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Ben 10 Month
For the rest of October, I'm rewatching Alien Force and Ultimate Alien to rekindle my love for, well, for Ben. The flaws of the show stand out to me a lot more now that I've seen both shows in full, so it's going to take time to remind myself to love it. That the flaws help give it character. Rather than seeing how they keep giving Ben too many flaws.
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The story is that a ten-year-old boy on a summer roadtrip with his grandfather finds a piece of alien technology that turns him into any one of ten different aliens--a premise inspired by the old comic Dial H for Hero. Along with his cousin, Gwen, Ben must fight various aliens trying to take this piece of technology, the Omnitrix, while visiting weird places throughout America. He also discovers that his grandfather is a retired MIB who used to fight these aliens, and his cousin has the seeds of magic within her. This first series is handled by Man of Action, which is very big on comic book inspiration and basically doing whatever feels "cool." To be honest, if you're a fan of Fourze or Kyoryuger, you may be more of a fan of this season. Its pros are worldbuilding and an emphasis on fun and coolness. But its cons are that Ben and Gwen are constantly bickering, and Ben progressively fails to learn his lesson and becomes an idiotic egotist--and not a fun one, at that.
Man of Action left the series to pursue other projects, but it was still a huge cash cow for Cartoon Network, so sequels were produced. The second series, Alien Force, features Ben and Gwen having to fight a secret alien invasion without their grandfather's help, since he's gone under deep cover. Along the way, they pick up Kevin, an old enemy of Ben's who has to overcome his past and become a good guy. The first season focuses on the invasion, Ben trying to become an adult and a leader, and on the invaders' racism--that hatred will do nothing but bring destruction. The second season brings back Ben's old nemesis Vilgax while also coping with Ben getting a swelled head from the victory in season 1, and with Kevin's severe issues after being mutated due to an accident Ben caused. The pros of this series are the emphasis on Ben trying to grow up--the show is trying to grow with its audience. But it's overly ambitious and abandons as many subplots as it creates, and the Kevin/Gwen romance is way too rushed and forced. Also, you don't find out until later why Kevin even becomes a good guy, and it's a mess. Furthermore, this is the series where they tried to stick to harder sci-fi; the original series was very Silver Age in tone--it didn't matter if there were aliens or magic, it was all equal. Alien Force tried to use hard science and alien technology, but outrage from fans forced them to retcon--which also is part of comics. If you're a fan of the '90s/'00s DC Animated Universe, you may enjoy this--the series was headed up by Static Shock writer Dwayne McDuffie. Toku series this is closest to...I want to say Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, since it's good but deeply flawed. Probably add Go-Busters onto that too.
Ultimate Alien is Dwayne McDuffie's second and final season in the show, owing to his very sudden death at the end of the series. The story starts off with Ben another year later, reeling from the shock of an internet fan revealing his identity to the world--unfortunately, this subplot really doesn't go anywhere, beyond creating an annoying as all hell little turd of a character named Will Harangue, who is every TV pundit on steroids and then made even more unlikeable. And he gets away with everything. I have a special kind of hate for him. Season 1 deals with one hell of a story, where aliens from another galaxy are being hunted down by another alien named Aggreggor (don't ask me how to spell his name--I just shorten it to Greg), who seeks to take their powers in order to find the Forge of Creation, where he'd essentially become a god. Ben has to cope with Greg being a much smarter and more powerful enemy than he's used to, and the failures against him test his patience. At the same time, Greg is a member of the same alien race Kevin is descended from, and Kevin sees in him his own darkness. Toward the end of the season, Kevin proves to be the real hero and sacrifices his humanity and sanity to stop Greg, but he becomes the villain for the last several episodes. Ben, believing it's his destiny because of a vague hint from a time-traveler, decides that he must kill the guy who's become his best friend, and Gwen isn't standing for that. Season 2 focuses more on trying to clean up the subplots from season 1 of Alien Force, with old enemies trying to fight off an ancient enemy of humankind--the old god Dagon (again, don't trust my spelling), whose worshippers have mistaken Ben's nemesis for the Old Wet One. And the only hope for humanity might not be Ben after all, but the ancient St. George of legend. Pros of this series are that it is MUCH better about Ben's characterization in season 1 than Alien Force managed; it maintains a better balance of silliness and seriousness. Also, the whole first season is fantastic. Unfortunately, season 2 is really terrible--Ben's characterization once again slides into "idiot egotist asshole," his relationship with his girlfriend is fucked up for the sake of drama (and off-screen too), and the oneshot filler episodes are infinitely better than the main plot. Also, not enough Kevin, and the feature of the "Ultimate" alien forms really isn't well explored, given new aliens keep appearing. It's also extremely dark, with one episode in season two actually featuring on-screen deaths and a body locked in a freezer. So that's very much a matter of taste--it's an Inoue series, in a nutshell. You'll either love it or hate it, and for very much the same reasons. And it's not really as good as it started.
Like I mentioned above, Dwayne McDuffie passed away sometime after completing Ultimate Alien, so Derrick J. Wyatt of Transformers: Animated fame took over for Omniverse. I really haven't watched it, owing mostly to my bitter disillusionment in the second season of Ultimate Alien, but overall, it seems to be a reaction against the darkness of that series and an attempt to heed fan requests to make things more like the original. Gwen and Kevin are shipped off to parts unknown, with Kevin's characterization edging back toward criminal, and Ben's new partner is a rookie alien cop appropriately named Rook, who is much more by-the-book than Ben. Again, I really haven't seen much of it, but from the sound of it, they're really running with Ben as the Second Coming of Tendou--he's awesome because the writers say so, and no amount of him being an asshole and an idiot will convince them otherwise. He doesn't seem to get any comeuppance. It also seems to be trying to retcon the futures alluded to in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien and basically trying to keep the Dwayne McDuffie seasons as selective canon. From what I've heard, unless you really like Derrick Wyatt's work (and art style), you may have more of a problem with it. Though, I haven't seen anything in the way of ratings or toy sales, so it might be more popular than I realize. His fans really love him, while his detractors really hate him.
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Honestly, none of those sound appealing except maybe Alien Force to me. Especially the original, since you mentioned Fourze (which I could not get through) and Kyoruger. And Kyoruger is that show I watched one episode of, decided it wasn't for me... and then have sat through several months of my one friend who watches it and dissects at length how terrible it is for him each week. Especially KyoruRed for him, AKA that guy who's voice alone irritates me when he appears in the commercials included with Wizard or Gaim episodes.
Also, the second coming of Tendou? (flees the country in panic)
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Alien Force and Ultimate Alien both showed in their first seasons that Ben could be an interesting character if handled right, but too much pandering to old school fans turned him into Tendou 2.0. Or rather, 1.0--his show premiered maybe a month or two before Kabuto. Instead, Ultimate Alien season 1 is really more about Kevin, and most fans of that series will pretty much agree he became the better character and should have gotten a spinoff.
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