Dragon Ball Super Manga Chapter 90 Spoilers Reveal Dr. Hedo's Arrest and the Red Ribbon Army's Return

The Dragon Ball Super Super Hero prequel material is finished as of manga chapter 90, titled Showdown with Dr. Hedo. These are the full spoilers for chapter 90 heading into chapter 91. I haven't read the actual chapter yet, only these spoilers, since the official release wasn't out until the 20th, a few days after these leaks surfaced. A full review was planned for that release day.

The chapter opens with Officer Krillin asking citizens which convenience store the zombie trio worked at. A citizen points him to a nearby store, and Krillin goes in to ask the zombies to come to the police station to talk about their boss. He notices Mai from the Pilaf Gang in the store and gets distracted, giving the zombie trio a chance to run. Krillin draws his gun and arrests them anyway.

Krillin's convenience store arrest fills in the scene from the Super Hero movie

This is the scene shown on the security camera in Dragon Ball Super Super Hero, where Magenta talks about Dr. Hedo making the zombie androids, and it's what leads to Hedo's eventual arrest. Getting more context for that moment is exactly what I was hoping this prequel material would do.

Goten hides his commute while classmates push him toward the school dance

Meanwhile, Goten rides the Nimbus cloud partway to school, then gets off and covers the rest of the distance by bus to keep the fact that he lives far away, near Mount Paozu, a secret from his classmates. A classmate waits for him and they board the bus together, asking if Goten really lives in that area since he's never seen outside school. Goten says he doesn't like leaving the house much.

Another classmate asks how Goten is on such good terms with Trunks, since she assumed Trunks was older. Goten explains their families have been close friends for years, so he and Trunks grew up together. It's funny to point out that while that's true, Vegeta spent years jealous of and rivaling Goku, though they're still rivals now just not in the same way. Goten isn't lying, though. Bulma and Goku have been friends since chapter one of the original Dragon Ball, the oldest friendship in the series.

The classmate then asks Goten to convince Trunks to ask her to the dance party that weekend. She assumes Trunks already has a date given how popular he is, but Goten clears it up that he doesn't, even though he knows Trunks wants to ask Mai.

One of Dr. Hedo's androids ambushes the school bus and Great Saiyaman X2 beats him easily

The bus suddenly stops and one of Dr. Hedo's androids stands in front of it. The android calls out to Goten, apparently aware he's a Saiyaman. The classmate notes that a lot of people have been following Goten lately, which is true. The classmate opens the bus window to help Goten escape, and he runs to an alley and uses his wristwatch to transform into Great Saiyaman X2, defeating the android with ease. The classmates note that a Saiyaman always shows up whenever Goten disappears.

Dr. Hedo drops his search for the disc after hearing Great Saiyaman will attend the dance

At the school, a classmate selling invites tells Trunks that Great Saiyaman himself is going to show up at the party, which is genuinely unexpected. Mai joins the conversation and asks Trunks if he wants to go to the party with her, and he agrees. Mai then spots a spy bee flying nearby, which turns out to belong to Hedo, who has been listening the entire time. Hearing that Great Saiyaman will appear gets Hedo so excited that he drops his mission to find the stolen disc and decides to go to the party instead, even though one of his androids notes he's only allowed entry with a female student. This is already getting kind of funny.

Mai's smarts expose that the androids have been tracking Goten and Trunks

Back at school, Trunks tells Goten he's relieved things went smoothly with Mai without having to reveal his Saiyaman identity. Trunks then leaves to buy clothes for the party, turning down Goten's offer to play games. Mai, having seen the spy bee near Goten, pulls him aside and warns him they're being watched. She's remarkably sharp throughout all of this, smarter than everybody else around her, honestly.

Mai suspects the androids from earlier have been watching them the whole time, which is how they knew where Goten was and sent the android after him. She remembers one of the zombie androids saying he was made by Dr. Hedo, looked into it, and found that Hedo specializes in androids. Since nobody knows where Hedo's hideout is, Mai decides to lure him out by advertising that Great Saiyaman will attend the dance, knowing Hedo is a big fan. Goten is shocked to learn this was Mai's plan all along, while Trunks remains oblivious and happy. Mai asks Goten to keep it secret from Trunks. There's a lot going on here, and it's fine to read but not the most captivating part of the chapter, at least not yet.

The dance turns into a sting operation for Dr. Hedo

On the day of the party, Goten arrives with his classmate, and Trunks and Mai show up together. Trunks hands off a disc bag to the staff for safekeeping. Mai draws every eye in battle armor, and the classmate views her as a rival standing between herself and Trunks. When Trunks asks Mai to watch Great Saiyaman's appearance from the front row, she says she'll watch from where she is. It makes me wonder when Trunks is going to realize she's not into this version of him, but the older, future version.

Goten asks Mai if Hedo will really show up, and she's confident he will. Trunks ends up standing in the front row right next to Hedo without realizing who he is, since Mai is the only one who can recognize him from photos. The two bond over being huge Great Saiyaman fans, with Hedo showing off a limited edition Saiyaman t-shirt and mentioning that his autographed photo of the hero was recently stolen. Trunks sympathizes and curses the thief.

Mai spots Trunks talking to Hedo and points a gun at him, but one of Hedo's androids stops her from firing. Just then police raid the party, with Krillin declaring Hedo under arrest for stealing bodies from the mortuary and thanking Mai for the tip. I remember wondering, back when the movie itself came out and I first heard spoilers, whether Krillin would be the one to arrest Hedo, and it does make the world feel smaller that he is. Hedo uses a smoke screen gun to escape, and Krillin decides to pursue him alone while his team searches for the hideout.

Mai reveals she's known Trunks's secret identity and agrees to date him if he catches Hedo

Trunks asks Mai if the whole party was set up to catch Hedo, and she confirms it was, explaining that Bulma wanted her to keep an eye on Trunks so he wouldn't get involved in unnecessary things. When staff tell Trunks the disc bag has been stolen, Mai tells him to transform into Great Saiyaman X1 and recover it from Hedo, and Trunks is shocked that Mai already knew his identity.

Trunks had assumed Mai believed X1 was actually Future Trunks, which would have made for an odd love triangle involving an alternate timeline version of yourself, the kind of thing that only shows up in this kind of fiction. Mai clarifies that was her initial thought, but in this world only one Trunks exists, and that's him. Trunks promises to catch Hedo and become the strongest, coolest superhero for her, then asks if she'll go on dates with him afterward. Mai agrees, saying she'll go out with him anytime he wants.

I covered this in an earlier piece, but Mai is in her fifties in memory even though she's a kid physically now, so this is an adult in a kid's body agreeing to date a teenager. It's not the most offensive thing Dragon Ball has ever done, and I'm not boycotting the series over it, but it's annoying and weird and creepy. I think it's played out, honestly.

Krillin reveals Hedo is Dr. Gero's grandson as the Red Ribbon Army resurfaces

One of Hedo's androids hands the disc over to Hedo, confirming it was Trunks who had it. Trunks and Goten catch up with Krillin, who explains that Hedo is Dr. Gero's grandson and shares his grandfather's expertise in creating androids. Hedo has been using his androids to work part time at convenience stores to fund his research, which is strange but kind of smart. Krillin asks the boys to keep this from Bulma and the others, and Trunks recalls that Gero was the one who created Cell.

Krillin then says a more dangerous organization has started making moves, but before he can name it he's interrupted by a call from headquarters confirming it's the Red Ribbon Army, as suspected. That's genuinely unexpected. Trunks and Goten overhear and ask if this is the same evil organization from the past, and Krillin confirms it is, recently revived. Krillin fears the Red Ribbon Army teaming up with Hedo, warning that the disc's data is very dangerous since it contains a cell blueprint, and says they need to hurry before Red Ribbon reaches Hedo first. Trunks and Goten get excited that the great evil they've been waiting for has finally shown up, and Krillin immediately regrets telling them the whole story.

Artificial Dinosaur Number One puts up a real fight before Hedo's capture

Hedo reaches his hideout just as Great Saiyaman X1, X2, and Krillin arrive, forcing him to activate his unfinished creation, Artificial Dinosaur Number One. It's a shame we didn't get more of that idea, since Cell Max feels like it may have been inspired by it. The dinosaur grabs X2 and slaps X1 away, and when Krillin punches it, it fires a beam that he barely dodges, which is pretty awesome. The dinosaur then destroys the lab firing multiple beams, worrying Hedo, and that's probably why he built a fail-safe into Cell Max later. There are some cool things in this chapter that helped explain a few choices made in the movie.

The dinosaur pins X1 to the ground, and X1's ki wave attack fails to put it down. Krillin attacks all over its body searching for a weak point, finds it behind the neck, and fires a Destructo Disc that immobilizes it. Trunks and Goten break free, turn Super Saiyan, and tear a hole through the dinosaur with a cyclone style double hurricane attack. Hedo worries the dinosaur has been destroyed, X1 and X2 strike their cleanup pose, and Krillin handcuffs Hedo and his androids.

Hedo swapped the disc for an autograph and gets away with a short sentence

When Krillin opens the disc case, there's no disc inside, only Hedo's photograph with Great Saiyaman's autograph. That's a clever swap. Hedo explains he destroyed the actual disc because it was a nuisance, but the data is stored in his own memory, which shouldn't be surprising given that he's a genius with a good memory. He says he was only somewhat interested in Gero's research and kept the case purely because it was the perfect size for his autograph. Goten later finds the destroyed disc.

Hedo and his androids are arrested, but at the request of the zombies' families, their sentences are reduced and they're sent home, which wasn't expected. Hedo's only official charge ends up being stealing corpses from the mortuary and putting them to work at a convenience store, earning him just three months in jail. That's confusing given earlier mentions that this all started roughly seven months before, so maybe there was a time skip, or the trial itself took a few months. It's hard to make full sense of the timeline from the spoilers alone.

From prison, Hedo continues his research remotely, launching an upgraded version of the original spy bee. The chapter closes with Hedo vowing to one day create the strongest android in the world, which of course becomes Cell Max, with a note that his ambitions will lead to more incidents down the road.

The Super Hero arc adaptation begins in chapter 91

The next chapter starts the Super Hero arc properly, described as beginning with a bang, meaning it's getting a full adaptation rather than being compressed into a single page. It's unclear what changes or additional context the manga might add to scenes from the movie, so that remains to be seen.

Some parts of this chapter worked for me and some didn't, but I'm glad it's over, honestly, and glad the story is moving on to what I find more interesting material with Piccolo and Gohan.