It’s only tweenage wasteland: “Kevin 11”
Jan. 2nd, 2011 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameFirst up, as a head’s up, I’m sick, a little tired, and drugged up on cold medicine while writing this. Hopefully, this will be hilarious.
The Great Tennyson Roadtrip brings them to New York, New York, where Max has arranged things for them to stay in a four-star hotel for one night. Why go to such an expensive hotel for one night is beyond me, but maybe William Shatner found them a great deal. As it turns out, this hotel is also hosting some kind of small convention for people to test the upcoming Sumo Slammers videogame. And because Ben seriously has an addiction problem, he tries to sneak in, but a big, burly security guard keeps him out. Max tells Ben not to even think about trying to sneak in, so it comes as no surprise when Ben goes Ghostfreak and does just that. He’s caught playing the game after the watch times out, and the guard kicks the whole family out of the hotel. I’m not sure, but isn’t this a little extreme for the matter of a kid sneaking into an exhibit? It’s not even a matter of theft. I don’t know; maybe I’ve just been exposed to The Suite Life too long. But naturally, everyone turns against Ben, and Max lectures Ben for misusing the watch. Ben argues that he’s done so much good with it that he deserves to be able to use it for fun, but Max has had it with Ben’s self-absorbed attitude and grounds him from all Sumo Slammers stuff. Out of nowhere, Ben insists that Max can’t tell him what to do because he’s not his dad.
…Can somebody come back to Earth and pick me up? Because I’m completely lost. This has nothing to do with anything else going on in the episode. It really doesn’t. It’s not like, say, Lilo and Stitch where Nani is struggling to fill in the role of mom to Lilo while also being her sister. There’s absolutely no mention of Ben’s parents up until this point, and this argument has absolutely no bearing on anything else that happens in the episode. There’s really no context for it at all.
So, this strange moment aside, Max heads back to try to get some of his money back, and Ben decides, “Screw it,” and heads off on his own, with Gwen following to try to talk sense into him. He ends up at the TotalZone arcade, but the games are eating his money and the staff doesn’t give a shit. Another kid agrees with Ben’s bitching, and it’s bromance at first sight as Ben meets Kevin. I’ll avoid analyzing him too much, given that most of the information we get on him comes from Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, which weren’t conceived of yet (kind of like analyzing Tommy Oliver in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and determining how everything leads to him growing up to become a doctor of paleontology in Dino Thunder), and were also handled by another team (which makes it kind of like determining how Caleb’s personality issues in season 1 of W.I.T.C.H. have to do with the new team’s decision in season 2 that he’s Nerissa’s son). What we’ve got are the basics: he’s a kid on his own with the power to absorb and throw electricity, and he’s totally, completely, 100% trustworthy. While Ben’s totally up for a friendship, Gwen sees through him and knows better than to trust him. Give it five years, sweetie. It turns out that Kevin’s in trouble with a local street gang for trashing their hangout. Ben tries to stand up to the punks and defend his new friend, but he’s thrown aside easily because he’s tiny and not at all threatening. Above Gwen’s protests, he goes XLR-8 and takes out the punks before running off. The Tennysons meet up with Kevin outside, where he’s going on about how awesome that was and is really impressed that Ben apparently knows this XLR-8 guy. He offers to give Ben the grand tour, but Gwen reminds him that Grandpa Max is already pissed off at him. Ben’s still pissed and goes off with Kevin, leaving Gwen to go back to the Rustbucket and try to explain things.
Kevin takes Ben to his hideout in the old abandoned subway station and explains that his family wasn’t exactly thrilled to have a “freak” for a son and that’s why he’s on his own. And for the sake of the revelations in Ultimate Alien, Kevin does in fact describe it fairly ambiguously, insisting that his family is “long gone.” Yeah, it gives the definite impression that he was kicked out, but it could also explain a couple of parents stuck on the streets because their out-of-control, guano loco son blew up the house and then ran off. And hey, it’s not like Kevin establishes himself as the most trustworthy character here. Ben starts bitching about Max grounding him for that Sumo Slammers stunt, and it gives Kevin an idea. He and Ben sneak to a warehouse, where he’s gotten a tip about a shipment of the new game. A tip from who? Gennai? They break in and try to steal a game, but a SWAT team shows up.
Yes. A SWAT team. Protecting a videogame. This is Ben 10, folks. I can’t make this shit up.
Kevin proves he has no qualms fighting these guys and starts going for such things as blasting electricity and trying to kill them with a forklift, olé. The kids manage to get out of the warehouse, but with the police surrounding them, they don’t have many options. Ben asks if Kevin can keep a secret and goes Stinkfly, flying him out of there. …While the police continue to shoot at them, apparently not at all concerned that the giant bug is holding a human child the whole time. Oy. I’m starting to think there’s a reason the police are utterly useless in the Alien Force finale “The Final Battle.” Ben and Kevin fly through the harbor and quickly reach—hey, the Statue of Liberty isn’t that close to Manhattan! Nor is it that small! Geography and size fail! After flying around the Statue of Liberty (it’s only a model), they finally manage to lose them in the city when Ben transforms back. Ben explains everything about the watch to Kevin—how it can transform him into ten different aliens, how he was the one who saved him back at TotalZone, and how the damn thing never works when he wants it to. Kevin says that he might be able to figure it out and makes a grab for the watch. To Ben’s credit, he actually starts getting uncomfortable here and explains that it’s stuck on his wrist and he can’t get it off. Undaunted, Kevin suggests that they become partners—with their combined powers, they could do anything. And despite appearing a little apprehensive, Ben agrees.
This partnership comes to an abrupt end when Kevin shows him just what his plan is. A train carrying cash is heading down one track, and a passenger train down another. Kevin plans to make them collide, have Ben grab the cash, and then they make a break for it. Ben, however, realizes that it could cost hundreds of people their lives, but Kevin’s all “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Realizing that his new friend is totally guano loco, Ben decides he’s had it and tries to talk Kevin out of it. He realizes that like Kevin, he cares only about himself—and this is another odd moment that I’ll discuss later on. He goes Heatblast to try to stop Kevin.
Okay, people. Countdown to this backfiring?
Kevin uses his powers to knock out the lights, leaving Heatblast blind and a big glowing target. Kevin jumps him and absorbs some Omnitrix energy. And if you’re a Digimon fan and you’ve ever heard Takuya’s “THIS IS GONNA HURT!” scream, that’s the one he has right there. But when Ben stops out of fear that his friend is hurt, it turns out that Kevin’s successfully absorbed the energy, partially transforming into a mini-Heatblast. Gee, an out-of-control Michael Reisz character throwing fireballs around. Where have I seen this before? But something to note: Kevin remarks that nobody will ever call him a “freak” again, which does indicate he’s got some internal issues about that—which of course, are explored by another team in the sequels. As the trains arrive, Heatblast melts the controls, which SOMEHOW causes the tracks to go back to normal. I’m reasonably sure that train tracks don’t work like that. With a little pyro tornado, he manages to hitch a ride on the passenger train to escape going splat. Kevin, meanwhile, decides to forget the cold cash because revenge is apparently a dish best served hot.
Meanwhile, Max and Gwen have been searching for Ben and heard on the radio about reports of fires in one of the subway stations. Reasonably assuming that bizarre property damage = Ben, they manage to catch up with the train, where Ben’s transformed back, barely clinging onto the roof, and headed for a low clearance zone. He manages to jump off the train and land on the Rustbucket’s shade and not die, and Max lectures him about trust once he gets inside. Ben accepts his reprimands and asks Max to trust him that Kevin’s abusing Heatblast’s powers. Somehow or another, he knows that Kevin’s attacking the 39th St gang. Unfortunately, in what I think is probably one of the only things they got right about New York City, the traffic slows them down to a stop, and Ben realizes it’s just faster to walk when Four-Arms leaps from car to car. Admit it, you’ve wanted to do the same in a traffic jam.
Kevin’s rampage against the gang comes to a sudden stop when he runs out of power, reverting to normal. Four-Arms confronts him, but Kevin threatens to use what electricity he’s got left to zap the hell out of the punks. Four-Arms grabs him to throw off his aim, but Kevin absorbs his powers. And ends up with six arms. Really, guys? What part of that makes sense to you? Max and Gwen arrive and save the gang while Kevin kicks Ben’s ass. But when he sees that the watch is ready to time out, Ben cuts the crap and hands the little shit his ass, forcing him to cry uncle. Kevin admits that he was out of control and says that it’s because he doesn’t have someone like Ben to show him the way. Ben offers him a second chance and insists they can still be partners; so long as Kevin stops using his powers for personal gain and starts using them for good, he’ll have a place with the Tennyson family. And what will he get out of it? People who actually like him. As Ben offers his hand, Kevin grabs the Omnitrix. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal. He tries to pull it off Ben’s wrist, but it won’t budge. Max tries to hit Kevin from behind, but that doesn’t go well. Don’t worry, Max, you’ll get your shot in six years. The Omnitrix decides it’s not taking any of this crap and throws Kevin back with a bio-energy feedback pulse. Reverted to normal, Kevin runs off. Back in the Rustbucket, Ben apologizes for everything, but though Max forgives him, he insists that Ben will have to work to regain his trust. And in his hideout, Kevin reveals that he’s still got some fire power left.
Again, I’m not really analyzing Kevin as in-depth as normally because most of what we know about him comes from Dwayne McDuffie and Glen Murakami’s team, not Man of Action. But this is the episode that establishes Ben and Kevin’s very interesting relationship, which has its effects on one of the “potential future” episodes written by Greg Weisman and on the sequels.
The heart of this episode is the issue of trust and the abuse of power. And it really feels tacked on. To be fair, the issue of abuse of power does work—it’s a major problem with Ben throughout the first series. He is constantly misusing the Omnitrix, using it for pranks and other sorts of personal gain, and never thinking through his transformations. Hell, I’d go so far as to say that the reason why he’s such an effective fighter in the original is because the Omnitrix doesn’t listen to him—when it forces him into a different transformation, he’s forced to think on his feet and find a creative solution to his problems. We’re to assume that Ben learns his lesson in “The Secret of the Omnitrix,” which is supposed to be the canonical endpoint of series one. Certainly by Alien Force season one, he’s using his powers more wisely—except for season three, which I’ll get to in a moment.
Kevin very obviously abuses his powers, constantly absorbing electricity pick-me-ups wherever he goes. He uses these powers to steal game tokens from an arcade, steal videogames from insanely well-guarded facilities, and to kill innocent people in order to make a quick buck. Loveable little scamp, isn’t he? Of course, we find out in the sequels that he’s doing this because absorbing energy costs him his sanity, but to be honest? Nothing about him in this first appearance says he’s sane to begin with. Every little slight sets him off, and he overreacts. He abuses trust and he lies to try to gain sympathy. And he’s very sensitive about the fact that he’s considered a “freak.” It’s very hard to tell right here how much is him being a little shit and how much is mental illness. For a good comparison (featuring Kevin’s VA this episode), check this out. In this scene from season one of Digimon, Matt attacks his best friend, Tai, because he feels that Tai’s leadership isn’t what the team needs. They’re mourning the loss of friends, they’re trying to free a devastated world, and they’re falling apart. This brings him to the breaking point, and he decides he’s going to fight Tai to the death if he has to in order to prove his point.
Now, what isn’t evident from this clip: Matt has been set up. In the episode before, he was manipulated by a servant of their current enemy, Puppetmon, to be jealous of Tai’s ability to lead and be close to the others. Especially when it comes to Matt’s younger brother, TK, who no longer needs his big brother to watch out for him, which Tai understands because he treats him like a grownup. It pretty much takes the rest of the arc for Matt to realize that he isn’t angry at Tai; he’s angry at himself for failing to really find his place, and he’s taking it out on Tai for managing to be successful where he failed.
A couple of best friends who briefly become enemies who then become friends who are willing to punch each other out from time to time? Sounds familiar, don’t it? In fact, I sometimes wonder if the real reason Kevin was recast as Charlie Schlatter in the rest of series one was because otherwise, they’d have to call Joshua Seth out of retirement to take over as Ben.
So yes, it’s hard to tell whether or not you can trust Kevin at first glance. And I think that’s the whole point. There’s definitely a lot sympathetic about him, but you have to wonder if he’s telling the truth or manipulating you. And then you wonder how much of his attitude is that he hates the world and how much is that he hates himself.
The second theme—or rather, moral, given the more didactic tone of the original series—is trust. And unlike the abuse of power, it’s really not well handled here. It’s very evident that Kevin is abusing Ben’s trust, asking him to do things that he normally would never do—and we’ll get to this again in “Ken 10”—but everything on Ben’s side is really shoehorned in. For one, we’re talking about a kid whose first idea upon getting a watch that turns him into various aliens is to become a superhero. Why in the hell is he trying to steal a videogame? He knows better than that—it’s not what a hero does. There’s a very obvious line between mischief (Ben’s forte) and crime, and it’s very hard to miss. So, yeah, I call bullshit on Ben’s actions in this episode. The trust thing gets worse when Grandpa Max says that Ben will have to earn his trust back at the end. This is never followed up on in the rest of the series, nor in any of the sequels. I may bring it up as a point of difference when I get to “Ken 10,” but yeah. It’s a moment that could have seriously impacted Ben’s character for the rest of the original series…and they don’t do anything with it. It’s just a throwaway line with no significance. Fail.
This brings me to a criticism I never thought I’d make. When I reviewed season one of Ultimate Alien, I took pains to point out how Ben and Kevin were portrayed as reflections of one another. Kevin was pretty much conceived as Ben’s foil. But looking back on this episode, I’ve got to say that it really doesn’t work as well as it does later on, the more they build up Kevin and by proxy, Ben.
The issue of abuse of power is a big similarity between them, but there’s a major difference: Ben doesn’t abuse his powers to hurt people. In fact, there’s an entire scene in the arcade where he decides to use the watch to help Kevin, even though Gwen warns him not to. Strictly speaking, this is Ben using his powers properly. Regardless of who Kevin is, he’s an eleven-year-old kid getting ganged up on by a bunch of punks who have no problem throwing around little kids. Kevin could get hurt or killed. Ben owes it to Kevin and to himself to use the watch to save him because that’s what a hero does. And when Gwen criticizes Ben for it later, Ben points out that she wouldn’t get it and neither would Max. It feels horribly tacked on, just as much as the issues of trust and Ben’s out-of-nowhere comment about Max not being his father and thus can’t tell him what to do.
My issue with Ben and Kevin as foils in this episode—and this episode alone—is that it requires a lot of liberties being taken with Ben’s character that make no sense at all. Ben may misuse his powers and he may miss the big picture, but he’s nowhere near as self-absorbed as this episode tries to make him out to be. When he comes to his self-revelation that he’s like Kevin in that he doesn’t care about anyone but himself, I call bullshit. Sure, he’ll sneak past security to play a videogame and he’ll rebel against his family, but at the end of the day, the moment someone needs his help—whether it’s a complete stranger or a friend—he’s the first to run in and help them. And it’s far too early in the series for him to be getting a big head about it, like he would later in Alien Force season 3 and Ultimate Alien. That’s probably the only time I’ll ever defend his narcissism in season 3, so enjoy it while it lasts. The point is that there is absolutely no reason for us to accept this early in the game that Ben is using the watch for anything other than altruistic reasons—aside from the odd prank here and there. He’s still a hero right now, and there’s no danger at this point of him going over to the dark side. So, in short: When trying to introduce a foil, make Kevin the foil of Ben, not the other way around. That way, it works.
Something I noticed (aside from all the times I could slip in a Digimon joke) was that when Kevin absorbed Four-Arms’s powers, the extra eyes he gained were green instead of yellow, like Four-Arms’s eyes are supposed to be. I only point this out because of Kevin’s new form in Ultimate Alien, which does have green eyes, in keeping with the apparent genetic drift from Ben in all of the aliens. This can’t be explained away as Kevin’s own eye color, since, well, he’s got brown eyes. It’s otherwise unremarkable except for the concept being used later in UA.
“Kevin 11” was written Greg Klein. As you may have figured out, Kevin was voiced by the same guy who played Matt Ishida and Takuya Kanbara in Digimon: Michael Reisz.
The Great Tennyson Roadtrip brings them to New York, New York, where Max has arranged things for them to stay in a four-star hotel for one night. Why go to such an expensive hotel for one night is beyond me, but maybe William Shatner found them a great deal. As it turns out, this hotel is also hosting some kind of small convention for people to test the upcoming Sumo Slammers videogame. And because Ben seriously has an addiction problem, he tries to sneak in, but a big, burly security guard keeps him out. Max tells Ben not to even think about trying to sneak in, so it comes as no surprise when Ben goes Ghostfreak and does just that. He’s caught playing the game after the watch times out, and the guard kicks the whole family out of the hotel. I’m not sure, but isn’t this a little extreme for the matter of a kid sneaking into an exhibit? It’s not even a matter of theft. I don’t know; maybe I’ve just been exposed to The Suite Life too long. But naturally, everyone turns against Ben, and Max lectures Ben for misusing the watch. Ben argues that he’s done so much good with it that he deserves to be able to use it for fun, but Max has had it with Ben’s self-absorbed attitude and grounds him from all Sumo Slammers stuff. Out of nowhere, Ben insists that Max can’t tell him what to do because he’s not his dad.
…Can somebody come back to Earth and pick me up? Because I’m completely lost. This has nothing to do with anything else going on in the episode. It really doesn’t. It’s not like, say, Lilo and Stitch where Nani is struggling to fill in the role of mom to Lilo while also being her sister. There’s absolutely no mention of Ben’s parents up until this point, and this argument has absolutely no bearing on anything else that happens in the episode. There’s really no context for it at all.
So, this strange moment aside, Max heads back to try to get some of his money back, and Ben decides, “Screw it,” and heads off on his own, with Gwen following to try to talk sense into him. He ends up at the TotalZone arcade, but the games are eating his money and the staff doesn’t give a shit. Another kid agrees with Ben’s bitching, and it’s bromance at first sight as Ben meets Kevin. I’ll avoid analyzing him too much, given that most of the information we get on him comes from Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, which weren’t conceived of yet (kind of like analyzing Tommy Oliver in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and determining how everything leads to him growing up to become a doctor of paleontology in Dino Thunder), and were also handled by another team (which makes it kind of like determining how Caleb’s personality issues in season 1 of W.I.T.C.H. have to do with the new team’s decision in season 2 that he’s Nerissa’s son). What we’ve got are the basics: he’s a kid on his own with the power to absorb and throw electricity, and he’s totally, completely, 100% trustworthy. While Ben’s totally up for a friendship, Gwen sees through him and knows better than to trust him. Give it five years, sweetie. It turns out that Kevin’s in trouble with a local street gang for trashing their hangout. Ben tries to stand up to the punks and defend his new friend, but he’s thrown aside easily because he’s tiny and not at all threatening. Above Gwen’s protests, he goes XLR-8 and takes out the punks before running off. The Tennysons meet up with Kevin outside, where he’s going on about how awesome that was and is really impressed that Ben apparently knows this XLR-8 guy. He offers to give Ben the grand tour, but Gwen reminds him that Grandpa Max is already pissed off at him. Ben’s still pissed and goes off with Kevin, leaving Gwen to go back to the Rustbucket and try to explain things.
Kevin takes Ben to his hideout in the old abandoned subway station and explains that his family wasn’t exactly thrilled to have a “freak” for a son and that’s why he’s on his own. And for the sake of the revelations in Ultimate Alien, Kevin does in fact describe it fairly ambiguously, insisting that his family is “long gone.” Yeah, it gives the definite impression that he was kicked out, but it could also explain a couple of parents stuck on the streets because their out-of-control, guano loco son blew up the house and then ran off. And hey, it’s not like Kevin establishes himself as the most trustworthy character here. Ben starts bitching about Max grounding him for that Sumo Slammers stunt, and it gives Kevin an idea. He and Ben sneak to a warehouse, where he’s gotten a tip about a shipment of the new game. A tip from who? Gennai? They break in and try to steal a game, but a SWAT team shows up.
Yes. A SWAT team. Protecting a videogame. This is Ben 10, folks. I can’t make this shit up.
Kevin proves he has no qualms fighting these guys and starts going for such things as blasting electricity and trying to kill them with a forklift, olé. The kids manage to get out of the warehouse, but with the police surrounding them, they don’t have many options. Ben asks if Kevin can keep a secret and goes Stinkfly, flying him out of there. …While the police continue to shoot at them, apparently not at all concerned that the giant bug is holding a human child the whole time. Oy. I’m starting to think there’s a reason the police are utterly useless in the Alien Force finale “The Final Battle.” Ben and Kevin fly through the harbor and quickly reach—hey, the Statue of Liberty isn’t that close to Manhattan! Nor is it that small! Geography and size fail! After flying around the Statue of Liberty (it’s only a model), they finally manage to lose them in the city when Ben transforms back. Ben explains everything about the watch to Kevin—how it can transform him into ten different aliens, how he was the one who saved him back at TotalZone, and how the damn thing never works when he wants it to. Kevin says that he might be able to figure it out and makes a grab for the watch. To Ben’s credit, he actually starts getting uncomfortable here and explains that it’s stuck on his wrist and he can’t get it off. Undaunted, Kevin suggests that they become partners—with their combined powers, they could do anything. And despite appearing a little apprehensive, Ben agrees.
This partnership comes to an abrupt end when Kevin shows him just what his plan is. A train carrying cash is heading down one track, and a passenger train down another. Kevin plans to make them collide, have Ben grab the cash, and then they make a break for it. Ben, however, realizes that it could cost hundreds of people their lives, but Kevin’s all “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Realizing that his new friend is totally guano loco, Ben decides he’s had it and tries to talk Kevin out of it. He realizes that like Kevin, he cares only about himself—and this is another odd moment that I’ll discuss later on. He goes Heatblast to try to stop Kevin.
Okay, people. Countdown to this backfiring?
Kevin uses his powers to knock out the lights, leaving Heatblast blind and a big glowing target. Kevin jumps him and absorbs some Omnitrix energy. And if you’re a Digimon fan and you’ve ever heard Takuya’s “THIS IS GONNA HURT!” scream, that’s the one he has right there. But when Ben stops out of fear that his friend is hurt, it turns out that Kevin’s successfully absorbed the energy, partially transforming into a mini-Heatblast. Gee, an out-of-control Michael Reisz character throwing fireballs around. Where have I seen this before? But something to note: Kevin remarks that nobody will ever call him a “freak” again, which does indicate he’s got some internal issues about that—which of course, are explored by another team in the sequels. As the trains arrive, Heatblast melts the controls, which SOMEHOW causes the tracks to go back to normal. I’m reasonably sure that train tracks don’t work like that. With a little pyro tornado, he manages to hitch a ride on the passenger train to escape going splat. Kevin, meanwhile, decides to forget the cold cash because revenge is apparently a dish best served hot.
Meanwhile, Max and Gwen have been searching for Ben and heard on the radio about reports of fires in one of the subway stations. Reasonably assuming that bizarre property damage = Ben, they manage to catch up with the train, where Ben’s transformed back, barely clinging onto the roof, and headed for a low clearance zone. He manages to jump off the train and land on the Rustbucket’s shade and not die, and Max lectures him about trust once he gets inside. Ben accepts his reprimands and asks Max to trust him that Kevin’s abusing Heatblast’s powers. Somehow or another, he knows that Kevin’s attacking the 39th St gang. Unfortunately, in what I think is probably one of the only things they got right about New York City, the traffic slows them down to a stop, and Ben realizes it’s just faster to walk when Four-Arms leaps from car to car. Admit it, you’ve wanted to do the same in a traffic jam.
Kevin’s rampage against the gang comes to a sudden stop when he runs out of power, reverting to normal. Four-Arms confronts him, but Kevin threatens to use what electricity he’s got left to zap the hell out of the punks. Four-Arms grabs him to throw off his aim, but Kevin absorbs his powers. And ends up with six arms. Really, guys? What part of that makes sense to you? Max and Gwen arrive and save the gang while Kevin kicks Ben’s ass. But when he sees that the watch is ready to time out, Ben cuts the crap and hands the little shit his ass, forcing him to cry uncle. Kevin admits that he was out of control and says that it’s because he doesn’t have someone like Ben to show him the way. Ben offers him a second chance and insists they can still be partners; so long as Kevin stops using his powers for personal gain and starts using them for good, he’ll have a place with the Tennyson family. And what will he get out of it? People who actually like him. As Ben offers his hand, Kevin grabs the Omnitrix. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal. He tries to pull it off Ben’s wrist, but it won’t budge. Max tries to hit Kevin from behind, but that doesn’t go well. Don’t worry, Max, you’ll get your shot in six years. The Omnitrix decides it’s not taking any of this crap and throws Kevin back with a bio-energy feedback pulse. Reverted to normal, Kevin runs off. Back in the Rustbucket, Ben apologizes for everything, but though Max forgives him, he insists that Ben will have to work to regain his trust. And in his hideout, Kevin reveals that he’s still got some fire power left.
Again, I’m not really analyzing Kevin as in-depth as normally because most of what we know about him comes from Dwayne McDuffie and Glen Murakami’s team, not Man of Action. But this is the episode that establishes Ben and Kevin’s very interesting relationship, which has its effects on one of the “potential future” episodes written by Greg Weisman and on the sequels.
The heart of this episode is the issue of trust and the abuse of power. And it really feels tacked on. To be fair, the issue of abuse of power does work—it’s a major problem with Ben throughout the first series. He is constantly misusing the Omnitrix, using it for pranks and other sorts of personal gain, and never thinking through his transformations. Hell, I’d go so far as to say that the reason why he’s such an effective fighter in the original is because the Omnitrix doesn’t listen to him—when it forces him into a different transformation, he’s forced to think on his feet and find a creative solution to his problems. We’re to assume that Ben learns his lesson in “The Secret of the Omnitrix,” which is supposed to be the canonical endpoint of series one. Certainly by Alien Force season one, he’s using his powers more wisely—except for season three, which I’ll get to in a moment.
Kevin very obviously abuses his powers, constantly absorbing electricity pick-me-ups wherever he goes. He uses these powers to steal game tokens from an arcade, steal videogames from insanely well-guarded facilities, and to kill innocent people in order to make a quick buck. Loveable little scamp, isn’t he? Of course, we find out in the sequels that he’s doing this because absorbing energy costs him his sanity, but to be honest? Nothing about him in this first appearance says he’s sane to begin with. Every little slight sets him off, and he overreacts. He abuses trust and he lies to try to gain sympathy. And he’s very sensitive about the fact that he’s considered a “freak.” It’s very hard to tell right here how much is him being a little shit and how much is mental illness. For a good comparison (featuring Kevin’s VA this episode), check this out. In this scene from season one of Digimon, Matt attacks his best friend, Tai, because he feels that Tai’s leadership isn’t what the team needs. They’re mourning the loss of friends, they’re trying to free a devastated world, and they’re falling apart. This brings him to the breaking point, and he decides he’s going to fight Tai to the death if he has to in order to prove his point.
Now, what isn’t evident from this clip: Matt has been set up. In the episode before, he was manipulated by a servant of their current enemy, Puppetmon, to be jealous of Tai’s ability to lead and be close to the others. Especially when it comes to Matt’s younger brother, TK, who no longer needs his big brother to watch out for him, which Tai understands because he treats him like a grownup. It pretty much takes the rest of the arc for Matt to realize that he isn’t angry at Tai; he’s angry at himself for failing to really find his place, and he’s taking it out on Tai for managing to be successful where he failed.
A couple of best friends who briefly become enemies who then become friends who are willing to punch each other out from time to time? Sounds familiar, don’t it? In fact, I sometimes wonder if the real reason Kevin was recast as Charlie Schlatter in the rest of series one was because otherwise, they’d have to call Joshua Seth out of retirement to take over as Ben.
So yes, it’s hard to tell whether or not you can trust Kevin at first glance. And I think that’s the whole point. There’s definitely a lot sympathetic about him, but you have to wonder if he’s telling the truth or manipulating you. And then you wonder how much of his attitude is that he hates the world and how much is that he hates himself.
The second theme—or rather, moral, given the more didactic tone of the original series—is trust. And unlike the abuse of power, it’s really not well handled here. It’s very evident that Kevin is abusing Ben’s trust, asking him to do things that he normally would never do—and we’ll get to this again in “Ken 10”—but everything on Ben’s side is really shoehorned in. For one, we’re talking about a kid whose first idea upon getting a watch that turns him into various aliens is to become a superhero. Why in the hell is he trying to steal a videogame? He knows better than that—it’s not what a hero does. There’s a very obvious line between mischief (Ben’s forte) and crime, and it’s very hard to miss. So, yeah, I call bullshit on Ben’s actions in this episode. The trust thing gets worse when Grandpa Max says that Ben will have to earn his trust back at the end. This is never followed up on in the rest of the series, nor in any of the sequels. I may bring it up as a point of difference when I get to “Ken 10,” but yeah. It’s a moment that could have seriously impacted Ben’s character for the rest of the original series…and they don’t do anything with it. It’s just a throwaway line with no significance. Fail.
This brings me to a criticism I never thought I’d make. When I reviewed season one of Ultimate Alien, I took pains to point out how Ben and Kevin were portrayed as reflections of one another. Kevin was pretty much conceived as Ben’s foil. But looking back on this episode, I’ve got to say that it really doesn’t work as well as it does later on, the more they build up Kevin and by proxy, Ben.
The issue of abuse of power is a big similarity between them, but there’s a major difference: Ben doesn’t abuse his powers to hurt people. In fact, there’s an entire scene in the arcade where he decides to use the watch to help Kevin, even though Gwen warns him not to. Strictly speaking, this is Ben using his powers properly. Regardless of who Kevin is, he’s an eleven-year-old kid getting ganged up on by a bunch of punks who have no problem throwing around little kids. Kevin could get hurt or killed. Ben owes it to Kevin and to himself to use the watch to save him because that’s what a hero does. And when Gwen criticizes Ben for it later, Ben points out that she wouldn’t get it and neither would Max. It feels horribly tacked on, just as much as the issues of trust and Ben’s out-of-nowhere comment about Max not being his father and thus can’t tell him what to do.
My issue with Ben and Kevin as foils in this episode—and this episode alone—is that it requires a lot of liberties being taken with Ben’s character that make no sense at all. Ben may misuse his powers and he may miss the big picture, but he’s nowhere near as self-absorbed as this episode tries to make him out to be. When he comes to his self-revelation that he’s like Kevin in that he doesn’t care about anyone but himself, I call bullshit. Sure, he’ll sneak past security to play a videogame and he’ll rebel against his family, but at the end of the day, the moment someone needs his help—whether it’s a complete stranger or a friend—he’s the first to run in and help them. And it’s far too early in the series for him to be getting a big head about it, like he would later in Alien Force season 3 and Ultimate Alien. That’s probably the only time I’ll ever defend his narcissism in season 3, so enjoy it while it lasts. The point is that there is absolutely no reason for us to accept this early in the game that Ben is using the watch for anything other than altruistic reasons—aside from the odd prank here and there. He’s still a hero right now, and there’s no danger at this point of him going over to the dark side. So, in short: When trying to introduce a foil, make Kevin the foil of Ben, not the other way around. That way, it works.
Something I noticed (aside from all the times I could slip in a Digimon joke) was that when Kevin absorbed Four-Arms’s powers, the extra eyes he gained were green instead of yellow, like Four-Arms’s eyes are supposed to be. I only point this out because of Kevin’s new form in Ultimate Alien, which does have green eyes, in keeping with the apparent genetic drift from Ben in all of the aliens. This can’t be explained away as Kevin’s own eye color, since, well, he’s got brown eyes. It’s otherwise unremarkable except for the concept being used later in UA.
“Kevin 11” was written Greg Klein. As you may have figured out, Kevin was voiced by the same guy who played Matt Ishida and Takuya Kanbara in Digimon: Michael Reisz.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-03 01:15 am (UTC)Also, this? Pure Toph all the way: Give it five years, sweetie.
It's episodes like this one that remind me why I couldn't completely get into Ben 10 to begin with - yes, Ben's a total jerk at times and thinks only of himself but there's no denying that when the chips are down he will do what's right. (Wow; you ACTUALLY defended Ben's narcissistic nature?! Color me surprised.) And Ben would never use his powers to hurt people. Pull pranks and whatnot, yes. Hurting people was never a factor.
Yes. A SWAT team. Protecting a videogame. This is Ben 10, folks. I can’t make this shit up. Very hilarious, yet I'm gonna wonder from this day onward if you have a Toph muse SOMEWHERE inside your headspace who's decided to live there permanently.
...hey, the Statue of Liberty isn’t that close to Manhattan! Nor is it that small! Geography and size fail! Loved that SO much! Still laughing about it, kinda. ^^
I am pleased that Tara Strong kept on as Ben's VA up until Alien Force; Ultimate Alien can't count if you factor in The Forge of Creation. (I don't think Man of Action would've had the resources needed to coax Joshua Seth out of retirement.
They might've, but still.)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-03 07:58 pm (UTC)That has always bugged me about the original Ben 10: they go overboard trying to give him flaws. And I've read complaints online that by season 4, he was nothing like the kid who'd first put on the Omnitrix to help people in the first episode. So this episode really pissed me off--it strikes me as completely out of character for Ben to be committing a crime beyond his normal mischief. He knows the difference, and he's got enough of a hero complex not to do it.