Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z - Bio Broly

Hey, I finally got a Dragon Ball Z film without Goku! Shame the writing isn't all that great, but I did enjoy Bio Broly as a fun romp, if nothing else. Following on from the events of the World Tournament Saga, Android 18 has confronted Hercule about the prize money she was promised, with Trunks and Goten tagging along, when they are offered a challenge by Jaguar, a former rival of Hercule's. Of course, it's a trap, and soon 18 and the boys are fighting Bio-Warriors, a kind of gooey, cloned army of martial artists. As ordinary fighters are nothing against Androids or Super Sayians, Jaguar soon reveals his trump card, a Bio-Warrior Version of Broly. Most Broly fans don't like Bio Broly (or Bio Broly, for that matter), but from an outsider's perspective, the only real difference seems to be cosmetic, as the character was never really that complex to begin with. 

In terms of the film, there is enough here to enjoy, even if it's short and a little dull at times. The fight in a big chemical plant makes for a visually different DBZ battle, if nothing else, and gives the whole enterprise something of a classic superhero vibe. I was half expecting Dr Collie to fall into a vat of gunk and emerge with green hair and chalk-white skin. The chemical plant/lab is so huge, in fact that it more resembles something from Warhammer 40,000, but rendered in the classic mat-painted style of DBZ. It turns out the only thing that can defeat Bio Broly is the very goo from which he's made, do Trunks sets about blowing up storage tanks until the facility floods and beating Broly becomes more of a game of dodging him until he's caught by the goo. Whilst many won't like that aspect, I think it works quite well, enabling "weaker" characters like 18 and the boys to take on a major villain without breaking the whole "power-scaling" thing. 

As there is some part of me that actively enjoys trolling the "core" DBZ fanbase, I've always been tempted to build a Bio Broly deck for the card game[s], mostly so I can tell people that I have a Broly deck and then watch them get sad. I mean, the Dragon Ball Super incarnation aside, Broly is still a dull character who is only memorable in terms of visual element; hell, he only has dialogue in one of the three films in which he is the literal title character, that's the guy you're placing on the pedestal. I at least get Goku being popular, because he's a blank-slate power fantasy, and they're always popular, that's why Superheroes caught on in the first place, but Broly really is just a brute with no personality. Broly is the Doomsday or Lunatik of DBZ, there, I said it. After writing this one, I finally get to watch one of the DBZ films I really like tonight.