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BEN 10 ALIEN FORCE VOL. 1: BEN 10 RETURNS |
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Reviews
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Sunday, 11 January 2009 |
 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | VIZ MEDIA | | | ▪ | ADAPTED BY: | | ELIZABETH HURCHALLA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / COLOR | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 96 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | Y | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 12/30/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 01/11/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | DAVEY C. JONES |
It’s the second English manga/film comic Del Rey has done with the Cartoon Network and don’t expect it to be the last! Ben 10 is a top Cartoon Network animation and now the cartoon hits the manga style comic book in big splashy full color style! Ben 10 Returns starts a bunch of years after he put his superhero days with the transformation key, the omnitrix, into hiding. But it won’t be a long retirement. Ben might be happy living a normal teen life at fifteen, but when his grandpa, a member of the Plumbers, the intergalactic police, goes missing, Ben has to make a choice. He has to choose to try to save his grandfather which means having to don the omnitrix again! Wave bye-bye to normal life forever or let his grandfather bite the big one. Of course the hero is going to make the sacrifice and give up the life he wanted to save his family! He won’t be doing it alone though. He meets up with his gal pal Gwen who can make force shields and ray blasts from her bare hands (now that’s a gal pal!) and an alien who claims he works for the Plumbers and is also trying to find Max. We’ll have to take his word for that for now. They follow a lead and it has them coming face to face with an old foe – former classmate Kevin. The bad boy can absorb any substance to transform his body into it, like iron for instance. He was doing some shady dealings with the wayward Forever Knights. He turns out to be an odd foe-turned-possible-ally for the team. They follow the bread crumbs and try to sneak into the HQ of the Forever Knights. They have to deal with traps, the biggest being the giant dragon! That’s right, the story ends on a cliffhanger. Ben is a fun action packed morality high adventure with comic book super heroism and sci-fi twists. Because it’s a film comic it is a quick read and fun to look at with all sorts of colors since the images are straight from the cartoon. What’s cool is that the comic has character summaries at the beginning to catch everyone up to speed and the book also has interesting narration. It’s not the kind typical in a comic. It’s a brief straightforward description of the actual image you’re seeing at the time. It makes it perfect for bedtime reading to the kiddies. The cartoon has some violence but it’s very low key, more action, and no trauma. Perfect for readers young and mature alike!
IN SUMMARY:
Ben 10 Alien Force returns for all new action! It’s super cartoon based sci-fi adventure! |