Vilgax (Classic)

Vilgax is an intergalactic alien conqueror, a Chimera Sui Generis from the planet Vilgaxia, who serves as Ben's archennemy 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
Since Xylene said no when he asked her out on a date he attacked her and in the meantime also tried to get the omnitrix. 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, thus he placed himself in a repair tank and his body is repaired and cybernetically enhanced (he is now much taller than when Max first battled him), making him more than a match for most of the initial Omnitrix aliens after finally emerging from the tank (but before he emerged from the tank he sent down robots and other people to retrieve the Omnitrix, being responsible for half of Ben's enemies in the first season ,but they all failed. Furthermore, the modifications greatly augment his physical prowess, allowing him easily to leap above skyscrapers, survive in space for a short amount of time, smash apart mountains,and increase his strength at will. Even before his modifications, Vilgax had uncanny resistance to harm, being able to survive a nuclear explosion at point blank range. During the Tennysons' run-in with Rojo, Vilgax establishes a psychic link with Ben (something he seems unaware of), which is how the Tennysons knew in advance about Vilgax's arrival. At the end of the first season, Vilgax tries to retrieve the Omnitrix himself, but is fought off by the Tennysons. Vilgax's ship, the Chimerian Hammer, is destroyed with him 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 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).

Heavily injured, Vilgax re-appears in Hunted, where he sends down three bounty hunters: Sixsix ( later made an alliance with Vulkanus) Kraab and "Hoverboard" (a Petrosapien named Tetrax), who was just pretending to be working for Vilgax, so he could help Ben.

In The Alliance, a heavily injured Vilgax sends two drones down to Earth, which somehow merged with a female robber, Rojo. Rojo first attacks Ben, but is defeated and clear of merging by Upgrade. Vilgax first appears in person in Secrets, where Ben first meet him and battles him. Vilgax was too strong and captures Ben, before he escaped and left Vilgax's ship explode.

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 to 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. 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.

Vilgax returns in the non-canon episode Goodbye and Good Riddance, yet again to steal the Omnitrix and also to destroy Ben's home town. Through the combined efforts of Ben and his father, Vilgax is caught in a natural gas explosion. Since this episode is like Gwen 10, a "What If ?"-like episode that never really happened in the show's continuity.

Vilgax is shown in his future form in Ben 10: Protector of Earth. After being released from the Null Void by Ghostfreak, Vilgax sends a small mosquito-like drone to go to the Omnitrix and extract the DNA from it. Using the DNA, Vilgax plans to use the Null Void, plus other Plumber technology, to create a vortex large enough to erase Earth from existence. To stall for time, Vilgax sends Dr. Animo, Ghostfreak, and Floraunas to distract Ben, giving him more than enough time to prepare. However, due to Ben shooting Vilgax through space via an airlock, Vilgax is warped back to the Null Void, along with his ship, and presumably the Null Void Projector. After the credits, Vilgax is shown to have survived, minus his limbs and being repaired by robots, vowing to come back.

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 acidentally 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.

It could be possible he does this so that his enemies will agree that if they're defeated he will get their powers without getting arrested.

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 ennemies. 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 aswell. 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. NOTE: According to Dwayne McDuffie Vilgax ultimately lost his body because of the explosion and he is expected to return in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. This could mean that he returns to his form from the original series)

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. The Ben 10 enhanced episode revealed that Ben 10,000 fought Vilgax again when he was 15, but this time around Ben didn't take any chances with Vilgax's defeat, literally tearing Vilgax to pieces. 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, But Vilgax and Dr. Animo are defeated by both future and present Ben and Gwen.

Original Series
Before his augmentation, Vilgax 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 so much time for him to heal that most people thought him dead until he came back.

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 for a short amount of time, and smash apart mountains with his bare hands, along with being able to increase his strength at will. This makes him more than a match for most Omnitrix aliens.

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.

He will have a new form in Ben 10 Ultimate Alien. He will have the form of a tetramend( Fourarms Spiecies)

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.
 * Vast Super Strength
 * Near-Invulnerability
 * Flight
 * Super Hearing
 * Laser Eye Vision, the beams can also be guided to hit its target.
 * Wind Breath
 * 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 intangible 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 fists
 * 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.
 * In the series finale, he reveals his ability to turn into a giant Squid-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 of Ben and the Omnitrix.
 * Vilgax returned to Earth in Ghost Town, to get Ben's help because Ghostfreak had took control of his planet, and so he could find out the secrets of the Omnitrix.
 * 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.
 * In the original series, Vilgax's homeworld was mentioned as the Null Void Frontier or the Shadowy Realm, but in 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.
 * In the original series, Vilgax knew the secrets of the Omnitrix but 5 years after the original series, he can't even put the hero selector up. Dwayne said that Ben changed the codes (learned by Azmuth how to do it) and made few other unknown changes to the Omnitrix so Vilgax won't be able to use it.
 * Vilgax explains he's the only one of his race who actually is a warrior. It seems the rest of his people are peaceful and non-violent as they were easily pocessed by Ghostfreak's minions without resistance. Vilgax seems to geniunely care about his own people and their safety and is hailed as a hero and a benevolent ruler to them. He was willing to work with his mortal enemy, Ben, to free them and did not want them harmed even when pocessed. The origin of Vilgax's strength and ruthlessness may be simply a desire to keep his pacifistic people safe from harm and eventually became a desire to rule everything with an iron fist, though retaining his love for his people.
 * Vilgax is noticebly 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.
 * Vilgax has noticibly gotten smaller and leaner between Ben 10 and Alien Force. It may have been alterations to get rid of his bulky self in lieu for other abilities since power alone did not seem to be able to defeat Ben in the end. This could explain why he went after the heroes of other planets and gain his powers. Noticibly, his tatics have also evolved between series. While in Ben 10, he would simply overpower Ben's aliens with incredible overwhelming force and his robot minions, in Alien Force, his tatics involve using his newly stolen powers in junction with his monstrous strength and speed.
 * His true form is more octopus-like than squid-like.