Dragon Ball’s Goku Has An Upgraded Version of Spider-Sense

The powers exhibited by Goku throughout the Dragon Ball manga series have reached godlike proportions, and his latest upgrade gave Goku a better version of Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense. Through years of training, Goku has gone from being a powerful fighter of Earth to a being that can hold his own against a God of Destruction. Upon fighting in a tournament to save his universe from utter annihilation, Goku was able to reach a level of power beyond that of a god, basically an upgraded Spider-Sense, known as Autonomous Ultra Instinct.

Goku showed off the power of Ultra Instinct during the Tournament of Power in the “Universe Survival Saga” of Dragon Ball Super by Akira Toriyama. During the tournament, Goku and the other Z-Fighters were facing warriors from other universes across the Dragon Ball multiverse. While the power Goku had previously possessed was enough to carry him and his team through most of the tournament, the Saiyan quickly learned that he wasn’t powerful enough to stop the nearly invincible Jiren. When Goku and Jiren faced-off, Goku was as good as beaten until he tapped into the angelic power of Autonomous Ultra Instinct which gave him the edge he needed to eventually defeat Jiren and save his universe. 

Autonomous Ultra Instinct is a power that allows the body of the user to react to danger without them needing to consciously think about a counter or dodge. Given the power’s parameters, it is basically just a better version of Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense. The Spider-Sense is a power that alerts one of impending danger, giving them time to react and respond to the threat before it arrives. Where the two differ, however, is at the moment that danger arrives. Goku’s Ultra Instinct forces his body to react without him having to do anything consciously, whereas Spider-Sense simply alerts to the danger leaving it up to Spider-Man to react on his own. 

The clearest example of Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense alerting Spider-Man to danger was shown when Peter Parker was put in the hospital after the events of The Amazing Spider-Man #75. After battling the U-Foes, Spider-Man was caught in an explosion which flooded his body with near-lethal amounts of radiation. While being treated for radiation poisoning at the hospital, Peter was unconscious and his Spider-Sense was constantly triggering his mind as it was reacting to the deadly radiation spreading through his body. While Peter was unable to do anything to stop this danger, his Spider-Sense acted on its own and gave Spider-Man warning after warning of the life-threatening situation he was in. 

The similarities between Spider-Sense and Ultra Instinct is the autonomous aspect of them both. Spider-Man’s ability doesn’t require any thought on Peter’s part until it is time to react similarly to Goku’s Ultra Instinct. Dragon Ball’s version of the power is better because it not only alerts Goku to impending danger, but reacts to that danger for him without the need for Goku to have a conscious reaction, thereby acting as an upgraded version of Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense.

About The Author