Vilgax (Classic)

Vilgax is an intergalactic alien conqueror, a Chimera Sui Generis from the planet Vilgaxia, who serves as Ben's archenemy and most recurring opponent. He was introduced in And Then There Were 10, and has since appeared in almost all season of the original series, as well as season 3 of Alien Force.

A vicious galactic warlord known as "the most dangerous being in the galaxy", Vilgax's goal is to get the Omnitrix and use it to create an army of shapeshifting drones able to conquer every planet. Though he originally chased Ben only because of this, and had few concern about his fate once he would get the Omnitrix, the several failures the boy caused him, as well as an imprisonment in the Null Void, causes him to grow hating him, so much that, in his last appearances, he seems to want to kill him nearly as much as to get the Omnitrix.

Vilgax is one of the most feared beings in the universe, having conquered 10 worlds, destroyed five planets and created a black hole. In fact, he is so feared, that almost no biological lifeform is willing to work for him, forcing him to use robots for his entire crew, though he is able to find mercenaries willing to work for him for the right price.

Original series
Vilgax and his ship, the Chimerian Hammer, first appeared in the first episode And Then There Were 10, where he is seen shooting at Xylene's ship to recover the Omnitrix, forcing Xylene to throw it down to Earth and causing the main plot of the series. His limbs were both destroyed because of the battle, causing him to be placed by his drones in a repair tank for healing, where he stay for most of season 1.

As the series progress, Vilgax soon discovered the Omnitrix had been taken by someone else (though yet ignoring who it exaclty was), and made several indirect attempts to get the device back. This includes sending robots from his ship, hiring bounty hunters Tetrax, Kraab and Sixsix and turning Earth's criminal Joey into the cyborg Rojo by fusing her with one of his drones. In the latter, he was able to shortly etablish a telepathic link with Ben when the boy was fused to Rojo as Upgrade, warning him he was going to came for him one day.

Eventually, his body was repaired and cybernetically enhanced in Secrets, making him far taller and stronger than before. He then went on Earth to get the Omnitrix by himself. Ben's aliens proved to be no match for him, and Vilgax captured him. Though surprised to see the one who had caused him so much problems was just a human child, Vilgax revealed him his plan for the Omnitrix, and attempted to extract the Omnitrix from him, seemingly by sectionning his arm with an alien tools. After several complications, including interruption from Gwen and Max and Ben loosing control of his transformations, the Chimerian Hammer exploded, seemingly with Vilgax still aboard.

In Truth, Max tells Ben and Gwen how he had a run in with Vilgax who was stealing warheads from a military base when Max and his partner Phil showed up. In the resulting fight, Vilgax was strapped to a warhead by Max, and launched into his own ship. At that time, Vilgax was only slightly larger than a human man, compared to his now colossal size (an addition to his cybernetic augmentation).



At the end of the second season, Vilgax is still alive, having survived the destruction of his ship by teleporting out just before the explosion. He is found encased in ice by Kevin. Discovering Kevin's connection with the Omnitrix, Vilgax decides to team up with him in another attempt to retrieve the Omnitrix, however both are locked away in the Null Void dimension by the end of the episode.

A dream version of Vilgax appears in the episode Perfect Day, where he appears to confront Ben. The battle lasts for a short time, and then Vilgax tries to send Ben to the Null Void. As Fourarms, Ben throws him in instead, but this proves to be an error on the part of the Forever Knights, as Vilgax was about to send Ben to the Null Void without first obtaining the Omnitrix. It is the same reason why Ben found out that the battle with "Vilgax" is just a set-up.

Vilgax reappears in Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix, where he once again attempts to retrieve the Omnitrix, having somehow escaped the Null Void (the enhanced version of Secret of the Omnitrix revealed that he stumbled on a Null Void portal being opened and used it to escape). During a flashback, Tetrax reveals that Vilgax destroyed the Petrosapien's homeworld, and he (Tetrax) unwittingly gave Vilgax the final element needed to carry out his plan. Vilgax refers to his anger at having been trapped in the Null Void (including showing a short nervous twitch at its mention), which has deepened his grudge against Ben to the point where he refuses to acknowledge the danger threatening the universe if the Omnitrix self-destructs (but nevertheless gains enough respect for Ben to the point of calling him by his first name instead of his last name). He confronts Ben on Terax's ship and attacks him, only to be shot out into space through the airlock. He is finally defeated when Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix, gives Ben access to a massive alien, Way Big, who hurls Vilgax into outer space.

Alien Force
Vilgax returns in Ben 10: Alien Force season 3, having come back by an unknown way. His appearance has changed again, as he is less cybernetically enhanced and his mouth is visible again. In addition to his traditional army of drones, he has been joined by new alien assistant, Psyphon. In order to justify his invasions, he now follows a Galactic law, fighting champions of the planet he attacks and defeating them to gain the right of legally conquer the planet. He conquered ten worlds by this way, the last of them being Ultimos' planet, and absorbed the champions' powers with the help of Psyphon, giving him new, powerful abilities.

After his victory against Ultimos, Vilgax returns to Earth, where he quickly defeats Max and the Plumbers' kids, but choose to not absorb their powers and instead to use them as messengers to warn Ben, challenging him in the rules of the Galactic Code and leaving him 24 hours to answer or he will destroy Earth. After accidentally overloading the Omnitrix, Ben comes and fights him. After a long and feral fight, Vilgax eventually smashes Ben as Chromastone, seemingly killing him. However, as Vilgax is about to take the Omnitrix, it reformats Chromastone's remnants into Diamondhead, bringing Ben back to life. Due to both age and the practice he had with this form during summers, Diamondhead proves to be strong enough to defeat Vilgax, and the Galactic Conqueror, according to the laws, is forced to leave Earth with his army and never come back. He admits his defeat, but swears to have his revenge on Ben.

Although Vilgax is manipulating the rules of the Galactic Code established by the peaceful Galvans to prevent the massive loss of live, he still yields and returns to his home planet after being dealt a crushing defeat by Diamondhead.

In Ghost Town, Vilgax breaks Ghostfreak out of his prison in exchange for the secrets of the Omnitrix. However, Ghostfreak betrays him and invades his homeworld, Vilgaxia, by possessing all the inhabitants and turning them in Ectonurite slaves. After vainly fighting the invasion, Vilgax escapes and reluctantly asks help to Ben and his team. After an uneasy alliance between them, they eventually reached Ghostfreak, and Ben let himself being possessed in order to absorb him back into the Omnitrix. Though this was a success, Ghostfreak took over Ben's personnality, resulting in a battle when Vilgax attempted to use the opportunity to kill his two enemies. Vilgax was eventually able to produce enough light to weaken Ghostfreak, allowing Ben to take over again and turn back to human form. Vilgax then allows him, Gwen and Kevin to leave, but gloats to himself that now he has the secrets of the Omnitrix in his possession, this is a rather auspisious beginning.

In the episode Primus, Vilgax attacks Primus, causing the Omnitrix to teleport Ben, Gwen, and Kevin to Primus. The Omnitrix leaves Ben's wrist to find Azmuth. Azmuth uses the Omnitrix himself to fight Vilgax & protect Primus. Vilgax defeats Azmuth while he has the Omnitrix and takes it from him. However, since the device has recalibrated, Vilgax doesn't know how to operate it anymore, forcing him to ask Ben in exchange for his friends lives (after taking them captive). Ben activates the Omnitrix, turning Vilgax into a muscular Goop, but Ben steals the artificial gravity disk and turns it off leaving Vilgax as a puddle. Ben retakes the Omnitrix out of the puddle of Vilgax as Goop changing Vilgax to normal and then re-attaches the Omnitrix to himself. Then Ben as Cannonbolt throws Vilgax into the Codon stream (which is full of the Omnitrix DNA) where he gains Way Big's powers of size. Ironically, at the end of this episode Ben throws Vilgax into space after changing into Way Big similar to Vilgax's defeat against Ben 5 years prior. It as been revealed by Dwayne McDuffie that this was intentional. Some time after, he returns to his original size.

Vilgax returns in The Secret of Chromastone where searching for Tetrax Shard who had stolen back the crystal Vilgax used to destroy Petropia (which Tetrax had originally sold to Vilgax). Tetrax had discovered (unknown either him or Vilgax at the time of the destruction of Petropia) that the crystal serves as a back-up for Petropia and its people. Vilgax tracks Tetrax to Earth and demands he turn over the crystal he stole, only to discover that Tetrax had given it to a freed Chromastone in order to restore Petropia (mistakenly revealed by Kevin). Vilgax leaves Earth and travels to Sugilite's location only to discover the newly restored Petropia. Outraged that "his crystal" was stolen to revive a "dead world" (one he destroyed), Vilgax beats Sugilite (who he compares to little more than a common thief). Sugilite begs Vilgax to let him revive the Petrosapiens and pleads for mercy, but Vilgax reveals he has no mercy to give. Vilgax mercilessly beats the helpless Sugilite, until he is confronted by Ben's Team and an angry Tetrax. Vilgax uses his shield to stop Tetrax's projectiles and then removes the "Petropian backup crystal" from Sugilite's head only to discover its energy had been used up. Seeing that the crystal was no longer useful, Vilgax throws it away and leaves Petropia (seeing it as nothing more than a lifeless planet and no threat to him) in disappointment. However unknown to Vilgax, Sugilite created a second backup crystal which is used by Ben to restore the planets population. Tetrax later tells Ben he plans to settle the score with Vilgax, but Ben wonders how given Vilgax's current invunerability. Vilgax returns to his home on Vilgaxia and outraged to find out he had caught Ben's cold. The episode ends with Psyphon handing Vilgax a tissue.

Vilgax reappears in the Alien Force finale, where he teams up with Albedo, claiming he just wants to kill Ben Tennyson and will let the Omnitrix go to Albedo so he can gain back his Galvan form. Though the plan is successful, Ben escapes thanks to Max's help, and Vilgax ultimately betrays Albedo, making him his prisoner and keeping the Omnitrix for himself in order to give its powers to his army of Bioids. Ben then comes back and activates the Omnitrix's self-destruct mode so it will explode without destroying the Universe, hoping Vilgax will give it back before it does. Vilgax doesn't take his threat seriously however, causing the Omnitrix to be destroyed. In rage, Vilgax programs his ship to crash on Bellwood and attacks Ben and the others. Ben then frees Albedo and forces him to give him the Ultimatrix by threatening to destroy it as well. While Ben fights Vilgax as Ultimate Swampfire, Max and Gwen successfully make the ship crash in the ocean instead of Bellwood. Being now in his element, Vilgax reveals his "true form", transforming into a giant monstrous, squid-like creature. He intends to swallow Ben, but the hero escapes. Though Ben didn't see him escape before the ship explode, he assumes Vilgax might come back.

Ultimate Alien
According to Dwayne McDuffie, Vilgax may have been severly injured due to the explosion and may be recovering, like in the original series and he is highly expected to return in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and may team up with a lot of Ben's other enemies for revenge and may try to rebuild his ship.

Alternate Future
In the episode Ben 10,000, set twenty years in a now alternate future, Vilgax eventually escaped the Null Void by stumbling across a Null Void portal being opened on another planet. In Ben 10,000, it is revealed that Ben 10,000 fought Vilgax when he was 10 and lured him into an underground gas line, Ben's father however managed to activate the fire system and incinerated Vilgax. In this time-line Ben didn't take any chances in defeating Vilgax when he was a boy. Dr. Animo resurrects Vilgax using his Transmodulator. He now has a retractable tentacle and is able to shoot bombs from his right wrist. His strength has been doubled. Despite that, both Vilgax and Dr. Animo are defeated by both future and present versions of Ben and Gwen. At the end, Ben defeats Vilgax by freezing him into a river using Articguana. It is unknown what became of Vilgax after this.

Original Series
Before his augmentation, Vilgax only seen abilities was tremendous agility and hand-to-hand combat skills, but he had no real powers. He also already had uncanny resistance to harm. He once survived a nuclear explosion at point blank range coupled with the destruction of his ship, though it's made clear he was seriously injured and it took such a long time for him to heal that many people thought he was dead until he came back afterwards.

After his cybernetic enhancements, he is much taller and is granted immense strength and near invulnerability, allowing him to easily leap above skyscapers, survive in space, and smash apart mountains with his bare hands, along with being able to increase his strength at will, though it causes him great pain. He proved to be quick, strong and durable enough to stand Heatblast's most powerful firewave, break through Stinkfly's goop and once stop XLR8 running. Diamondhead even once crushed his own fist on him when trying to hit him. For most of the original series, Ben was unable to defeat him in a fight, and always win either thanks to external help, until he got Way Big, who was the first alien of the Omnitrix to easily defeat Vilgax.

In Ben 10,000, Dr. Animo gives him a new, stronger form with enhancements such as genetically implanted weapons (such as ropes and grenades in his right arm), bio-boosters, and knowledge of all of the future Ben's alien moves.

Alien Force
In Alien Force, after he conquered 10 worlds, he drained the powers of their top 10 warriors and developed many powers and abilities. One of those warriors was Ultimos. He however lost his steroide boosters, or at least doesn't use them anymore. While he retains his superhuman strength and durability from the original series, Ben has improved his fighting skills, and is now more able to match Vilgax in a fight than he was before.
 * Vast Superhuman Strength
 * Near-Invulnerability
 * Flight
 * Super Hearing
 * Laser Eye Vision, the beams can also be guided to hit its target.
 * Wind Breath (it looked like ice breath in Vilgax Attacks)
 * The Ruby Ray of Ulo, a wrist laser projector on his right hand.
 * His left arm has a gauntlet that can generate the Shield of Ziegel, a personal forcefield to cover just his left arm or his entire body. It also has the ability to touch things that are out of phase with the universe (intangibility) like Big Chill and act as a taser.
 * A sword that can coat itself with flame or crystals, absorb excess energies, and project energy beams.
 * Energy fist.
 * The ability to breathe in space.
 * Vilgax keeps a raygun in a holster on his right hip. He never uses it in the series, but he does in Vilgax Attacks (Also Vilgax is shown using the raygun on the Vilgax Attacks game cover).
 * In the series finale, he reveals his ability to turn into a giant octopus-like monster in the Ocean. According to Dwayne McDuffie, he had this ability since the very beginning, and can transform at will (though this form would probably be useful only in water).

Trivia

 * He's quite similar to Cthulhu both in appearance and in his plan to conquer the universe.
 * Even though Vilgax was banned from coming back to Earth in Vengeance of Vilgax: Part 2, he kept coming back to get revenge on Ben.
 * When Vilgax obtains the Omnitrix, it is revealed that he uses the same names as Ben for the aliens. This however could be due to Ben's DNA since the bioids were made to copy the Omnitrix.
 * At the end of the episode The Secret of Chromastone, Vilgax is shown to have contracted Ben's cold. This is evidenced that Vilgax and his species can get colds from other species.
 * In the original series, Vilgax's homeworld was mentioned as the Null Void Frontier or the Shadowy Realm, but then Alien Force, its revealed to be called Vilgaxia, however, it is likely it was simply renamed in his honor after he became its ruler.
 * In Primus and The Final Battle: Part 2, the Omnitrix is worn on Vilgax's right wrist, unlike Ben, who wears the Omnitrix on his left wrist.
 * In the original series, Vilgax knew the secrets of the Omnitrix but 5 years after the original series, he can't even use the alien selector. Dwayne said that Ben changed the codes (taught by Azmuth how to do it) and made few other unknown changes to the Omnitrix so Vilgax wouldn't be be able to use it.
 * Vilgax is noticably larger and more muscular than anyone else in his race. It is most likely due to the enhancements he has made to himself to gain power.
 * The producers refer Vilgax as Darth Vader without a sense of humor. He could have been based off Darth Vader.
 * Vilgax is a playable character in Cartoon Network's game, TKO. His special moves are the Ruby Ray and the Cyber Kick. His super move is his Laser Eye Vision.