Michael Morningstar

Michael Morningstar, also known as Darkstar, is one of the Plumber kids that appear throughout the course of Ben 10: Alien Force. He appeared in the episode All That Glitters and since became one of the most notable regular villains in the series. He has the ability to drain life force from living beings, he gained a grudge against Ben and his team after they accidentally caused him to turn into an awful zombie-like being who has to wear a helmet to hide his face. His plans usually involve gaining back his original face and feeding himself, though he seems to still be interested in feeding from Gwen's vast stores of Anodite energy.

Ben 10: Alien Force
Michael is initially depicted as a well-mannered individual whom appears eager to help Ben and company. He comes from a rich family as he states that his family has multiple mansions. How his family acquired such wealth isn't explained but it is known his is the only family which has such wealth, which are armed with a menagerie of Plumber technology. The technology in question is monitoring equipment that up links to a variety of networks which funnels information to him. Part of the monitoring equipment features a communication network between the Plumber badges and presumably the homing signal mechanism that's built into each device.

As they travel with him he shows a very uncaring attitude to others around him. This is evident by his slamming of the door in Kevin's face as well as his remarks to Gwen while they are alone. While Ben and Gwen quickly trusted him, Kevin knew since the beginning about Morningstar's true motivation (partially because of his jealousy, as Michael and Gwen tended to flirt with each other). After a fight with zombified schoolgirls from unknown origin, Kevin guessed that Micheal was the one responsible for these zombifications. His guess later proved to be right when Morningstar drained Gwen's energy, becoming nearly unstoppable and easily defeating both Ben and Kevin. However, Gwen proved to have enough will to resist his control, and drained her energy back from him, as well as part of his own, leaving him weakened. His other zombie victims then turned against him, and took back what remained of his energy, leaving him almost desiccated and powerless.

He later reappears as Darkstar in Darkstar Rising, his powers having gradually returned much stronger and more powerful than before. In order to get revenge, he tries to get Ben, Gwen, and Kevin arrested by Magister Prior Gilhil for impersonating Plumbers and by making a deal with a Highbreed Lord he defeated. When the Highbreed did his part of the deal, Darkstar tried to absorb Ben, Gwen, Kevin, the Highbreed and Gilhil's life force energy but he was unable to absorb Gwen's because she escaped. He later captured Ben, Kevin, the Highbreed, and Gilhil and was about to absorb all of their life force energy when Gwen came in with the DNAliens in which he was unable to absorb all of them because of fatigue. He was defeated by Ben using a combination of his aliens. Afterwords, he was arrested by Magister Gilhil and thrown in the Null Void.

In the two-part second season finale War of the Worlds, Darkstar is eventually released from the Null Void by Cooper Daniels so he can help them stop the Highbreed invasion. During the battle, he tried to absorb the life force energy of several DNAliens, transforming his face back to its original youthful appearance, but Ben managed to talk him out of it because Michael realized that he was killing real people under alien control. After the fight was over, Darkstar managed to evade them.

Darkstar appeared again in the third season in the episode Trade-Off, where he tricks Kevin into finding him so that he could convince Kevin to join him to find the Dominus Librium (a device that was decidedly alien origin and could restore the two of them to original human forms) to which they eventually retrieved and used to absorb their powers and return them to normal. Then he sucker punched Kevin in the face. Darkstar kept the Librium so he could still use his powers. When Gwen discovered the truth about Kevin, she confronted Darkstar and he started to drain her power as well as Swampfire's. Darkstar's full power was eventually perished by Kevin when he broke the Librium and got his regular powers and ugly appearance again. Darkstar also got his previous powers (and zombified face) back too and he swore that he would make them all pay someday before running away.

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
Darkstar appears in the two-part first season finale Absolute Power, it is revealed that Darkstar is now in a weakened state and is forced to feed off the energy of stray animals just to survive and tries not to cause to much attention to himself. He was later found and recruited by Gwen to stop Ultimate Kevin. As payment, she changes his face back to normal using an incredibly strong and powerful transformation spell and promises him mana, enough to keep him strong and fully restored for a year. Michael then agrees to help her to stop Ultimate Kevin, much to Ben's chagrin. Michael reveals that he kept a fragment of the Dominus Librium when it had exploded in Trade-Off, though it's ineffective. However, a strong energy surge would make it usable again. The group goes to Los Soledad and meet Cooper Daniels who also agrees to the plot. Both Michael and Cooper create a device while Ben and Gwen stall Kevin.

When Kevin becomes normal, Michael takes advantage of this moment and absorbs the vast powers and abilities of the Dominus Librium, becoming power-hungry Morningstar again, shredding off his clothes and becoming pure energy. However, Ben anticipated this plot and presses a button which causes Morningstar to become normal again. Ben reveals that he told Cooper to create a mechanism to revert the process of the absorption. Afterwards, Kevin punches Darkstar in retaliation prior from Trade-Off.

Darkstar reappeared in Couples Retreat here having reverted back to his ugly form. He broke into Kevin's garage to steal one of Gwen's spellbooks. He used a spell in it to summon the Door to anywhere. This attracted the attention of Charmcaster who rescued Darkstar from the Team. Once in Ledger Domain Darkstar reverted back to his handsome form, now having access to a unlimited supply of Mana.

Charmcaster and Darkstar developed something of a romantic relationship, Darkstar of course was only using the relationship so that he might gain control over Ledger-Domain. Charmcaster planted a rune on Darkstar's hand that acts like the key to Ledger Domain. Ben saw the charm on Darkstar's hand and they used it to enter Ledger-Domain after Darkstar.

During the resulting fight between Darkstar, Kevin, and Ben Darkstar admitted that he was only using Charmcaster and he love to have Gwen as a trophy. Charmcaster subsequently expelled Darkstar from Ledger-Domain and drained him of power, once back on earth it appears that Darkstar was taken back into custody by the team.

Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks
Darkstar appears in the Vilgax Attacks video game where he tries to steal an energy core on Encephalonus IV (Brainstorm's home planet). Soon, Ben Tennyson arrived and after a long battle, Darkstar is defeated by him once again.

Console Strategy
Darkstar serves as the boss of Encephalonus IV. He attacks by shooting dark energy lasers at Ben. He can either shoot multiple blasts of dark energy or a dark energy laser at Ben. Beware as Darkstar's energy blasts can regenerate his health. He also has melee attacks at his disposal. Simply dodge his attacks and hit him until he's beaten.

Mini Trivia

 * If you look very closely, you can see Darkstar's helmet come off when his health gauge is halfway gone.
 * Darkstar runs faster than Jetray and Spidermonkey(which makes no sense because Jetray can fly at the speed of sound, though acceleration may play into this equation).
 * Darkstar's only lines in the video game (when you're actually fighting him) are "Hahahahaha!" and "Ben, Ben, Ben, when will you ever learn?" (Sometimes, he says another line when he isn't finished with the previous one)

Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks (Nintendo DS)
Darkstar appears on Vulpin (Wildmutt's home planet) and claims Vilgax is giving him power. He is invincible, and can only be attacked when acid fills the floor by pressing switches. However, only Goop can withstand the acid. Also, the switches will go up after a few seconds, and Darkstar will be invincible again. Once defeated, his mask will fall off.

Powers and Abilities
Michael Morningstar has the power to absorb any type of energy (life force, mana, electricity, etc.), but his powers are a vicious cycle: the more life force energy he drains from others, the stronger and more powerful he becomes. But the more power he gains, the greater his hunger becomes. Michael is currently so accustomed to mana that he has trouble absorbing low-quality energy. Not even Gwen's great power could recharge him anymore.

Even when he is Darkstar, His strength is great enough to lift large pieces of rubble and rip open metal doors with his bare hands. He can easily withstand DNAlien blaster fire and being knocked back by a Highbreed. He is also durable enough to withstand several attacks from Ben's aliens, Gwen, Kevin, Magister Gilhil, and being stepped on by Humongousaur all at once (which made a crater), but it did knock him unconscious as a result of the attack. When he is overflowing with power, he is resistant enough to shrug off Ultimate Humongousaur's missiles unphased.

Michael Morningstar
Through the absorption of energy, he gains greater strength and resistance. Michael can also use his absorbed energies for flight, projection of bolts from his hands or eyes, and form defensive shields around himself. Also, his skin-tone becomes more healthier-looking.

When he absorbs a great amount of energy, he gains a gold membrane over his skin. All these abilities are lost should he lose the energy he's absorbed. This can happen by means of him coming into contact with someone he's drained. Whether he needs to recharge or something of the sort is unknown but it is known that he uses his draining as a sort of feeding.

His draining of people has a few after effects on his victims: The victims become "attracted" to him and may feel a slight level of infatuation after being drained a bit. Victims may exhibit a ring of 'bite marks' from being drained. Finally after multiple drainage victims enter a zombie-like state and their skin becomes grey and begins to desiccate and shrivel.

Darkstar
Darkstar is Michael's negative form. He is like this when his energy levels are below average. His face turned into a gray, zombified face. Michael Morningstar must now wears a metal helmet/mask over his face. His powers change while he is like this. They include the following:


 *  Dark Energy Control & Manipulation : Darkstar can now manipulate and control dark energy and display it as blasts of black energy. This is similar to Gwen's mana manipulation/control and may stem from his temporary absorption of her life force energy.
 *  Absorption of Life Force Energy : He can absorb energy using his own dark energy as a conduit which expands his list of targets exponentially. As seen in "Darkstar Rising", when he absorbs the DNAlien's powers during the fight, when Darkstar absorbs them, he also absorbs their skeleton until their skin is left. Gwen's mana shields seem to be the only defense against his long-range attacks.

Other Abilities

 * Darkstar is a skilled melee fighter.
 * He was shown to use magic in Couples Retreat. He used a spell from Gwen's spellbook to summon the Door to Anywhere.

Ben 10: Alien Force

 * All That Glitters (First appearance)
 * Darkstar Rising
 * War of the Worlds: Part 1
 * War of the Worlds: Part 2
 * Trade-Off

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

 * Absolute Power: Part 1 (First re-appearance)
 * Absolute Power: Part 2
 * Couples Retreat

Trivia

 * It has been confirmed that Michael is not an alien at all. Where he gets his powers from is currently unknown.
 * While his mother lives in the main mansion on their estate, Michael has his own mansion to himself nearby.
 * Dwayne McDuffie said that he thinks of Darkstar as the most dangerous enemy, while Vilgax is the most relentless, and the Highbreed as the most physically powerful (although the Highbreed are not evil anymore).
 * Dwayne McDuffie said that Michael is like a vampire.
 * Michael's first name comes from the archangel Michael and his last name comes from Lucifer, the Morning Star, wrongly called Satan due to a translation error.
 * Even though his name was "mistakenly" translated to Satan, it should be noted that his goals and debut episode show similar traits to both.
 * Michael is shown to be slightly vain, as whenever he gets his original looks back, (not counting War of the Worlds) he can be seen admiring himself in a mirror or some other reflective surface.