Flag is the 20th Ben 10: Ultimate Alien comic published in the Cartoon Network Action Pack series, published by DC and Cartoon Network. This comic appears in issue 64 of the series.
Plot
Hurdling in space and looking for a place to crash, a miniature flying saucer spouting flames eyes a blue planet in sight, Earth! Having been detected beforehand, the trio of Ben, Gwen, and Kevin await the space-ship's arrival.
Ben, in the form of Jetray, reaches the landing site where they crashed, hoping to himself and the others that these aliens are friendly (unlike their last encounter). Despite Ben's hope, two pint-sized aliens, Quist (the captain) and Quint (the pilot) jump out, claiming the Earth (or "Blue Planet" as they call it) as their own, planting a flag to validate their claim.
Hoping to talk it out, the trio are frightened to see the small aliens (of the Xarsi species) shoot a warning shot, exploding a nearby rock structure. Mr. Quist demands tribute to be given to their new leaders in the form of precious metals. He tells of how the two previously claimed "Planet Luxan" and were given the precious glittering alloys of the world as tribute.
As this story is being recounted, the metals in the storage of the ship start to evaporate and slowly form the being of "Amalgam". Noticing this, Quist and Quint both shoot at the monster, who is unbothered by the bolts. In response to Amalgam's desire to destroy all in his path, Ben, Gwen, and Kevin all enter the fray. After trying to hurt him as Heatblast, Ben makes the connection that heat is strengthening him, and transforms into Ultimate Big Chill. Expecting heat from his frost demeanour, Amalgam is met with one of his weaknesses, ice! To which Kevin quickly adds another weakness, being smashed into tiny chunks.
Though disappointed about the lack of materials left after the fight, the two small aliens bless Ben with the gift of being ruler of Earth. Happy to take the position to end any conflict the two may cause, the trio accept, happily handing the would-be invaders back their flag.
Major Events
Character Debuts
- Mr. Quist
- Pilot Quint
- Amalgam
- Luxans (mentioned)
Characters
Main Characters
Antagonists
- Mr. Quist (first appearance)
- Pilot Quint (first appearance)
- Amalgam (first appearance; death)
Other characters
- Luxans (first appearance; mentioned)
Aliens Used
Errors
- On the first page, the speech bubble beginning with "That's all very well Mr. Quist" seems to be attributed to Mr. Quist himself, with the speech bubble's tail pointing to him, despite it not making sense in context that way round.
- When Ben transforms back from Jetray, his jacket hem is white.
- When Ben bends over to speak to Mr. Quist, the Ultimatrix is colored silver.
- When Mr. Quist shoots a rock with his pistol, the Ultimatrix is fully red instead of only being illuminated by the blast.
- Heatblast appears with his Original Series appearance, as opposed to the way he looks during Ultimate Alien, down to the Omnitrix emblem being white and grey for two panels.
- Big Chill has greenish teeth.
- The phrase "our flag" is misprinted as "ourflag", and later "one last thing" is also misprinted as "one lastthing" without proper spacing between the words.
Trivia
- The flying saucer featured in this comic is designated as "Z tech".
- In this comic, Ben is given ownership of the Earth, albeit not legally binding. This would happen yet again in the episode Collect This, where he gets traded Earth for an old T-Shirt.
- The name of "Blue Planet" given to the Earth, is a repeated science fiction trope, with multiple books, and a role-playing game taking the name. It is also in reference to Mars, the "Red Planet".
- Despite being more (alien-) tech savvy, Kevin is the one to talk in layman's speech when referring to the Z tech spaceship.
