Saddle up boys because it’s time to take a look at the final Super Dragon Ball Heroes title that ran with the show. I’ll definitely miss this part of the series because it was so much fun. It’s a pretty quick adventure with 12 chapters at the ready but it was a really fun way to wrap things up. We pretty much got to see all of the Heroes characters as they teamed up against a common enemy. The legendary Ozotto, destroyer of all creation. If the heroes can’t defeat him then it’ll be all over.

The manga starts off on an ominous note as everyone is gone. Goku and friends split up to look, only to find out that Ozotto has been absorbing them all. Slowly but surely he has begun to absorb everybody and won’t stop until all universes are dealt with. Even Goku and Vegeta are no match for him. They will have to work with the time patrol to end this threat but even then victory is not assured. One thing’s for sure, if they lose this round and there will be nobody else to save them. Can one single villain really challenge all of the strongest fighters like this though?

First up, how is Ozotto as the main villain? Well, he’s a tad on the generic side but I still liked him well enough. I think it’s all the trash talk. Yeah he may be a little cheesy but he still has all the good dialogue about how he’s going to destroy everyone and all of that. He gloats a whole lot and acts really smug a lot. I’m a sucker for that kind of villain. So he’s not going anywhere near my top villains of all time for DBZ but at the same time he works well as the final boss. The fact that he can absorb fighters and then transform into them also gives an excuse for a lot of classic battles to have once again. The manga gets to do a whole lot more with this premise than the anime could after all.

His power level is also rather crazy. The guy can spam almost infinite clones that have powers comparable to their real forms and as soon as they lose he just summons another one. He pretty much can’t be stopped until the heroes sabotage him from the inside and start pulling people out. Otherwise this guy was just not going to go down so you could really say that he is one of the most dangerous fighters to be up against. Even someone as powerful as Mystic Gohan is absolute fodder next to this guy. That may sound a bit harsh but that’s just how it goes. He looks pretty bad in this one.

As always the manga gets props for extending a lot of the fights and subplots here. It was nice seeing things that were only hinted at in the anime and characters like Hearts get a considerable increase in screen time. It also makes sense why the villains would oppose Ozotto because if he wins then there won’t be anything to rule. He will simply continue to absorb everything until it is all gone. At that point, there is really no merit in teaming up with him right?

Ozotto doesn’t strike me as a team player either way though. Now as far as the story goes, there isn’t much more to this than the objective of beating Ozotto. So if you are looking for a really deep plot then I suppose you may end up being a little disappointed. I would question your decision to be going into a Heroes manga expecting that though. The whole point of Dragon Ball Heroes is to place familiar characters into fresh matchups and show you a lot of super forms that are rather out there. This is stuff you would never see in the main series and that’s where the fun comes from.

So you’re here for the nonstop action scenes and the manga definitely delivers on that. Vegeta gets a really big selfless moment where he makes a sacrifice to save everyone. GT Goku shows his maturity as he distracts Ozotto and doesn’t just lose himself in the fight. Super Goku uses a brand new attack based on the movies, etc. Every characters get their big tribute moment and it’s just really awesome. We also see their tenacity as this arc takes place right after the last one so a lot of characters are still super weakened as well. Remember, heroes never get a day off.

Meanwhile the art is also still really good. The characters are all on model and the fights really hold up. The pacing allows for some longer fights as well which is always good. Of course the catch is that the series becomes even faster to read through as a result since it’s so clear. That’s less of a catch and more of a bonus though. It just speaks to the really high quality of the series. This really could be a mainline title if they ever wanted to do that. Just from the art at least you would never know the difference.

I do hope that some of these characters like Hearts do return at some point though. There is just a lot you can do with these characters and to have them closed off for all time because Heroes has ended would be super disappointing. You have to bring these guys back and it’s why I hope the next Arcade game is still ambitious so it can bring these guys in at some point. Hey, a guy can hope right?

Overall, Meteor Mission is definitely a great title. It’s a really epic story and a fitting end to the series. You don’t need a substantial amount of plot when the main premise is this good after all. Also, who else could the final fight contain but a team up of SSJ4 and Ultra Instinct Gokus? Definitely fun stuff all around and everyone gets a little something to do here. Even if you’ve never checked out the Heroes part of the franchise before, you should check this one out. It works pretty well as a follow up to DB Super if you squint and it can tide you over until the series comes back someday.

Overall 8/10