‘Ben 10’ Was, First and Foremost, for Children—and Additionally for Itself

For individuals who’ve made action-focused western animation a key a part of their life, 2005 is a crucial 12 months. It bought off to an excellent begin with Avatar: The Last Airbender, which helped get the non-converted into anime and serialized storytelling that felt mature to anybody in its meant audience again within the day. On the finish of that very same 12 months, the demographic bought Ben 10, a present equally as vital as Avatar however in its personal approach.

The debut undertaking of animation studio Man of Motion and first launched December 27, 2005, the Cartoon Community sequence follows a 10-year-old child named Ben Tennyson who finds an alien watch referred to as the Omnitrix, which lets him morph into considered one of 10 aliens for 10 minutes at a time. With Ben, his cousin Gwen, and their Grandpa Max spending their summer season trip touring the nation, every episode had Ben use a handful of aliens to combat villains like monster clowns, secret orders, and different aliens seeking to take the Omnitrix for themselves.

On its face, it’s a reasonably easy thought for a youngsters’ present, however execution-wise, it was mainly perfection. Man of Motion’s founding workforce was comprised of American comedian e book writers and artists like Joe Casey and Duncan Rouleau, whose collective credit included Marvel, DC, and Picture Comics. As soon as you realize that pedigree, it’s only a matter of clocking what influences run by way of the present, just like the Kirby Krackle or Kevin Levin being a mashup of Tremendous-Skrull and Metamorpho. What made it work was the earnest playfulness that ran all through, whether or not it was that still-catchy theme song or Ben’s aliens themselves. The best way he slams that dial and transforms, who wouldn’t wish to be one thing referred to as XLR8 or 4 Arms?

So it’s not shocking that Ben 10 turned an enormous deal for Cartoon Community with a four-season run, three motion pictures (considered one of which was live-action), and a tie-in online game. It’s additionally not shocking that it went on to turn into a franchise that’s gone on to incorporate extra movies and video games, toys, and three sequel sequence in Alien Force, Ultimate Alien—which turned 15 earlier this 12 months—and Omniverse. For Cartoon Community, this was its Avatar: one thing geared towards youngsters however that additionally had the nice sense to age up with its viewers. With Ben, Gwen, and Kevin made into youngsters, viewers had their very own Spider-Man, even earlier than Ben’s teenage actor Yuri Lowenthal wound up changing into Spider-Man.

In reality, they’d one thing higher right here: Ben was an unique property and due to this fact its personal supply materials. So in contrast to the animated adventures of Spider-Man, Batman, or different big-name heroes happening on the time, you can watch any Ben present and be consistently shocked on a week-to-week foundation with out having a nagging thought behind your thoughts about issues being undone or interfering with issues happening in different elements of the identical universe. There was so much that went on from Ben 10 Basic as much as Omniverse, with continuity principally maintained, and all of it in dialog because the reveals hit about each main superhero comedian trope or storytelling machine when all was mentioned and completed. (A number of that may be attributed to comedian e book author Dwayne McDuffie, who co-developed and did so much on Alien Pressure and Final Alien up till his passing in 2011.)

That Ben 10 was such an ongoing success had the added impact of bringing extra action-oriented reveals to Cartoon Community’s lineup, whose output at that time consisted of short-lived originals like Megas XLR or Juniper Lee and the occasional DC sequence. However due to Ben, we bought Generator Rex and Secret Saturdays. The previous was Man of Motion’s second animated sequence, set in its personal separate universe and primarily based off an previous Picture comedian made by Casey, Rouleau, and Aaron Sowd. Whereas Rex and Ben crossed over within the Heroes United particular, the previous didn’t have fairly the identical endurance as its predecessor. The identical might actually be mentioned for Secret Saturdays, which started the identical 12 months as Alien Pressure and whose solid finally appeared in Omniverse. 

Neither Rex nor Saturdays was dangerous, and so they is likely to be price a watch now, however their particular person vibes didn’t solely hit like what Ben had been offering for what was half a decade at that time. In addition they simply didn’t arrive when Ben did. In 2005, superhero fever was taking on the world, and by 2008, the style was actively making a go at changing into the dominant tradition. Children have been eased into this because of Ben; Alien Pressure premiered days after the unique present ended, which was additionally weeks forward of the primary Iron Man and months earlier than The Darkish Knight. 

It was (and perhaps nonetheless is) an extremely assured transfer on Cartoon Community’s half that led to a multimedia franchise that’s turn into a part of its model and allowed for Ben 10 to endure for thus lengthy. After a divisive reboot wrapped again in 2021 with its personal respectable run—4 seasons, a film, two video games, and specials that allowed for crossovers with each Generator Rex and its previous self—Man of Motion hasn’t solely let go of its unique creation. The studio’s apparently bought comics in the works and can doubtless maintain attempting to get one other live-action film off the bottom after the initial attempt failed, to not point out Rouleau has talked about it might warrant an adult-oriented sequel within the vein of Samurai Jack or Fionna and Cake.

Such an thought feels antithetical to what made the unique reveals so profitable, however what would Ben 10 be if it didn’t exit on a limb and see if that gambit labored?

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