The Origins of Ben Tennyson

 

The story goes that when Ben was 10 years old he did have a troubling normal life until he found the Omnitrix. Although he is initially immature and clumsy, he grew up as a true hero and by time he was sixteen years old, he had become famous in not only his hometown of Bellwood, but all over Earth and beyond.

Ben has also become a member of the Plumbers, which are a height secret organization that deals with alien activity on Earth just like the Men in Black do.

Also when Ben turned 30 years old in the future he became known as the Hero of Heroes Ben 10,000.

Personality: Even thought Ben is initially portrayed as a cocky, arrogant and immature boy who tends to make jokes even when fighting villains. He easily gets full of himself and enjoys attention from others because of his attitude which sometimes makes him look a bit more obnoxious or dumb, often resulting in criticisms from Gwen and later Kevin. This also causes several conflicts between him and Azmuth. These traits, however, as hinted in the episode The Forge of Creation, stem from Ben’s attempts to hide his own fear about any kind of situation (though he denied it and said he was actually oblivious). Even so, he’s matured (meaning grown up) since the first series and although he can be goofy a lot, he’s also capable of great leadership skills and tends to get serious when the situation requires it. Despite the immaturity he has, Ben is actually good-hearted, and his actions are motivated above all by a strong and sincere will to help and save others in need. He’s shown to deeply care for other’s lives, and would choose to save people by himself even when he dislikes them (such as Cash and JT). This causes him to have a strong dislike for sacrifices or life compromises and occasionally act against reason, such as when he chooses to save half-cured DNAlien Tyler over seizing the key for the Highbreed’s invasion (Inside Man), or when he tries to save the Sentinel while losing the last Map of Infinity piece to Aggregor (Perplexahedron). When he meets an enemy in trouble (like Kevin or the Highbreed), he’ll usually attempt to help them rather than win the hard way. Although often criticized by Azmuth, most people usually consider it as Ben’s most important quality and Paradox once even stated he had the gift to make the right choices at the right moments. When he sees people hurt by his fault or because of his failures, Ben tends to get mad and acts much more violent and aggressive than he usually does. For example, when Overlord kidnapped Julie, or when Aggregor successfully absorbed the Andromeda Five, Ben went berserk and beat them up with all his strength, and in Ultimate Aggregor’s case, to the point where Gwen shocked and stopped him from attacking more. Also, when Kevin mutated again shortly after stopping Ultimate Aggregor, he temporarily went back to his psychotic way, like hurting all the Plumbers’ helpers and taking there powers, Ben became willing to kill Ultimate Kevin by any means necessary. He began acting ruthless, aggressive, pessimistic, cold-hearted, nasty, and even ready to fight Gwen as Way Big when she attempted to get in the way. Gwen, however, was eventually able to convince him to try another way just when he was about to destroy Ultimate Kevin. Although Ben managed to knock out Kevin as Ultimate Echo Echo, he confessed to Max he feels guilty for letting all of the fame get into his head, and claims that he is trying to act more mature for once. It’s evident that Ben is extremely smart in some respects, possessing an above average intelligence, photographic memory and advanced intuition, as in the episode, Where the Magic Happens where he memorized the writing for the secret true name of Ledgerdomain with just one glance from a distance, and in Perplexahedron, he figured out how the Perplexahedron works quickly. It was even stated by Gwen that he really isn’t working up to his potential at school, and he replies, “That’s what they tell me.” He also has fairly moderate grades (although he isn’t at Gwen’s or Julie’s level). Chemistry is his toughest subject, yet he still maintains a B+ average. It’s also pertinent to note that Ben has inherited both his paternal grandparents’ personality.

Abilities in the field: Although Ben can be silly or unintelligent at times because of his immaturity, he does show that he is cunning and resourceful when needed, usually showing good adaptation skills when the Omnitrix doesn’t provide him with the alien he wants. He is mostly trained in hand-to-hand combat by black belt wielding cousin Gwen (as shown in the episode Be-Knighted), Max, as well as fighting various aliens, and receiving basic Plumber training at the plumber’s academy. Though Ben was only been trained on a weekly basis in order to minimize his reliance on the Omnitrixes/Ultimatrix, it turns out that he’s still has proved to be quite exceptionally skilled in basic hand-to-hand combat as well armed and unarmed combat, like for example being able to easily dodge lazar shots from Manny ‘s blasters and proceed to disarm him while in human form in the episode Above and Beyond. Ben was able to hold his own against Pierce (Helen’s brother), and Max hinted that Ben was a highly skilled fighter, even as a human in the episode Voided, expressing surprise about the fact he lost to Pierce (though it is then revealed that Ben had to him lost on purpose). Another hint of his exceptional hand-to-hand skill is when he succeeded in passing the training at the Plumbers’ Academy with a 95 out of a 100 (without using the Ultimatrix). Ben is also shown to be a very crafty fighter. However, according to Matt Wayne, Ben isn’t really a trained fighter and that is able to use freestyle fighting.

Equipment that he uses: Since Ben had became the wielder of the Omnitrix (also formerly the Ultimatrix, and the prototype Omnitrix that he got when he was ten), the device gave him the ability to modify his own generic DNA code in order to transform into various alien forms, which literally makes him an alien shape-shifter. Although traditionally he is only able to transform into ten alien heroes, at the beginning of both the original series and Alien Force, he later gained additional alien heroes by either unlocking them or by using the Omnitrix to scan the DNA code of aliens that he has met throughout his adventures. At the end of the original series, his arsenal includes twenty alien heroes and throughout the rest of the series his current complete list is 62 alien heroes (71 if the Ultimate forms are also included). When Ben transforms into an alien he gains all of the creature’s features, which include its appearance, its voice, all of its unique special abilities and powers, its strengths and its weaknesses, but although Ben mostly retains his personality, there are some cases where some of his transformations cause some change in it, such as Rath being far more aggressive as it says on the info of his species, Spidermonkey who acts more childish, Big Chill who was shown to have been affected by his reproduction instincts to lay eggs, Brainstorm who appears to be far more polite, Jury Rigg having the desire to destroy/fix machines, and Swampfire’s maturity which as you know caused Ben to have those gross looking zits on his face. Three of Ben’s aliens, who are Ghostfreak, Big Chill, and Ultimate Humungousaur, have even managed to actually take over Ben’s personality. Though Ben is usually using his alien forms to fight, there where some occasions where others took him for a real alien, humans especially (until his secret was revealed to the world thanks to Jimmy Jones). At one point in the episode Too Hot to Handle, Ben was intentionally impersonating Bivalvan (one of the escaped fugitives from Aggregor) as Water Hazard to convince P’andor (Bivalvan’s friend) to leave Earth and go home, although he was unsuccessful at convincing him, but P’andor did believed him to be his friend Bivalvan. In addition to transforming into aliens, the Ultimatrix included what is referred as an “evolutionary function,” that allowed Ben to evolve his alien forms in order to get upgraded versions of them, referred to as Ultimate Forms. It’s explained that this type of function works by placing the selected alien form in a simulated worst-case scenario for a millennial or so, then simply modifying the old DNA to match the new DNA. In addition to the primary transformations and evolutionary function, the Omnitrixes and Ultimatrix can both be used for various purposes. Both of the devices have built in Universal Translators that allow Ben to communicate with most aliens that don’t speak even speak English. During the Highbreed invasion, the prototype Omnitrix displayed the ability to manipulate and repair genetic damage, a function that Ben used to cure DNAliens and save the Highbreed aliens from extinction when Azmuth revealed that they where dying out. According to Simian Says, Ben couldn’t do this with the Ultimatrix. Azmuth also mentioned to Ben he could use the prototype Omnitrix to bring back to life any species that has been stored on Primus. The Omnitrix also has a failsafe that helps prevent Ben from dying. If Ben is in mortal danger and the Omnitrix is in recharge mode, then it will automatically go into active mode.

Weaknesses: One of Ben’s weaknesses is the main ability with the Omnitrix, which is also his main weakness because whenever the device times out, he is left powerless until he either dodges attacks or switches to a new alien form. In addition to gaining the selected alien’s powers, he does gains its weaknesses as well. His aliens are also vulnerable to there natural predators. His other weakness with the Omnitrix is that at times the natural biological behavior of certain aliens can override Ben’s behavior, such as Big Chill’s reproductive phase or Swampfire’s “blossoming” process. Furthermore, if Ben is sick the illness Ben experiences in his human form can also be affect his alien forms. Whenever Ben unlocks a new alien form, he’s at a disadvantage of not knowing what its abilities and weaknesses are until he gains experience with using the new alien from. Despite his experience in using the Omnitrixes and Ultimatrix, Ben still does not know every function of them. Sometimes do to his inquisitive nature and impatience; he has accidentally unlocked new functions such as the Master Control (which he does use in the future when he reunlocks it) and the randomizer, which does more harm than good (such as in the episode The Frogs of War: Part 1). Though the current Omnitrix was designed to work only for him, Ben still didn’t mastered it. According to Azmuth, Ben was promised to get the Master Control on his 18th birthday. In the episode For a Few Brains More, Azmuth revealed that the Omnitrix didn’t mistransform, but it was rather due to Ben hitting the Omnitrix too hard, which caused the time-out function to select another alien at random. Apparently this did not really happen as much with the original Omnitrix that Ben had when he was 10, as he didn’t have as much strength as he did back then. Ben’s other weaknesses are an allergy to peanuts, a fear of peacocks (Ostriches in the Arabic dub), a coulrophobia (fear of clowns), and his left eye twitches whenever he is telling a lie, but Kevin is the only one who appears to have notice that. Ben appears to have a short attention span at times, which can get him trouble more often. Rook has also pointed out that Ben does rely too much on his alien forms for combat, although he has matured substantially since receiving the original Omnitrix, he is still a teenager that has much to learn and is prone to have irrational impulses and recklessness.

First Appearance: And Then There Where 10