During Ben 10 Week on Cartoon Network, they've been premiering brand new episodes nightly this week and it all climaxing with the season finale Friday night. But, with all this flourish I have to sound out something that needs to be said. Ben 10's true origins came from, of all places, not a little boy-but a little girl! I will expose to you my proof. I only ask that you hear to my thoughts about how Ben 10 was born-spreading delight to millions of children and (and grownups) around the world. So WHY this revealation? Well, for a few years now I've been taking it easy trusting the TV show's creators, a secret group of gentlemen called ?Man of Action,? would come forward and acknowledge to the fans where they got the idea. But it has become apparent as we now head towards the release of a second live-action film of the cartoon character Ben 10 that MOA is keeping quiet about where character's origin.



Stick with me and allow me to share my theory. The 1st thing you need to know is that the group of guys called Man of Action are comic book writers. And in the world of comic books it's not unusual to steal character looks, story ideas, etc.,. Well let's be honest; in EVERY field it's not exceptional to ?borrow? ideas, but it's much less problematic to see when it happens in comic books because returning to the original source is only a matter of flipping through a few pages and identifying the incriminating evidence and shouting out ?Ah ha!? But with TV shows folks tend not to notice it as much, unless both programs are on TV simultaneously (Adams Family/Munsters). But in the case of Ben 10, the show creators (Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle) went back 20 years for one idea to borrow and 30 years for another.

The character of Ben 10 I would say is chiefly based on a unknown, minor DC comics character named Lori Morning. And when I say ?unknown? I mean REALLY unknown. First of all you need to know who the Legion of Superheroes are. They're a group of adolescent super powered kids from all over the universe who battle crime on earth-in the 30th century. Got that? If it helps to digest this, just recognize that they come to the 20th century and begin a friendship with Superman as a boy (aka Superboy). And nowadays the Legion Is not actually as popular a series as it once was. Don't get me wrong, to comic book readers, they're deemed both essential and historical-but to the general populace they are not actually on the radar. Although this season the Legion did make an appearance on the television program Smallville in an episode written by a comic book writer.

But Lori Morning was a TEN year old GIRL who wore an athletic shirt with a number on it (like Ben 10). She unintentionally made her way to the 31st century (a plot line also featured in Ben 10 when he became Ben 10,000). And once she arrives in the future she stumbles on a gimmick known as the Hero Dial. Guess what? The gimmick allows her to become adult sized aliens. Guess what else? She fights crime in her transformed state. And guess what else? She can't control which alien she'll turn into. Now in print my contention might not look especially strong. So I urge you to visit my little blog. I've taken the liberty to put a few adjacent pictures and the case is made for itself. You will need very little winning over once you see the aliens that Lori uses and then compare those to the ones Ben uses. The sex switch from girl to boy makes sense if you want to have a successful TV show, but they kept the female element by just giving Ben a cousin named Gwen; 2 birds with one stone.

I could continue on about how Man of Action likewise went back 30 years to the TV program Shazam and pirated the theme of a young boy who changed into an fully grown superhero and passes the summertime touring about with a golden ager in a Winnebago, but why don't you just check a clip from YouTube.. Just visit my blog and take a look at those pictures. And, as a fan of the Ben 10 shows, I'm grateful they acquired a couple of themes from characters I enjoy because in the end they produced a brand new thing that's fun to me and loads of folks around the world.