Albedo

Albedo is a character introduced in Good Copy, Bad Copy. Originally a Galvan and Azmuth's former assistant, Albedo was turned into a red-eyed, white-haired clone of Ben after a failed attempt to take Ben's Omnitrix. Albedo has become quite popular amongst the fans, and played a major role in the series by introducing the Ultimatrix. 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.

Appearance
Albedo is a clone of Ben created through a nearly successful attempt to recreate the Omnitrix. He first appears exactly like Ben and wears the exact same clothing. But after his and Ben's Omnitrix reacted to each other, it sent out a pulse that damaged his form, inversing his colors. The energy from the pulse turned 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 Galvan form was shown in Double or Nothing, before reverting back to human. He looks similar to Azmuth with red eyes, a red Galvan tunic with black stripes, paler skin without tendrils or wrinkles and fully open eyes.

According to Dwayne, normal Galvans have green eyes, this might mean his Galvan form is damaged as well.

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 he 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, 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.

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 worked 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 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, possibly using the extra energy to evolve the aliens. 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, whereas Ben needed multiple aliens just to defeat Gwen or Kevin individually. He is even shown to hold his own against thousands of Humungousaurs as Ultimate Humungousaur for a long while before becoming tired. Because of this, he has never lost a fair fight. In Double or Nothing, Albedo has even been shown to hold his own against Ben while both were as humans and seeing as how he gave more hits to Ben than he took. He was even able to knock Ben out for a short time.

Thanks to a modification Albedo made to himself, Albedo can alter his DNA at will and change into any species unlocked on the Omnitrix/Ultimatrix. As intended, Albedo also regained access to his true Galvan form as a plus. However, because Ben had interfered, 'Ben Tennyson' was still his default form. As a result, any form he changes into, including his own, will eventually switch back into "Ben Tennyson".

Early Life
Albedo was a brilliant young Galvan scientist, who served as Azmuth's assistant in the conception of the Omnitrix Project. At some point before his first on-screen appearance, he 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, by doing so, he accidentally put Ben's DNA as 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, believing it'd allow him to turn back to normal. During his search for Ben, he savagely attacked at least three Forever Knights castles and a DNAlien hive, in order to get information, causing the knights to believe Ben was attacking them for no reason and getting 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 give it back to him. 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 locked 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 photo 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 revenge on them.

In The Final Battle, Albedo escaped from prison with the help of Vilgax, and stole the Ultimatrix, an incomplete version 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, still causing him to be 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 which tired Albedo out. 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 in Earth's ocean, Albedo 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. He also wished to avoid accidentally transforming into Alien X In Ben 10,000 Returns, Profesor Paradox states there is an alternate timeline where Albedo turned into Alien X and stayed trapped as Alien X 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, a Vaxasaurian named Hugh, and a 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 realizes they aren't Albedo. After talking to Albedo, telling him to never again do Ben 10: Live. They are about to leave, but Hugh comes and lies to the team, saying Albedo was making a Doomsday Bomb. Ben, Gwen, and Kevin go to stop him. Gwen wonders why Albedo would make a Doomsday bomb and blow up Earth, when he had no way of getting off Earth himself, meaning it would destroy him too. But, Ben is annoyed and uses NRG to blows a hole in the wall. They see Albedo wearing a large Omnitrix symbol on his chest, and Albedo yells at the other aliens to get them. Ben defeats the Methanosian, and Gwen and Kevin defeat the Necrofriggian. Then, Hugh comes and tries to defeat Ben, but fails. Ben goes after Albedo, still thinking he was making a Doomsday Bomb. When Albedo is on the 'bomb', the whole theater suddenly blows up and Albedo as a Galvan, Negative Grey Matter, is revealed. Negative Grey Matter 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 as be 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. Albedo gets mad, and blames Ben for this. 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 stay as their friend. Ben says that they can have him, but he won't be happy when he wakes up.

It is confirmed that we will learn about Albedo's past eventually ¹. That means, Albedo will probably appear again.

Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks

 * Albedo appears as a boss on MorOtesi and tricking Cooper into making an energy core from Taedenite. Also, if you look carefully, all of his aliens' eyes and Omnitrix symbol are red. In the DS version, after you defeat him, 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 you beat him on Hero Mode he becomes an alternate skin in the DS version of the game.

Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction

 * Albedo returns as the main antagonist, where he has a To'kustar form, and threatens to destroy the Earth in a cosmic storm if Ben didn't give him the Potis Altiare. He hires many of Ben's foes to stop him from obtaining it that would help stop him and formed an alliance with Psyphon. He then battled Ben in Japan, and tossed Humungousaur into the river, who resurfaced as Way Big using the Potis Altiare, to enhanced Way Big's powers to fight him. He then blasted Albedo to the moon, where he shrinks and reverts back and exclaimed his frustration with the lines: "Curse you Ben Tennyson!!! I spent a year and a day alone in that Cosmic Storm, incubating the one single molecule of To'kustar DNA I managed to salvage back when you blew up the Omnitrix and left me for dead! Now I'm on this dusty rock, in this disgusting form again. And there are no chili fries! Things can't possibly get any worse." Only for things to get ironically worse when Lu gets revenge for when Albedo destroyed the outpost earlier in the game.

Punch Time Explosion

 * Albedo doesn't actually appear in the game. Rather, he is simply an alternate color for Ben. 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)

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.
 * In Cosmic Destruction, Albedo is responsible for the destruction of a planet along with the primitive bacteria living on it. According to Psyphon, humans may have discovered the life if Albedo 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.
 * Unlike Ben, Albedo does not shout the names of the aliens when he transforms into them. Although in The Final Battle: Part 1 he did say "Meet, Ultimate Humungousaur".
 * On an interesting note in Albedo's first appearance he appeared as Humungousaur, and his first and only seen Ultimate transformation seen was Ultimate Humungousaur.
 * Just like Ben, Albedo likes chili fries, but not because of Ben's DNA. According to Dwayne, Albedo is just blaming it on Ben.
 * When Albedo lies, his left eye twitches, just like Ben. Kevin seems to be the only one to have noticed this.
 * The Albedo toy and Albedo in The Final Battle and Vilgax Attacks wear a black shirt even though the Omnitrix damaged his form in Good Copy Bad Copy, turning his shirt into white.
 * 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. However, it should be noted that Azmuth's only fight using the Omnitrix was against Vilgax, someone more powerful than Kevin and Gwen (though, as Ultimate Humungousaur, Vilgax did not attempt a direct assault when he betrayed him like he did with most other characters he made alliances with, probably because of how easily he beat Ben compared to how much difficulty Vilgax had).
 * In The Final Battle, when the Omnitrix was destroyed, Kevin reverted to normal, Albedo didn't revert to his Galvan form because it wasn't the Omnitrix keeping him that way, it was Azmuth as revealed by Dwayne. Likely as punishment for his arrogant act of rebellion, making a second Omnitrix which is dangerous.
 * In "Double Negative" (the second chapter book), Albedo doesn't like smoothies. He says a peanut butter seaweed smoothie, one of Ben's favorites, tastes like feet.
 * 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.
 * Albedo's Omnitrix is seen on his right wrist in the picture above, though it is on his left wrist in the series.
 * 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.
 * Albedo cannot use Alien X because its DNA was locked out and not in the active list. Which is ironic since Paradox mentions a world where Albedo has been trapped motionless in Alien X for nearly a year as mentioned in Ben 10,000 Returns. But in a way, the Security System saved him from that terrible fate of constant arguing with Bellicus and Serena for nearly a year.
 * It was said by Paradox that there is a timeline where Albedo turned into Alien X and was stuck motionless for nearly a year. He was possibly referring to the Vilgax Attacks video game.
 * Albedo is similar to Zak Monday (Negative of Zak Saturday from The Secret Saturdays ).
 * 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 after facing their double (Scourge attempting to go Super only for Sonic to stop him, and Albedo's Omnitrix merging with Bens that changed the formers appearance), and both being recurring enemies of their genres respective protagonists.
 * In Secret of the Omnitrix Pop-up Version, it is stated that Azmuth had other Galvans help him make the Omnitrix. This is likely a reference to Albedo.
 * Albedo's actual age is unknown, but Dwayne said that he is at least a few hundred of years old. Also according to Dwayne, he is a young adult for a Galvan.
 * 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.
 * Being the opposite of Ben, Albedo's assumed identity could be known as Negative Ben (a play on Negative 10). The Comcast description of The Final Battle's first one-part airing called Albedo "Negative Ben."
 * Albedo is also another word for reflection coefficient, which is reflecting power of a surface.
 * In the game Fusion Fall Albedo's Omnitrix is green.
 * It is strange that Albedo survived the explosion unharmed from The Final Battle: Part 2, seeing that Vilgax was hurt severely.
 * Albedo gained the ability of transforming into any alien without a device.
 * In Double or Nothing, Albedo hinted that he was only mad at Ben for entrapping him in his form, stating that he never wanted to see him or his backwater planet again. In Cosmic Destruction, Albedo held such a grudge that he would destroy Earth. However, the game happened in an alternate timeline.
 * Albedo's powers at the end of Double or Nothing are like 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.