Max knowing Kevin's father makes no sense

[Tactical Ochoa]

Just another little thing that I wanted to post alongside the "prisons inside the Null Void" post. The sequel shows established that Max's former Plumbers partner was Kevin's father...and then that was subsequently retconned into a false memory in Omniverse. None of that makes sense because those moments established that Max knew about Kevin, yet the Original Series showed that Max doesn't know about and recognize Kevin at all.

[npzman]

Also why would Ben meet the son of max's partner Devin a random city. That has to happen by ridiculous chance. Grandpa Max had those fake memories during OS right ?

[coreofthesun]

I think that it really was unnecessary for Devin to exist. Aside from his role as a Plumber tying in to the huge Plumber retcon in UAF, why on Earth did they make him Max's partner? It makes Max the world's biggest scumbag for not even trying to help Kevin or acknowledging himonce in the OS. Despite Kevin apparently being his ex-partner's son. And as npzman said, what are the chances of Max just happening to come across Kevin in NYC, and then doing nothing?

And then there's the whole false memories thing in the Omniverse Rooters arc which attempted to fix this but made things even more confusing because of the story arcs involving Kevin in UAF which directly contradict it.

Devin seemed to be the main motivation for Kevin turning good in UAF. I'd argue that it is a really cliche motivation which wasn't necessary and required unnecessary retconning of the past to achieve. IF Kevin has to go through a redemption, I'd rather have him change due to him seeing the error of his ways himself and becoming a better person under the influence of Ben and Gwen who act as character foils to him. Then again, I think that vigilante/villain Kevin is a way better direction to take his character than being a hero.

[Tactical Ochoa]

@coreofthesun Granted, I don't really see Kevin as a vigilante-type. Most especially with moments like when he was willing to let two trains crash into each other and kill hundreds of innocent people in the process just so he can steal some money, Kevin seems like quite a selfish person. I think he cares too much about himself to be a vigilante and be willing to help others, unless maybe it furthers his own selfish goals. Like he's willing to work with Vilgax because it would help him get closer to Ben and try to achieve his goal of getting payback towards Ben. He also just doesn't have a good view towards other people given the treatment and abuse he faced. In the episode Framed, Kevin states, "Nobody's innocent! They just haven't had the chance to make fun of me yet!". That's not someone that fits the role of a vigilante.

[coreofthesun]

@Tactical-Ochoa Given that MOA and the other writers were the ones who created him, they probably understand him better than any of us do. And apparently that's the direction which they were going to take Kevin and Charmcaster in the inital sequel Hero Generation. Even when Dwayne McDuffie was brought on he at first wanted to take that same direction with Kevin but then CN mandated Kevin being on Team Tennyson. I don't think that it's completely out of the question that Kevin improves slightly for the better but he would never realistically get close to Ben and Gwen. Perhaps vigilante is the wrong word to use but Kevin doesn't work as a world ending stakes villain as much as he does a personal rival to Ben. Perhaps they're not always purely antagonistical of each other but Kevin works when he challenges the very person whom Ben is.

If I had to redo Alien Force would've actually given him his own arc to parallel the character development which Ben goes through. Perhaps something to do with his past and how he was treated back then . Perhaps there would've been a better way to implement his shattered relationship with his own family. Though rather than going down the path of love and light like Ben does, Kevin would probably take the other road of darkness and anger.