I love a new cartoon series. At least, when it's a good one, which doesn't happen all that often. Ben 10 has finally made its way onto Cartoon Network (it's been going in the USA for a couple of months now, and I've been seeing ads in comics and thinking 'hey, that looks like it might be good'). I like it a lot, and not just because of the name of the title character - it's a kids' action-adventure cartoon in the traditional style, free from the forced irony and self-referential humour that American cartoon makers feel obliged to put into their shows nowadays (it's something that can work if you do it right, but practically nobody does).
The story: Ben Tennyson is looking forward to spending the summer holidays travelling around the country with his grandfather. He's less thrilled when he finds that his cousin Gwen will be sharing the trip with them, but minor things like that and their granddad's tendency to serve bowls of live mealworms for dinner pale into insignificance when a space conflict up above sends a useful trinket crashing by Ben's feet. To cut a long story short, it bonds itself to Ben's arm, and he finds that it gives him the ability to change into any one of ten alien superheroes, all with their own cool appearances and abilities.
Of course, the aliens who were trying to steal the thing want it back, and send killer robots after Ben (and anyone else in the vicinity). The leader of the aliens, incidentally, suffers some horrific injuries during the space battle, and ends up floating in a life-support tank with several limbs and tentacles missing or mutilated. Rather graphic for a cartoon aimed at the younger end of the action-cartoon-watching audience (eight-to-twelve-year-olds seem to be the target market. And no, I don't feel at all strange for not fitting into this range).
The central characters are great - Ben has natural heroic tendencies even before gaining his amazing abilities, so clicks quite comfortably into a life of saving the world, but he also can't resist occasionally using his powers for his own benefit too - he's a normal guy rather than a perfect hero. Gwen serves an interesting dual role, alternating between the screaming heroine for Ben to rescue and someone who's surprisingly capable in a fight and ends up saving the hero half the time. The banter between the two of them is classic, too - they have a great mutual respect but don't like to admit it. And Grandpa Max is the inscrutable authority figure who clearly knows more about the whole situation than he's letting on, assuring Gwen in the first episode that Ben's turned into an alien, not a monster, and in the second (while chasing a giant mutated parrot across the city) musing that it takes him back to his younger days before he retired (Gwen: 'What kind of plumber were you, anyway?'). The voice acting is excellent too, as it very often is in American cartoons. Tara Strong is as brilliant as usual as Ben, and Meagan Smith deserves a mention for some first-rate screaming as Gwen.
The second episode introduces us to Doctor Animo, a bad guy who, refreshingly enough, is completely and utterly insane in the most traditional way. He's a scientist who was so enraged when his experiments on animals failed to win him an award that he's decided to reanimate dinosaurs and demolish Washington DC just so that he can steal the cheap trophy from the scientist who did win it. The episode begins with his landlord coming round to complain that he hasn't paid his rent for the last six months. He justifies this by explaining that all his money goes into his research, and illustrates the point by having a giant mutant frog eat the landlord ("Sorry, I can't hear you. You sound like you've got a frog in your throat. Or is it the other way around?"). I appreciate this kind of villainy in my cartoons.
Another thing I really like is the Kaiser Chiefs album, Employment, which I just bought today. So many great songs - I haven't been so instantly hooked on an album since Keane's Hopes And Fears. I've been singing "What Did I Ever Give You" to myself all afternoon.
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