What do you think a deconstruction of Goku would look like?

Alright, I feel like we've had so much media deconstructing superheroes, especially Superman. The Boys, Invincible, Injustice, even characters like Metroman, all take the traditional superhero ideal, a powerful, morally righteous figure who protects others, and ask what happens when those assumptions break down. They take our preconceived notions about what Superman represents and turn them on their head.

On the anime and manga side, though, things feel different. While shonen has produced countless protagonists inspired by the Goku archetype, Luffy, Naruto, Gon, Asta, and many others, it feels like there are surprisingly few stories interested in deconstructing that archetype the way Western media has deconstructed Superman. One Punch Man comes close in some respects, but Saitama feels more like a parody of battle shonen protagonists in general than a direct examination of the ideas Goku represents.

Maybe that's because the Goku archetype is harder to deconstruct than Superman. Superman is fundamentally about morality and power, so it's easy to ask what happens when either of those things fail. Goku, on the other hand, is about self-improvement, optimism, competition, and the belief that getting stronger can solve almost any problem. Yet those assumptions seem just as ripe for examination. What happens when the pursuit of strength becomes unhealthy? What happens when a hero's love of fighting causes more harm than good? What happens when someone can never be satisfied with peace because they're always chasing the next challenge? What if the strongest person in the world is actually the reason stronger and stronger threats keep appearing in the first place?

I also think an "evil Goku" would look very different from the typical "evil Superman" story. Evil Superman stories usually revolve around power, authority, and what happens when the world's greatest protector becomes its ruler. Goku was never motivated by power over others, so an evil version of him probably wouldn't be interested in conquering anything. Instead, he would take his love of battle and self-improvement to its logical extreme, valuing strength above everything else. He might actively encourage wars, disasters, and conflicts because he genuinely believes struggle is what allows people to grow stronger. Rather than a tyrant, he'd be a true believer who sees the entire world as one giant tournament arc. In that sense, the darkest version of Goku isn't someone who wants to rule humanity, it's someone who values becoming stronger more than human life itself.

Maybe I'm missing some examples, but it feels like anime has spent decades creating descendants of Goku while spending relatively little time interrogating the assumptions that make the Goku archetype work in the first place. We've gotten countless "What if Superman was bad?" stories. I'm curious what the equivalent "What if Goku was wrong?" story would actually look like.