern Dragon Ball, there is the fact Multiverse relies on the Non-Serial Movie antagonists and rewrites them to fit the manga timeline, making the whole webcomic into a giant Alternate Universe.
  • Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Some more than others, as shown in the character page. Of special mention, Pan and U9 Yamcha.
  • Anti-Climax: Vegito vs XXI was one of the most hyped up matches in the tournament. Not even 5 seconds in, XXI teleports Vegito to a place where time flows faster. By the time he breaks out, the match had been over for 2 hours, thus eliminating one of the most powerful characters in the tournament in just 4 pages.
  • Applied Phlebotinum:
    • The fighters from U19 use "nano technology" and "chemicals" to fight to compensate for their lack of energy attacks.
    • So what exactly did the Vargas use to create shields that can withstand nuclear-like blasts and rooms that can shield spiritual energy?
  • Art Shift:
    • The Specials are done by different artists, with different styles each.
    • There was an obvious shift in art as Gogeta left the project.
  • The Assimilator: Zen Buu attempts this with Broly, but is thwarted by the efforts of U16 Vegetto, Gohan, Bra, and the Namek that pushed the button to send him back because he didn't think leaving Broly in their universe was a good idea. Later played straight with Xeniloum's armor, and he says he did that in his universe with one of the musicians at the Figrindan orchestra.
  • Author Avatar: Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball appears in the strip as a fighter only to quit when he realizes that the fighter he is up against is not his creation. While leaving, he meets the Author Avatars of the creators of Dragon Ball Multiverse who ask him for his autograph, which he gives them, in Japanese.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: U8 King Cold, who is inexplicably far more powerful than Cold as depicted in the original manga, is the strongest fighter in his universe.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: While Super Saiyan 3 suffered this in the original, Multiverse makes it worse by having it drain the user's ki and stamina faster the stronger they are. Meaning that someone like Vegito can't even use the form for a minute before he reverts back into his base form. The failure to take this drawback into account is what leads to U13 Vegeta's death against Raichi.
  • Ax-Crazy: U13 Kakarotto. Come on, just look at his face. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Seriously, holy shit.
  • Back from the Dead: Everyone that died since the tournament started was wished back to life by a set of Dragon Balls after the second round ended.
  • Badass Boast:
    • Broly gets exactly one line that isn't incoherent screaming, when powering up.
    "I AM THE LEGENDARY WARRIOR!"
    • King Cold too, when fighting Bardock.
    "You think I'm afraid of an opponent who can see the future... my opponents have no future!"
    • U19 Helior warriors boast that their weapons would be able to take down Broly. Everyone scoffs at that, but an U3 special reveals that carbonite CAN kill Broly.
  • Badass Bystander: When Babidi makes his move to take over the tournament, audience members all over the arena decide to team up and fight back against Babidi's Majinized spectators instead of letting themselves get taken hostage, jumping on them en masse and dogpiling them.
  • Bad Boss: Frieza. Just see how and why he kills Burter.
    • Bojack too. This version keeps the idea that he randomly kills or lets his men die and doesn't care if they die. After only him and Bujin are alive, Bojack gets drunk and acts all chummy, reminiscing on how big their group used to be. "20? 30?". Bujin has to tell him it was 27 with Bojack still not remembering if that was the case. Bujin also thinks that Bojack will just kill their friends who died at the tournament again if they are revived.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: The villains taking part in the tournament are all from universes where they won.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space:
    • Subverted by Vegetto, Bra, and Gohan, who have to hold their breaths and use their ki to protect themselves from the vacuum of space. Played straight by Majin Buu.
    • Completely averted by Krillin in the Cell special, who suffocates. Gross.
  • Battle Aura: Most characters have one when they power up. This is DBZ after all.
  • Beam-O-War: One appears during the Trunks vs Vegeta fight, as a reference to the one between Goku and Vegeta at the start of Dragon Ball Z.
  • Beam Spam: Comes with the territory. The Saiyans use this to overkill Frieza and Zarbon in Universe 3.
  • The Berserker: As one would expect from him Broly is more monster then man but U16 Bra also becomes this whenever she goes SSJ2 at least until she gets Majinized.
  • Best of All Possible Worlds: The majority of universes featured in the comic are far worse off than the "main" U18, featuring a devastated Earth, a Villain World, and/or large portions of the cast dead. For some idea: the only universes where Goku is alive are U18, U13 (and he's evil there), and likely U7. Even some what-if changes that seem like they might have been good in the moment (for instance, Krillin killing Vegeta at the end of the Saiyan Saga, or the Android Saga being resolved peacefully without Cell's presence) ultimately came to bad outcomes.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: Overall, the comic is perfectly readable, but it is very obvious that the authors aren't native English speakers.
    • Chapter 27, for some reason, had unexpectedly some moments of this, such as calling the scouters "detectors", but it reached its top in page 593, where Yamcha's line "Enough, Tenshinhan, stopped!" could be found. It has since been corrected, although you can look how it was here.
    • To some extent, averted in the Latin American translation. It's been stated by the most regular translator that, if they aren't sure about one translation, they talk all five to solve the issue, even if the issue is ONE word.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: The original manga had a scant few instances where the violence was horrifically graphic, often employing the Gory Discretion Shot instead. Multiverse is far more willing to show raw, in your face gore whenever something nasty happens to people.
  • Body Surf: It turns out U8 Ginyu body changed with King Cold after Frieza disposed of him. He later uses it on Bra and most of the Supreme Kais.
  • Boring, but Practical:
    • While Zen Buu is going to different rooms and giving the contestants new powers and strategies to make the matches more interesting, all he does for U11 Buu is explain the rules of the tournament to him so he doesn't do something stupid. This works when U18 Uub tries to get Buu disqualified in their match by tricking him into playing hide and seek.
    • What’s the new form that Goku and Vegeta appear to have obtained that lets them climb back to the top of their universes’s food chain? A variation of Gohan’s Mystic form that they can activate at will. The two of them having long realized that with SSJ3 the Super Saiyan transformations have started becoming too impractical to make stronger.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: After his Universe is defeated, Babidi plans out his revenge by brainwashing several of the fighters in the tournament. He also does this to the Vargas and the audience as well.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Chapter 42's name and cover both point towards featuring Piccolo Daimao as its main character, yet he doesn't appear until the eleventh page. Once he appears, he's quick to point it out:
    "It's about damn time. It was supposed to be my chapter after all!"
  • Break the Haughty:
    • Son Bra of Universe 16 is a Smug Super and a condescending, sometimes outright hypocritical Knight Templar with major temperament issues. After she defeats U8 King Cold in a fashion that, in official canon, is regarded as a very cheap way to win a fight (she snuck some senzu beans into her gloves and ate them to restore herself to full strength after being pummeled to near-death by King Cold) and gloating about how clever she was in using such an underhanded move, it comes to bite her in the ass when Captain Ginyu, who has been inhabiting Cold's body for who knows how long, body swaps with her and leaves her trapped in Cold's mutilated form while he gets to enjoy owning her young, naturally powerful Saiyan body.
    • She gets a second helping of it when she gets hit with the Majin spell, and nearly kills everyone, only to be broken out of it when her U18 self shoves it in her face how vain she is, in such a way she can't avoid facing the hard, cold truth. She then vows to become better, and stronger in spirit.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Dabura reappears many chapters after last being seen, having been healed by Majin Buu offscreen after offering him some candy, the same candy Majin Buu had conjured during the lunch break too.
    • Uub losing his arm to a U19 attack for a second time, and having to get healed by Buu again. "Coming~!"
  • Broad Strokes: The movies and specials are altered to fit in better into the timeframe of DBZ proper.
  • Butterfly of Doom: Many of the universes where the villains won are the result of a seemingly minor change in the timelines that snowballed into the heroes losing. This diagram can help with understanding all the changes.
    • Universes 1 and 10 had the Kaioshin eradicate every threat they found. Freeza being dead, the Saiyans never had a technology or power boost and never became space pirates. Additionally, the Vargas of Universe 1 are the only ones who discovered a way to travel to different universes.
    • Universe 3 diverged when Bardock acquired the power of prophetic visions, put them to good use and managed to take Freeza down, with Saiyans taking over the galaxy, Kakarot never being sent to Earth, and then Raichi taking revenge on the Saiyans. Piccolo Daimao also fused with Kami, with an evil Piccolo being the dominant personality, to weather the Saiyan attack upon Earth in year 752, as stated by a timeline comparison minicomic and confirmed by chapter 87. Interestingly, from Earth's point of view, U3 and U9 end up identical until this specific event, the Saiyan attack headed by Raditz.
    • Universe 4 diverged when Majin Buu opted to quickly absorb Vegeta when he threatened to remove Fat Buu from his cocoon rather than plead with him. Goku is then forced to fight on his own, where he is horribly outclassed; even his Hail-Mary of expending his full power to blow Buu up failed miserably and Buu simply absorbed him as well. Because of this, Buu comes to love the Earth and decides to devote his life to doing both good and evil, granting wishes both as a Benevolent Genie and as a Jerkass Genie, depending on his mood; and to acquire as much knowledge as he can, mastering the mystical arts.
    • Universe 5 diverged millions of years ago, as mentioned by a timeline comparison minicomic. We know nothing else about it, except that the Elder Kaioshin of U9 has a minor freakout upon hearing XXI's name.
    • Universe 6 diverged when the dead Goku did not warp back to Earth to save Gohan against Bojack and give him a pep talk.
    • Universe 7 diverged when all the Nameks, starting with Nail and Guru, decided to fuse into one being to take down Freeza, losing forever the ability to create Dragon Balls in the process, and to sire children.
    • Universe 8, where Freeza and his family won, came about because Krilin killed Vegeta on Earth before Goku could stop him. Since Vegeta doesn't show up on Namek, he's not around to provide an extra distraction to Freeza or his henchmen, which eventually culminates in Freeza killing everyone on Namek (except Goku and Nail, who remained alive long enough to destroy Freeza's capital).
    • Universe 9, diverged when Cooler and his men did act on the impulse of killing baby Goku after the destruction of planet Vegeta, which was hinted to since Cooler's special chapter stating that events around planet Vegeta's destruction went down differently in Universe 9. Also, in an early chapter, Krilin refers to the Frost demons as "Cooler's empire", which turns out to be because Freeza got shifted out of the picture, dying at Cooler's hands when acting uppity over the intrusion in his territory that killed baby Goku. This led to an universe where non-human heroes never came into being, leading the Earthlings to step up their game and face threats from outer space on their own.
    • Universe 10, where it should be noted only the East Kaioshin has appeared in the novelization (the only one alive in canon DBZ), is otherwise similar to Universe 1, the only difference being the Vargas' interuniversal travel.
    • Universe 11, where Babidi kept his control over Buu and defeated the heroes. It is now confirmed that U11 is the unseen timeline, the universe in which Trunks came back in the past to save Goku from his heart disease, but not deal with Cell (because Cell was killed by Trunks in the future). Without Cell, Kami decided there was no compelling reason to fuse back into one being. Fortunately, this resulted in the Android situation being defused peacefully at first, but this eventually snowballed into a situation with our heroes not being strong enough to face Babidi and his goons. It is further known that Babidi tried possessing Vegeta, but ended up with the same results as in canon.
    • Universe 12, where Trunks came back strong to the future and saved his world from the scourge of the androids and Cell.
    • Universe 13, where Kakarot never hit his head and thus never lost his Saiyan mentality. So, instead of him becoming the cheerful and kindhearted man in canon, he becomes a ruthless killer who is more than a little mentally unbalanced from a life of loneliness on Earth due to his brainwashing into killing all humans. It goes without saying that humanity isn't around in U13 anymore. Culminating in Kakarot becoming immortal thanks to the Dragonballs of Earth!
    • Universe 14 diverged when Trunks never came back to the future after his U17 counterpart got killed by Cell, thus ensuring the cyborgs could have free reign. The novelization shows Bulma finding Dr. Gero's underground lab, and the cyborgs kill Cell's embryo there, thus ensuring their survival.
    • Universe 15 is stated to be a "Future" universe (like U12 and U14) since Gohan fought Babidi and Dabura there. It is likely the timeline where Trunks got intel from the past but never found Cell's embryo, came back to the Future to deactivate the cyborgs, but got killed by Cell who stole his time-machine, thus creating an universe with no strong warriors left.
    • Universe 16 diverged when Vegito made the choice to not remove his shield aura effect when inside Buu, and remained fused forever, freeing everyone and destroying Kid Buu before he could destroy the Earth. Also, Enma did not listen to his request to reincarnate Buu into Oob, so in this universe there is no Buu.
    • Universe 17 diverged when Vegeta did not strike Cell in the back to distract him, allowing Cell to overpower SSJ2 Gohan.
    • Universe 19 diverged when Raditz killed Goku, Piccolo, and Gohan on Earth, according to the novelization. This led to Raditz, Nappa and Vegeta attacking Helior with reduced numbers, which means Helior probably weathered the assault, and stepped up their game.
    • Universe 20 diverged when Broly survived his second coming, after being thrown into space by the heroes, and did not burn in the Sun. It is further revealed that it otherwise started near identical to U18 with a victorious Goku and a reincarnated Buu as Uub, but the divergence took 12 years to manifest itself. Besides, it is also revealed in the U20 special chapter that they stumbled upon the variation where Broly had become so powerful he blew the whole galaxy before a good version of Zen Buu could teleport themselves to a black hole.
  • Butt-Monkey:
  • The Cameo: Too many to count, but we will try to list them all.
  • Canon Immigrant: Even though the authors are not fans of Dragon Ball GT, U18 Bra is clearly the non-fighting, typical teenager GT incarnation. She even wears the same outfit. Word on this is that one of the authors liked her character even though in their minds, she's from a bad series.
  • Cavalier Competitor: Most of the U2 participants seem to be this. They don't take their fights seriously, and when the last one of them is eventually defeated, they return to their universe, disgusted at how everyone seems to consider the tournament Serious Business.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Chapter 6. Prior to then, all fights either ended with knockouts or fairly minor deaths and there was quite a lot of humor. In Chapter 6, U6 Bojack kills U16 Pan by breaking her neck with his bare hands while she was in Super Saiyan form. The official novelization of the chapter's events has the U18 fighters fully realize they need to take these fights much more seriously afterwards.
  • Characterization Marches On:
    • It's been pointed out how U16 Bra was, for the first 300 pages, much different than the better-known version that would later be so negatively received.
    • During the fight between U3 Bardock and U8 Cold, the latter takes advantage of the former's distraction due to Vegetto's interruption to attack him. This is completely consistent with Cold's portrayal as a Combat Pragmatist during his short appearance in the original manga. However, this does not sit well with the later revelation that he's actually Ginyu in Cold's body, considering he was portrayed as a Noble Demon who got angry at Jeice for trying to help him against Goku because he considered it dishonorable - especially considering that he didn't even need it, as he's later shown to be able to beat Bardock in a fair fight. Either Ginyu was trying very hard to uphold his masquerade (something that the novelization, which shows his internal monologue, doesn't suggest at all), or Ginyu's identity hadn't been decided yet at that point.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • The Multiverse aspect, especially for changed or alternate versions of the established DBZ cast, allows for callbacks or pokes to aspects of the series. However, the movies have been rewritten to fit within DBZ history. Most notably, aspects like Bardock's visions and the Tuffles were rewritten or removed from some universes.
    • During his fight against U13 Vegeta, U3 Raichi summons a bunch of ghost Saiyans, among them a female Saiyan who claims to be Vegeta's cousin. This character was not made up for this fight, she had appeared much earlier, in a flashback in one of the specials.
  • Covers Always Lie:
    • The cover of Chapter 55 shows Gast surrounded by several of Raichi's ghosts. In the chapter itself, Gast and Raichi's fight only covers five pages — a fifth of the chapter. Instead, most of it is dedicated to Ginyu stealing U16 Bra's body and Vegito getting Ginyu to undo it. Not only that, but Gast never gets to fight any of the ghosts featured on that cover.
    • The cover for Chapter 86 would have you believe it focuses on the fight between XXI and Zen Buu. In actuality, it only lasts six pages.
  • Crazy Enough to Work:
    • U17 Cell rips off his own head to avoid U11 Dabura's stone spit.
    • Uub using ramen bowls to seal U11 Boo, hiding him from view just long enough to technically win the fight.
  • Cross Counter: Gotenks does this to AU Gotenks. Several times as it's played for Laughs.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: We get a lot of these. Given how strong the protagonists become - and the comic is set post-DBZ - this is to be expected.
    • Uub practically mocks a Tech-warrior during their match, promptly loses an arm and so reduces the guy to atoms.
    • U18 [read: Manga] Vegeta versus his Planet Vegeta native counterpart, who never left their home planet. Even turning into the Oozaru didn't help the poor guy.
    • U8 Cooler vs. U12 Future Trunks. Cooler takes his defeat hard. Part of this may have been Trunks saying that he wasn't worth killing.
    • Mary Sue vs. Arale. Textbook case?
    • Tenshinhan to Sun Wukong. See Mythology Gag for more.
    • U18 Goku vs U10 Mahissu and U13 Kakarot vs U6 Kat.
    • Bra vs Zangya.
    • Double Subverted when Gast faces Frieza, at first its more-or-less a curbstomp battle for Gast, because Gast stomps Frieza's first form, then loses to the second. When they fight again, Gast stomps every last one of Frieza's forms.
    • Universe 18 (main) Goku vs Android 17. One-Hit KO!
    • U17 Cell vs U6 Bojack. Bojack's only attack that even works is his Energy Bonds, for which Cell easily finds a counter (he can still use his eye beams), and kills him by breaking his spine.
    • When Zen Buu decides to take control of everything, and start giving everyone trouble (plus Vegito is nowhere to be found), Gast casually stands there, tells him to stop, and then uses his psychic powers to suck every little bit of Zen Buu into a ball, completely trapping him and leaving him virtually powerless.
    • Buu's rampage itself counts. With just a few gestures, pieces of him start devouring the whole stadium, effortlessly restraining everyone. Even Ultimate Gohan and Super Saiyan Bra of Universe 16 were helpless to resist. The only ones who do resist it are the inhabitants of Universe 18, due to everyone- Gohan, Goku, Uub, Vegeta, Trunks, Goten, Piccolo, and Pan- combining their power into a barrier. Even then, it was about to fail on them before Gast intervened.
    • Surprisingly, U8 King Cold vs U3 Bardock turns into this once King Cold uses 100% power.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Yamcha implies this is happening to #18. He also implies that it happened to himself at one point in time, but that he recovered.
  • Death is Cheap:
    • The Vargas race who run the tournament promise that any casualties will be revived by a random universes' Namekian Dragon Balls (the specification of using Namekian Dragon Balls implies that Earth doesn't have a set in every reality). Having the fighters unrestrained helps put on a good show. Doesn't stop the deaths of Tidar, U16 Pan, and Syd from causing misery to their teammates.
    • One panel shows how non-seriously the Vargas take death as a whole, likely because of this tendency; when the one who was killed by Broly is resurrected, he's immediately ordered to get back to work.
  • Death of a Child: In Chapter 9, when Bojack snaps U16 Pan's neck.
  • Detachment Combat:
    • U4 Majin Buu likes to form mini versions of himself and swarm his opponents.
    • U4 Buu also taught that trick to U11 Buu in order to avoid being blasted into oblivion by Uub's Super Kamehameha.
  • Determinator:
    • Dabura manages to survive a giant hole in his chest far longer than should be possible.
    • The same can be said of U13 Kakarot who survived a sucking puncture wound long enough to wake up and call for medical attention, when everyone fully expected him to be dead after U18 Vegeta was through with him. Turns out that U13 Kakarot is immortal and U13 Vegeta knew that and just wanted him to suffer since it's the best he can manage to do.
    • Nail. He was not willing to go down in his fight and persisted long after a lot of the competitors would have quit.
    • Just like in the anime, it took a lot for Recoome to go down, too. The man is a damage sponge.
  • Dissonant Serenity: After being thwarted in absorbing Broly, U4 Buu returns to the arena pissed off, and looks like he's about to kill Vegito, Bra, and Gohan (and probably would, considering how weakened they are) and then... calmly congratulates them, thanks them for a fun fight, wishes them luck, and walks back to his booth. It comes off as incredibly creepy and foreboding.
  • Drowning My Sorrows:
  • Earth Is the Centre of the Universe: It's so subtle that it can be missed, but it's there. When the Vargas arrive to Universe 18, the very first thing they do is checking Earth. The reason? It seems to be a magnet for the most powerful warriors across many different universes. Six different universes (3, 9, 12, 14, 16 and 18) had at least one of its members coming from Earth. More specifically, they search for any high power level, they're all in the same place and it's Earth, "again". Meaning that it's not the first time it happened. But this time they are different enough from previous versions they encountered to warrant a visit and an invitation to the tournament.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Case in point with XXI finally showing himself. Also an example of The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You.
  • Evil Counterpart: Kakarotto from U13 (the "Super Saiyan's Universe") is this for Son Goku. He attempted to unnerve Goten and Gohan with tales of how he murdered their friends, only to be shocked by the revelation that he's their father.
  • Eviler than Thou: The match between Raichi and U13 Vegeta has Raichi repeatedly try to mindgame Vegeta with the massacre of the Saiyans in his universe, only to be stunned when Vegeta not only doesn't care, but enjoys the chance to slaughter them all as Raichi's ghosts.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Some of the matches have the villains from different universes facing off against each other.
  • Excuse Plot: Essentially the tournament is just a place where What If? fights can take place, which's why one shouldn't think too hard about why about half of the universes with so many villains are allowed to participate, specially when U1's Kaioshins are the tournament's hosts, and there's two Majin Buus participating, and Namekians from a bunch of universes are there to offer their dragon balls to be used, and they're okay with the possibility of Frost Demons getting their wish. It took until page 1988 for any explanation at all to be given for why Kaioshins allowed so many villains, and that's 14 years after the webcomic started (And still doesn't explain why Zen Buu was allowed to participate even before talking with Grand Kaioshin telepathically).
  • Explosive Decompression:
    • Unfortunately invoked during Chapter 16. After killing the rest of the Z-Fighters, Cell nabs Krillin and drags him into outer space. Once there, Krillin's brain and lungs explode almost immediately.
    • Averted most of the time, though it does not go in Batman Can Breathe in Space territory. Vegetto, U16 Bra, U16 Gohan battle in space for long periods of time with no more inconvenience than the inability to breathe. Heck, Vegetto even goes to SULK a few light-years away from the ring in space to cool down his head, only to remember he NEEDS to breathe. And let's not even get into Broly pulling interplanetary travel without breathing.
  • Face Palm: Cell when his fight-happy Cell Jr risks disqualification after punching his opponent without touching the ring.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Invoked DBM ignores the events of Dragon Ball GT and several of the Dragon Ball Z movies (specifically, the first four, the sixth and seventh, and the eleventh, while the fifth, eighth, and tenth happened somewhat differently to slot them into canon). Since it was created long before Jaco the Galactic Patrolman and Dragon Ball Super it also ignores the events of those series.
  • Fan Remake:
    • Two of the specials are a remake of the two movies Broly appeared, so it can fit in the chronology.
    • The first of the two chapters about U3 can be seen as this too (in this case, a remake of the Bardock TV special).
    • The Cooler special is one to Cooler's Revenge.
  • Fantastic Aesop: If, by any chance, you have a child who is capable of planetary destruction, goes uncontrollably berserk when at max power, and has several killing sprees to their name, it is morally wrong for you to try and protect the universe by killing them preemptively.
  • Fantastic Racism: The Vargas don't seem to have a very high opinion of humans. In particular, they think all humans look the same.
  • Faux Affably Evil: U4 Buu. Even as he's absorbing the entire stadium, he doesn't fail to crack a few jokes, but it's clear from, well, the fact that he's absorbing the entire stadium shows that he has no remorse or desire to hold back. Of course, in this case, he's holding them hostages and not actually absorbing the people because he wants to change the rules and continue the fights with Vegitto back on the roster.
  • Filler: Plenty of the specials fall under this with their main purpose being to give the main artist more time to draw out the main story.
  • First Law of Gender Bending: Subverted. Said transformation lasts for only five pages. It didn't stop people from drawing a minicomic about the possible implications, in the case it was permanent.
  • Flying Brick: Most of the tournament fighters.
  • Foregone Conclusion:
    • Gogeta will make an appearance. We just don't know when.
    • In-universe as a sort of handwave, Raichi from Universe 3 is competing to kill Saiyans, but none had joined the tournament by the time he did, since his was an earlier universe. This discrepancy is addressed by the Vargas who offered him a spot, mentioning that the Saiyans' warlike ways and powers mean they're sure to join from some universe.
    • The Majin rebellion was doomed to failure considering that one of Bardock's visions showed characters that were no longer under Babidi's control.
  • Foreshadowing: In spades.
    • U4 Buu giving hints to the events in his universe when he mentions South Kaioshin has been using a shield, and that he knows about that tactic.
    • U9 participants mentioning "Cooler's" Empire and not "Frieza's" in a throwaway line to Goku!
    • Kakarotto's immortality had already been hinted several times before the reveal in Chapter 74.
    • The back-up machine that eventually sends U4 Buu back to his universe was already seen being built in page 1922. Unfortunately, due to it being very easy to miss, and because of the similarity to the transmitter previously used (without success) in page 1990 to send back Buu, many reader didn’t understand what had happened and felt confused. note 
  • For Want Of A Nail: Each universe is different because of ONE small change compared to the main timeline. Butterfly-effects all around!
  • Gender Bender: Syd is the Captain Ginyu of sex changes, as King Vegeta learned the hard way.
  • Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: U13 Yamcha does this to Raditz, when the latter arrives on Earth.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: U13 Kakarot has this happen to him, as a result of being on Earth.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Cell and Majin Buu. Piccolo and the other Namekians also seem to get dismembered a lot. Sadly, the same can't be said for Dabura.
  • Graceful Loser: Zen Buu takes getting sent back to his own universe and failing to take over the tournament fairly well, merely admitting that they “got him good there”.
  • Grand Theft Me: Turns out that U8 Ginyu is still alive and is currently possessing someone within the U8's group to avoid Frieza's wrath. Turns out he's in King Cold's body, and he temporarily takes over U16 Bra's body after she won their match.
  • Groin Attack: Dodoria's killing of a Saiyan in page 448. Word of God says he actually hit him in the abdomen. Believe what you want.
  • Guilt by Association: Despite the Mini Cell Jr. being nothing but kind and benevolent and offering words of comfort to Gohan (since he was created to be good support minions), Gohan kicks him out of his universe's section simply because he came from Cell.
  • Happy Ending Override: Universe 20 is the only universe whose divergent point is after the end of Z, involving an even more powerful Broly returning to Earth and destroying the planet in the fight. In the end, even after the heroes do everything they can to try to stop him, including letting Buu absorb all of them, they are ultimately unable to beat him and are forced to sacrifice themselves to put Broly in a blackhole... and while that works for most universes where Broly attacked a third time, U20 has Broly miraculously survive again and destroy the entire universe.
  • He Is All Grown Up: One of the early fights features a version of Dende's little brother, Cargo, who by this point in time is an adult.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: According to the South Kaioshin, the Grand Kaioshin did this in most universes to tame Majin Buu.
  • Hero of Another Story: Salagir explained in the comments on page 1431 that the U9 saga is this to such an extent that DBM would suffer if they had to tell both stories at the same time.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: Babidi is actively trying to pull something like this by turning everyone he can in Majins. To date, he has turned quite a few people among the spectators, everyone in U13 barring Vegeta, Bardock from U3, and pretty much everyone in U8. He even got Cell, Android 17, and someone in U19! Ultimately failed however, and he ends up getting his just deserts as a Smug Snake.
  • How We Got Here: The first 10 pages are chronologically placed in the gap between chapter 9 and 11 (10 is a special). They also work as a trailer.
  • Hypocrite: When Uub kills one of the universe 19 soldiers, he brushes off U19's sorrows explaining that he will just be wished back. When U16 Pan is killed, everyone from U16 and U18 is horrified and angry. It just goes to show that even if Death is Cheap, it's still painful for those left behind.
  • I Am a Humanitarian: U13 Kakarot as he comments "Yum, tender flesh..." before biting U13 Yamcha's arm.
  • Improbably High I.Q.: One of the funniest parts has a character introduced who is literally named Mary Sue. She has an IQ of 250, is immortal, can talk to animals, and enter dreams. All she wants is to save her doomed people, her friends in prison, her evil inter-dimensional double and the baby of Trunks, Goten, Piccolo and Vegeta that she bears. She gets knocked out in one hit by Arale from Doctor Slump.
  • Informed Flaw: Oozaru had its power nerfed compared to the original manga, where it had a 10x multiplier, and in DBM it's 2x. The problem is this makes the Kakarotto vs U18 Vegeta fight not make much sense. Kakarotto used Oozaru stacked with Super Saiyan, and SS1's 50x multiplier stacked with Oozaru's 2x, give a 100x multiplier, which would put it on the same level as SS2's multiplier from the original manga's databooks, but it shouldn't match up at all to DBM's SS2 multiplier, which is 500x, so Kakarotto should be outclassed by Vegeta still, yet U13 Raditz and Nappa wonder why Vegeta didn't go SS 3 to counter Kakarotto, and he managed to hurt Vegeta enough that it even looks like he had the power advantage.
  • Interdimensional Travel Device: The Vargas have one; it drives the plot, as they're able to cross between universes (timelines). They come from a different universe than the one the protagonists live in, and they offer them a chance to participate in a tournament among fighters from different universes. One of them is hijacked by King Vegeta and the Saiyans of Universe 10 in a coup d'état. But this part of the plot is in a galaxy far, far away... and only discussed in the novelization.
  • Just a Machine: The warriors of U19 seemingly subscribe to this school of thought, regarding Android 16.
  • Juxtaposed Halves Shot: The cover page for chapter 36 does this with Bardock and King Cold. Bardock's side depicts people from the Planet Trade Organization and Cold's side features Saiyans.
  • Kamehame Hadoken: Aside from the Kamehameha, most energy attacks are of this variety.
  • Kick The Son Of A Bitch:
    • The Curb-Stomp Battle between Perfect Cell and Bojack is incredibly satisfying after seeing the latter brutally snaps U16 Pan's neck. Especially since Bojack is killed right in front of the other members of U16, and, ironically, by a broken spine.
    • U16 Bra vs. Cold has a short-lived one of these when Cold catches Bra by surprise. After several hundred pages of Bra relentlessly mocking several other characters for being weak (including Cold), seeing her underestimating Cold and getting pummeled for it can be therapeutic to some. She gets better quickly, though. Then, while she's gloating about her win, she gets her body stolen by Ginyu.
  • Lamarck Was Right: U16 Bra is so strong because her father is Vegito, rather than Vegeta like in canon.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: U7 Vegeta goes to Namek to steal the Dragon Balls and wish for immortality. Qui follows him hoping to end their (arguably) petty rivalry and to earn brownie points with Frieza. Gast finds them both and tells them that they will either operate Frieza's ship for him or he will kill them. From the looks on their faces, Gast successfully pressgangs them.
  • Last of His Kind:
    • As shown in Chapter 48, in half of the universes Cooler happened to be the last living Frost Demon... at least, until he went to Earth. Interestingly, the novelization mentions in Chapter 32 that he's sterile, so he would have been the last Frost Demon even if he hadn't gone there.
    • Gast Carcolh in Universe 7. He's sterile, and can't produce Dragon Balls, so he wants to win the tournament to find a way to recreate his race.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • At one time, Vegeta complains that his waiting after his first fight seems to him like two years. Guess how much real time had passed since the fight.
    • In another instance, one of the Trunks complains about feeling like the group has been stuck somewhere for months (it has been months IRL), when in universe it been less than 10 minutes as stated by #16.
  • Lethal Joke Character: Universe 2 appears to consist solely of this character type. Zen Buu's comment suggests that some of them can subconsciously alter reality to make the universe obey Rule of Funny.
  • Loophole Abuse: The tournament rules get bent so much one wonders why there even are rules anymore.
    • Only two people can enter the arena at a time. Keyword being enter. Meaning that Goten and Trunks can get away with fusing as Gotenks, entering the arena, and eventually defusing and competing as two people cause hey, only one actually entered the arena. Which happened with two incarnations of Gotenks. This also accidentally happened to U9 Videl when her Z Sword broke and released the Old Kai in it. Since he came from the sword he was ruled an ally and allowed to stay in the arena.
    • Much later, U3 Raichi summons the Frost Demons, all of Planet Vegeta AND the previously defeated combatants. Doesn't stop U13 Vegeta from instantly wiping a few of them out.
    • A few characters have taken advantage of the rule made to prevent excessive hiding or leaving, that if the judges cannot see you for more than thirty seconds you forfeit. XXI uses it against U16 Vegetto, trapping him in another dimension where time ran differently just to be sure, and later against U4 Buu, using Babidi's sealing spell to trap him in a cocoon for a while, while U18 Uub uses it on U11 Buu, vaporizing him down to one small final bit and then putting that bit in a container before he could reform (technically the judges could not see Buu, and thus he lost).
  • Losing Your Head:
    • Cell does this to himself to avoid being petrified by Dabura.
    • #18 threatens to do this to Arale. Arale detaches her own head and asks "like this?" causing #18 to Face Fault.
    • U13 Kakarot has this done to him courtesy of Vegeta in a special. It didn't stick, much to the latter's surprise.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Tidar, from Universe 19, uses it against Uub. It's about as effective as you would think.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!":
    • Pretty much everyone except Broly and Vegetto during their fight is freaking the fuck out. Averted with Zen Buu, though. While he freely admits that the fight was impressive, he doesn't appear shocked, or even worried. And that's after he saw Vegetto go SS3.
    • Another such moment when it is revealed that U3 Broly CAN go Legendary Super Saiyan against Gast. Everyone in U18 sports the expression, with rightful fear so, as it is revealed by Ghost U13 Vegeta that Raichi can only control him a limited time before his sanity runs out.
    • The Vargas have yet another collective one when they see Broly power his way through the supposedly unbreakable barrier.
  • Mega Crossover: Applies to the comic, but for U2 it is even more of a crossover fest; a collection of many characters drawn by Akira Toriyama. How many can you recognize? In fact, Toriyama HIMSELF appears.
  • Meteor Move: Being a DBZ fan comic, this is bound to happen a lot.
  • Mind Rape: Failed. Syd hoped to win against U13 Vegeta by swapping genders with him and hoping the "psychological impact" would leave him with his guard down. His response?
  • Mirror Match: One of the chapters has U16 and U18 Gotenks fighting each other, thus causing this trope to be in play. And boy, is it played to the hilt, as the two do the exact same things. So much that when they inevitably defuse, one of the halves has to ask which of the two other fighters is from his Universe. One of them just gives up.
  • Misapplied Phlebotinum: So, you're the only race that found the key to inter-dimensional travel. Well, do something with it! Save the Namek race in places where it went extinct? Save alternate universes from Frieza, marauding Saiyans or other grand threats? Nah, let's make an inter-dimensional tournament! Subverted by the fact that these tournaments will gain its winners the prize of three wishes, but if designated villains win...
  • Mister Seahorse: King Cold, according to Cooler. He destroyed an entire planet during Frieza's birth.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Frieza pulled a You Have Failed Me on his Ginyu. This resulted in Ginyu using his Body Change to switch bodies with King Cold and become the new ruler of the universe.
  • Monster Under The Bed: Milked for all it's worth in Chapter 14.
  • Mook Chivalry: A heroic example happens when the heroes fight Majin Bra. where the heroes never think about attacking her in groups of more than two at most while the rest of the group just stares. What makes this even more noticeable is that this tendency was mocked by the members of U19 and Cell during a break in the fight.
  • Mr. Exposition:
    • Expect the members of U18 to fill in on the details of a fight whenever they can
    • The South Kaioshin fills that role for a while during his fight against Majin Buu.
    • King Kai's usual role as this in the series is lampshaded in page 952.
  • The Multiverse: The opening few comics imply that the Multiverse is infinite and that the numbers assigned to the various realities are for the sake of the tournament alone. DBM actually goes against tradition by having the "canon" universe receive a moniker other than "One" or "Prime", that honor being reserved to the universe that invented the multiverse travelling technology.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Someone allowed Sun Wukong to compete in this tournament. No one is safe. Luckily, Tenshinhan looked like Buddha. Guess who eventually defeated the Monkey King in Journey to the West?
    • During U18 Pan's fight with U13 Kakarot, a gag occurs that goes back to the original series. When Kakarot grabs Pan so she can't use the Kamehameha, she simply directs it out of her feet - something only done before with Goku during the 23rd Budokai Tenkaichi.
    • In Chapter 22, Dabura expresses his approval of Beelzebub, saying he'd like to have a son like that; in Sand Land, Beelzebub's father Satan (Lucifer in the Viz translation) looks exactly like, and is even implied to be, Dabura.
    • In the U8 "The Two Last Survivors" special, when Goku gets paralyzed by Guldo, he tries to break free by asking him a math problem. This is a Call-Back to the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi where Krillin breaks free of Chiaotzu's telekinesis this way. Unfortunately it doesn't work as Guldo doesn't share Chiaotzu's lack of education and answers the equation immediately.
  • Neck Lift: U6 Bojack does this to U16 Pan before crushing her neck in their battle.
  • The Neidermeyer: Bojack, according to the novelization.
  • Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: When selecting the fighters in U3, the Vargas were surprised to find a strong fighter on Earth, and one of them said "I don't think we'll find powers there in other universes". Check the Earth Is the Centre of the Universe entry...
  • Not Quite Dead: Captain Ginyu from Universe 8.
  • Offing the Offspring: Cell kills his first Cell Jr in order to create a more powerful one.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • U16 Piccolo gets one when he realizes that Vegito is injured... which has never happened before.
    • Jeice gets a BIG one when it's announced that he has to fight Frieza. Yes, that Frieza. Needless to say, he immediately forfeits.
    • Raichi and Ghost U13 Vegeta have one when Gast respawns behind him, again breaking his shield like it was nothing, and proceeds to break the sphere Raichi is sitting on, that presumably allows him to materialize.
    • U18 Piccolo has one again when facing Frieza, Coola and Cold and witnessing them transform to their augmented forms. Doubly so since Frieza was NOT capable of that before. Goten and a warrior from U19 probably have one now that Kakarot has broken through to SSJ2.
  • Old Master: Krillin from U9.
  • Original Flavour: The art style of the tournament chapters are very similar to Toriyama's. However, later chapters have been drawn by several different artists, each putting their own spin on certain facial expressions.
  • Other Me Annoys Me:
    • Bra from U16 and Bra from U18 find each other's life (an incredibly powerful and dedicated warrior, and an irresponsible spoiled brat uninterested in training) a total waste.
    • The novelization reveals that U13 Vegeta feels a bit of this for U18 Vegeta because HE has a family, and is content with his life.
  • Overly Long Gag: Almost turned into an arc with the whole monster under the bed thing.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome:
    • Many characters feel they are this after watching Vegetto and Broly's fight.
    • Yamcha continues his own Running Gag using this as an excuse. Smart.
  • Phantom Zone: Universe Zero, chosen because life never formed there.
  • Physical God:
    • Both Vegito and Broly.
    • Zen Buu fits the bill too. He's basically immortal, insanely powerful, incredibly intelligent and, unlike the above two, he doesn't have to worry about things like the vacuum of space. Not to mention his Reality Warper powers.
  • Poke the Poodle: Beelzebub, when up against U3 Piccolo, tells him that he is a mere Namekian, while he himself is a true demon. One of Beel's dastardly demonic deeds was not sharing chocolates with his friends, and eating them before dinner!
  • Power Creep, Power Seep: Salagir made the Super Saiyan forms ascended after the original greater in power from the Dragon Ball canon.
    • Super Saiyan Grade 3 (the bulky form Future Trunks uses against Perfect Cell) is equal in power to Super Saiyan 2, but still makes the user much slower than a "true" Super Saiyan 2.
    • Super Saiyan 2 goes from a x 100 base form multiplier to a x 500 multiplier. This makes it more powerful than Super Saiyan 3 was in canon.
    • Super Saiyan 3 jumps from an already incredibly x400 multiplier to a massive x5000 multiplier.
    • Broly's "Legendary Super Saiyan" form is the best of all however, as it increases Broly's Power Level the longer he stays in it. This makes his power potentially infinite.
  • Powered Armor: The Heliorians from U19 use them to compensate their lack of ki abilities, and they are INCREDIBLY effective. Their weapons could arguably make short work of anyone below SS2 tier, and without a Healing Factor, so they just had bad luck in the tournament proper with opponents that could shake off the damage, but the armors get a proper showing during the Majin Rebellion, namely against Dabra or U3 Piccolo.
  • Power Level: As befitting of a Dragon Ball setting, power levels abound, often to freakish degrees.
  • The Power of Hate: This seems to be Raichi's specialty. He claims to be able to channel the hatred left behind when someone dies a violent death, using it to adopt the deceased's essence and create a ghost, with the deceased's might and powers, as well as some degree of personality.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • U13 Raditz makes one during his fight against U3 Bardock, when Bardock becomes a Super Saiyan:
    U13 Raditz: Oh fuck... that's so unfair!
    • U13 Vegeta also utters one right before he gets vaporized by the ghost of his U3 version.
  • Pregnant Badass: When Vegetto displays a lack of sensitivity over Bulma being tired after giving birth, he explains that Saiyan women were not as affected by the strain as human ones
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Gast Carcolh to Frieza: "He who lives by the sword... will perish by the sword!"
  • Pulling Themselves Together: Majin Buu can do this thanks to his extremely strong Healing Factor.
  • Punch Parry: Done during the Vegito vs Broly fight.
  • Punny Name:
    • Merkit (Yakon's sister) is a pun on Kermit the frog.
    • The people of Helior from universe 19, being technologically advanced, all have names that are anagrams of household appliances brand or household appliances specialized chain stores, (sometimes modified): Tidar (Darty), Xeniloum (Moulinex), Eleim (Miele), Phipsil (Philips), Naurb (Braun), Magsuns (Samsung), Loopwhirl (Whirlpool), Nedwook (Kenwood)
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: A staple of fights, being based on Dragon Ball.
  • Reality Warper: Zen Buu recognizes Arale as this during her fight with U14 Android 18.
  • Red Shirt: The poor Vargas who woke up Broly.
  • Reset Button: True to the setting, the titular Dragon Balls.
    • U4!Buu turns out to be capable of wielding a literal one after the Majin Rebellion, and it was foreshadowed by the Grand Kaioshin saying Buu wielded powers superior that of the Dragon Balls. It makes sense since he was seen in the novelization and the special chapters casually granting wishes. The novelization for U4 further confirms he absorbed the Namekian elder Muri and his Dragonballs for study!
  • Retcon:
    • In page 79, U8 Recoome says to U10 Nail "No Resistance! You're no different from the Namekians we slaughtered back home!", which implies Recoome took part in the invasion of Namek, and he never met a Namekian able to give him a fight. Chapter 56 reveals that Recoome never went to Namek, and the only Namekian he ever met was U8 Nail, who did offer a good resistance.
    • It's stated on several pages that Vegetto had never transformed into Super Saiyan 2 before his fight with Broly, because not even U16 Bra was strong enough to push him to that edge. Yet, later pages show that SSJ2 Bra requires SSJ2 Vegetto to overpower her, and Vegetto had used SSJ2 at least once before the tournament.
  • Roboteching: In Chapter 61, Piccolo demonstrates that he's developed the Makankousappou/Special Beam Cannon to the point where he can make it bend multiple times (as well as firing it from both hands at the same time) — and uses it to turn Freeza and Cooler into Swiss cheese.
  • Rubber Man: Majin Buu can stretch his body in any way he pleases.
  • Rule of Cool: Broly was found unconscious and transformed (powered-up) at the same time, which does not happen in DBZ. The authors stated they did that for the coolness, and the readers didn't approve.
  • Rule of Funny: Arale and Nekomajin have this as a power: Arale's basically an unconscious Reality Warper on Buu's level, and could have wiped the floor with Cell, and Nekomajin easily holds his own against Gotenks... as long as they can make a joke out of it.
  • Running Gag:
    • Even when he's got the outcome of the match wrapped around his finger, Yamcha cannot get past the preliminaries of a tournament.
    • All of U18 Goku's battles end in a single punch.
    • Someone saying "Ugghh... Heal me!"
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
    • Universe 6 does this after Bojack, Zangya, and Syd are revived.
    • Akira Toriyama/Tori-bot when facing Dr. Raichi also does this after discovering he didn't create him and can't control him.
    • Universe 10 after two of their strongest fighters are defeated with ease.
    • Universe 3 as well after their members are revived.
  • Self-Mutilation Demonstration: Done by Cell and Gast Carcolh in one of the minicomics.
  • Serial Escalation:
    • Super Saiyan 2 Vegetto, followed quickly by Super Saiyan 3 Vegetto and his colossal "Final Dragon Shine" finishing move. He became so strong his mass increased to roughly that of a moon. And even that didn't kill Broly!
  • Shoryuken: How Arale dealt with Mary Sue.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Smug Super: Vegetto. Word of God regarding the original incarnation says he has Vegeta's ego. Now we actually see it full stop; after he loses instantaneously against XXI, he outright throws a tantrum.
  • Spectator Casualty: The Vargas have powerful shields set up around the spectators in order to specifically avert this, but unfortunately, it doesn't stop Universe 19's God Blade attack or...any of Broly's attacks.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The Vargas, who organize the tournament. Also the guys from U19, who rely on technology to fight.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: U3 Bardock's attempts to prevent the Saiyans' doom soon end up becoming this. It all starts with Frieza wanting to blow up Planet Vegeta, which seems relatively easy to counter, as he's soon killed when all Saiyans team together. However, this earns the attention of Frieza's even stronger brother and father. Bardock is forced to spare Broly, so that he eventually kills Cold and Coola and gets rid of that problem for them. However, this means there's now an unstoppable, alive and fully grown Legendary Super Saiyan out there. Bardock eventually teams up with Super Saiyan Vegeta and sets up a plan involving the Heliorites' carbonite to kill Broly. However, this means the vengeful Raichi now has a Legendary Super Saiyan among his Ghost Warriors... See the pattern here? What makes all of this fit this trope is that Bardock, thanks to his visions, always seems aware of the new threat that his current plan will eventually make appear, but he has no real choice but to stick with it.
  • Take That Me: Raditz makes a comment about Dabura "being affected by such a simple technique." The technique in question: the Makankousappo. Kakarot however takes the cake, quipping one would have to WANT to take the blow to be wounded so badly. To Raditz.
  • Talk to the Fist: Nail does this to Frieza during the Universe 7 backstory.
  • Tangled Family Tree: Thanks to U16 Vegetto, the Son and Briefs families are now one.
  • Tempting Fate:
    • The Nameks at the beginning go out of their way to mention ”nothing bad can happen”. May double as a Suspiciously Specific Denial.
    • Also, Vegetto during the lunch break. He's certain he won't need to face Broly, because the maniac'll break the rules and get sent back... guess who gets chosen as his first opponent?
  • Theme Naming:
    • The Saiyan/Vegetable theme naming continues with Hanasia (some sort of aloe), Mahissu (maize, as in corn), Romanesco (a kind of cauliflower) and Gerkin (like the pickle).
    • The Namekian/Snail themes continue with (Es)Cargot, Lumaca (Italian for "slug"), and Gast Carcolh (the former name brings to mind "gastropod", the latter a French mollusk beast).
    • Also (overlapping with Sdrawkcab Name in many cases), the Heliorites from U19 are named after different brands of electrical appliances: Eleim (Miele), Xeniloum (Moulinex), Tidar (Radit), Naurb (Braun), Phipsil (Philips), Magsuns (Samsung), Loopwhirl (Whirlpool) and Nedwook (Kenwood).
  • They Killed Kenny Again:
    • Strangely, despite his acceptable survival rate in the original series, Gohan is starting to become this, due to all the times he gets ruthlessly killed in the specials. Not to mention Bardock's vision in Chapter 19 of a Vegetto that has attacked and might have killed Gohan.
    • Frieza is becoming this too, for similar reasons.
  • This Cannot Be!: If a major villain is about to become mind-controlled by Babadi, expect this to happen.
  • Took a Level in Badass: And how. A ton of characters in various universes have improved in both skill and power over their U18 counterparts. To form a list:
    • U3 Bardock, who keeps the future sight, has gone Super Saiyan, and has become older and wiser, and even took the Saiyan throne from Vegeta Sr.
    • U4 Zen Buu, basically a Super Buu who managed to absorb everyone with a power in his universe. And even this is just the start, the novelization elaborates his quest to understand himself and master the mystical arts.
    • U6's Bojack Gang, who actually defeated the Z-Fighters.
    • U7's Gast Carcolh... Who is basically the entire Namekian race fused with Nail, who defeated Freeza, Cell and Majin Buu in his universe.
    • U8's King Cold. In U18, he begged for his life like a coward when Trunks turned up. This time, despite knowing that he's outmatched by many fighters, he goes up to his true form anyway, which, had U18's version used in his fight with Trunks, would've allowed him to defeat him and Goku. Part of this may be because he's not King Cold anymore, but Combat Pragmatist Ginyu possessing Cold's body.
    • Nearly everyone in U9. Yamcha is an android, Tien easily defeats Sun Wukong, and Videl not only has the Z-Sword, she can use the Kaio-Ken and actually give King Cold a good fight in his intermediate form, not to mention actually kill a pretty buffed Cell Junior (albeit with help from her mates).
    • U10 shows off what Nail would be capable of, had he actually helped fight the Ginyu Force on Namek - let's put this into perspective, this Nail could've defeated Recoome, who Vegeta couldn't defeat back then. Yes, Nail has been listed twice, but he is pretty awesome.
      • For that matter U8 also has Nail get a good showing, though he is more overshadowed there.
    • Future Trunks, from U12, actually managed to give U18 Vegeta a good fight, despite not being quite up to his level in power (U18 Vegeta has Super Saiyan 2, U12 Trunks can only use Super Saiyan Grade 3/Ascended Saiyan, a form Goku and Vegeta considered useless, but got more mileage out of it through clever usage).
    • U13 Nappa and Raditz, the latter of whom has a technique allowing him to become an Oozaru at will without a full moon (fake or otherwise), and in such a form actually managed to put up quite a fight against the U3 version of his father. Same with Nappa, who, while he can't quite keep up with his Super Saiyan comrades either, manages to mock the hell out of Freeza.
    • U16 has a couple - Vegito was ridiculously powerful in U18, sure, but here we see the true extent of his power against Broly, and it is awe-inspiring. Bra, being his daughter, isn't the girly-girl like her U18 counterpart (which is lampshaded in a side-comic), and is ridiculously powerful in her own right, even if she does have some serious anger issues.
    • U17 Cell, who defeated Gohan in their final clash, and slaughtered the Z-Fighters easily, and went on to kill the Bojack Gang. Then he goes and takes more levels in badass during the tournament.
  • Too Powerful to Live: As the story goes, it's clear that Salagir is getting rid of the characters who are "too broken". Buu was close to omnipotent, so he had to go before the climax, and thus he got sent back to his universe. Raichi was similar, because of his ability to not only summon deceased characters from his own universe, but also create copies of deceased tournament participants and summon those (even resurrecting the participants doesn't prevent him from summoning the copies), which would have turned him more and more unstoppable as stronger participants got killed: the Majin rebellion (which would have added lots of powerful warriors to his arsenal) took place conveniently right after he was out of the scene temporarily, and as soon as he got revived, he went back to his universe as well.
    • During the Majin rebellion Cell Juniors and Heliotes are this. Babidi teleported most contestants to another planet so they don't interfere with the rebellion, the only ones who stayed who weren't possessed by Babidi were in their apartments (Meaning just U18 Goten, and U9 as a whole). This means the most powerful fighters like Vegetto, Zen Buu, Gast, Goku and both U18 and U13 Vegetas were out of the picture and Gotenks couldn't be fused.
      • The Cell Juniors that Cell created for the rebellion are at around Super Saiyan 2 levels, this means that the only characters who were strong enough to deal with them are both Gohans and Heliotes, as everyone else is way below Super Saiyan 2 levels, so for Cell Juniors to not be too threatening against everyone else, they're the first casualties.
      • Heliotes' Ultra armors are strong enough to injure even Cell, so they could hold back a bunch of the most powerful Majins or even trim their numbers, and to prevent that from happening, Naurb is turned into a Majin and is killed while also managing to kill Magsuns and Loopwhirl, making them be among the first casualties, right after Cell Juniors. Unlike Cell Juniors, the two other Heliotes, Phipsil and Nedwook, survived, and they did a lot to turn the tide during the rebellion, with Phipsil saving Kaioshins from Dabura, which allowed the Kaioshins to help Piccolo to kill the Frost Demons and to keep King Piccolo distracted, and Nedwook dealt with Kakarotto temporarily, fought Cell and killed King Piccolo as collateral while fighting Cell.
  • Tournament Arc: So far, the whole comic (excluding the special chapters).
  • Tranquil Fury: Son Gohan. Especially when his daughter is killed and he can't do a thing about it.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Subverted with Frieza in U3, where Saiyans manage to kill him because he was midtransformation at the time. Also, U18 King Cold would've won if Trunks hadn't killed him before he could even transform into his third form. When fighting Vegeta, Cell says he could kill Vegeta before he even transformed, and when Vegeta dares him to try it, Cell goes for it, but Vegeta transformed while dodging.
  • Trapped in Villainy: The novelization implies this is pretty much the only reason why Bujin still hangs out with Bokack.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Bra again, unsurprisingly, as she's dying in Kind Cold's body, Vegito manages to trick Ginyu into switching with her. The first thing she says. "You took long enough".
  • Unstoppable Rage: As implied by the title, Zangya is on the receiving side on one from Son Bra. All it took was one air pressure attack, and Zangya was already dead.
  • Unusable Enemy Equipment: The Heliorian Ultra armor only works if synchronized with its rightful owner's brain waves. Despite this U4 Buu finds a way to bypass that security measure.
  • Villain Ball: Future Babidi forcing Future Dabura to give his energy to Buu's cocoon before he has defeated Future Gohan.
  • Villain Forgot to Level Grind:
    • The comic zigzags this, with many of the original series's villains having set up Villain Worlds and not seeing the point in pushing their limits without competition. Freeza's family and troops, Bojack's gang, and Dabura haven't improved at all from their original level of skill, and the Androids are actually breaking down from lack of maintenance. However, Cell's Blood Knight attitude has left him training constantly since the Cell Games (he's able to give Mystic Gohan a fight), Buu's been on an all-absorption diet since the end of the series and won the Superpower Lottery to begin with, and Broly's power requires no training to grow.
    • Also subverted with U8 King Cold, who if his family's statements and expanded universe material are any indicator, has gotten stronger since Frieza was born, as he once couldn't control his power in his higher forms at all, but now spends most of the tournament in his final form with no problem at all, much to Cooler's shock, and is powerful enough to curbstomp U3 Bardock when he uses 100% power, something he can access in seconds as opposed to the minutes it takes his son. Then he goes One-Winged Angel. Twice. Then it gets sort of double subverted: it turns out it never was the original King Cold in the first place! Plus, it is shown in the novelization of his attack on Earth (In U12/U14/U15, where Trunks never interfered), and in a U7 special that he has a world of trouble controlling that much power. So, original King Cold would never have leveled up, but U8!Ginyu in King Cold's body? He sure as hell did.
  • Villainous Breakdown: U4 Zen Buu goes berserk when Vegetto is eliminated from the tournament by XXI's magic and XXI refuses a rematch.
  • Webcomic Time:
    • Lampshaded when an annoyed U18 Vegeta mentions that it felt like two years since his fight in the tournament, when only a couple of hours have passed in the comic.
    • Lampshaded again when Trunks points out it feels like months they've been stranded far away from the tournament, to which Android 16 answers it's only been ten minutes.
  • We Have Reserves: Bojack's gang was composed of twenty-seven members when it was formed, according to Bujin; according to the novelization, this is the reason why there were only five members left when they met the Z-Warriors.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Chapter 19 IN SPADES.
      • King Cold transforms into his never seen third form, and a few pages later into his fourth form.
      • U9 Videl is seen using the Kaioken. Her sword broke, setting free the U9 Old Kai.
      • The mysterious shadow in U3 that had appeared several chapters earlier is revealed as Dr. Raichi... Only for yet another unknown shadow to immediately appear in U3...
      • And a few pages later, it's revealed that there's ''even another'' unseen new character at U3, U3 Bardock, who can even turn Super Saiyan.
      • And, when everyone thought the chapter had long reached its top, Bardock has a vision of a Not Himself Vegetto attacking Gohan and Piccolo screaming that all universes are now in danger, which is then followed up on the next page with Buu in a much less solid state yelling out "This Masquerade ends now!", Frieza revealing that Ginyu might have an important part to play, Goku allying with a Cell Jr. and the Super Namek speaking! HOLY SHIT. The chapter title could not be more accurate.
    • On a much smaller level, the U7 Special has an in-universe example, when Krillin, Bulma, and Gohan arrive on Namek... Their very first encounter with a Namekian is... this.
    • Chapter 33. Vegetto finally squares off against XXI ... which ends in an epic anticlimax. This angers Vegetto enough that he nearly disqualifies his whole universe. It angers U4 Buu enough that he reveals he's been manipulating everyone the entire time and then he TRIES TO ABSORB EVERYONE IN THE STADIUM.
    • Chapter 35: "King Cold" is revealed to have been Ginyu possessing him all along when, after Bra defeats him, he uses his Body Change technique to steal her body with nearly anyone being the wiser.
    • Chapter 68: Babidi's "Plan B"... was summoning a Majinized Bra.
    • Chapter 74: In a U13 flashback, Vegeta decapitates Kakarot in front of Frieza for his lack of respect. The implications are staggering and could explain a few instances of No One Should Survive That!... Is this Kakarot immortal? Turns out, yes, yes he is.
  • Wham Line: From the beginning of Chapter 55:
    "King Cold": Change!!
  • Wham Shot:
    • During the Majin rebellion we cut to XXI in his room..... Clutching one of the Earth's Dragon Balls.
    • Right when it appears the Majin Rebellion is about to end a figure comes out to save Babidi. That figure ends up being Bra.
  • What If?: The basis of all the other universes, sans Universe 18, and even then, Universe 18 is an alternate universe where most of the non serial movies happened.
  • Whole Episode Flash Back: Certain chapters retell the origins of various universes. Chapters 8 and 12 retell the Broly stories, Chapter 10 has U12 Trunks reviving Android 16, Chapter 14, 16, and 18 showcase Universes 16, 17, and 6, respectively, and Chapters 20-21 tell the beginnings of Universe 3.
  • Why Are You Not My Son?: U18 Vegeta appears to have this briefly when he see's how strong U16 Bra is, and gets annoyed with his own daughter when she rejects his suggestion for her to train to get as strong as her counterpart.
  • A Wizard Did It:
    • The author doesn't bother to explain how Buu's egg can enter into Babidi's ship through the door, and invokes this trope.
    • When U4 Buu gave Frieza the power to make any fight with a Saiyan more interesting, up to creating a mental landscape for them, he made Frieza believe a wizard taught him.
  • Wolverine Publicity: Chapter 25 was announced as Bibidi's special, even though he only appears during the first part of the special and the Kaioshins have much more screen time.
  • Worthy Opponent: During Chapter 88, U4 Buu admits out of all the fighters (including Vegetto) Gast Carcolh is only one that actually made him nervous. Which is why Buu promptly disposes of him when he decides to take over.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • Though they knew it had to be done, the Kaioshin of U1 executed Freeza, Coola, and Broly when they were all children to prevent them from becoming the threats their alternate universe counterparts become.
    • Bojack, in Chapter 6, when he murders U16 Pan.
  • You Have Failed Me:
    • Babidi does this to Dabura (it gave us a couple of funny moments, though)
    • Frieza did this to Ginyu in the U8 backstory. It completely backfired in the end, as Ginyu not only survived but stole King Cold's body without Freeza even knowing.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Happens a couple of times.
    • Bojack does it to Bido in his special.
    • Cell to his Cell Jr. when he needs a more powerful one.

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