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I had this friend in elementary school who had four prominent interests that stick out in my mind. The first was for Marvel comics, which was one I naturally shared. Another was judo, and he did his best to try to get me into it too. It was enough to get me to stop karate and try his dojo, but that was really more of a social decision, for the aspects this martial art emphasised didn't excite me that much. Grabbing specific parts of a gi felt less natural than the jabs and chops of karate.

 

The other two interests were for computers and "Dragon Ball", and he taught me much about both. There was some overlap in this knowledge, which notably manifested in the downloading of emulators to my computer for the primary purpose of playing old Super Nintendo "Dragon Ball Z" fighting games.

 

In recent years, I've made separate reconnections with the friend and the cartoon, and the latter prompted me

to look at more recent entries of the franchise on modern consoles. Aesthetically, they're unimpeachable, but the nominally fitting focus on the Z axis made the mechanics of the film feel somewhat unfocused to me in comparison to the classical style of its predecessors, which were closer in feel to "Street Fighter".

 

But the newly announced "FighterZ" appears to return to that venerable formula for the first time in years, and even the art evokes those games my friend illicitly downloaded to my computer around the millennium's turn. There are many video games that appeal to me on various levels, and I actually play few of them, but I've made a  note of this one. I barely touched the last "Dragon Ball" game I bought, which means that a purchase of this new one can at worst only be a lesser waste.

 

Bonus Question!

 

Right time for fighting in the street, boy?

 

Summer.

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Doctors and Dragon Balls

 

I do believe that the latest “Doctor Who” holiday special was my favourite. For one thing, it was about the idea of a superhero, which is  a pretty easy route to my heart. Its guest star did an excellent job in that role, and his portrayal of his heroic persona’s secret identity immediately brought to mind an adult Peter Parker. Then I began to think that I recognised the actor from something. A modicum of research revealed that the only thing from which this vague familiarity could have possibly come was “Dragon Ball Evolution”, that live “Dragon Ball” movie that barely bore any resemblance to any other form of “Dragon Ball”. But the actor’s charm was still pretty apparent in that Goku role, and the incoherent choice to make him a high school student in that film helped to reinforce the feel of a teenage Peter Parker. For having essentially  played Spider-Man at both developmental stages without ever explicitly playing Spider-Man, Justin Chatwin gets some serious love from me. And an award? It’s the season for that. I just don’t know if there’s any award show that’s specifically about Spider-Man minutiae. There are the Webby Awards, but I think that those are mainly about the internet. Anyway. Just saying. Saiyan? Shh. No. But if there were Spider-Man awards with such esoteric categories, this would be the year to give him one in apology for passing him over when that “Dragon Ball” thing came out. Because that’s how award shows work.

Bonus Question!

Best Spider-Man reference that’s not actually a Spider-Man reference?

The special was called “The Return of Doctor Mysterio”. It’s actually just referring to the title of “Doctor Who” in some other language.

Copyright © 2011, Jaymes Buckman and David Aaron Cohen. All rights reserved. In a good way.