The Weekly ☆ Character Showcase is an article series where we introduce one character from the Dragon Ball universe each week.
This time, we'll be analyzing Dragon Ball's very own mad scientist, Dr. Gero!

Dr. Gero was a scientist of the Red Ribbon Army, an evil military force that sought after world domination.
However, after the Doctor developed Androids 1 through 8, Goku entered the picture and toppled the once fearsome army single-handedly.
Plotting his revenge against the young Saiyan, Dr. Gero set up a secret laboratory for himself in a cave in the mountains close to North City, where he continued to research and develop his Android creations.
He built tiny insect-like spy drones to observe Goku and his allies throughout the years, during that time also continuing to work on Androids 9 to 19, and eventually turned into the subject of his own research to become Android 20.

(Tale 365)

Dr. Gero may have been unhinged, but he was a genuinely brilliant scientist who even had his photograph published in academic journals. According to Bulma, his reputation among fellow scientists was "a jerk, but a genius".
When examining Android 17's blueprints, Dr. Brief commented that they were so complex that even he couldn't comprehend all of it and lamented, "If only Dr. Gero had used his genius for good!"

"Dragon Ball" Tale 335

→Preview: Next week's character will be Dr. Gero 2.0!

*All comic images are from the Japanese version.