Dragon Ball Z's Cell Is Probably Based On G.I.Joe's Serpentor

Copying stuff from each other is just pretty normal, right? Dragon Ball Z was an Anime that really copied a lot of popular culture stuff. Son Goku is obviously based on Sun Wukong. Eventually, stuff from other popular culture got absorbed. Toei Ltd. had a partnership with Marvel during the 1980s. Some stuff Tokusatsu copied from Marvel. We have the Japanese Spiderman which is NOT part of the Marvel continuity but its own or how Bazoo in Dengeki Sentai Changeman is the show's version of Ego the Living Planet. Not to mention, Toei Ltd. also had a partnership with Hasbro when its animation studios in regards to G.I.Joe (Sunbow era) and Transformers Generation One. So, it's really no surprise that they kept copying stuff. Soon enough, the Cell Saga with Dragon Ball Z has some Marvel influence (and other influence) in it.

Perhaps the most obvious is that Future Trunks' storyline is clearly copied from Days Of Future Past in X-Men. Future Trunks might be a nod to Cable from the X-Men comic series - except Cable was born in the main timeline and came back twice older than his parents due to timeline displacement. Trunks arrives to try and avert the disastrous future where people suffer under mechanical menace. In Days of Future Past - the world is ruled by Sentinels. In Trunks' timeline, it's ruled by the Androids. However, that's not the only thing - you've got Cell who's created as a near-omnipotent abomination. It's possible that Akira Toriyama probably had Stryfe from X-Force in mind. Though, I also thought that Toriyama also had Serpentor in mind in creating Cell. Why am I talking about Serpentor? A review of both characters will tell you why. 

What do Cell and Serpentor have in common? Both eldritch abominations are engineered to be super soldiers. In the Marvel comics, Serpentor was originally meant to be a super-soldier for COBRA who eventually disposed of his employer. In the cartoons, Serpentor was meant to replace Cobra Commander. Regardless, we have a mad scientist behind them collecting DNA samples namely Dr. Mindbender and Dr. Gero. Dr. Gero seems to be a hybrid of Bolivar Trask from X-Men and Dr. Mindbender from G.I.Joe. Dr. Mindbender collects various conquerors to create Serpentor. Dr. Gero collects the DNA of various warriors and includes the cells of the tyrant Frieza to create his abomination. Both Cell and Serpentor have their eyes fixed on world domination. 

If you've read the comics - you may notice that Serpentor also has a couple of juniors. Dr. Mindbender created clone children which were named Ivan, Alexander, Julius, Atilla, Genghis, Vlad, Philip, Napoleon, and Thomas. In the case of Cell - he was able to sprout Cell Juniors though they didn't have names and were generic minions. Regardless, the parallelism of Serpentor and Cell can be seen. Both super soldiers have heavy ambitions meant to carry out their mad scientist creators' plans. Though, Cell is somewhat saner than the cartoon Serpentor. Only if the cartoon Serpentor had Cell's strategic influence then he would've been a more serious threat than Cobra Commander. The comics Serpentor though was more cunning and was able to even sway followers into the faction called the Coil. 

What do you think of this comparison? I assume many can see the similarity!