Albedo

Albedo (pronounced al-bay-do) is a villain that first appeared in Good Copy, Bad Copy.

Background
Originally a Galvan and Azmuth's former assistant, Albedo was turned into a red-eyed, silver-haired clone of Ben after a failed attempt to take Ben's Omnitrix (beforehand, however, he looked just like Ben down to the way his eye twitched when lying). He has a red jacket, instead of a green one and his name comes from the term Albedo, which derives from alchemy and psychology and refers to a person's unconscious personality or anima/animus.

It also means light reflecting off of a surface, referring to him as a copy of Ben.

Personality
Albedo is portrayed as a rude, arrogant, and ambitious individual exhibiting sociopathic tendencies. He is unaccepting of Ben's right to wear the Omnitrix because Albedo thinks that Ben is just an unworthy human. He bears an 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 when 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 suspicion of Vilgax betraying him from the very beginning, which later proved correct after they had beaten Ben and taken his Omnitrix.

Appearance
Albedo is Azmuth's former assistant, originally a Galvan but he now resembles a clone of Ben through his nearly successful attempt to recreate the Omnitrix. His Omnitrix synced itself with Ben against his will, causing his default form to resemble Ben, to his great distaste. 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, inversing his colors. This made his hair white, his eyes red, and turned the colors of his jacket from green with white stripes to red with black stripes.

Albedo's present Galvan form in Ultimate Alien was shown in Double or Nothing, before reverting back to human. He looks similar to Azmuth but with red eyes, a red Galvan tunic with black stripes, paler skin without tendrils or wrinkles and fully open eyes. Albedo's flashback Galvan from was shown in Trouble Helix. He has a robe/tunic with the Omnitrix symbol on it and metal on his legs, neck, and most of his arms. He has a normal Galvan face with green eyes.

Albedo's present Galvan form in Omniverse was shown in The Ultimate Heist. He looks like his flashback form in Trouble Helix, but the green is replaced by red. Albedo's human form has not changed much in Omniverse. His jacket's design is reversed, with the black stripe with a 10 now on his right side, along with the 10 becoming 01, along with additional pockets. He did not change his clothes and let his hair grow like Ben did. He wears the Ultimatrix on his right hand. In The Ultimate Heist, he was also seen wearing a red 01 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.

Whenever Albedo transforms, the color scheme of his alien forms reflect his current color scheme, such as Goop 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 colors to them.

Powers and Abilities
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. In addition to the ability to turn into any of Ben's aliens, he could make them evolve into much more powerful Ultimate Forms. The Ultimatrix was later taken from him by Ben.

Albedo is highly intelligent, according to Dwayne, "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. It was also confirmed that Albedo was the one who created the function to allow the aliens to evolve, not Azmuth.

Albedo is shown to be a very good fighter, seeing as how he could easily defeat Gwen and Kevin with just one alien each. He is even shown to hold his own against thousands of Humungousaurs as Negative Ultimate Humungousaur for an extended period of time before tiring and eventually being defeated. Because of this, he has never lost a fair fight. In Double or Nothing, 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 unlocked in the Codon Stream 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 back to his "Ben" form. Albedo uses a recreated Ultimatrix to stabilize this power in Omniverse.

Albedo accidentally created a negative and more powerful version of a helix that Malware needed to complete himself.

Early Life
Albedo was a brilliant young Galvan scientist, who served as Azmuth's assistant.

At some point before his first on-screen appearance, Albedo asked Azmuth for an Omnitrix for himself, as he didn't trust "a mere human". When Azmuth refused, stating there could only be one Omnitrix, Albedo 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.

Ben 10: 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 gathering information, causing the Knights to believe Ben was attacking them for no reason and attracting Gwen's and Kevin's attention. When Albedo and Ben eventually met during Albedo's rampage 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 turn 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.

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
When Kevin and Gwen put in the 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 something similar in sync to it.

In Ben 10,000 Returns, Paradox stated that there is an alternate timeline where Albedo turned into Alien X and stayed trapped motionless for nearly a year.

Albedo returned in Double or Nothing, ever since Vilgax's ship blew up, Albedo has been running 'show business' and playing the role Ben in his live action show, 'Ben 10: Live', where three of Ben's top most popular aliens, Swampfire, Humungousaur, and Big Chill, who are played by a Methanosian named Swamps, a Vaxasaurian named Hugh, and a Necrofriggian named Fridge.

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 realizes 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 wonders why Albedo would wear it if he already looks like Ben.

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 a copy of Ben. When Albedo is on the 'bomb', the whole theater suddenly blows up and Albedo as Negative Grey Matter, is revealed.

Albedo revealed that the device he was wearing wasn't a Doomsday Bomb, but rather, a device to turn return him to a Galvan as well make him able to alter his DNA at will. Negative Grey Matter said he won't attack Ben anymore, that is until he turns back into human and finds out he can only be Negative Grey Matter for about a second.

Hugh tries to take the blame, but Albedo doesn't blame him and blames Ben. Albedo turns 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 turn 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 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 unmasks him and starts fighting 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 slipped on a smoothie, thus replaying the same thing that happened in Albedo's nightmare. While they get him to 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 stay away as they come near him.

Flashback
Albedo reappeared in Omniverse in Trouble Helix as Azmuth's assistant in his original Galvan form. In the flashback, 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 his flashback, he was very loyal to Azmuth as he called him "First Thinker" and even fought for him when Malware approached.

Present Day
Albedo reappeared in the present day in The Ultimate Heist. In it, he has been impersonating Ben for a few 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, especially 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 that Albedo had what he wanted the power to return to his true Galvan form. Albedo informed him that he wanted revenge for his humiliation 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 turned into Negative Ultimate Humungousaur and began attacking Ben as Bloxx, and pummeling him until he deactivated and Azmuth hit the dial, turning Ben into a new alien, Atomix, who was easily able to beat Negative Ultimate Humungousaur and Negative Ultimate Spidermonkey.

After restoring Azmuth's intellect, Azmuth punished Albedo by reconfiguring his Ultimatrix to not only keep him as a clone of Ben, but as a clone of his 11 year old form. Mortified, Albedo cries as he is taken away.

Aliens Used

 * Negative Big Chill (via Inferior Copy Omnitrix, Mentally and Recreated Ultimatrix)
 * Negative Brainstorm (via Mentally and Recreated Ultimatrix)
 * Negative Goop (via Inferior copy Omnitrix and Recreated Ultimatrix)
 * Negative Grey Matter (via Recreated Ultimatrix and Mentally)
 * Negative Humungousaur (via Inferior Copy Omnitrix, Ultimatrix and Recreated Ultimatrix)
 * Negative Rath (via Ultimatrix and Mentally)
 * Negative Spidermonkey (via Inferior Copy Omnitrix and Ultimatrix)
 * Negative Ultimate Humungousaur (via Recreated Ultimatrix and Ultimatrix)

Via Omnitrix Copy Only

 * Negative Echo Echo
 * Negative Jetray

Ultimatrix Only

 * Negative Diamondhead
 * Negative Swampfire

Mentally Only

 * Negative ChamAlien
 * Negative Fasttrack
 * Negative NRG

​Via Recreated Ultimatrix Only

 * Negative Armodrillo
 * Negative Articguana
 * Negative Gravattack
 * Negative Ultimate Echo Echo
 * Negative Ultimate Spidermonkey
 * Negative Wildvine
 * Negative Ultimate Articguana
 * Negative Ultimate Gravattack
 * Ultimate Albedo

Punch Time Explosion

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

Ben 10: Alien Force

 * Good Copy, Bad Copy (first appearance)
 * The Final Battle: Part 1
 * The Final Battle: Part 2

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

 * Double or Nothing (first re-appearance)
 * Night of the Living Nightmare
 * The Ultimate Enemy: Part 2 (flashback)

Ben 10: Omniverse

 * Trouble Helix (flashback; Galvan form)
 * The Ultimate Heist (first present day re-appearance)
 * A Fistful of Brains
 * For a Few Brains More

Toys

 * 4" Albedo; packaging reads "Albedo Ben" (Alien Force)
 * 4" Albedo (Ultimate Alien)

Trivia

 * In Cosmic Destruction, Albedo somehow survives on the moon with no oxygen, despite being trapped in a clone of Ben's body which requires oxygen.
 * In the Cosmic Destruction Timeline, Albedo is responsible for the destruction of a planet, located near Earth's solar system, along with the primitive bacteria living on it.
 * According to Psyphon, humans may have discovered the life if Albedo had not destroyed it.
 * In Cosmic Destruction, Albedo reveals that he does not consider Pluto a planet, apparently agreeing with the International Astronomical Union's classification of Pluto.
 * According to Dwayne, 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.
 * According to Dwayne, Albedo is just blaming it on Ben.
 * Unlike Ben in Alien Force  and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Albedo never shouted the names of the aliens when he transforms into them.
 * However, he did shout out his name when he transformed into his ultimate form.
 * When Albedo lies, his left eye twitches, just like Ben. Kevin seems to be the only one to have noticed this.
 * Unlike Azmuth, who didn't fare so well with it, Albedo showed remarkable skill with the Omnitrix and its aliens. He was more than a match for Ben when both were transformed and was able to defeat both Kevin and Gwen.
 * Albedo says a peanut butter seaweed smoothie, one of Ben's favorites, tastes like feet.
 * Considering that Ben, and by extension Albedo, are allergic to peanuts this line is likely non-canonical.
 * The term "albedo" is the name for the alchemical effect of something whitening (along with other terms like "rubedo" for reddening, "nigredo" for blackening, and "citrinitas" for yellowing). Though the name meant nothing to Albedo at first, upon being stuck in a negative image of Ben, he was left with white hair, now a reference to his name.
 * In Fusion Fall, Albedo has a green Omnitrix instead of a red Omnitrix.
 * 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)
 * It was said by Paradox that there is a timeline where Albedo turned into Alien X and was stuck motionless for nearly a year.
 * Albedo is similar to Zak Monday (Negative of Zak Saturday from The Secret Saturdays) and he is also similar to Perry the Platyborg (Negative of Perry the platapus from Phineas and Ferb). Albedo is also similar to Scourge the Hedgehog, an inverted-colored, parallel version of Sonic the Hedgehog in Archie Comics. Both look similar to the protagonist (Scourge being an alternate Sonic and Albedo being a Galvan that turned into Ben), both gained a different appearance while facing their double (Scourge attempting to go Super only for Locke, Knuckles father, to stop him before Scourge teleports away to fight Sonic, and Albedo's Omnitrix merging with Bens that changed the formers appearance), and both being recurring enemies of their genres respective protagonists.
 * Within the series, Albedo is also similar to Sunny, Ben and Gwen's cousin, who is also a inverted-colored negative version of Gwen.
 * 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 Cosmic Destruction, it becomes white again then becomes black on Cosmic Destruction DS.
 * Albedo is also another word for reflection coefficient, which is reflecting power of a surface.
 * Albedo's powers at the end of Double or Nothing are similar to Kevin's powers after he absorbed the Omnitrix: they both could turn into Ben's aliens, but could only remain their true selves for a short time.
 * Albedo is Ben's third costume in Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion. Curiously, there's also an Albedo coloration for Young Ben, who never encountered Albedo in the first series.
 * In FusionFall, he is one of the few non-fusion bosses. Defeating him gives the player a Rath Nano.
 * In Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, Albedo's name was pronounced as Al-bee-do. In Omniverse, it is pronounced as Al-bay-do.