Hello everyone, back after a bit of a hiatus with another HtC blog, and this one's interesting because generally these blogs cover villain characters, and Kevin 11 technically had a whole redemption arc and became a hero and main character after the fact. Having said that, Kevin's backstory becomes an absolute mess after the OG series full of constant retcons, and while I and a lot of others like Post OG series Kevin as a hero, I think we can all agree he's effectively a completely different character from Kevin 11, the sociopathic dark mirror to Ben 10 and main villain of Season 2. So today I am going to be covering Kevin 11 as he was in the Original Series, using the whole of Ben 10 for scaling and mentioning only what of his convoluted backstory is necessary, to cover this fantastic villain in the way he deserves.
Kevin Ethan Levin was a punk 11 year old kid from Bellwood, USA. At some point in his childhood he was kidnapped by a shadowy extraterrestrial agency which infused him with the Osmosis Gene, turning him into a mutant who had the power to absorb energy from surrounding materials through physical contact. After being persecuted as a freak and monster for these newfound powers, Kevin ran away from home, fending for himself as a punk street rat in New York City, feeling that if people hate him for what he can do, that from that point on he would only look after himself. Kevin was effectively a dark Mirror towards Ben himself, a look at what Ben could have become if given his alien power, without having the support system and guidance provided to him by his grandpa and cousin, becoming a sociopathic loner.
This came to a head when after bonding with Ben, Ben refused to go along with Kevin's evil schemes driven by greed and revenge, bringing them into conflict. Kevin used his powers to copycat Ben’s own, framing him for crimes all across the United States to try and make the world hate Ben as much as the world hated him. But Ben refused to believe the world was a cold place, knowing that there are always people who will accept others for who they are, something Kevin could not accept, resulting in him mutating into a Chaotic amalgamation of all Ben’s aliens, and becoming unable to change back.
Now as much a freak on the outside as he was on the inside, Kevin swore vengeance against Ben and continued on, as one of his most physically intimidating Adversaries, possessing all of Ben’s powers, plus his own, he had become Kevin 11. And went on to do everything from battle Ben as a space gladiator, team up with Ben's arch nemesis, Vilgax, and even in the original Timeline spend the next 30 years absorbing countless other creatures' powers in the Null Void to become an unstoppable monster.
As Kevin 11, Kevin possesses the powers of all 10 of the aliens from Ben’s original lineup as well as his own powers, the ability to absorb Energy via physical contact. Kevin can absorb any kind of power into his body with just a touch, be it electrical, radiation, mana, etc, and use it to amp himself, able to create electrical auras, shoot powerful blasts of energy, and expunge this energy into other sources allowing him to overload and disable technology. Kevin can also absorb the Bioenergy of any creature's DNA on contact, allowing himself to alter his form and gain the same stats and abilities inherent to the target. This is how he was able to replicate Ben’s powers, and while Kevin could initially only keep these copied powers for a short time, by his second appearance he had gained enough of a mastery over this to maintain the energy permanently. Kevin can always add more energy and abilities to himself with just one touch.
Kevin’s mutated form also has many of the abilities of the aliens in Ben’s original playlist, however as a means of balancing all this power, All the powers Kevin has are only at 1/10th the potency as the version Ben has, as Kevin is dividing his energy between 10 different powersets all at once. This includes the powers of Ben’s physically strongest and fastest aliens at the time, Fourarms and XLR8 respectively. In the episode preceding the one where Kevin’s mutated form shows up for the first time, Fourarms was able to crack through the exoskeleton of The Great One with his punches, an alien monster who regularly tanks being on the surfaces of exploding planets, which via surface area would require it to be tanking at least 56 Gigatons of TNT. At 1/10th this that would suggest Kevin could output at least 5.6 Gigatons, however Kevin has fought and more than held his own against Fourarms in raw power multiple times, and even somewhat stood up to stronger characters like Vilgax, likely due to him also getting 1/10th the super human strength of Ben’s other aliens making up the difference, giving Kevin full scaling here. Speedwise, XLR8’s species is established to be faster than Aliens like Fasttrack, who once ran fast enough to grab two men and run them out of range from an exploding grenade, after it had already began exploding in their hand, before it could make contact with their skin, a feat calced at over Mach 7,380. At 1/10th XLR8’s speed, Kevin would at least be able to move at speeds greatly exceeding Mach 738, which is consistent with Kevin also getting 1/10th the Speed of aliens like Heatblast and Stinkfly who have directly dodged Lightning, and scoring hits on Vilgax who could react to and catch XLR8 himself.
With the rest of Ben’s Aliens, Kevin is a walking arsenal, from Heatblast, Kevin gained the ability to blast Fire from out of his left arm as well as absorb fire from his surroundings. Even in a weakened State, Heatblast was capable of generating Supernova Hot temperatures with his flames, which Kevin logically should be able to replicate even at 1/10th potency given its casual nature. From Wildmutt, Kevin has two smaller clawed arms and quill projectiles, plus the ability to sense his surroundings through super enhanced hearing, and track his foes through his potent sense of smell. From Diamondhead, Kevin has a large Shapeshifting crystal right arm, which he can turn into various weapons, shoot razor sharp projectiles from, potentially use to refract laser and other light based weapons with and geokinetically summon crystal constructs from the Earth. Kevin’s crystals only possess 1/10th the hardness of Diamondhead’s own, but Diamondhead’s durability is through the roof, able to consistently tank hits from heavy hitters like Fourarms. While most of these abilities are limited to his right arm, based on statements from Ben that he can enhance himself with ‘Diamondhead Invulnerability’, it seems Kevin can manipulate his Body Hardness to get the same durability his arm has across the rest of his body. From Greymatter, Kevin presumably can adhesively stick to surfaces like a frog if need be, but more notably he gets an intellect to possibly 1/10th Greymatter’s own? Kevin has never shown intellect of the Magnitude that would imply, but he did become notably more clever throughout the course of the season, successfully framing Ben for a cross country crime spree and setting up ambushes, it's also possible the mental instability later shows love to stress Kevin goes through in forms like this prevents him from taking full advantage of his intellect. From Stinkfly, Kevin has two massive wings on his back he can use for indefinite flight, as well as the ability to shoot large adhesive slime projectiles from his mouth to immobilize foes. Interestingly this slime when combined with Heatblast’s fireballs will violently explode giving Kevin a very slick combo move to pull off at a distance, which is super weird cause Stinkfly’s slime is shown to actually extinguish fire at every other point in the series. From Ripjaws, Kevin gained a bioluminescent light on his forehead, and more importantly the ability to breathe underwater indefinitely, which explains how he survived being knocked unconscious at the bottom of the San Francisco Bay at the end of the episode Framed. Also, while Kevin does not normally possess Ripjaws’ super powerful mouth full of teeth, he has at various points displayed the ability to shapeshift his mouth INTO that at will for a super powerful surprise attack when the opportunity presents itself. Lastly there is Ben’s two most Versatile Aliens, Ghostfreak and Upgrade, who weirdly, we’ve never seen Kevin use the abilities of in this state which naturally leads to us having to use assumptions and guess work to figure it out. Ghostfreak is a ghost-like alien who has a lot of different powers, although at the time Ben had not gained the ability to use many of them, but the two most notable ones he did have were the classic ghost abilities to turn Invisible and Intangible. Because these are Binary abilities which are kinda all or nothing, it is unlikely the 1/10th rule would apply to them and Kevin can just do this at will. Despite the fact he never showed the ability to do this, there is a precedent for him doing so, as in Ben 10 Ultimate Alien when Kevin absorbed Ben’s later aliens, he repeatedly made use of Big Chill’s intangibility proving by all means he should be able to with Ghostfreaks. Upgrade on the other hand is a liquid metal cybernetic organism whose main ability is to shapeshift his body around materials and technology, to disable it, possess it, and massively increase its abilities and performance. Upgrade can regenerate from being smashed into a puddle, shoot energy beams, create constructs and absorb nearby tech to make both it and himself better, but all of this is based on him having a liquid metal biology Kevin is not shown to have. That said, I still think he can do this. Shapeshifting is how Kevin got into this form in the first place, how he impersonated all Ben’s aliens, and even something he shows with how he can just change his mouth to Ripjaws’ at will. Future Kevin has a viscous Liquid like body he can control at will, and Kevin being able to absorb materials into his body is literally a power he gets just himself in later series’, by all means he has all the evidence he needs to replicate this.
Kevin is also a highly skilled fighter who has been able to fight numerous powerful warriors with comparable stats to his own with many decades of combat experience, including Technorg an alien Gladiator Champion who is the same species as Vulcanus, someone who has matched Fourarms in strength many times, and also Vilgax, who is much stronger than all of Ben's aliens and has been fighting and conquering since at least the time of the American Revolutionary War.
If you allow Kevin 11,000, the version of him from the future who absorbed thousands of powerful aliens over decades, he gains abilities including enhanced Shapeshifting and a powerful sonic Roar attacks, as well as massively better stats. So much so he was able to just completely tank an enraged beatdown from Waybig, only to immediately get up and proclaim, ‘Is that all ya got?’ Waybig for reference was able to overpower and destroy the Incursion Conquest Ray in a beam struggle, a weapon that violently shatters Earth Sized Planets in a single shot.
Name: Kevin 11
Origin: Ben 10
Classification: Mutant, Human-Alien Hybrid
Powers and Abilities: Shapeshifting, Mid-High Regeneration, Energy Absorption, Stat Amplification, Energy Projection, Technology Manipulation, Technology Absorption, Body Hardness Manipulation, Super Senses, Light Refraction, Geokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Flight, Amphibious Biology, Invisibility, Intangibility, Webslinging, Fragokinesis.
Weaknesses: Mentally Unstable, Cannot use Powers to their Full Potency
Destructive Capacity: Island Level+ (Large Planetary as Kevin 11,000)
Range: Hundreds of Meters
Speed: Massively Hypersonic+
Durability: Island Level+ (Large Planetary as Kevin 11,000)
Stamina: Superhuman, can continue fighting as long as he has energy reserved.
Intelligence: At least above average human level, deceptively clever and skilled, (possibly insanely smart depending on how much you buy downscaling from Greymatter)
So how would he do if he tried to take on other verses?
Cartoon Network is canon to DC Comics so if Kevin was in DC Earth 1, how well would he perform? Kevin would be far more powerful than any of the normal Street Tier heroes, able to shrug off attacks from characters like Black Canary, Starman, and Hippolyta. While his speed isn’t That impressive, relatively speaking, he would certainly be able to keep up with a lot of these characters and would be a very difficult challenge for weaker characters to take on without significant prep time. His pyrokinesis can counteract the powers of Captain Cold and Killer Frost, and having a combination of intangibility, body hardness manipulation and liquid regen means he would be extremely hard to deal damage to. Obviously there are a LOT of DC characters that just outclass him in stats, but the most terrifying thing about Kevin is his ability to absorb energy, which could potentially allow him to become significantly stronger and more dangerous very quickly by laying low and accumulating weapons and powers from heroes he could pick off.
Ben 10 famously had a major crossover event with Generator Rex, but unfortunately it was more a Generator Rex special guest starring Ben, that characters like Kevin didn’t get to show up in, so let's look at that! Kevin in his mutant form actually has really good stats for this series, being roughly on par with Rex himself for most of the show, Rex himself also having Island Level MHS feats of his own, as well as directly scaling to several of Ben’s aliens Kevin would also scale to. Kevin in this world would most likely be considered an Evo, a human mutated by ultra advanced microscopic tech called Nanites that infest the planet. And that kinda leads to a big problem for the series as Kevin would just be able to constantly absorb additional power from these Nanites to amp himself considerably, growing stronger and with access to more powers until he becomes unstoppable, similar to beings like Alpha or EOS Rex. Most characters in the series would not be able to stop Kevin because of this. A couple characters who could give him trouble, like Breach who could simply trap Kevin in her pocket dimension, that’s how Kevin was stopped in the main series, trapping him in the Null Void. However Kevin would likely escape just by destroying the stuff Breach keeps in there pissing her off enough to expunge him just like Rex did, and Breach doesn’t have any wincons against him otherwise as Kevin could regen from her potential spatial cutting and drain her powers with a touch. The most interesting matchup here would be Kevin vs Rex Himself. Before EOS Kevin would have been more than a match for Rex in stats, skill and power variety, but Kevin’s ability to absorb powers with a touch would be devastating for Rex who was vulnerable to this type of power. And as Kevin’s mutations were caused by absorbing bio energy and not through tech, Rex would be able to disable additional power Kevin could get by absorbing Nanites, but not Depower his baseform. Kevin also has a lot of abilities Rex frankly has no counter too, Kevin can regen from physical damage, Kevin can turn intangible which as Big Chill displayed, GR characters cannot interact with, and with Upgrade’s Powers Kevin could absorb, control or destroy any of Rex’s builds on contact. If we allow for Kevin 11,000, it’s doubtful if even EOS Rex could stop him. Kevin would be a massive threat.
To ask how Kevin would do in another Cartoon Network series about Alien Heroes, how would Kevin 11 do in Steven Universe. Kevin would be a physical powerhouse against the classic Crystal Gems, superior to Amethyst and Pearl, and somewhat comparable to characters like Garnet, Jasper or Bismuth in raw power. Speed on the other hand would be problematic for Kevin, as the Gems have been able consistently move out of the way of light beams, and even react to MFTL attacks like a group of Homeworld pods that flew to a different Galaxy in seconds. Kevin would basically appear frozen in time to them and would take a massive beating from them. However Kevin can endure a massive beating through a combination of his enhanced durability, and logia like Regen. Kevin can turn intangible which is not something SU characters have encountered before, allowing him to prevent them kicking his butt once he gets a second to think, and his ability to absorb energy from the Gems on contact would be a real danger as it could raise his own power and speed to match or surpass their own if given the chance. It’s doubtful if even more broken tech like Aquamarine’s wand would stop Kevin as he could just absorb the energy trying to hold him in stasis. But Kevin’s biggest advantage is the Crystal manipulation power provided to him by Diamondhead’s DNA, which would in theory just give him the option to shatter their Gems and insta kill them regardless of speed, and would work on pretty much anyone in the verse as the Gems themselves are not as durable as the bodies they create. Now it is true Kevin would need to figure this out which may take some time, and stronger characters like Lapis would completely stomp him, though if allowed, Kevin 11,000 wields power comparable to The Cluster itself and only the Diamonds would really stand a chance against him at that point.
The most popular Matchup for Kevin is Gajeel Redfox from Fairy Tail, and although that is a thematic fight for Teen Kevin, I thought it’d be fun to see how original recipe Kevin would do here. With his speed and power, Kevin would roughly fit best into Fairy Tail around the time of the Grand Magic Games Arc, being more than a match for competitors like Bacchus but somewhat below competitors like Kagura, Lyon, the Fairy Tail members etc, which is kinda fitting for him given his time as an Alien Gladiator in season 2. Despite being outmatched in raw power, Kevin does have a lot of tricks to use, his Intangibility and Regen defenses are of course going to be a problem, however his Upgrade powers not as much since there isn’t too much advanced technology to use. Even with these things there are many characters who have abilities that could get past his defenses, such as Meredy’s Magility Magic inflicting him with pure pain, or Macbeth trapping him in an illusion, or Zero sending him to another dimension. That said, Since Kevin is able to drain raw magical energy with his powers as seen in later seasons, logically if he gets hands on these wizards he could potentially feed off of them and grow more powerful becoming a much more serious threat before long. But could Kevin beat Gajeel at this time? Kinda depends, if its early into the Grandmagic Games, Gajeel would be stronger but not have a way of getting by Kevin’s defenses or countering his magic absorption so eventually he’d lose, later into the games though Gajeel manages to eat Rogue’s shadow and attain Iron Shadow Dragon Mode, making him even stronger and able to turn into a logia shadow creature Kevin couldn’t simply attack, and would allow Gajeel to at least bypass Kevin's own logia, so Kevin likely couldn’t fight that unless given Kevin 11,000.
Lastly, by FAR the series that Ben 10 gets compared to most is none other than Danny Phantom, likely due to the big fan crossover between the two, so how would Kevin do if he was set loose on Amity Park? Kevin has physical power similar to Danny around the time of Season 2, as well as most of his normal villains, such as Skulker who can generate an entire island with his ghost energy, or Spectra who was able to survive the Fenton Peeler which can break things down molecule by molecule. Speed however is yet again a problem for Kevin as around this time Danny was able to move at a faster rate than relativistic beams shot by Technus down to Earth in seconds. Despite the speed disparity, Kevin should be able to detect ghosts even if Invisible thanks to Wildmutts senses, he could also hit them even if intangible by using Ghostfreaks intangibility himself, although this means he couldn’t use it to defend against their attacks in term. Kevin would likely not be able to be Overshadowed by these Ghosts as Omnitrix aliens are shown to be specifically resistant to possession and the Omnitrix aliens are specifically who he took the powers of. Kevin’s supernova flames could likely protect him from the high amount of Cryokinetic powers in this series, and against several characters like Skulker and Technus his Technopathic sweet from Upgrade would be devastating. There are of course several powers in this series he doesn’t have answers too, such as Desire’s Reality Warping, Ember’s mind manipulating music, Johnny 13’s probability manipulation and the list goes on, but something he does have is a way to actually permanently kill Ghosts, who normally can just reform no matter what one does to them. Ghosts in Danny Phantom run on Ectoplasmic Energy, and use it to exist, use powers etc, and if someone were to completely drain it, they would cease to be. And Kevin has every means available to pull this off, given he can touch them even if intangible, and has taken energy from similar sources before, such as Ghostfreak, whose species is normally Immune to being drained of energy due to being made of negative energy, meaning this is relatively much easier. Since doing this would also make Kevin stronger and faster, it is absolutely crucial that Ghosts make use of that speed to prevent Kevin getting the chance. Someone like Danny may be able to stop him but he would likely need to go all out with a Ghostly Wail to pull it off.
