I have to tell you that—despite a deep love of all things Ben 10 around here, as it mandated by law in a household containing a smallish boychild—the expanding Ben 10 franchise is not met with glee, ’round here.

Oh, it was at first. Sure. If you love Ben 10, what’s not to love about more of it? Nothing, says I! Or, at least I did, right up until the live-action movie. Ben 10: Race Against Time was… well, it was okay. It wasn’t as good as we’d hoped. To be fair, it’s hard to top such a kick-butt cartoon with a small-screen live-action version, I’d think. But even my son was unimpressed.

And so I’ve not exactly been chomping at the bit since then, when it comes to other spin-offs.

Until now.

Toon Zone recently announced that Ben 10: Alien Force is coming this spring to Cartoon Network, and in addition to a sneak-peak at the artwork (the image above, included), they had this to say:

Ben 10: Alien Force begins the next chapter in the continuing Ben 10 saga five years later when 15-year-old Ben Tennyson chooses to once again put on the OMNITRIX and discovers that it has reconfigured his DNA and can now transform him into 10 brand new aliens. Joined by his super-powered cousin Gwen Tennyson and his equally powerful former enemy Kevin Levin, Ben is on a mission to find his missing Grandpa Max. In order to save his Grandpa, Ben must defeat the evil DNALIENS, a powerful alien race intent on destroying the galaxy, starting with planet Earth. Ben will join forces with other young heroes to save the galaxy and his Grandpa Max, while passing along his knowledge to a whole new generation. The animated series will premiere with a special one-hour episode on Cartoon Network in Spring 2008.

The description sounds good, of course, but it’s actually the artwork that has me intrigued. I keep looking at the pictures and thinking they seem… familiar… somehow. Oh, wait a minute:

[...] with supervising producer Glen Murakami (Teen Titans) and story editor Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League).

Is it just me, or does teenage Ben look a little bit like he’d be right at home eating pizza with Beast Boy and Robin? The stylization reminds me of some of my favorite cartoons, and brings me right back to a place where I’m happy to make any excuse to plunk myself down next to the kids for half an hour to “supervise” their TV time.

Okay, Man of Action (or should I call them Men of Action?)—you did it. You roped me back in. We’ll be watching!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 6:31 am and is filed under Ben 10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.