Who Is Gohan Black? Dragon Ball’s Newest Villain Explained

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has introduced a major new villain to the Dragon Ball universe, and it’s already shaking things up big time with the debut of Gohan Black. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is now in the hands of its early access players, and fans are getting to explore its story modes for some of the characters involved. One of the unique offerings from the newest title in the Budokai Tenkaichi franchise are the special side missions that pop up that imagine how the Dragon Ball story could have unfolded if things had gone differently in some arcs. And some of the differences lead to huge changes. 

Much like a butterfly effect, the What If stories proposed in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero can range from smaller changes to some that have huge ramifications. The biggest of which comes from Gohan’s role in it all as while he might not have been a key fighter throughout much of Dragon Ball Super due to the fact he gave up on training after the events of the Majin Buu arc, Sparking! Zero imagines what it would look like if he fulfilled his initial role of being Goku’s true successor as Earth’s champion and became the strongest in the universe. A warrior that would then bring a huge target on his back from an angry and vengeful god. 

Gohan Becomes The Universe’s Strongest Warrior

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero allows fans to shift the events of Dragon Ball Super by putting Gohan in the lead role. During the Resurrection F arc, rather than being soundly defeated by Frieza, Gohan is able to actually regain his full strength in the fight instead. Even going as far as reaching Ultimate Gohan, he has enough power to not only push back Frieza, but even defeat his Golden Frieza transformation all by himself. It’s a dramatic departure from the events of the original series as Goku and Vegeta could only face off against the villain in their Super Saiyan Blue forms. 

This begins a huge chain of events that sees Gohan inspired to train with Piccolo as while he was able to defeat Golden Frieza, Gohan realizes that he felt he was struggling to stay alive even with his level of power. Then as Gohan trains further, he becomes the strongest warrior in Universe 7 surpassing his father and Vegeta. In the Tournament of Destroyers that follows, Gohan becomes the point person through the fight and even faces off against Hit. It’s such a notable performance that the fight between the two gets attention from across the multiverse. 

As the events of the Future Trunks kick in soon after, Gohan is still the strongest fighter. Future Trunks arrives, and suddenly attacks Gohan. Just like when Future Trunks has suspected Goku of being someone else in the main series, he mistakes Gohan for someone else. Then as Future Trunks tries to explain himself, a wormhole opens up and out pops a familiar but unfamiliar villain. It’s Gohan, but instead an evil version of Gohan from Trunks’ timeline. Like Goku Black before him, this villain is Gohan Black and carries the same godly power that Goku Black does in the main series. 

Who Is Gohan Black? 

This time around, however, Gohan also heads to Future Trunks’ timeline to fight Gohan Black alongside Goku and Vegeta. The villain is just as strong as Goku Black, and even works together with Zamasu in the same way. They have the same Zero Mortals Plan, but the key difference is that Gohan Black’s higher powered form is a pink version of the Ultimate Gohan aura. It’s not a full Super Saiyan transformation, but it’s arguably stronger in this version of the events given that Gohan has awakened his power by the Elder Kai twice by this point. 

The fight against Gohan Black also plays out differently. Gohan Black explains that like in the original series, he’s actually a Zamasu from the past. In this version, Gohan had fought Zamasu and got the god to realize how strong mortals can be. Using the Super Dragon Balls to take over his body, Gohan Black then killed Videl and Pan. This enrages Gohan, but Goku is around to keep him calm and focus on the fight at hand. Then the fight continues and Gohan Black fuses with Zamasu. 

Fused Zamasu basically is the same as in the original story, but has a hairstyle more reminiscent of Gohan than Goku in this version. But the fight against this version of the god also plays out differently because Gohan’s involved. Future Trunks and Gohan have a much closer connection due to the fact that Trunks shares a history with his version of Gohan, and the two are able to overwhelm Zamasu together. Gohan learns the Evil Containment Wave technique from Piccolo, and it actually gets used this time. 

In a final clash against Zamasu, Trunks and Gohan unite their Masenkos together and pin down the god. With Gohan using the Evil Containment Wave, they’re able to fully defeat the god, seal him away, and save Future Trunks’ timeline. Gohan is then free to head back home and appreciate the family and life that he’s gotten because of the way he’s been defending the Earth all this time. 

Why Gohan Black Is Important

Gohan Black’s the kind of variant that’s such a smart move that it’s honestly shocking that it’s not how it played out in the main series. Because Gohan lacked the power to truly have an impact on Dragon Ball Super as a whole, fans missed out on what could have been one of the biggest stories in its history. But instead, it’s yet another story where fans get to see Goku and Vegeta in action. It leads to a great moment with Trunks, but it’s clear with this version that it could have been much bigger of a moment if Trunks had Gohan by his side. 

Gohan Black would have also been a much tougher villain to deal with because Gohan always had a higher potential of strength than Goku (it’s something we finally saw in action with the debut of the Gohan Beast form), and at least fans get to see a version of that story with the debut of this villain.