Dragon Ball Multiverse

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"We will reenact legendary encounters!"
—Goku

Dragon Ball Multiverse is a Fan Sequel Web Comic set ten years after Dragonball Z (ignoring Dragon Ball GT). 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 very simple story hides well-paced storytelling and beautifully loyal, similar to the original, art. Its main appeal 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 24 different languages, most up to date. It is updated 3 times a week (Wednesday, Friday, 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")

Now has a character sheet.


Tropes used in Dragon Ball Multiverse include:
  • 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 compassion with the Ultra armor used by his comrade Xeniloum; see Up to Eleven
  • Alternate Continuity: Though 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 and leads a rebellion against Frieza. But Universe 18, the original, and all other universes are rewritten so that Bardock DIDN'T receive his psychic powers, because the author felt that in the Bardock special, the plot would not have changed whether Bardock had his visions or not.
  • Alternate Universe: In total there are 20, each going down a different path in DBZ history (Goku becoming evil, the Namekians fusing to form a Super-Namekian, etc).
  • Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Some more than others, as shown in the character page. Of special mention, Pan and U9 Yamcha.
  • All There in the Manual: The official novelization and official fanfictions telling the story of U2, 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. Too bad they were only available only in French. Recently though, there has been an attempt at creating an English novelization, and the prologue and first chapter have finally been translated.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Badass Grandpa: Krillin (or "Kulilin" as the author insists on calling him), of all people. He seems to have mellowed out in his old age.
  • Bad Boss: Frieza. Just see how he kills Burter.
  • Battle Aura Requisite. This is DBZ.
  • Beam Spam: Comes with the territory. The Saiyans use this to overkill Frieza and Zarbon in Universe 3.
  • The Berserker: Broly. U16 Bra may count too.
  • Big Bad: XXI, according to Word of God.
  • Brick Joke
    • "Bear my child!"
      • "God Damn it Kakarot!"
    • 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.
  • Butt Monkey: Frieza. He gets humiliated and killed in Universes 3 and 7 (and it's obvious the same thing will happen in others, like U13), it's been hinted that even in the one where he won he had some troubles, and it already seems that he will be defeated by U18 Goku without having landed a single hit in an opponent. Even Nappa manages to mock him.
    • To a much lesser extent, Dabura. He spends many chapters weakly asking to be healed before actually being healed.
  • Captain Obvious: Android 16 in his fight with Eleim.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • The movies have been rewritten to fit within DBZ history. More irritatingly, aspects like Bardock's visions and the Tuffles were rewritten or removed from some universes.
  • Crazy Enough to Work: U17 Cell rips off his own head to avoid U11 Dabura's stone spit.
  • Cross Counter: Gotenks does this to AU Gotenks. Several times as it's played for Laughs.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: 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. 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 Massato and U13 Kakarot vs U6 Kat.
    • Subverted with Gast, while many expected this to be a curbstomp battle, but the battle begins with Gast hitting the floor.
    • Doubly 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!
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Yamcha implies this is happening to #18.
    • He also implied 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. Having the fighters unrestrained helps put on a good show.
    • The specification of using Namekian Dragon Balls implies that Earth doesn't have a set in every reality.
    • Doesn't stop the deaths of Tidar, Pan, and Syd from causing misery to their teammates.
  • Detachment Combat: U4 Majin Buu.
  • Determinator: Nail. Holy shit.
    • It took a lot for Recoome to go down, too.
  • Dissonant Serenity: After being thwarted in absorbing Broly, U4 Buu returns to the arena pissed off, and looks like he's about to kill Vegitto, 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.
  • Distaff Counterpart: The girls of U6 may or may not count.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Cooler does this during the lunch break after his Curb Stomp Battle against Future Trunks.
  • 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.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Some potential matches, particularly Cell vs Dabura Winner is Cell and U13 Nappa vs Frieza Winner is Frieza, but not without being one-upped by Nappa so far. There's also upcoming matches - U13 Vegeta vs Dr. Raichi, and Cell vs Bojack.
  • 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.
    • The explosive properties are debatable though. He doesn't burst open, we just see blood coming out of his mouth and nose, which actually is entirely possible in the vacuum of space, especially given that Krillin was fairly wounded already. Though, given that it is a comic and thus no movement, it's impossible to tell if this trope applies or not.
  • Face Palm: Cell when his Cell Junior risks disqualification after punching his opponent without touching the ring.
  • Fan Nickname: "Zen Buu" for Buu from U4. It's a Japanese pun on the word 'zenbu', meaning 'altogether' or 'entire', but still applies to the character since Zen Buu - having absorbed "everyone with a power" in his universe - has an eerily calm persona.
  • 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).
  • Flying Brick: Most of the tournament fighters.
  • Gender Bender: Syd is the Captain Ginyu of sex changes, as King Vegeta learned the hard way.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Cell and Majin Buu. Piccolo and the other Namekians also seem to get dismembered a lot.
  • 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.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: U4's Zen Buu
  • How We Got Here: The first 10 pages are placed in the gap between chapter 9 and 11 (10 is a special). They also work as a trailer.
  • Interdimensional Travel Device: The Vargas have one; it drives the plot.
    • One of them is hijacked by King Vegeta and the Saiyans of Universe 10 in a coup de'tat. 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.
  • Kamehame Hadoken
  • Lack of Empathy: Frieza and the other villains, of course.
  • Lamarck Was Right: U16 Bra is so strong because of it.
  • 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.
  • Lethal Joke Character: Universe 2 appears to consist solely of this character type.
  • Losing Your Head: Cell does this to himself to avoid being petrified by Dabura.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Tidar, from Universe 19, uses it against Uub. It's about as effective as you think.
  • Mary Sue: She is an actual person, and went against Arale.
  • 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.
  • 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, but if designated villains win...
  • Monster Under The Bed: Milked for all its worth. Parodies like hell, too; also one world under Vegetto's will.
  • Moral Dissonance: The Kaioshin's rather direct way of dealing with upcoming dangers, like killing Frieza and Cooler when they were children and Broly when he was an infant, in the Universe 1/10 Special was noted to be too violent by fans.
  • Mr. Exposition: Piccolo offers a lot of information on the battles while watching from the sidelines.
  • 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.
    • DBZ:M actually goes against tradition by having the "canon" universe receive a moniker other than "One" or "Prime".
  • 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?
  • Neck Lift: U6 Bojack does this to U16 Pan before crushing her neck in their battle.
  • Not Quite Dead: Captain Ginyu from Universe 8.
  • Off-Model: Dear God... the Bojack Special, just...just look. This Vegeta might actually top it!
  • Oh Crap: Jeice gets a BIG one when it's announced that he has to fight Frieza. Yes, that Frieza. Needless to say, he immediately gives up.
  • Old Master: Kulilin from U9.
  • Original Flavour: The art style of the tournament chapters are very similar to Toriyama's.
  • 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.
  • Physical God: Both Vegetto and Broly have shown that they are.
  • Poke the Poodle: Beelzebub, when up against 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!
  • Powered Armor: The Heliorians from U19 use them to compensate their lack of ki abilities, and they are INCREDIBLY effective.
  • 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!

  • Pulling Themselves Together: Majin Buu.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs
  • Rubber Man: Majin Buu.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • "Ugghh... Heal me!"
  • Saiyans 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 Kulilin in the Cell special. Gross.
  • 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!
    • Super Saiyan 3 Vegetto really, isn't it is known that Goku has access to the Super Saiyan 3 form, so when you take a Goku and a Vegeta and put them together , it makes sense that the produce of course would have access to the form. The anime and manga didn't go far enough to necessitate Vegetto even needing those forms.
    • Something more interesting might be how the Vargas constructed a room that completely blocks out Ki signatures, allowing Cell to produce a second, stronger Cell Junior while murdering his previous one in cold blood. Although this may count as Crazy Prepared.
      • They also constructed energy shields that can withstand energy blasts from Broly and Cooler.
    • The U19 fighters claim that, in their war armor, any one of them could kill Broly with one strike. While it's never revealed if this was quite accurate, it's clear they aren't bluffing: only 1% of Broly's murderous rampage penetrated the energy shield that's protecting the spectators. Xeniloum's Z-slash, however, went through 100%... and he didn't seem to be even trying. The Vargas are naturally freaked out.
  • Shoryuken: How Arale dealt with Mary Sue.
  • Shout-Out: Page 466. That's madness!
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: As the different universes were progressively being revealed, there was surprise, but not an agreement about the unofficial name for U3 (such as U13 being "the Super Saiyans universe"). That is, until Bardock appeared. U3 is now essentially "Bardock's universe with those two guys from the OVAs".
  • Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The Vargas, who organize the tournament. Also the guys from U19, who rely on technology to fight.
  • Take That Me: Raditz makes a comment about Dabura "being affected by such a simple technique." The technique in question: the Makankousappo.
  • 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).
  • They Killed Kenny: 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.
  • 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.
  • Unpleasable Fanbase: Slightly justified, but read the comments of Chapters 16-18. Some may argue that the comments are the best part of the webcomic.
    • At this point, the DBM community consists of: GT-hating fanatics, power level arguments, and the occasional "stop arguing" or "DBM is poorly-written" crowd. We are very disagreeable. Ironically, talking about anything else is almost taboo.
  • Unstoppable Rage: As implied by the title, Zangya is on the recieving 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. Will U4 Buu find a way to bypass that security measure?
  • 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 to immediately appear yet another unknown shadow 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 so accurate.
    • In a much smaller degree, 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.
  • What If: The basis of all the other universes, sans Universe 18.
  • Whole-Episode Flashback: 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.
  • You Have Failed Me...: Babidi does this to Dabura. It gave us a couple of funny moments, though.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Happens a couple of times. For example, Bojack does it to Bido, and Cell to his Cell Jr.
  • You Will Be Assimilated: 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.
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