MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*
Though I often survey serial cartoons by their seasons, here I've decided to combine all four seasons of the original BEN 10 show into the same review. The reason is simple: there's barely any difference between an episode from Season One and one from Season Four. There are a few two-part episodes, but no sweeping arcs, and the three significant characters-- ten-year-old Ben Tennyson, his same-age cousin Gwen, and their grandpa Max-- stay the same. In fact, all four seasons are supposed to take place in one summer, where the two kids join their grandpa in his RV and tour the country.
The expedition turns out to be much more adventurous than Grandpa expected, for at the outset Ben finds a strange device of alien origin, and when he touches it. it binds itself around his wrist like a living watch. Then aliens attack, seeking the device, an "Omnitrix," and Ben learns that he can defend himself and others by transforming into super-powerful heroes, all derived from ET-DNA. After a short period of adjustment, Ben becomes enthralled with the prospect of being a superhero, despite the protests of his irritated cousin Gwen. Grandpa Max, for his part, turns out to have inside knowledge of alien incursions on Earth, and he's often able to render critical advice to Ben on "going alien."
Though Ben and his relations contend with various hostile ETs, the series follows the template of most superhero comics, in that as soon as the superhero debuts, a coterie of super-villains springs up to become the crusader's "rogues' gallery." The eccentric Earth-crooks-- the animal-obsessed Doctor Amimo, sorcerers Hex and his niece Charmcaster. the evil clown Zombozo-- are a lot more fun than the extraterrestrial menaces, and the writer-collective behind the series, "Man of Action," frequently features crossovers of the colorful criminals.
As a gesture toward girl-fans, Gwen soon gets a power-upgrade in that she becomes a talented sorceress in her own right, giving Ben a "sidekick" to help in the fight-scenes. The most frequent jokes arise from the quarrels between Ben and Gwen, with Max playing referee, and there's a certain sameness about all three of them, even given that serial TV characters usually don't change much from season to season. I suppose the predictability of the setup helped with the show's longevity in other iterations, but I for one never found any of the Tennysons even slightly nuanced. The most subtle episode has Ben and Gwen travel to the future, when both of them are thirty-something adults. Mature Ben, called "Ben 10,000" because of all the alien powers he's mastered, seems to live in some joyless funk for reasons never disclosed, and Mature Gwen has brought him into contact with his younger self to snap Mature Ben out of his depression. However, in the only other episode taking place in this future, Ben 10,000 has become a routine well-balanced hero, and even has his own ten-year-old kid-- meaning that the writers never meant to open up any complex avenues for this simple kids' adventure series.
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