Ben Tennyson

Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, more commonly known as Ben or Ben 10 Tennyson, is the main character in all three of the Ben 10 series: Ben 10, Ben 10: Alien Force, and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. He has appeared in every episode to date. He is first introduced in the pilot episode And Then There Were 10, where he finds the Omnitrix and then, throughout the series, learns to use the immensely strong and powerful alien device, including the great responsibility of wielding it wisely, to become a true hero.

Appearance
In the original series, Ben has dark brown hair and bright green eyes, he wears a white t-shirt with black stripes on the front of his shirt (In Ben 10: Race Against Time he revealed he never took it off because it was his 'lucky shirt') and short sleeves, deep green cargo pants and also wears a pair of white and black sneakers. In a few episodes, he is seen with his pants down with Sumo Slammers boxers on. He is also seen wearing two different swim suits, a pair of blue trunks and a pair of red trunks.

In Alien Force, his eyes and hair have shaded a bit and he wears a green jacket with the number 10 over a black t-shirt with blue jeans and wears black low-top sneakers. He is also shown to be healthier and much more skilled in unarmed hand-to-hand combat. In the original series and Alien Force he had the Omnitrix and in Ultimate Alien, he has got the Ultimatrix which he forcefully took from Albedo. He has only been seen in one swimsuit, a pair of green trunks. A lot of girls like him, so he's considered handsome and charming.

Personality
Ben is usually portrayed as a cocky and immature boy, who tends to make jokes even when fighting, easily gets full of himself and enjoys attention. This attitude can sometimes make him look obnoxious or dumb, often resulting in criticisms from Gwen and later Kevin. It also causes him several conflicts with Azmuth.

Despite his immaturity, 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 lifes, and would choose to save people by himself even when he dislikes them (such as Cash and JT). This cause him to have a strong dislike for sacrifices or life compromises and occasionnally act against reason, such as choosing to save half-cured DNAlien Tyler over seizing the key for the Highbreed's invasion (Inside Man) or trying to save the Sentinel while losing the last Map of Infinity piece to Aggregor (Perplexahedron). When meeting an enemy in trouble (like Kevin or the Highbreeds), he'll usually attempt to help him rather than win the hard way. While this somehow overly idealistic nature is often criticized by Azmuth, most characters usually consider it as Ben's most important quality. Paradox once even stated he had the gift to make the right choices in right moments.

When seeing people getting hurt, Ben tends to get mad and acts much more violent and aggressive than he usually does.

Though often stated to be silly or unintelligent because of his immaturity, Ben is actually shown to be cunning and resourceful when needed, usually showing good adaptation skills when the Omnitrix doesn't provide him with the form he originally wanted. When he occasionnally put his immaturity aside (most especially in the first two seasons of Alien Force), he's shown to be a responsible leader as well as a very competent fighter.

It's also pertinent to note that Ben has inherited both his paternal grandparents' personality. Although Ben inherited his grandmother Verdona's spirit, sense of humor, and overconfidence, he also inherited his grandfather's determination, adventurous and self-sacrificing attitude. He is also as much of a practical joker as his grandmother Verdona.

It's evident that he actually is extremely smart in some respects, possessing advanced intuition, as in Where the Magic Happens where he memorized the writing for the secret true name of Ledgerdomain with just one glance, and in Perplexahedron, he figured out how the Perplexahedron works instantly. 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".

In Absolute Power, it seems that Ben was willing to not only destroy Kevin, but Gwen as well if she stood in his way. This sets him on a dark and dangerous path of becoming the original Ben 10,000 or like him. He became more of a pessimistic, cold-hearted, sadistic, and ruthless vigilante rather than his usual righteous self, willing to destroy anyone who gets in his way of dealing with Kevin, who he believes is insane, permanently. He also made a confession that he won't let fame go to his head anymore, and start acting mature and responsible, which is how he acted since the first two seasons of Alien Force. His dark attitude also seems to still appear at times as shown in The Transmogrification of Eunice when he openly threatens to fight Azmuth to ensure that Eunice remains independant.

Powers, Abilities and Capablities
Ben as the wielder of the Omnitrix and later the Ultimatrix, which gives him the power to modify his own genetic code in order to turn into various alien creatures, litterally making him an alien shape-shifter. Traditionally, he can only transform into 10 alien creatures at the beginning of both the original series and Alien Force, but he later gains additional forms by either unlocking them or by scanning the DNA of the creatures he meets. At the end of the original series, his arsenal included 20 aliens, while his current complete list is thirty-seven aliens discovered (Ben 10, Ben 10: Alien Force, and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ultimate not included).

When transforming into an alien, Ben gets all the creature's features, including its appearance, voice, abilities, and weaknesses. Though he mostly retains his personality, there are some cases where the transformation causes change in it, such as Rath becoming far more aggressive, Spidermonkey acting more childish, or Big Chill being affected by his species' reproduction instincts. Two of the aliens, Ghostfreak and Big Chill, even managed to take over Ben's personality twice, though in both case it was because of a feature's specific to the two aliens (namely the Hive Mind characteristic for Ghostfreak and the reproduction instinct for Big Chill).

Though he usually uses his alien forms to fight, there have been some occasions where he was taken for a real alien by others people, humans especially (at least until his secret was revealed). At one point, he even intentionally impersonated Bivalvan as Water Hazard to convince P'andor to flee from Earth, and though he was unsuccessful at convincing him, P'andor actually believed him to be Bivalvan.

In addition to transform into aliens, the Ultimatrix includes what is referred as an "evolutionnary function", that allows Ben to make evolve his aliens forms in order to get upgraded, stronger version of themselves, referred as Ultimates. The exact way this function works is unclear, though it seems so far that Ben had only turn a limited part of his aliens into Ultimate form. He could even have the power to potentially evolve his human form into ultimate.

In addition to the primary transformations and evolutionnary functions, the Omnitrix and Ultimatrix could both be used to various purpose. Both include a automatical translation system, that allows Ben to communicate freely with most aliens that don't speak english, as well as remaining understandable no matter what form he uses (though some languages, like Wildmutt's or Sixsix's, are too complex to be translated).

During the Hightbreed invasion story arc, the Omnitrix displayed the ability to manipulate and repair genetic damage, a function he used to cure DNAliens and save Hightbreeds from extinction. Azmuth also mentionned he could use it to bring back to life any species stored on Primus. It's unknown for now if the Ultimatrix still retained these abilities.

In addition to his Omnitrix/Ultimatrix powers, Ben, in Alien Force, has been trained in hand-to-hand fight by his black belt cousin Gwen (as shown in Be-Knighted), his former plumber grandfather Max, as well as various years-fighting aliens, and received a basic Plumber training (all of this according to Dwayne McDuffie). Though he has only been trained on a weekly basis in order to minimize his reliance on the Omnitrix/Ultimatrix, he is still proved to be quite exceptionally skilled in hand-to-hand combat, being able to take off Manny's blasters while in human form in Above and Beyond. Max hinted that Ben was a capable fighter even as a human in Voided, expressing surprise about the fact he lost to Pierce (though it is then revealed that Ben had lost on purpose).

Ben 10
Ben was originally a ten-year-old boy, who grew up in Bellwood, and was unpopular and bullied in his school.

However, his life changed the day he went on summer vacation with his grandfather, Max and his cousin, Gwen. A short time after they left Bellwood, Ben went on a walk through the woods in which they were camping, and witnessed the crash of a strange capsule from space. This capsule happened to contain the Omnitrix, an immensely strong and powerful watch-like device, that firmly affixed itself onto Ben's left wrist.

At first scared, Ben soon discovered that using the Omnitrix, he was now able to transform into ten super-powered alien creatures. Unable to remove the Omnitrix, he eventually learned to use the device (though with relative problems) in order to become a super-hero. Though he occasionally arrested ordinary criminals, he was quickly led to also fight super-villains, starting with Dr. Animo, Kevin 11, and ultimately, Vilgax, a vicious alien warlord who wanted to get the Omnitrix for himself.

Despite being very immature and occasionally using the Omnitrix for minor selfish purposes, Ben proved to be a valuable wearer for the Omnitrix, defeating Vilgax several times (though mostly due to the help from Gwen and Grandpa Max) and saving people several times.

Ben 10 Alien Force
The sequel Ben 10: Alien force continues Ben's adventures five years after the original series. At some point between the two shows, Ben succeeded to take off the Omnitrix through an unknown but difficult process, and choosed to retire from his superhero career in order to have a normal life, though he kept the unactivated Omnitrix as a souvenir. He then grew up into a slightly more mature teenager, loosing his unpopular status at school and becoming a skilled soccer player.

Eventually, when he was fifteen Max mysteriously disappeared while investigating on alien newcomers on Earth known as Hightbreeds, leaving only a enigmatic holographic message for Ben. Despite Gwen's doubts, Ben decided to use the Omnitrix again in order to find Max. When he put it back, the watch recalibrated, taking a new appearance and providing him with a new set of 10 aliens.

While helping the Alien Plumber Magister Labrid investigating on Max's disappearance, Ben and Gwen encounter Kevin, now a weapon dealer, programming a deal between the DNAliens and the Forever Knights. Kevin attempted to attack Ben as a revenge for his past defeats against him, but was easily defeated against Ben's new alien Swampfire and captured. He then agreed to help them, hoping to get back the money he lost during the deal. Eventually, after various incidents involving Labrid sacrificing to save Kevin's life, Ben, Gwen and Kevin start working as a team to face the Hightbreeds' undercover invasion on Earth.

At the same time, Ben developed mutal feelings for Julie Yamamoto, an asian girl from his school. Though he was initially afraid of developing a relationship with her, fearing she'll reject him if she found out about the Omnitrix, he was eventually pushed by Gwen into taking her to a date at a pier. The pier, however, went wrong when a Mechanic Galvamorph symbiot named Ship started attacking Ben in an attempt to get his attention. This incident eventually forced Ben to reveal his powers to Julie, but to his surprise, she didn't reject him, even calling the Omnitrix "cool". The two eventually dated, while Ship became Julie's pet. At some point, Ben received a visit from a mysterious clone-like being of himself using a Omnitrix himself. The clone introduced himself as Albedo, a Galvan, stating he was the true creator of the Omnitrix and that Azmuth was a liar. He asked Ben to hand him over the Omnitrix, stating he was trapped in Ben's body because of a malfunction and needed Ben's Omnitrix to repair it. When Ben refused, he turned violent and attempted to take it by force. After two clashes between them, Azmuth appeared and revealed Albedo was actually his assistant, who was unthrusting of Ben and had attempted to make his own Omnitrix. As a punishment for his acts, Azmuth broke Albedo's Omnitrix, leaving him trapped in a damaged version of Ben's human form, and sent him to a null void prison.

During one mission, Ben was accidentally sent through a teleportation device with the Highbreed commander Reinrassic III, causing both of them to be trapped on the hostile planet Turrawuste and forcing them to work together in order to find a way back to their respecive homeworlds. Though initially displaying the usual racist Hightbreed's behaviours, Reinrassic slowly grew a friendship with Ben, and eventually lost his hand trying to save him from a local vicious life form. After Ben heals his hand as Swampfire, they eventually reach the teleportation gate, but Reinrassic choosed to self-exilate himself on Turrawuste, as he believed his friendship with Ben had corrupted him on the eyes of his people.

Ben eventually assembled a team, consisting in himself, Gwen, Kevin, Alan Albright, Paradox, Julie, Ship, Cooper, Azmuth and a shortly reformed Darkstar for a final attack on the Hightbreed's hideout in order to prevent their spacegate from openning and unleashing their fleet on Earth. Despite reinforcements from Max and the Plumber's helpers, they failed to prevent the arrival of the fleet. Ben then went through the spacegate with Gwen, Azmuth, Kevin and Ship, reaching the Hightbreed homeworld. He then discovered the Highbreeds were actually trying to kill every species because they were dying, as their pure-blood behaviour had led them to in-breeding, slowly causing them to become weaker, more vulnerable to illness and sterile. Ben then used the Omnitrix to generate a wave that infused all Hightbreeds with alien DNA, such repairing their genetical damages and saving them from extinction. Though they were initially disgusted by this, Reinrassic III then came back from his exile, and shew them how this was giving them a second chance to live. Realizing he was right, his comrads named him Hightbreed Supreme and he ended the war.

After the end of the invasion, Ben grew famous and celebrated as a hero in the whole galaxy, and received awards from various alien people. This caused him to eventually relax and going back to his immature, cocky attitude from the original series, much to Gwen's and Kevin's annoyance. When he had to face the return of his old nemesis Vilgax, Ben attempted, with help from Kevin, to hack the Omnitrix in order to unlock the master code. This attempt went wrong, releasing Goop, Chromastone, Spidermonkey and Way Big from the Omnitrix as mindless, instinct-controlled creatures and causing Kevin to mutate for the second time. Worst of all, Ben loses Azmuth's trust. After re-absorbing the four aliens, Ben faced Vilgax and eventually defeated him as Diamondhead, though he temporary lost Chromastone in the process.

Ben continued working as a honorary member of the Plumbers with Gwen and Kevin, Max providing them with various missions. He also had to deal with Vilgax, who continued trying to find ways to have his revenge on him.

Eventually, Ben had to face a coalition of Vilgax and Albedo, the former having stolen a prototype upgraded version of the Omnitrix, the Ultimatrix, from Azmuth's lab. The two of them successfully took Kevin and Gwen as hostage, leading Ben to deliver the Omnitrix to Vilgax. However, Ben eventually activated the Omnitrix self-destruction system, threatenning Vilgax to let it blow up if he didn't give it back. Vilgax mistook this for a bluff, and the Omnitrix was destroyed, causing Kevin to turn back to his human form. However, Ben then took the Ultimatrix from Albedo to fight Vilgax. The galactic conqueror's ship then crashed in the sea, with Ben, Gwen, Kevin and Max escaping from it few time before it exploded.

Ben 10 Ultimate Alien
In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, sixteen-year-old Ben's identity is revealed to the world and he's now a megastar superhero loved all over by kids, but distrusted by many adults. This series features Ben's new car, the DX Mark 10 a heavily modified Mazda RX-8, which marked it's first appearance in Ben 10: Alien Swarm, the car being gifted reluctantly by Kevin. Also he will be seen with Julie, now sharing a stronger bond with him and Julie again helping their team from time to time. He and Julie also shared their first on-screen kiss in the episode Fame.

He also got a lot of confidence after Julie kissed him and Ben appeared to be utterly shocked at Julie kissing him on the cheek. Also, Ben and Kevin are now true friends and not rivals. Ben is now armed by an enhanced,upgraded version of the Omnitrix, the Ultimatrix, which evolves his aliens, and also has every alien he has ever turned into, though at the moment, Ben has yet to turn into or re-unlock all of them. He is now also on good terms with his old middle school bullies Cash and JT. Also, the new series introduces two new enemies for Ben's rogue gallery: nasty news reporter Will Harangue who sees Ben as a public menace and operates a secret agenda to eliminate him (he heavily represents Senator Kelly from the X-Men universe), and perhaps Ben's greatest enemy yet (even worse than Vilgax): a villainous Osmosian named Aggregor whose sinister plan involves draining the powers of five powerful aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy to make himself the most powerful being in said galaxy. Interestingly, these five aliens also provide Ben with his newest alien forms. After Ben scanned Ra'ad, he now has a total of one million nine hundred and ten aliens which in figures is, 1,000,910.i

Kai Green
Kai Green first appeared in the original Ben 10 episode Benwolf, when Ben caught a glimpse of her dancing a spiritual dance, and was easily smitten. She was then introduced as Max's friend, Wes Green's granddaughter, they being Navajo descendants. After that Ben made a lot of attempts to impress her (even by asking help from Gwen). However, at the end of the episode, when Ben tries to establish a relationship with her, she tells him that she only admired him in his alien form, where she could "train" and "tame" him, much to Gwen's annoyance, even breaking Ben's heart. In the alternate future, things might have been better between Kai and Ben, as she is the mother of a son, named Ken and a daughter, named Gwen (as confirmed by Dwayne McDuffie, both the kids named after Ben's paternal first-cousins).

Julie Yamamoto
Julie Yamamoto is an Japanese-American girl, who is Ben's classmate. She first appears in the pilot episode of Alien Force as a crowd attendant to Ben's soccer match. She is also a tennis player. At the end of the two-part season two finale War of the Worlds, Ben and Julie get close to kissing, but decide against it as Gwen, Kevin, and Max were all looking on. In the series premiere of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ben and Julie share their first kiss; although technically, Julie kissed him on the cheek. It said that Ben and Julie will be kissing often throughout the series as their affection for each other grows. Unlike Ben's other love interests in the series, Julie and Ben both shares the same feelings towards each other. Julie genuinely cares for Ben, it is shown she tutors him patiently, copes up with his quirks also his identity and forgives Ben despite the mistakes he made. Ben trusts Julie immensely, behaves shyly in their first date showing how much he likes her and would do anything for her even travel half way across the galaxy to claim Ship even at that time he was worried of her attention span.

Elena Validus
Elena Validus is one of the Plumbers' kids and a former member of Ben's soccer team. She is mentioned by Gwen as Ben's first crush (though this contradicts what was seen in the original series as Ben met Elena when he was thirteen while he met Kai when he was ten). Ben had to convince his soccer team mates to let her join. She appeared in the live-action film, Ben 10: Alien Swarm.

Video games
Ben appears in every Ben 10 video game (playable) because he is the main character of the Ben 10 series. He also appears in some of the online games, related and un-related to Ben 10, on Cartoon Network.

Movies
Ben has appeared in every movie from Ben 10. Here is the list of Movies of Ben 10:
 * Ben 10: Race Against Time
 * Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix
 * Ben 10: Ben 10 Alien Swarm