Verdona

Verdona Tennyson is the wife of Max Tennyson, mother of Carl and Frank Tennyson, biological grandmother of Ben, Gwen, Ken and Sunny and the great-grandmother of Kenny and Gwendolyn Tennyson (from the original Ben 10 episode, Ken 10), and a member of the Anodite race. And it seems that she is stronger and more powerful than her granddaughters Gwen, with the spark and Sunny, as a full Anodite.

She is voiced by real-life mother-and-daughter team veteran Golden Globe-nominee. Barbara Bain, of Mission: Impossible and Juilet Landau.

Backstory
Verdona left her home world, Anodyne in an unspecified time long before the series even began to was brought to Earth by a robot alien who had captured her and want to use her to power his world. They crash landed in St. Louis where she met and fell deeply in love with Max Tennyson and the two courted each other and married, during this time she hid her Anodite heritage very well and blended in with society. During their time together, Verdona always had to deal with Max's occupation as a Plumber which she knew very well yet kept the knowledge from him, prompting Max to always lie to her every time he left and eventually after a long, happy and yet somewhat distant relationship, they parted.

They had two sons together, Carl and Frank. However neither of them showed any signs of inheriting her powers and abilities. When they were grown up and out of the house, she returned to Anodyne; after so many years on Earth, Verdona wanted to get back in touch with her background. She once came back to Earth to see if any of her grandchildren had inherited any Anodite abilities and powers from her, but saw that none did. Only several years later, she found out that Gwen, her granddaughter had developed powers and abilities of her own. It should be noted that Big Chill is in fact Ben, which makes Big Chill's offspring Verdona's great-grandchildren but it is unknown if they even could inherit her powers and abilities or if the energy from of the Omnitrix will prevent them from having "the spark."

Original Series
In the live-action movie, Ben 10: Race Against Time, Max told Ben that his paternal grandmother had passed away, although this might be a lie. As Ben was likely not ready for the truth about his grandmother being an alien yet as he was ten at the time. However, the movie had took place in a different timeline so things might have turn out differently.

Ben 10: Alien Force
When news went out about Max's disappearance, Verdona came to his favorite lake to remember the good times they had had together. However, she met with her grandchildren and their friend Kevin, who assumed she was a trespasser. She then magically disappears, leaving behind a flower at the base of a tree which had engraved a heart with a "Max + Verdona" writing on it. She then returned later in the night, deciding to have a "little fun" with Ben and Kevin. When Gwen intervened, she revealed herself as their paternal grandmother.

She then later came to Gwen's house, explaining her history with Max and then offered Gwen to come back with her to Anodyne to reach the full potential of her powers and abilities (which would require seventy-five years). After thinking on the roof, Gwen refused. Verdona then shed her human body, revealing her true Anodite form, and thought that Gwen was too young to make her own decisions and decided to destroy her human body to free the dormant Anodite inside, but the two boys' stepped to defend Gwen.

After a brief battle that tore up the front lawn(and part of the house), Gwen explained to her that she would rather stay on Earth with her friends and family, Verdona then tells Gwen that Max should have been an energy being like them, expressing her deep longing for him and that her desire to take Gwen with her could be just a front to fill the void in her heart. Verdona then magically patches up the damage and flies into space, claiming to return every so often to see how Gwen is doing.

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
Verdona made a reappearance in Girl Trouble, where she was able to overpower Sunny, who was attacking Gwen, and she took Sunny and her boyfriend Antonio back to their home planets and allow their parents to decide on their punishment.

Verdona's history with Max was revealed in Moonstruck, where she was held captive by a Synthroid (a species of robotic aliens) that wants to use her Anodite powers as fuel for their planet. Max saved her, and she eventually got married to him and Max never forgot her.

Appearance

 * Young_verdona.jpg Are Little Girls Made Of?
 * Girl Trouble
 * Moon Struck (Flashback)

Toys

 * Even though Gwen and Verdona are not the same toy, they share the same Anodite form. So the "Gwen Anodite" toy can also be Verdona, not just Gwen (the same with Heatblast and Alan Albright).

Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks
Verdona appears in the Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks video game where she is instructed by Max to transport Ben, Gwen, and Kevin to Anur Phaetos, Ghostfreak's home planet.

Personality
Like all Anodites, Verdona is a free-spirited being. Though sometimes acting more mature and grown-up, she mostly acts like a playful child. She also likes to listen and dance to Max's favorite band, Shag Carpeting. There is also another side of Verdona which is somewhat amoral and uncaring. For example when she almost destroyed Ben and Kevin when they first confronted her, were it not for the intervention of Gwen and learning who they really were and when she was willing to destroy her granddaughter's physical human body to release the Anodite lying hidden deep within her.

She apparently favors Gwen over Ben, due to the fact that he did not inherit any powers and abilities from her so she just put him aside, which was shown when she magically conjured tape on his mouth so that he could not speak, that was until after their final fight against each other did she see just how much Ben cares about Gwen, the two reconcile on good terms afterward. She also has a uncanny sense of humor that was passed on to Ben. Also, she was shown to be a strict disciplinarian and shown to be serious when she needs to be, when Sunny went way out of line.

Powers and Abilities
Despite being an Anodite like her granddaughters, she has much more experience and can do far more than Gwen and Sunny can. Like all Anodites, Verdona can:
 * Create solid magenta energy constructs into almost any shape such as ropes, battering rams, safety nets, cages, slides, shields and barriers
 * Create circular magenta energy blasts to knock opponents back
 * Create incredibly strong and powerful magenta-purple shields and barriers that can withstand serious attacks
 * Create pink glowing pure energy beams to grab and hurl enemies
 * Fly at incredible speeds through the air
 * Draw in the mana from all living things in her area to greatly strengthen and increase her powers and abilities to enormous levels should the need arise if weakened
 * Warp the very fabric of reality at a whim, but at a lesser degree than Alien X
 * Generate glowing pink-and-magenta energy beams
 * Ensnare enemies in her long flowing tendrils of pink-magenta hair
 * Grow to huge heights
 * Shrink to small size
 * Do magic and cast spells
 * Telekinesis: move, control and manipulate objects from afar in a glowing pink telekinetic aura
 * Teleport herself and others across short or long distances in a flash of glowing magenta light
 * Telepathy: read the thoughts and minds of others, and communicate telepathically
 * Dowsing: track down any living being through their mana from an object or piece of clothing they have touched in an energy aura of pink-magenta glowing energy and see what he or she is doing at the time
 * Clairvoyance: see vivid distant visions of the past, present and possibly the future
 * Create swirling portals or vortexes of varying shades of pink, magenta, fuchsia and purple
 * Travel to inter-dimensions and other worlds and planets
 * Use her magenta-pink hair to break though shields and barriers
 * Project pink-and-magenta glowing narrow beams from her eyes to simulate heat vision
 * Sense the presence of other living beings nearby
 * Encase opponents in incredibly strong and powerful impenetrable electric magenta-purple energy spheres
 * Create physical human or alien bodies for disguises if needed that she can shed at will in a flash of dazzling pulsating magenta glowing energy
 * Call other Anodites through a mana field
 * Superhuman strength

Trivia

 * She has a sense of humor similar to that of Ben's. After being caught in Spidermonkey's web, Ben jokes "We're teaching her to mind her mana," causing her to laugh saying "Ha, good one, Ben!". She also appears to be a bit of a practical joker like Ben.
 * She appears to like disco dancing and the music of Shag Carpeting, which is Max's favorite all-time band.
 * Though she refers to humans as "backward creatures," she is quite fond of Earthly music.
 * Gwen's mother Lili does not like Verdona. Verdona's feelings for her daughter-in-law appears to be more mutual. This inexplicable animosity between the two is yet to explained.
 * The two actresses who voice Verdona in her human and Anodite forms (Barbara Bain and Juliet Landau) are mother and daughter.
 * Verdona is quite fond of Kevin, possibly because his personality is somewhat identical to a younger Max Tennyson.
 * In her first appearance, Verdona did not seem to pay much attention to Ben because he did not possess Anodite powers, but when she come to take Sunny and Antonio back home, she seems to be very happy to see Ben at the time. This shows that while she may favor Gwen for her powers, she loves her grandchildren equally.
 * Whenever Gwen tranforms into her Anodite form, Grandma Verdona's voice is mixed up with her. This may be because she is Gwen's grandmother.
 * Ironically when Frank Tennyson have said that their is no such thing as magic, however this was later disproven (and heavily speculated with Charmcaster and Hex's powers) when it was proven by Charmcaster that magic is how sorcerers control mana.
 * In Moonstruck, Verdona's human form resembles both 10-year-old Gwen and Charmcaster disguised as Caroline and her eyes somehow resembles Elena Validus's eyes.
 * Even though Lili is just her daugther-in-law, when she was young, her voice is similar to Lili. This is because they have the same voice actress.
 * Verdona's human clothes in Moonstruck resembles Grey Matter in the original series.