Albedo

Albedo is a recurring villain in the franchise. He is Azmuth's former assistant, who, in his attempt to recreate the Omnitrix, turned himself into an imperfect clone of Ben Tennyson. Since then he has been trying to get back to his Galvan form, while also harboring a great hatred and thirst for revenge from Ben Tennyson.

Human Form
He first appeared exactly like Ben and wore exactly the same clothing. But after his and Ben's Omnitrix reacted to each other, it sent out a pulse that damaged his DNA and thus his form, inverting his colors. This made his hair white, his skin slightly paler, his eyes red, his eyebrows black and turned the colors of his jacket from green with white stripes to red with black stripes.

Albedo's human form has not changed much in Omniverse though he now has dark circles and a paler skin. His jacket's design is mirrored, with the black stripe with a 10 now on his right side, along with the 10 becoming 01, along with additional pockets. He wears the Ultimatrix on his right hand. In The Ultimate Heist, he was wearing a red mirrored version of Ben's current T-shirt before changing into his older attire, and in For a Few Brains More, when he transformed into a 11 year old version of Ben, he wears a red and black version of Ben's old shirt with grey pants, while still having his red eyes and white hair.

Galvan Form
In Double or Nothing, he looked similar to Azmuth but with red eyes, a red Galvan tunic with black stripes, paler skin without tendrils or wrinkles and fully open eyes.

In Trouble Helix, in the flashback, he had a robe/tunic with the Omnitrix symbol on it and metal on his legs, neck, and most of his arms. He had a normal Galvan face with green eyes.

Albedo's Omniverse appearance in The Ultimate Heist, he looks like he did in the flashback in Trouble Helix, but the green is replaced by red and he has an Ultimatrix symbol on his back.

Transformations
In Omniverse, whenever Albedo transforms, the color scheme of his alien forms reflect his color scheme, such as Goop or Armodrillo becoming red. In some cases, it's shown that the aliens he transforms into have a reverse pattern in their outfits, and/or have paler or completely different colors to them.

Personality
Before he turned against Azmuth, Albedo was an eccentric genius who was very respectful of Azmuth, and was concerned for the safety of others. At the same time, he still showed an arrogant sense of superiority toward others, mostly in terms of intelligence.

In the present day, Albedo is a rude, vengeful and ambitious individual exhibiting sociopathic tendencies. He is unaccepting of Ben's right to wear the Omnitrix, thinking that Ben is just an unworthy human. He bears animosity towards Azmuth, even so much as claiming the credit for the creation of the Omnitrix for himself. Originally being a scientist, he speaks with a larger vocabulary, being more intellectual than Ben, though in a rather cold and condescending manner.

Because he had gained Ben's DNA, Albedo acquired Ben's cravings and habits, which he considers utterly repulsive: He has the same taste in food, scratches himself in inappropriate places, and his left eye twitches whenever he lies. As a running gag of the series, he develops a craving for chili fries, even more than Ben himself, calling it a "human weakness." Originally he had hated this habit, but develops a liking for them, though he denies this and blames it on his human DNA.

Albedo is suspicious and distrustful of others. During his brief team up with Vilgax, he had his suspicions of Vilgax betraying him from the very beginning, which later proved correct after they had beaten Ben and taken his Omnitrix. After absorbing Azmuth's intelligence, he briefly gained an enlightened personality, which led him to realize that destruction was pointless while creation was truly worthwhile. However, he soon reverted to his normal disposition after Azmuth's mind was extracted from him.

Background
Albedo was a brilliant young Galvan scientist, who served as Azmuth's assistant. In Trouble Helix, he inadvertently had a hand in upgrading Malware into his current form when he was captured and forced to connect the new helix with the old one. In the flashback, he was an ally of Ben Tennyson and was very loyal to Azmuth as he called him "First Thinker" and even fought for him when Malware approached.

At some point after, Albedo asked Azmuth for an Omnitrix for himself, as he didn't trust "a mere human". Azmuth later fired him, although Albedo claimed he quit working for him. Albedo then used his knowledge of the project to build a copy, and set it to match Ben's. However, when doing so, he didn't know that Ben's DNA would become the default, causing him to lose his Galvan form and become a clone of Ben.

Alien Force
Disgusted by what had happened to him, Albedo traveled to Earth to get the Omnitrix from Ben in Good Copy, Bad Copy, planning on using it to restore his original form.

During his search for Ben, in at least three days, he savagely attacked at least three Forever Knight castles and a DNAlien hive, for the purpose of interrogation to discover Ben's whereabouts, causing the Knights to believe Ben Tennyson was attacking them for no reason and attracting Gwen's and Kevin's attention. When Albedo and Ben eventually met during Albedo's siege at another castle, Albedo pretended to be the creator of the Omnitrix, accusing Azmuth of being a liar, and asked Ben to hand it over. When Ben became suspicious and refused (after Kevin made him notice the twitch on his left eye each time he lied, which Ben has as well), Albedo transformed and attacked him in order to take his Omnitrix by force. After battling him twice, their Omnitrix's locked on with each other, almost causing a feedback that could have destroyed the whole galaxy. During the process, Albedo's human form was damaged, resulting in him becoming a negative version of Ben. Azmuth then arrived and destroyed Albedo's Omnitrix, trapping him in his human form as punishment and sending him to the Null Void. Blaming Azmuth and Ben for his condition, Albedo swore to get revenge on them.

In The Final Battle, Albedo escaped from prison with the help of Vilgax, and stole the Ultimatrix, an incomplete model of the Omnitrix, from Azmuth. Using pieces from his broken Omnitrix, he successfully completed the Ultimatrix and tried to use it in order to transform back to his Galvan form. However, the Ultimatrix was still linked to Ben's Omnitrix, leaving him trapped in his form. Vilgax then offered him an alliance, promising he would let him get Ben's Omnitrix. Though not really trusting him, Albedo accepted and helped him. Despite the alliance being a success, Vilgax quickly double-crossed Albedo and made him his prisoner, using an army of thousands of Humungousaurs against him which defeated Albedo. After the Omnitrix was destroyed, Ben freed Albedo and forced him to hand over the Ultimatrix by triggering the self-destruct command. Though the ship then crashed into one of Earth's oceans, Albedo had escaped.

Ultimate Alien
When Kevin and Gwen put in the Ultimatrix Security keys for Alien X's transformation in The Forge of Creation, Ben states they did it so Albedo wouldn't get access to it if he took the Ultimatrix back or if there is a duplicate or otherwise, something similar in sync to it.

Albedo returned in Double or Nothing; ever since Vilgax's ship blew up, Albedo was "broke and stranded" and had created his own live action show, 'Ben 10: Live', where Albedo played the role of Ben, and three of Ben's top most popular aliens, Swampfire, Humungousaur, and Big Chill, are played by three actors in costumes: A Methanosian named Swamps (play on Swampfire), a Vaxasaurian named Hugh (play on Humungousaur), and a Necrofriggian named Fridge (play on Necrofriggian).

After Albedo sets a soundwave-bomb on the ground, Ben says for Kevin and Gwen to 'deal with the bomb', while he goes after Albedo. Albedo supposedly 'turns into' aliens, which are really just the real aliens replacing him before Ben sees the switch. When Ben battles all three of them, he states to them that he knows they aren't Albedo. After talking to Albedo, telling him to never again do Ben 10: Live, Albedo states that he won't.

They are about to leave, but Hugh comes and lies to the team, saying Albedo was making a bomb that will make everyone on Earth into a copy of Ben. Ben, Gwen, and Kevin go to stop him. Ben is annoyed and uses NRG to blow a hole in the wall. They see Albedo wearing a large Omnitrix symbol on his chest, and Hugh says that it will protect him from the blast. Gwen questions why Albedo would wear it if he already looks like Ben. Ben cuts her off and goes after Albedo, and Kevin and Gwen follow him.

Albedo then yells at the other aliens to get them. NRG defeats Swamps, and Gwen and Kevin defeat Fridge. Then, Hugh comes and tries to defeat NRG, but fails. Ultimate Spidermonkey goes after Albedo, still thinking he was making a bomb that will make everyone on Earth into an exact copy of Ben. While Albedo is working on the "bomb", the whole theater suddenly blows up and Albedo transforms back into his Galvan form.

Albedo revealed that the device he was wearing wasn't a doomsday bomb, but rather, a device to return him to a Galvan as well as making him able to alter his DNA at will. Negative Grey Matter said he wouldn't attack Ben anymore, that is, until he transforms back into human and finds out due to the Ultimatrix interrupting the device's alteration field, he can only be Negative Grey Matter for one second before turning back into his human form.

Hugh tries to take the blame, but Albedo doesn't blame him as Hugh is his friend and instead blames Ben. Albedo transforms into Negative Rath, and battles Echo Echo. When Negative Rath pins Echo Echo down, Echo Echo goes Ultimate Echo Echo and sends sound waves at Negative Rath. This causes Negative Rath to transforms back to human and faint. Hugh said the trio only came to make friends, and that Hugh wanted Ben to stop Albedo so Albedo couldn't leave and would stay as their friend. Ben says that they can have him, but he won't be happy when he wakes up.

Albedo returns again in Night of the Living Nightmare, where he infects Ben with a Cassiopeian Dream Eater, trapping him into a dream world where he kept being attacked by several of his enemies. Eventually, when Albedo enters the dream posing as Kevin and Gwen in an attempt to take the Ultimatrix, Ben figures out it's him and starts to defeat him.

As Ben starts taking over the dream world, Albedo attempts to put back the Dream Eater, only to slip on a spilled smoothie and accidentally end up being the one infected. In the real world, it was revealed that Ben was never infected, as Albedo attempted to but, unprepared for how messy Ben's room was, inadvertently slipped on a smoothie, thus replaying the same thing that happened in Albedo's nightmare. While they call a Galvan doctor in order to remove the Dream Eater, Albedo is seen inside the dream world, being confronted by some of the Ultimatrix Aliens and fearfully begs them to not to hurt him as they come near.

Omniverse
Albedo reappeared in the present day in The Ultimate Heist. In it, he has been impersonating Ben for several days, after he and Khyber secretly switched his and Ben's places. Albedo was unable to use his alien transformations, due to the fact that the red eyes would give him away to Ben's allies. Even though his ruse was discovered and Ben escaped, Albedo managed to get what he needed from Inspector 13. The devices that he took would not only stabilize his transformations, allowing him to remain in them for as long as he wants, but allow him to once again access the Ultimate Forms, including his own, Ultimate Albedo.

In A Fistful of Brains, Albedo tricks Ben into entering Khyber's disguised ship, capturing him and taking him to Khyber's private hunting area. Beforehand, Albedo had left toenail clippings and hair on several planets, in order to fool anyone who tried tracking Ben by his DNA.



Ben managed to escape Khyber and confronted Albedo. When Ben pointed out that Albedo had what he wanted, which was the power to return to his true Galvan form, Albedo informed him that he wanted revenge for his humiliation and imprisonment. Ben managed to overcome Ultimate Albedo, only for Ultimate Albedo to declare that Ben hadn't really won. Khyber then revealed that he had captured Azmuth.

In For a Few Brains More, Ultimate Albedo reveals that he intends to use the device he imprisoned Azmuth in, a Cerebral Vortex, to drain Azmuth's intellect, and add it to his brainpower. Despite managing to drain Azmuth's intelligence into an orb form, Ben and company managed to free Azmuth and his intellect; however, after a lengthy battle, which culminated on Earth, Ultimate Albedo managed to escape to Billions Tower, and used its lab to construct another Cerebral Vortex and added Azmuth's intellect to his own, easily subduing them. However, the combined brainpower led to Ultimate Albedo having an epiphany, realizing that destroying them was worthless, as they would still exist somewhere in the omniverse. This distraction allowed Ben to reverse the procedure, taking away Ultimate Albedo's stolen brainpower.

Angered, Ultimate Albedo transformed into Negative Ultimate Humungousaur and began attacking Ben as Bloxx, and pummeling him until he transformed back into normal and Azmuth hit the dial, transforming Ben into a new alien, Atomix, who was easily able to beat Negative Ultimate Humungousaur and Negative Ultimate Spidermonkey. After having his intellect restored, Azmuth punishes Albedo by reconfiguring his Ultimatrix to not only keep him as a clone of Ben, but as a clone of the 11 year old Ben Tennyson. Mortified, Albedo cries as he is taken away.

Albedo returned in And Then There Were None, in which he and several other evil Bens join forces with Vilgax and Eon to wipe out every good Ben from the multiverse. However, he along with the other evil Bens was double-crossed by Vilgax and were erased from spacetime by a Chronosapien Time Bomb.

In And Then There Was Ben, he was brought back into existence by No Watch Ben. Later, he was chasing an Omnitrixless Ben Tennyson as Negative Ultimate Echo Echo along with Mad Ben and Bad Ben's Buzzshock. At the end of the episode, he was sent back to the main timeline by Clockwork.

In Malgax Attacks, Albedo and Vilgax infiltrate the Galvan Historical Museum to steal Malware's remains. While Vilgax fights Ben, Albedo attempts to obtain the secrets of Azmuth only to be stopped by Luhley, Blukic, Driba, and Azmuth himself. He uses Ultimate Rath to finish them all off until Azmuth disables the Ultimatrix. Albedo is then sentenced to clean-up for the next "30 Galvan solar cycles", in which he demands sunblock.

Powers and Abilities
Albedo is highly intelligent, being "very smart even for a Galvan", and has a large amount of knowledge about the Omnitrix, having been Azmuth's assistant. He was able to create a copy of the Omnitrix that, despite the mishap of turning him into a clone of Ben, worked perfectly, as well as successfully complete the Ultimatrix by integrating its energy core on his modified former Omnitrix's band. Albedo created the evolutionary function in the Ultimatrix.

Albedo is a very good fighter, as he could easily defeat Gwen and Kevin with just Swampfire and Diamondhead respectively. Albedo was able to easily overwhelm Ben in a hand-to-hand fight while both were human. He was even able to knock Ben out for a short time.

Thanks to a modification that Albedo made to himself through a DNA altering machine, Albedo can alter his DNA at will and change into any species without the need for an Omnitrix. As intended, Albedo also regained access to his true Galvan form as a plus. However, because Ben had interfered, whenever he changes into an alien form, he will always revert to his "Ben" form. Albedo uses a new Ultimatrix to stabilize this power in Omniverse.

Equipment
Albedo originally had an Omnitrix he had built himself, giving him access to all of Ben's unlocked alien forms. However, his Omnitrix was only working by syncing data from Ben's Omnitrix, inadvertently causing him to assume Ben's form as it was the default. This Omnitrix was destroyed by Azmuth at the end of Good Copy, Bad Copy.

In The Final Battle, Albedo used the Ultimatrix, a new version of the Omnitrix semi-completed by Azmuth and modified by himself. Unfortunately, at the time it was connected to the same database as the Omnitrix, meaning Ben was still the default unless he could reset the Ultimatrix through the Omnitrix. The Ultimatrix was later taken from him by Ben.

In Omniverse, Albedo creates a new Ultimatrix but it is eventually disabled by Azmuth.

Weaknesses
In almost all of his appearances, Albedo's own arrogance is often the source of his downfall and he always underestimates the intelligence and skill of those that oppose him, specifically Azmuth and Ben. His obsession and desire to get revenge on them can also lead him into getting into situations that end in his defeat and make him overlook the potential of others, such as when he all but completely ignored Blukic and Driba (due to their bumbling antics) while they successfully restored Azmuth after he had been destroyed by Albedo.

Season 2

 * Good Copy, Bad Copy (first appearance)

Season 3

 * The Final Battle: Part 1
 * The Final Battle: Part 2

Season 3

 * Double or Nothing (first reappearance)
 * Night of the Living Nightmare
 * The Ultimate Enemy: Part 2 (flashback; cameo)

Season 1

 * Trouble Helix (first reappearance; flashback; Galvan form)

Season 4

 * The Ultimate Heist
 * A Fistful of Brains
 * For a Few Brains More

Season 5

 * And Then There Were None
 * And Then There Was Ben (cameo)

Season 8

 * Malgax Attacks

Cartoon Network Action Packs

 * Double Trouble

Chapter Books

 * Double Negative

Punch Time Explosion

 * In Punch Time Explosion XL, there is an Albedo alternate color for 16-year old Ben and his 10-year old self.

Ben 10: Vilgax Attacks
Albedo appears as a boss on Mor' Otesi tricking Cooper into making an energy core from Taydenite. All of his aliens' eyes and Omnitrix symbol are red. In the DS version, after he is defeated, he attempts to use Alien X, but gets locked in argument with Serena and Bellicus. After the game is beaten, there is a cut scene where he is attempting to leave Alien X while Bellicus and Serena bring up an old argument. Once he is beaten on Hero Mode, he becomes an alternate skin in the DS version of the game.

Aliens Used

 * Negative Humungousaur
 * Negative Jetray
 * Negative Goop
 * Negative Swampfire
 * Negative Echo Echo (DS)
 * Negative Big Chill (DS)
 * Negative Spidermonkey (DS)
 * Negative Brainstorm (DS)
 * Negative Chromastone (DS)
 * Negative Upchuck (DS)
 * Negative Alien X (DS)

Etymology
The term "albedo" is the name for the alchemical effect of something whitening. Albedo, upon being stuck in a negative image of Ben, was left with white hair, referencing his name. The term Albedo also refers to a person's unconscious personality or anima/animus.

Trivia

 * Albedo's name was pronounced as al-bee-do in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien but was changed to al-bay-do in Omniverse.
 * When Albedo was working for Azmuth in creating the Omnitrix, Albedo worked on the Omnitrix's software package.
 * Just like Ben, Albedo likes chili fries, but not because of Ben's DNA. Albedo is just blaming it on Ben.
 * Albedo hates Azmuth more than he hates Ben.
 * When Albedo lies, his left eye twitches, just like Ben.
 * There is a timeline where Albedo turned into Alien X and was stuck motionless for nearly a year.
 * Albedo's powers at the end of Double or Nothing are similar to Kevin's powers after he absorbed the Omnitrix for the first time.
 * Albedo says a peanut butter seaweed smoothie, one of Ben's favorites, tastes like feet.
 * While fighting Albedo in the game Vilgax Attacks, he always seems to exclude one move out of his alien's movesets.
 * In Vilgax Attacks, after defeating him in his Humungousaur form (when he has no health left), instead of simply falling over, he'll appear to be selecting another alien form to use, something that he doesn't do (even if you don't hit him at this point)
 * Albedo's shirt constantly changes color. In Good Copy, Bad Copy, Albedo's shirt was white. In The Final Battle, Vilgax Attacks, Double or Nothing and on the action figure, though, his shirt is black. In FusionFall', his shirt seems to be grey. In the console version of Cosmic Destruction, it becomes white again then becomes black on Cosmic Destruction DS.
 * Albedo is Ben's third costume in Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion. There's also an Albedo coloration for young Ben.
 * In FusionFall, Albedo has a green Omnitrix instead of a red Omnitrix. He is also one of the few non-fusion bosses. Defeating him gives the player a Rath Nano.
 * His Ultimate form resembles M.O.D.O.K. from the Marvel Universe due to having a large head with tiny skinny arms and legs.