Kevin Levin

Kevin Ethan Levin is one of the main characters from the Ben 10 animated series.

Kevin is an Osmosian and a member of Ben's Team.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Kevin is a member of the Heroes Coalition and is part of Team Redemption.

Appearance
In the original series, Kevin was a thin and scrawny boy with shoulder-length black hair, pale skin and dark brown eyes with black-discolored marks around them (a sign that an Osmosian has recently absorbed energy). He wore a torn black T-shirt, black studded arm bands, brown cargo pants, black knee-length shoes, and a padlock necklace which is a spoil from his first crime: stealing a bike and using it to run away to New York. After absorbing an Omnitrix feedback, Kevin was able to transform into exact copies of all of the unlocked aliens, missing an Omnitrix symbol. After the energy overwhelmed Kevin, he mutated into Kevin 11, a random mixture of body parts from the 10 said aliens which completely destroyed his clothes, except for his cargo pants.

In Alien Force, Kevin grew into a tall and muscular young man. His eyes lacked the black marks (as his body fully recovered from and stopped absorbing energy). His normal attire was a tight black T-shirt over a grey long sleeve shirt, blue pants, and black combat shoes. His hair, although still long, was styled into a choppy mullet.

In Season 3 of Alien Force, he was seen wearing a short sleeved light blue oil stained mechanic's jacket over a white muscular shirt, blue pants, and his black combat shoes. After he went through a second mutation, an unbalanced mixture of various matters, the transformation completely destroyed his clothes, except his briefs. As a result, Kevin had to wear an ID Mask in public to appear human. In his second mutation, he looked like a mixture of solid materials such as stone, wood, Taydenite, and metal.

In Ultimate Alien, he appeared exactly as he did in the first two seasons of Alien Force. During Kevin's time as Ultimate Kevin, his appearance was again an unbalanced mixture of various aliens that were currently accessible to Ben through his Ultimatrix.

In the first season of Omniverse, Kevin wore the same black shirt but the sleeves and collar were roughly cut, the sleeves on his long sleeved grey shirt were slightly torn and he wore blue wholesters. His hair was longer and straighter. His pants had a small tear below the left knee. He also wore a padlock necklace similar to the one he wore when he was 11, but marked with an "11". He also sported black discolored marks around his eyes, making him appear tired; these marks bore similarity to when he was 11 and still absorbing energy.

For the rest of the series, Kevin grows a few chin whiskers and his grey shirt gains stripes. In Weapon XI: Part 2, Kevin gets the same cross-shaped scar to his chin that future Kevin has.

12 year old Kevin in Omniverse looks exactly the same as how he does in the original series, except for the fact that the color of his cargo pants are grey instead of brown and his padlock necklace is marked with an "11".

Personality
Due to his complicated childhood and abilities, as a child, Kevin exhibited sociopathic tendencies, such as attempting to derail a money train, even though it'd kill countless passengers on another train. Kevin had an extremely negative outlook on life because of his countless hardships and struggles, feeling insecure about himself as well as having an incredibly low self-esteem. He had a deep-rooted hatred for other people and society in general. He was paranoid to the point of considering everyone to be his enemy because, as he put it, "Nobody's innocent! They just haven't had the chance to make fun of me yet!".

Kevin's outlook began to change when he met Kwarrel, a fellow prisoner in the Null Void. Becoming somewhat of a mentor and father-figure to him, Kwarrel helped greatly improve Kevin's personality and he decided to become a hero (which explains his initial motive of destroying Ben to save the Earth when he was associated with Amalgam Kids after he was found by the Rooters). In Alien Force, despite Kevin having become a con artist and an arms broker, he was more stable and somewhat mature. As time went on and Kevin was accepted by Ben and Gwen, who were once his most hated enemies, his personality and psyche improved greatly to the point that he became a trustworthy and reliable ally. He once told Ben in that he was grateful to them for changing his life. According to Max, Kevin's current personality is similar to him in his younger years.

While changing for the better, Kevin still sometimes shows a delinquent side, seen when he attempts to sell the Rust Bucket to Vulkanus for alien technology, albeit technology he intended to give to Ben, conspires with Argit to sell weapons to both sides of a warring alien race, and even pawns Princess Looma on Ben to get out of his engagement. Despite this side of Kevin, Ben and especially Gwen still greatly trust him.

Though Kevin can still be cynical, snarky, and insensitive, he is a good person at heart and generally doesn't like innocent people getting hurt. Though he is rarely open about it, he also has a sensitive side, seen when Jarett ate the Tiffin - the scene shocked him so much that he fainted, despite being the "tough guy". He sucker punched Argit, angered and disgusted the latter didn't care or show remorse for Andreas even after his sacrifce. He also shows more common sense. Despite the great prospect of money P'andor was offering if anyone freed him (which Kevin was almost successful), Kevin stops upon realizing he was highly radioactive and pressured that they made sure he wouldn't be released.

Despite having adopted a more positive outlook on life since meeting Kwarrel and making friends with Ben and Gwen, Kevin still suffers some insecurities, which are most evident when he is mutated. The second time he mutated, he was visibly disgusted with himself and fluctuated between bouts of uncontrollable aggression and severe depression that jeopardized his relationships, especially with Gwen. As Ultimate Kevin, he voiced his frustration against Ben for being a famous superhero and him "still" being a freak.

While he cares for innocent people, he is willing to end life, as he voiced to kill any villains that went after his family or the Tennyson's. He also was willing to let Ragnarok die to avenge his father. Kevin even advised Ben to kill Victor Validus in order to kill the Nanochip Queen inside him.

Kevin is extremely protective of his car and becomes very upset whenever it gets damaged, which happens on a fairly regular basis. He also became this to Zed as well.

Abilities
Originally, Kevin's powers were believed to be of an unexplained mutation, then alien heritage but later explained to be of a unique genetic component.

Kevin has the ability to absorb the energy and matter of anything (excluding certain materials[9]) through his body at will and utilize it in various ways. If he's not absorbing excessive amounts of matter or biology directly into his body, he becomes wrapped in a coating that leaves his clothes intact.

Energy Absorption
After absorbing energy, Kevin can channel energy through his hands to manipulate technology, discharge it as energy blasts, or physically enhance his body to speed up cellular regeneration, increase his strength, or recover from injuries at an accelerated rate. However, the energy will dissipate over time or through excessive use, so he is required to recharge.

However, if Kevin absorbs energy, the energy will cause Kevin to become mentally unstable. Storing energy for long periods of time will worsen his instability. This mainly occurs in Osmosians who absorb energy very often but cannot control it due to inexperience and lack of skill. Energy absorption can sometimes easily turn into an addiction.

When Kevin has recently absorbed energy, he develops black marks around his eyes. This is a side effect of absorbing energy.

Power Absorption
Similar to his ability to absorb energy, by absorbing the DNA, metabolism, and life force of other life forms, Kevin can use it as nourishment to sustain his health and strength. Absorbing all of someone's energy will kill them. Kevin can use the energy to acquire the creature's powers and undergoes mutation to accommodate the absorbed abilities.

Despite complete access to any of these absorbed abilities at anytime, they aren't as strong as their pure forms, as noticed by Diamondhead who estimated that they are only about 1/10 their full power, as seen when he was able to catch and crush Kevin 11's crystals with his bare hands while the others shattered upon hitting him. This was proven correct by Aggregor. This is the reason why Aggregor first turned P'andor, Andreas, Bivalvan, Ra'ad and Galapagus into pure energy before he could absorb their powers and abilities so he could attain their full powers and abilities. He also stated that when Osmosians absorb the life force of other beings, the new powers can only be used temporarily unless they were to drain all of that life form's energy.

This ability can also be used to combine the DNA of two beings, which is what Servantis used Kevin for. Kevin was able to absorb some of Servantis' energy that brought out some past memories.[10] Kevin was able to carry the energy around on his hand and used it on Argit and Alan Albright to bring up their past involvement with the Rooters. Kevin then used this energy to his advantage as he was able to permanently lock out Servantis from the Amalgam Kids' minds.

Matter Absorption
Kevin can absorb solid materials, coating himself in the substance which allows him to take on its properties. He will proportionally increase in physical strength and durability to whatever he absorbed.

Kevin is able to absorb multiple materials at once. He also has the ability to apply to other people a coating of whatever material he has absorbed at the time, temporarily.

Depending on the amount of the absorbed material Kevin has available, and how he distributes it, Kevin can either coat his body, or part of it, in the material as a second skin like armor, or completely convert his body, or part of it, into a living version of the material. The amount that Kevin requires depends on the density of the material.

This ability has once been used productively when Kevin was forced to synthesize a coating of Taydenite, thus incapacitating him.

Matter Manipulation
In Alien Force, following his second mutation which causes him to lose the ability to revert to his human form, he gradually begins learning how to use his absorbed matter in various new manners. He is able to use high levels of strength and durability as well as regenerative and shape-shifting abilities. After returning to normal, he retained his newfound powers due to him now having knowledge of being able to do so.

Kevin can repair objects of the current material he has absorbed either by turning it into a liquid form or releasing a liquid version of whatever material he has absorbed. He can partially merge with the actual matter and manipulate the substance's form. Both abilities were used when he repaired the rock ceiling of a mine, fused the seal of P'andor's suit, morphed it around P'andor, and fused the arms together as makeshift handcuffs. He once used the metal he absorbed to create a helmet for Gwen to prevent the Lucubra from controlling her.

Kevin can easily pick locks, using his powers to absorb the material of the lock, then form his finger into a key.

Kevin can also absorb liquids, and when he does he gains the properties of that liquid. If Kevin absorbs mud, objects will pass through him without causing physical damage. He can even absorb bubblegum.[15][16]

Other Skills and Abilities
Even without his absorption powers, Kevin is shown to be stronger than an average human. Even the powerless Kevin was still a fairly proficient fighter and a useful asset to the team. While not to the same extent as aliens like Tetramands, Kevin is capable of lifting/throwing the combined weight of several people with little strain. He is also capable of resisting impacts and blunt force trauma that would severely injure an ordinary person with moderate discomfort.

Kevin has some noticeable skill in martial arts which he gained during his years as a runaway, a prisoner in Incarcecon, an alien tech dealer, and a member of the Plumbers. With his combat skills, he has proven on several occasions to be a highly formidable fighter, having held his own against and defeated opponents such as the Megacruiser robots, Technorg, and even Vilgax in a one-on-one fight.

Despite lacking a proper normal education, Kevin possesses a vast scientific and technological knowledge of alien paraphernalia. In Deep, Ben and Kevin argue that they both cannot use their powers while being in their Plumber suits. So Kevin made some alterations to the suits, equipping them with propelling units and shock pulses that allow them to attack with electric shocks. Kevin also has great analytical and deductive skills, having been able to determine and find out specifically what happened in a battle between Aggregor and the Plumbers several hours after the battle, greatly impressing his friends and even gaining a compliment from Max that he could either be an expert police officer or a wanted criminal. Kevin has good motor skills, being able to race and chase in his car and the Rust Bucket 3.

He is also great at mechanics and engineering. He is shown to repair his car for the numerous damage it took during the course of the series. He also modified his car, setting alien tech for beneficial gears. On top of that he built the DX Mark 10, a car that he reluctantly gave to Ben as his sixteenth birthday present. Kevin is also shown to be very good with animals, even without trying. In Deep, a Blowfish became strongly attached to Kevin. Later, Khyber's dog, despite being well-trained and loyal to Khyber, ultimately chose to join Kevin, even saving Kevin from being crushed.

Trivia

 * Kevin wears Holsters because his voice actor wears them too.
 * In Omniverse, Kevin lives in the same area as Gwen's college rather than Bellwood.
 * The creators of the original series originally intended for Kevin to be a mutant.
 * Kevin is keeping the Taydenite car, but rebuilds his old car and uses the Taydenite only when he needs some money.
 * A running gag is Kevin becoming distraught every time his car gets damaged or destroyed during combat or miscellaneous events. The Rust Bucket 3 has also become a part of this running gag.
 * He watched "Captain Planet" and "The X-Files" when he was young.
 * According to himself, he is usually murder on houseplants.