Sparked The Ben 10 Fan

and an honourable mention

This one’s a few days late unfortunately I got ill and stuff

This issue opened right were we left off on issue #2 with Gwen attempting to ram Ben with the rust bucket and omg the art was amazing I loved how the head lights reflect of off Cannonbolt’s shell stunning. After the hit Gwen attempts to face the alien with a tennis racket, thought she might grab a knife or something grabbing a tennis racket instead feels like something right out of classic. Then we get one of the grossest transformation sequences yet, god these are amazing. Then we get a lovely scene of Gwen comforting Ben, i”ve mentioned that I was worried that if these relationship continued exactly how it was first presented it was gonna get stale quick so it’s nice to see the depth in there relationship already.

We then get some more military stuff with them learning about Krabb and a demonstration how unequipped humanity is to face extraterrestrials with them being decimated. Krabb states he’s tracking the omni energy like how they use to in classic but it seem to be able to be tracked even when the omnitrix is not in use but also it seem to be not as precise as in classic more tracking spikes of the energy rather than an exact location. We then get grandpa max use a techno stop watch gps thing to call the rustbucket obviously there’s some weapon on board but damn he knew atleast Gwen was there so the rustbucket better have had some crazy armor. Also we get a good look at Gwen new character design better and yes the pink cat was supposed to be there and last issue last page was an error. Now we also get our best look at the omnitrix and it much less metallic compared to when it first latched to bens arm and is more planet almost wood or vine like, maybe it’s trying to blend in to the planet and the first thing it analyses from earth is all the flora from ya know the Forrest Ben was running through.

Ben and Gwen see the carnage from Krabb and Ben first thought wasn’t to help, Gwen had to actual push him to do it, this I feel like this is a big departure from prime Ben who most defining character trait was his heroic spirit. I don’t dislike this change as it means we will probably see Ben learn different lesson to reach his hero end point. Also we see Krabb pop a guys head like bubble wrap right in front of Ben and Gwen so I wonder if they might go down the route of exploring the trauma of seeing something like that at such a young age.

Now time for Diamondhead and the colouring on Diamondhead’s crystals is so good, also his trouser kinda remind me of how omnivores dressed their aliens and his first introduction pose is amazing very heroic feeling. Now with Diamondhead we’ve technically seen every alien but I’m not counting the rapid transformation as my first impression of them once we have seen everyone properly I will probably make a post about how well they were introduced. We get a pretty good fight between Krabb and Diamondhead although we don’t get much of Diamondheads powers he mostly just punch’s and use his invulnerability to take hits. Krabb mentions petrosapiens not having thought one in eons, this implies that petropia might have also been destroyed in this continuity too, also seem Krabb a much bigger deal in the comic with him claiming to have legends about himself, the fact he mention eons might implies he’s actual ancient but that could also be general sci fi nonsense. Krabb is able to figure out that something up with Diamondhead from his lack of fight ability and omnitrix energy on him but doesn’t put it together until he see Ben transform. Also grandpa was able to figure out it was Ben from hearing Diamondhead say get off my home turf in almost a way that implies he already knew the omnitrix is a thing or had atleast heard rumours of its existence.

And then Diamondhead goes from a timeout in another horrific transformation. I hate thst we can see bens flesh in this one, it’s so gross but like in a good way. The transformation was actually red this time I’m pretty sure every other transformation has been green even the de transformation maybe that was just aquirks from early issues and de transformations will have a red flash like in classic from now on. We get a scene of Ben running for his life somehow surviving until grandpa Max was able to release high frequency particle burst to stun Krabb I’m not sure if that’s a thing but it seemed to just be like an EMP. Fortunately it bought Ben enough time to transform into Fourarms, aw man come on give me some one new, it’s seems Fourarms is gonna be the most used alien again. Like it makes sense if Ben picked it, it’s one he already knows how to use and he actual calls himself Fourarms first actual name drop not just piece of dialogue thst eluded to them. The fight scene was great with Ben pounding Krabb till he went down it’s seem Ben might have killed him and with this more realistic world atleast with what injures you can take it makes sense also im Bens defence Krabb was trying to kill him and killed a lot of people and too Ben it just looked like a robot he didn’t know Krabb was a living creature so he gets a pass on this one curious if Ben gonna do much more killing as dark as that is.

Now the military does what the military does best in fiction attempt to murder the person that just saved them because they’re idiots. Fortunately grandpa Max got him out of there with a smokescreen and we then get Ben de transforming clearly in pain Gwen asking if he’s alright which is nice to see them being nicer and Ben rather trying not to worry then or acting tuff plays it off. Then we get an interesting shot of grandpa max with him telling Ben and Gwen not to worry and hes sure the rest of the trip gonna be normal, the panel looks very similar to one to panel of Rozum they both look forward same way with about the same amount of there face in panel and a black background. I wonder if it ment to foreshadow something like in a meta context the audiences understand that grandpa Max’s statements false that the rest of the summer gonna be normal maybe it’s something similar here where Rozum implies that with Krabb body they can get an equal footing but when in reality the future for the military plot line will result in them being grossly over powered technologically probably by Vilgax.

We end with some more Vilgax with him like just destroying a moon, we’re already at this sorts stuff that insane also love the weapon that does it, it has a bunch of tentacles and stuff massive squid vibes from its shape. Also Vilgax design look much better here, Robert Carey please leave Vilgax wearing clothes he doesn’t look good shirtless. Also we get confirmation that Krabb was working for Vilgax, I did assume this but nice that it’s stated also the Vilgax robots confirmed Krabb is dead as hell, rip Krabb hopefully the military does something interesting with your corpse. Cool to see hes still a cyberborg pissciss premann, I know Duncan said on twitter that the missing original 10 are in the omnitrix but it’s cool to hear about another species from Ripjaws home world in the comic. It seem Vilgax is already intrigued by Ben despite not knowing who he is yet or who hes related too, I say thst but grandpa max and Vilgax might not have a rivalry with Vilgax in the comic so that point could be newt.

It a shame that with Ben 10s 18 season there’s some aliens with under 10 episode appearances. Ben 10 went well over 200 episodes that mean some aliens appeared in less than 5% of the episodes. I hope the new comic give some of these aliens a chances for some spot light. Also if you count Atomic x Alien x and Atomix only go up to 8.

Seen a fair few interpretations of what Ben team would be this is my opinion, not 100% sure on dusknoir but Ben definitely needs a ghost type.