Charmcaster (Classic)

Charmcaster is one of the Ben 10 villains and the niece and apprentice of, Gwen's nemesis, Hex. Like her uncle, she relies on magic to fight. Though like most villains she despises Ben, but her hate is mostly turned toward Gwen for their shared affinity in magic, mirroring Ben's and Kevin's rivalry in the original series. Charmcaster played a key role in the series, as it was by stealing her magic book Gwen learned using her powers.

Dwayne McDuffie has revealed that Charmcaster and Hex are actually humans from another dimension, thus explaining their powers.

Original series
In her debut appearance, Tough Luck, she busts her uncle out of prison and assists him in trying to steal the Keystone of Bezel. She manages to trick Gwen by putting on an act about hating her uncle, only to swipe the Keystone while hugging Gwen. She then gives Hex the Keystone. In the end it's revealed that Hex needs the Keystone to recreate the Charms of Bezel, and that she is manipulating her uncle into doing it so that she can take their power for herself. In the end, her powers, like Hex's, seem to be absorbed by the Keystone.

Charmcaster returns in A Change of Face, her powers having regenerated since her recent encounter with the Tennysons. She attempts a body swap spell with Ben, hoping to take advantage of the Omnitrix to boost her spells. Her efforts fail; however, as her three attempts end in swapping with Gwen, being returned to her normal body while Ben and Gwen are swapped, and returning Ben and Gwen to their normal bodies respectively. She is arrested at the end of the episode, and her bag is tossed into the sea. She is last seen in a juvenile detention ward, where she is about to be beaten up by two female inmates whom Gwen spurned while she was in Charmcaster's body. Gwen procures her spellbook during this period, and keeps the item as a souvenir, eventually learning to use it.

Charmcaster makes a small cameo at the end of Don't Drink the Water, where she is seen taunting her uncle(who has been reduced to an infant by the Fountain of Youth) and saying that she's giving the orders now.

She appears in Ben 10 vs. the Negative 10 as part of the Negative 10. Unlike her partners; however, Charmcaster is mainly focused on defeating Gwen (as opposed to Ben). She also is shown to have a slight rivalry with fellow female teammate Rojo.

Alien Force
In Ben 10: Alien Force, Charmcaster looks thinner, taller and has black lips. Her clothing resembles the Enchantress, a super villain from Marvel Comics from The Mighty Thor but McDuffie states her redesign was influence based on Clea from Doctor Strange.

In the episode In Charm's Way, Charmcaster sends one of her rock monsters to attack Ben, Kevin and Gwen while the trio were relaxing at the beach, the rock creature appeared to be immune to Gwen's energy attacks and proceeded to oust Kevin. Just as Ben was about to take down the rock monster, a magical portal opens up and sucks it away. It was later shown that Charmcaster was hiding in a nearby cave watching the events unfold. After voicing her deep hatred for Gwen and her plan to take something precious from her (which was Kevin, since Gwen stole her spell book) transforming into a beautiful blonde haired girl named Caroline and attempted to seduce Kevin.

Charmcaster set her plan into motion after saving a child from being knocked down by a truck, she and Kevin journey to the beach where she revealed a partially false life story while removing his ID mask which concealed his mutant form and clearly growing jealous when Kevin says "You think you can do magic? She's made of magic". She then kisses him, putting him under a spell and ordered him to bring Gwen to the Planetarium before midnight where she can drain Gwen's powers. After a skirmish with Ben and Gwen, Kevin was broken free from Charmcaster's spell. After the trio arrives at the Planetarium at Gwen's request, Charmcaster sends her rock monsters to deal with Ben and Kevin while she dealt with Gwen herself. Upon meeting, Charmcaster gloats sarcastically at Gwen's hairdo then engaging her in a short magical duel, in which Gwen was led to stand upon some runes while directly under the sky-panel which then opens up, exposing Gwen to the full blaze of the moon light. Charmcaster then drains Gwen of all her magic. Confident that she had won, Charmcaster retreats with her two rock minions.

After a short argument with Gwen, Kevin tricks Charmcaster into meeting him on top of a tall building where he lured her with a lie about his loyalty to Ben and that Gwen still had power left, angering Charmcaster even further. The duo later shows up at a fast food joint where Ben and Gwen are having smoothies. After scanning Gwen and realizing that she had no power left and that Kevin tricked her, she uses her magic to bring a Mr Smoothie sign to life as well as controlling a parked van to kill Kevin and Ben, while her rock monsters attempted to annihilate Gwen who mocks Charmcaster saying "you're the one who's useless Charmcaster, can't take on one powerless girl" and proceeds to challenge her to a one-on-one fist fight which Charmcaster nonchalantly turned down, opting to kill Gwen with a bolt of magical energy. However, Gwen turns the tables on Charmcaster by reciting one of her spells and re-absorbing her powers which Charmcaster stole earlier, much to Charmcaster's horror. Charmcaster was later defeated after Gwen summoned a mystical vortex which sucked her and her rock monsters away.

She reappeared in Time Heals alongside her uncle, Hex. When Gwen travels back in time in order to stop Kevin's mutation, the duo appeared and because Kevin was weak the trio was unable to win. Charmcaster forced Kevin to absorb one of her rock monsters and then she used a spell on him to put him in a trance. She also killed Gwen during the battle and weakened Ben for Hex. When Gwen freed Ben from the pits of Hex castle, Ben fights off Charmcaster so Gwen can repair the damage she had done in the past.

Ultimate Alien
Charmcaster reappeared in Hit 'Em Where They Live, where she teamed-up with Zombozo and Vulkanus to get revenge on Ben and his friends and family. While fighting Kevin, he starts a chain reaction of crashes to knock over the entire roller coaster, injuring her but, due to his promise to Ben and Gwen, not killing her.

She was also seen having a smaller wooden version Hex 's staff and firing whitish magenta lightning-like energy bolts from it. According to her in the original series, only a master magician can activate it; meaning she has become much stronger and much more powerful since her reappearance in Ben 10: Alien Force (this was also confirmed by Dwayne McDuffie).

Powers and abilities
Like Hex, Charmcaster uses magic, but instead of using a staff, she has a magic bag from which she can draw all manner of magical mystical items, such as magical explosives in shades of purple, throwing purple glowing blades, or even a variety of clay animals which she can magically enlarge and animate to do her bidding. Although small, the bag seems to have something of a pocket dimension inside(basically a magic satchel), allowing Charmcaster to store a wide variety things within it that logically should not fit(at one point, she produces Hex's magical mystical staff, an item that is at least four feet tall). The bag also appears to have some degree of sentience, as it found its way back to Charmcaster under its own power. She is also highly skilled in various magical mystical spells, although it is clear that because of her inexperience, she is not as strong and powerful as her uncle. She also possesses a miniature dark purple and gold-stripped spell book (which ten-year-old Gwen takes as keepsake in the original series episode, A Change of Face) hidden in her long-sleeved purple-colored coat instead of her bag.

In Ben 10: Alien Force, Charmcaster does not use her bag anymore, relying instead mainly on magenta-pink mana-controlling-manipulating powers and abilities similar to Gwen's. However, she is still seen using various exceedingly strong and powerful spells, including water-manipulation-and control, shapeshifting, bringing inanimate objects to life, teleportation and opening pink-purple portals and vortexes toward other worlds. She also uses some kind of upgraded version of her clay animals, who now look like golems and are far more powerful than before. Her special powers are very similar to Verdona's: transform mana into elements, alter her appearance and transfer her energy to inanimate things. Unlike Gwen's, Charmcaster's magic has a lightning-like effect and a whiter coloration, while Gwen's is more solid and darker, also instead of creating balls of pure mana for projectiles attack, Charmcaster creates lightning bolts. An interesting fact is that when creating magical attacks the large sphere that forms on her hand is atom shaped(two thin rings can be seen), Also she never used a shield unlike Gwen, mainly because when she attacks her spell will collide with the enemy's attack. Also despite losing her bag she seems to still being able to summon objects from another dimension as seen in Hit 'Em Where They Live where she puts her hands together and when separing them, a flash of pink energy teleports the staff to her.

Original series

 * Tough Luck
 * A Change of Face
 * Don't Drink the Water
 * Ben 10 vs. the Negative 10 (Part 1) / Ben 10 vs. the Negative 10 (Part 2)

Alien Force

 * In Charm's Way
 * Time Heals

Ultimate Alien

 * Hit 'Em Where They Live

Naming and Translations

 * Greek: Μάγισσα-Mayssa / Sorceress
 * Portuguese: Encantris
 * Spanish: Hechizera / Sorceress

Kevin Levin
It is possible that Charmcaster may have been in love with Kevin at one stage. In the episode Hit 'Em Where They Live, Kevin stated "I used to love carnival rides, But now they just make me sick." Charmcaster then replied "You have exactly the same effect on me". She also kissed Kevin in the Alien Force episode In Charms Way. But it is believed she kissed Kevin just to take advantage of him so he could bring Gwen to her.

Trivia

 * It is confirmed by Dwayne McDuffie that Charmcaster was raised by Hex.
 * Charmcaster looks thinner, taller and more serious of her act in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien.
 * She is the only female villain to appear in every series.
 * Charmcaster is shown in possession of Hex's staff. As stated in the original series, only a master magician can use it. Since Charmcaster was able to do so, it implies that she has become a master magician since her appearance in Ben 10: Alien Force.
 * Charmcaster appears as a boss in Vilgax Attacks in the level Terradino (Humongousaur's homeplanet)
 * Charmcaster's appearance in Alien Force resembles the Enchantress, a supervillain from Marvel Comics from The Mighty Thor (but McDuffie states her redesign was influence based on Clea from Doctor Strange.