Who is Kevin really?

Oldtaku_dd

The little monster from the original series. The other half Gwevin from alien force to omniverse. Ben's enemy Ben's best friend. A mutant an alien a brain washed hit man, or not. The character most screwed up by all the retconning.

I've been trying to get into Kevin's head space a bit recently. I can't seem to rationalize the feral child from the original series to the hero from AF-UA-OMNIVERSE to the villain in the ben 10k era ( and back again if omniverse is taken into the equation again ).

Who's is Kevin to you were do you draw the line in the forest of shifting retcons?

Tactical Ochoa

@oldtaku_dd Original Series version. I already explained why on here plenty of times.

csgt

@Oldtaku_dd There is no possible way to rationalize them as the same person. They're completely different persons with different backstories:

OS Kevin was a psycho mutant who was kicked out of his house by his parents (his father never knew Max) for being a freak, hated Ben with a passion and tried to murder Gwen twice just to get revenge on Ben. In the future, this Kevin becomes Kevin 11,000 a man who is capable of physically hurting his own son Devlin, when Devlin gets in the way of his revenge against Ben.

UAF Kevin was a half-alien hybrid who had a loving mother and a heroic deceased father (his father was Max's partner), was Ben's best friend and a perfect boyfriend to Gwen.

Omniverse Kevin tried to mix both Kevins, keeping him as a hero like in UAF, but retconning some things back to their OS status - Kevin as a mutant, not an alien. Kevin's dad never knew Max like in OS. Kevin becomes Kevin 11K in the future - proving that his relationship with Gwen is an unhealthly one (he had Devlin with another woman, and goes evil on and off eventually).

I don't know if you're familiar with X-Men, but if you are, you know the character Mystique is a villain in classic X-Men comics, but a hero in the current movies. The real Mystique is obviously the villain from comics, and the one from the movies is just an alternate adaptation of the character. In the same way, the REAL Kevin is the one from original series, because that's how he was written by the ones actually created the character - Man of Action. Dwayne McDuffie and co simply adapted Kevin and changed him to fit their different vision of the character, so UAF Kevin is just an adaption for me. And Omniverse is a failed attempt to reconcile both.

The better solution would have been admiting that UAF is a different universe from the OS.

Offbeatcat

@csgt It's those damn celestial sapiens who are clearly to blame for this

Oldtaku_dd

@andrew42

Actually Cartoon network wanted Kevin on Team Tennyson. Dwayne Mcduffie and co originally wanted to use Cooper as the 3rd member of the team.

Ultimate OmniTri

I’m pretty sure MOA has said that Kevin was always supposed to be redeemed.

Oldtaku_dd

@omni-triforcer

No they said he was supposed to be developed as an anti-hero like what they planned for charmcaster. That doesn't mean redeemed.

I'm a Gwevin fan and given there history I question those two some times.

Offbeatcat

@oldtaku_dd Celestlial sapiens is my term for the people who write ben 10.

csgt

@oldtaku_dd Interesting. UAF Kevin's nice personality and interactions with Ben and Gwen would have actually made sense if he were Cooper instead of Kevin. And Cooper also liked Gwen, and in UA he was basically 'blond Kevin'. But is there any official interview or something that confirms this?

csgt

Oh, even Kevin's "my father was a Plumber and I want to make him proud" attitude would have made A LOT of sense for Cooper, since he comes from a Plumber family (his grandfather was actually a Plumber and Max's friend according to OS). In UAF, they pulled a retcon outta nowhere that Kevin's dad was a plumber and he asked Max to take care of his wife and son after his death, when in OS Max didn't even know Kevin, and Kevin himself said his father and mother kicked him out of home.

Oldtaku_dd

@csgt

It was an old question someone asked dwayne mcduffie on his web page sorry.

JrPhilgene

@csgt they kinda did Man Of Action did say that each Ben10 series was a reboot