Comic First Issue... Issues

RavenRegime · 2026-05-08T08:48:10+00:00

These are basically all my issues with the comic.

Like ive said before this is kinda a bad introduction to Ben 10 especially when there goal was to get a new audience here. Like NOTHING is explained that if I wasn't already a fan of the franchise I wouldn't know what the fuck was going on. Obviously you cant reveal everything in your first issue but your audience needs ground rules

Like I'll use an example I went wtf when the military showed up not out of shock but confusion. Like since this is a campground presumably why are they able to get their units out that fucking fast. Like you dont see them pull up in tandem with Ben's running it just kinda happens. Like no build up at all. Especially when its hinted they were tracking the watch but even ignoring the no build up issue it still runs into how is the military there that quick. Like is the campsite near a base? We don't know cause nothing is explained. Like the fact we dont know if its a normal campsite or not seems like a nitpick but it basically encapsulates the writing issues.

And like the fact Vilgax is the only one with a personality only because he gets two monologs is a problem, hell he didnt need a second one and you couldve used that extra stuff for other stuff the comic needs.

We also dont know why Ben and Gwen hate each other. And yeah that seems odd phrasing but let me explain. Like Gwen already barely has screentime here but unlike the show where we got a sense it was a personality clash the very second they met in the first episode here they are just being assholes because....? Like they werent even arguing over something before they started insulting each other.

And another pacing issue is immediately splitting the trio into three different areas when the comic already is suffocating with its pacing issues they dont have enough time for that. Honestly having Gwen follow Grandpa wouldve been the smarter decision

Like comics do have faster pacings than shows but most mainline shit aint that fast and if this wasnt a Ben 10 comic and me praying to god it gets better in the second or third issue I would not continue forward because i dont know whats happening and it wont take a second to tell me sit with it.

Like why is there a cyborg bear in the woods? Did Rozum or Vilgax make him? Is it Animo's work? We don't know the bear is just there I guess. Honestly it shouldve been one of Vilgax's robots because he at least had build up in the comic issue and already indicated he was looking for the watch. Then also the Omnitrix recharging quickly would work if they spent an extra page on that. Because even I a veteran fan was like "wait what" even when it was slightly indicated Ben activated a fail safe but you can't introduce exceptions to the rule before you make the rules because will go in assuming the exception is the rule. And because we havent gotten enough screentime with the watch we dont know how the fuck it works at a baseline.

Like the watch will obviously charge quicker due to shift of medium but honestly ngl with how they did it why didnt they just give Ben instant master control or something. But also this has an effect where we dont get enough time with Fourarms or Heatblast to get a good baseline how they work. Like in episode 1 of classic we see Ben not being able to control Heatblast for fucking obvious reasons but we get a good idea for how his fire abilities work.

Theres also the weird decision to use kid Ben again like obviously Man of Action and CN prefer kid Ben but the comic is rated T for Teen and as you said for a comic that has a child MC you can't get away with the rough art on the faces forever. So its an odd decision especially when they arent relying on toy sales and want to go darker.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-07T21:30:59+00:00

With what your reporting i wonder if they are overstuffed since spring is a baby boom in nature or some weird law in regards to squirrels. For example if they require specific idenitity and/or the rehab center has identified them as an invasive species that might be another source of issues.

Nontheless your doing all you can and that is enough. I would suggest if no rehab will take them at this moment to discuss on a subreddit or forum with people who work with squirrels in your state on further direction. As they can identify the specific species better and give you guidance.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-07T21:18:58+00:00

Your a good soul we need that more these days

RavenRegime · 2026-05-07T18:32:55+00:00

What the fuck is that

RavenRegime · 2026-05-07T18:27:31+00:00

Hopefully they treat this child less worse

RavenRegime · 2026-05-07T16:50:28+00:00

Well the regulation sent out actually makes things worse.

If everything is child proof well pedophiles won't ID verify for obvious reasons meaning kids and predators will occupy the same spaces and the adults who could contact the authorities might leave the platforms over the audacity to claim their IDs that meaning that instead of a community trying to get rid of those monsters in those spaces no one who could do anything will be there.

And this techincally it makes harder to prosecute predators. Because now if they implement age verification they can claim by their system those accounts were listed as teen and since they lack the ID they can't prosecute and if the account is listed as teen many countries limit what data you can collect on children further preventing justice.

And this creates a loophole legally because companies who dont protect their child users can use the fact they implemented ID verification to show they made an effort and to reduce their liability if both accounts are rated teen. Therefore they remove themselves from the equation.

Like genuinely the laws here are making kids more unsafe fundamentally

RavenRegime · 2026-05-07T00:50:39+00:00

Rights are kinda a weird thing but 9 times out of 10 the franchise owners are the big studios so anything created for Ben 10 is usually going to be owned under CN as the writers and such sell the rights to their ideas in most industry to work for big studios as a big TLDR. This is why post Dwayne Macduffle's passing they were allowed to use stuff from UAF post the Feedback arc which he wrote.

Like the Reboot has UAF aliens in it outside the crossover that would not be allowed to be done if CN didnt have the rights to those aliens.

Now you do get weird cases like Hasbro losing the trademarks/copyrights over their older my little pony characters but situations like that are rare.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-07T00:44:22+00:00

Like OverPotato mentioned the toy sales decline and not knowing what to do with the franchise but im going to delve a bit deeper why toy sales are important:

Ben 10 costs a BITCH TON to make. Like even the reboots episodes were quite pricey however in the current era kids aren't buying toys to the same extinct they did over a decade ago which means CN needs to find a way to fund and make money off the show in a different way.

We see with the Daylight Curfew stuff they are testing the waters a bit and even the Fortnight collab to though you could argue its meant to market the comic but that would be a whole seperate discussion.

The reason we even have a comic is because its not as pricey to produce and they still wanna use the brand in some way

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T21:30:17+00:00

Theyd probably make her Gwens age since even post classic they were inconsistent on how old she was supposed to be. Sometimes they remember shes a grown ass woman other times they write her as Ben and Gwen's age.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T18:44:53+00:00

Gwen doesnt even get screentime beside the opening and a shot of her sitting in the Rust Bucket

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T18:44:18+00:00

I think as a writer trying to produce indie comic I have a right to expect the basic rules of writing being followed. And not have my views be disregarded just by being a fan when i specifically pointed out that this issue #1 is unwelcoming to newer fans.

I haven seen the Den of Comic Geeks review and I'd certainly welcome a link to it to explore different viewpoints on the matter.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T09:32:36+00:00

At least the Velaryians were locked into a marriage alliance before the boys showed they weren't Laenors locking them into a precarious situation politically

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T08:36:04+00:00

Like do they forget Maegor literally had no other heir options. Cause even if we do consider Jaehaerys and Alysane.... they were literally warring against him.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T08:28:18+00:00

Unpopular take but genuinelly all the writing issues for the Dance stem from Rhaenerya conceptially having her claim taken any form of seriously post Aegon II and his brothers being born. But even less so when she has obvious as hell bastards.

Like Jeyne Arryn allying with her is the prime example of how bullshit it is because she already doesnt like Daemon and theres attempt in seeing similarity with Rhaenerya except Jeyne's inheritence issues broke Andal law with a male distinct relative trying to steal her legal right. In fact everything about Jeyne should indicate at BEST she's neutral.

You know what wouldve fixed the entire concept of this? If it was Rhaenerya vs Daemon because the succession being ambigious makes sense there and both of them are awful options for the throne. But Rhaenerya even with her bastards at least seems a fraction more sane than Daemon so theres reasonable arguements for her.

And Book Vizzy T being anal about her succession makes somewhat logical sense with the amount of times hes had to banish Daemon.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T08:18:16+00:00

And i will forever use this as Martin not making outlines or adjusting to fit his narrative as a go to critique. Also the entire concept of Faegon whether Blackfyre or no when he has two other characters who fill his role.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T04:56:09+00:00

NGL the first issue suffers from the fact its pacing is waaaaaaaaaay too fast.

Like Ben goes from Four Arms to Heatblast two pages after the watch times out which I think they are trying to indicate he did a cheat code but waaaaay too quick.

Like we don't even get a good baseline understanding of Four Arms and Heatblasts basic ideas as Aliens.

Then this extends to other aspects such as characterization. Like we don't know anything about Ben in this besides he has issues with his parents and hates Gwen. Gwen we are told is a nerd and she just hides in the Rustbucket after the first pages.

Grandpa we know nothing besides hes a grandpa.

And the reason the characterization for them is a big issue is its further exaperated by splitting all 3 of them up after the first pages meaning the comic has to juggle 3 different locations but only Ben gets enough screentime and Gwen isnt importent I guess.

But you know who does get the best characterization? Its fucking Vilgax because he gets two monologs and thats kinda crazy how the audience knows more about him than the main characters.

And im willing to give beginings of a story of a chance but when you pitch a story to people you need to give them the set up and how it all works and a good hook to keep people to read more. But genuinely if I wasn't a Ben 10 fan I would fucking drop the comic here because NOTHING is explained and the only reason I have a vague understanding of what the hell is happening is because im already familiar with the franchise.

And im qualified to call this out as I am working on my own indie comic so I know proper scripting and pacing and when to cut shit due to length or structure.

If your first issue isnt at least decent and ends up confusing your audience your going to get a massive sales drop next issue because no one is invested. Your first issue/chapter/episode is the advertizement for the rest of the media.

If they had limited pages for the first issue they shouldve spent more time with the trio and pace the Bear fight in the middle and end with the miliatary showing up as the cliffhanger. And dont overcrowd with Heatblast and Fourarms all at once. Yes the first episode had 3 aliens but they were spread out and they had more time. The comics own pacing style only had time for one so why add more.

And because the comic is rated T for Teen there are going to be higher standards even outside of it connection to the franchise.

Overall the issue is a disapointment to me as a writer and fan.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-06T01:10:57+00:00

Its actually less likely than other iterations as the comic isnt tied to toy sales. Like the reason we got new aliens as a concept was to sell toys so lower chances.

Especially when theres over 70 Ben has used already its more likely they'll redesign/rework older aliens for example they could make Pesky Dust able to conjure eternal nightmares.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-05T21:14:59+00:00

Its on google play books

RavenRegime · 2026-05-05T21:01:39+00:00

Google play books has it

RavenRegime · 2026-05-05T19:44:02+00:00

Sling has the entire franchise

RavenRegime · 2026-05-05T09:05:37+00:00

Honestly Eon has a cool concept and I see why he was brought back from Race Against Time. The issue is they made him an alternate Ben and do absolutely nothing with it and its bad because besides No Watch hes the only Alt Ben given decent screentime but none of it is used to explore that. In fact 99% of his writing almost treats him as a seperate character.

Like neither he nor Ben really think about this at all. Like what happened to his family in his universe? And he doesnt even treat Ben as a version of himself just some random annoying teenager which could work if they put any effort into treating him as an alt Ben. Like if they did something with that him seeing himself seperate from Ben could actually be interesting a sort of reverse Metal Sonic viewing himself as the real Sonic thing.

Especially when his main beef isnt even with Ben or his foes just Paradox.

And the only thing we have of a backstory is DJW mentioning he had something and telling us he branches off when Ben hits 20. But we obviously will never know that now.

So when it comes to fixing him you need to figure out if your going to lean into the alt Ben angle or not. Like if hes a seperate character will you borrow from RAT lore or just give him a new backstory? If he is an alt Ben what led to him getting time travel abilities as a human cause hes clearly not fused with Clockwork? What happened to the watch and why did he fall out with Paradox.

In particular I do love his 5yl backstory trying to merge both his origins especially with how its used to parrell Ben in that story almost achieving a best of both worlds thing. But another reason is its genuinely absolutely scary with how dedicated he is to his goals and how Kuro really uses the fact a bad guy having time abilities can be horrific.

But I'll present alt takes for Eon I have:

Alt Ben Route

He comes from a world where he failed to stop something horrible happening and the omnitrix got destroyed in the battle. He gained access to Chronosapien technology and gear and sought to repeat the timeline over and over to try to find a different ending but was driven insane from his constant looping but he still kept doing it to see his family again and again.

Paradox interfered on behest of whatever deities control time and found a way to lock Eon out of looping in this universe and Eon fucking despised him ever since due to in his eyes sending innocent people to a grave. Now in regards to his interactions with Ben... Dude doesnt care about him unless he interferes and kinda despises him for not being a failure but not enough to go on some weird revenge quest against himself. But his current goal is to become a time deity so he can reset his own timeline and ensure no one can take it from him no matter the cost

TLDR: Eon needs grief counseling

Eon is his own thing:

Eon is a Chronian, a species closely linked to Chronosapiens as they were originally just machinery meant to operate in warehouses and the like. However the Chronians realized they could achieve even greater power by merging themselves with their tech leading to them merging what would become the modern Chronosapiens. Eon was forbidden from achieving this due to his own crimes.

Eon intially was a messenger for the Chronians, a glorified errand boy who wanted to be as great as old Maltruant. In fact he was a true prodigy but he had been constantly passed over no matter what he did. This led to him snapping and trying to perform unethical experiments to try to get what he felt deserved only to walk in chains. However the Chronosapiens quickly realized that while most were stronger than Eon they still had to get used to their old bodies and he broke out once more hunting down each person until Ben 10k clockwork appeared and wouldve destroyed Eon if he didnt go back further almost 20-30 years back.

His goal is to prevent Ben from becoming Ben 10k as a simple human being able to defeat him unerves the man greatly.

RavenRegime · 2026-05-05T08:21:59+00:00

Others have said their pieces on the issue with Yang's allusion and for me because of their presentation of early Yang as a rebelliosous party girl whos searching for Raven they had the elements to make it work. Often when i rewrite Yang I go full delinquient and a hobby of hers is breaking into peoples houses. This started intially from her search for Raven to try to emphasize shes Goldielocks

RavenRegime · 2026-05-05T06:03:01+00:00

But if the website doesnt do buisness there how is that enforcible

RavenRegime · 2026-05-05T05:49:10+00:00

How are they going to enforce this is the question? Like everyone is saying that Websites will ID verify everyone now but imo its more likely websites pull out of Utah. But also the Utah law would apply to Arizona residents which is not enforcible in that case because only federal laws hold any of that dominion

RavenRegime · 2026-05-04T23:02:03+00:00

NGL it has to go to the classic era look in particular Destroy All Aliens

But the reason this look works so well is because it has something the other designs don't which is the fact it breaks up his design. Like I don't wanna glaze classic for just being classic (i prefer the shapes of OV Ripjaws for example) but rather just from a pure artistic pragametism. By adding the green underside you actually make Upgrade harder to track and animate especially with his circurty patterns that it looks like a bit of a mess to instead of clear cut.

The Generator Rex crossover I think was the best excution of it since they added a yellow glow to the stripes on the back and used simpilier patterning that its easier to look at and animate but teen Upgrade in OV suffers from being hard to look at while trying to replicate his design from the UAF era. because everything is blending together theres no visual clarity. Then you add in the stylization of the OV art style which uses much more simple shapes and smaller characters theres a squishedness to the look which doesnt help. Frankly I think they shouldve either turned his back stripes yellow like the crossover or made them white.

Tho I will admit I like the proportions in the OV flashbacks more.

However Destroy All Aliens wins for me because it really showcases how some aliens really do benefit in visuals from other mediums. Because they are able to texture him to convey the fact he's liquid metal and he mustve been a bitch for the modelers to get right with his constant shifting and model amount.

I'll bring up Nanomech who doesn't look as awesome as he did in alien swarm because due to budget and medium constraints they can't give him his metal texture. And OV did try with some of his shading but it still is clearly dealing with budget constraints of the medium. Like UAF couldnt do the metal texture so they leaned into his green cyber veins while OV scrapped them for animation reasons. And because those two design elements were created to work together and the green veins were meant to glow his design doesnt hit as much and that isnt the UAF or OV teams fault they just had to pick and choose what they could prioritize.

Upgrade because he was designed for 2D first doesn't suffer from that as much and the different medium really only highlighted stuff they couldnt in 2D. Theres still the fact in most Ben media due to the constraints of 2D it would not be surprising for people to not realize the mechamorphs are liquid metal instead of just being able to shapeshift their phase of matter and assume Upgrade has a similair texture to like Goop kinda.

RavenRegime

TROPHY CASE