#This canon Cartoon Network Crossover universe was like what canon facts about characters would make them meet and be friends

[fighting-these-demons]

I updated my tags in case anyone is open to a mini ship manifesto. o7

cartoon network commercial from 2004

[xb-squaredx]

The Life and Times of Ben 10: A Retrospective

As a fan of both superheroes and animation, it should come as no surprise that I was quite a big fan of Ben 10 back in the day. One of Cartoon Network’s more popular series, it told the story of Ben Tennyson, and how his life changed forever when an alien device, the Omnitrix, becomes attached to his wrist and he finds he can use it to turn into various alien forms. So naturally he does what any ten year old would do in that situation and becomes a super hero. Perhaps one of the more “toyetic” franchises Cartoon Network has ever had, it was extremely profitable and featured several sequel series, TV movies and specials, having the distinction of being Cartoon Network’s longest running original series. It’s back now with a reboot, and it seems timely enough to evaluate the ups and downs the franchise has had, and speculate as to where it might go next. So slap on your watch. It’s hero time!

The series that started it all, and the only series helmed by Man of Action studios (until the reboot anyway), the premise is simple. Ben accidentally acquires the Omnitrix and spends summer vacation on a cross-country road trip with his Grandpa Max and cousin Gwen, saving the day and occasionally causing problems with his alien heroes. Throughout the four seasons, the show builds up an impressive rogue’s gallery for Ben to combat. From the mad scientist Doctor Animo, to the secret anti-alien society of the Forever Knights, Ben clashes with threats both alien and closer to home. Most of the series is Villain of the Week, Ben and his family dealing with a given threat at a new location on their vacation, with some villains becoming more of a recurring problem. Chiefly, there is Vilgax, a galactic warmonger who aims to make the Omnitrix his and proves to be incredibly dangerous in battle, as well as Kevin 11, a mutant around Ben’s age who can absorb energy, and when he absorbs energy from the Omnitrix, alien forms as well. Ben slowly learns more about the Omnitrix with his time with it, as well as the secret history of The Plumbers, a group that has kept people safe from alien attacks for decades, with his Grandpa Max serving as one of their ranks.

The series had a finale of sorts with the TV movie, “Secret of the Omnitrix.” It detailed Ben traveling across the cosmos in search of the Omnitrix’s creator, in order to abort a self-destruct protocol that was accidentally triggered. Outside of that, there was also a live action movie, “Race Against Time” that also seemed to take place after the series had ended, as well as a later CGI animated film, “Destroy All Aliens” that aired several years after the original series had ended, for whatever reason.

On the whole, the original series had a good balance of humor and action, and while the vast majority of the episodes were self-contained, the continuity grew stronger as time went on. Max’s Plumber status was subtly hinted at early on, as was the build up to one of Ben’s alien forms, Ghostfreak, being sentient, with it eventually escaping the watch and becoming a major antagonist. That said, the show’s weak link was probably Gwen early on. Depicted as the more responsible of the two kids, she was a constant voice of reason, but she came off as a bit of a nag. Her and Ben’s relationship was so antagonistic, it makes one question why she was even on the road trip in the first place. The fact that she largely couldn’t contribute to the greater threats at first didn’t help, but she eventually gains knowledge of magic and is able to contribute greater. The show’s greatest strength was its overall simplicity and plenty of room for expansion if they so desired. The “Secret of the Omnitrix” TV movie was a great potential sendoff for the series, and while the final season of the show had some rough spots and felt a little rudderless, it had a good run. But that was merely the beginning…

Man of Action went on to develop a new show, Generator Rex and left the responsibility of making a sequel series in the hands of Dwayne McDuffie, a renowned comic book and television writer, known for the creation of the comic book character Static, and his work on comic book TV shows like Teen Titans, Justice League and Static Shock. It seemed like a good fit, taking the show in a bold new direction, but this direction was not without its critics.

Alien Force took place five years later, featuring an older, wiser and more mature Ben, who must once again don the Omnitrix to take on greater alien threats. This time around he’s joined by Gwen and a reformed Kevin, with Grandpa Max acting as a mentor, but not quite as active as he used to be. The show took on a darker tone, having far greater continuity and exploring various facets of the show’s overall mythology, to mixed reviews overall. Running for three seasons, the show had a variety of new antagonists introduced, as well as new allies. From the Highbreed race that served as the first two season’s antagonists, to Albedo, an assistant to Azmuth, the Omnitrix’s creator, characters new and old came into conflict with Ben. Fans were split on the darker tone and the treatment of certain characters. This incarnation of Vilgax is often contested, for one, and certain plot points in the series directly retconned and contradicted previously established canon. Gwen’s powers were stated to not be magic, stating that magic didn’t exist and her powers were the results of being part alien (though later, confusingly, magic was confirmed to exist and Gwen would occasionally cast spells again). Meanwhile, Kevin’s power set dramatically shifted from absorbing energy to being able to absorb the properties of solid matter, coating himself in a thin armor of whatever he touched, and rather than being a mutant, his powers are also shown to be from alien heritage. Kevin in general underwent a major overhaul in character, and despite being a major foe for Ben in the past, he is almost instantly inducted into their team with little friction.

Season three attempted to “recapture” bits of the original series after all of the backlash, causing Ben to suddenly lose his maturity and more comedy was injected into the series, albeit unevenly. A trend would start from season three of Alien Force on to recapture the spark of the original series. More characters from the original series made a return, most notably Vilgax, before building up to the finale. Albedo returns with a new Omnitrix, known as the Ultimatrix, which allows him to evolve his alien forms into a stronger “ultimate” form. Albedo teams up with Vilgax, and Ben is forced to use the Ultimatrix himself to defeat them, which gives us a segue to the next series.

One year after the end of Alien Force, Ben is still adjusting to the Ultimatrix, as well as newfound fame and distrust when his true identity is leaked to the world. Truth be told, it was around the end of season one of Ultimate Alien that I started falling out with the show, and while fans continued to be split on the direction the show was going, it still lasted three seasons.

Season one focused on Aggregor, a villainous member of Kevin’s alien species and his goal of absorbing the powers of five special aliens to gain access to something powerful enough to reshape the universe into his image. Despite their efforts, he proves too strong to defeat, and Kevin sacrifices his sanity by absorbing energy from the Ultimatrix, once again taking on a monstrous form to take Aggregor down. The end of the season highlights how Kevin changed drastically from the original series up until that point, before he is eventually saved. Season two is mostly made up of one-off stories, though begins planting seeds that would blossom forth in the third season. The final season sees Ben and his friends learning more about the anti-alien organization, The Forever Knights, as an ancient, transdimentional being attempts to conquer Earth. The finale has Azmuth return and present Ben with a new Omnitrix, one that is apparently “perfect,” feeling Ben has proved himself more than worthy.

Ultimate Alien gets points for attempting to connect multiple dots in the greater Ben 10 mythos, managing to explain how Kevin reformed, why Ben trusted him so readily in Alien Force and even attempted to tie in the Race Against Time live-action movie, as well as Alien Force’s own live-action movie, Ben 10: Alien Swarm. Ben also had a crossover episode with Man of Action’s Generator Rex during the Ultimate Alien series, which most would agree wound up being awesome for fans of both.

Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, while successful, made the show’s continuity more complicated and its darker tone seemed to affect its global popularity. Higher-ups at Cartoon Network had already attempted to inject some more lightheartedness and simplicity back into the series at various points to mixed success, and as a result I feel that both sequel series have some serious tonal issues. Ben at times is incredibly goofy and carefree, like his old self, but spends the latter part of Ultimate Alien’s first season dead-set on killing Kevin, believing he can’t be saved. We have lighthearted adversaries like the hillbilly Vreedle family, alongside Dagon, essentially alien Cthulhu. It was clear there were arguments in the writer’s room about just where to take the series, considering the various retcons and drastic changes in personality or motive for some characters. The villain Charmcaster went back and forth on whether or not she wanted to reform, and there are multiple points where Azmuth seems to change his mind on just what he made the Omnitrix for in the first place. Matters grew more complicated with the unfortunate passing of series’ producer Dwayne McDuffie near the end of the series, and new showrunners taking over as the series took on its greatest change yet.

With Alien Force and Ultimate Alien somewhat struggling globally, a major overhaul of the show was proposed moving forward. Derrick J. Wyatt, famous for his designs on shows like Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated and Transformers: Animated took over as art director for the show, resulting in a more simplistic, cartoony style that seemed to homage the original series as best it could. New showrunner Matt Youngberg had been a fan of the series back in the day (and was a writer on the previous series), alongside Wyatt, and the two were quite eager to create a series that felt more like the original and blatantly ignored or changed aspects from the two sequel series that went against that.

And so, Ben 10 Omniverse was created with an interesting premise. Taking place just months after the end of Ultimate Alien, Ben still fights alien threats, though at times the series will flash back to Ben at age 11, and showcased previously unseen adventures that would occasionally tie back into the present. In this series, Gwen is off to college with Kevin accompanying her, so Ben is paired with Rook, a talented Plumber that nonetheless rubs Ben the wrong way. Ben also sees another character overhaul, acting far more immature, like his ten year old self. This series is chock-full of references to the original series, as well as the sequel series and in some respects can be considered a celebration of the Ben 10 universe.

Going on for a staggering 80 episodes, the series is composed of eight main-story arcs of varying length, each season seeing a new threat. We start off with the villainous Khyber, who uses a device known as the Nemetrix to transform his hunting dog into feral aliens that are natural predators of Ben’s Omnitrix aliens, which later connects to Malware, a villain from Ben’s past. Later arcs would involve many past foes (like Vilgax, Albedo and Ghostfreak), culminating with the final arc, the “Time War” which saw the entirety of creation put at stake, ending with Ben and Rook witnessing the rebirth of the universe. Ben proposes an intergalactic road trip to explore the new world, and the series at last concludes.

Omniverse furthered the rift that had developed between fans ever since the original series had concluded. Some were split on the tone once again harkening back to the original series, while ignoring aspects of the older shows that they might have liked. Gwen and Kevin suddenly being excised from the show was controversial, as was the art style. Fans also grew tired of Ben’s growing harem of love interests, despite the fact that several episodes taking place in the far future already showed the person Ben would end up with, rending all of the “will they or won’t they” pointless. The “Rooters” story arc also received backlash, as it once again retconned Kevin’s origins, and really only brought up more questions than it answered.

Studio mandates also plague Omniverse, from decreasing the amount of new aliens Ben would acquire, to introducing the character Skurd, who would allow Ben to use the powers of two aliens at once, who was brought forth by Bandai, the series’ toy maker, likely as a way to sell more merchandise. Near the end of its life, Omniverse found itself low-priority for Cartoon Network. Its final seasons received little to no promotion and were placed in bad timeslots, the series being burned off quickly in the last few months of 2014. Toy sales had fallen and despite the show’s overall success in ratings, this spelled doom for the brand…

…for a time.

In 2016, hot off the heels of the successful (if contested) reboots, Teen Titans Go! and The Powerpuff Girls, Cartoon Network rebooted the Ben 10 series, though it didn’t premiere in its country of origin until mid-2017. The series once again focuses on a ten year old Ben Tennyson, who travels with his Grandpa Max and cousin Gwen, getting involved in all kinds of alien hijinks. In addition to being produced by Man of Action once more, the reboot takes on a new cartoony style that isn’t as extreme as Omniverse, looking similar to other current CN series, as well as adopting a lighthearted tone and leaving the half-hour episodes behind in favor of a two-shorts format.

Again, the series is simplified to a Villain of the Week format, with many villains new and old appearing here, pulled from the various ­Ben 10 series that came before it. As of this writing, season one has concluded with a second season in the works, though over half of these episodes have yet to air in the United States, the United Kingdom receiving the series over half a year early (due to its popularity overseas, likely). The season is content to leave continuity loose, with no major story arcs developing, or if they are, they develop slowly. However, the season one finale, split up into four episodes, details the grand introduction of Vilgax back into the series, with Ben also finding a way to “upgrade” his Omnitrix as a bid to defeat the villain. The season concludes with the Plumbers being introduced (though Max isn’t mentioned being among them), and Ben discovering a new alien form on the watch. While the show will likely start doing more with its later seasons, with over forty of these 11 minute episodes produced, there’s more than enough to evaluate as of now.

Generally speaking, the show seems to be doing well. CN promotes it heavily, alongside its toys, and with a second season ordered, they clearly have faith in it. Fans of the old series remain split (which seems to be inevitable with this fandom); though many feel the season one finale might lead to bigger and better things. As for me, I’m of two minds about it.

The fact that it is a reboot means that it has lost the novelty of the original series, and even with the changes made to characters this time around (such as Vilgax’s origins) there’s a real feeling of déjà vu. There’s little there to surprise me at this point and time will tell if the series can stand on its own without constantly referencing its past. The tone being lighthearted and the continuity being lax aren’t inherently bad, but I can’t shake the feeling that the series is being quite lazy.

Animation mistakes crop up quite often, and the backgrounds in a lot of episodes have little going on, often just a mess of color and basic shapes. All of Ben’s more monstrous and complex alien forms have either been redesigned (as is the case with Stinkfly) or removed entirely (Ghostfreak, Wildmutt and Ripjaws), resulting in a roster of aliens that, while fine on their own, make it hard to ignore that they’re ALL humanoid, missing out on that inhuman “alien” appeal. Many episodes shamelessly regurgitate plots from past series, while the continuity is very spotty. Ben knows the name of the Omnitrix right off the bat when there’s no reason he would, while some villains are introduced with Ben and the family having already run into them, and yet other villains get proper introduction episodes. While I’m thankful the humor isn’t overloaded with memes or relies on turning the characters into crude caricatures of themselves (like two OTHER reboots on the channel), I don’t find much of it very inspired.

I find myself cautious about the series from this point forward. I’d love to see it make a return to form, and considering how shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe might have started out episodic before adopting strong continuity and took more narrative risks, Ben 10 might find a way to marry the two narrative styles in due time. One thing’s clear though, no matter what the series goes through, weather Ben has 10 aliens of 10,000, this is one series that doesn’t quit. And with superheroes as hot as they are now, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Until next time.

-B