Herbert J. Zomboni, known by the name of Zombozo, is one of Ben's first enemies. He is a cruel and creepy clown mastermind with some similarities to the Joker from Batman. Zombozo was mostly hard to defeat for Ben because he was afraid of clowns. However, Ben managed to conquer this fear and defeat Zombozo.
Despite being a minor villain in the original show, Zombozo played a key role by introducing the Circus Freak Trio, who later became recurring villains in the series.
Appearance
Zombozo looks like a clown with red hair and pale skin. The jumpsuit he wears is striped purple and grey, matching his bow tie. He wears big black shoes, fingerless gloves, and a top hat.
Personality
Zombozo is portrayed as a grim and cruel clown with a dark sense of humor. In his original appearance, this was shown by him enjoying making dark jokes about his enemies and his feeding, even when acting (i.e.: "Laughter truly is the best medicine...for me!"), and cruelly taking pleasure to use Ben's fear of clowns against him. In Ultimate Alien, he displayed much more sadistic and psychopathic behavior, using lethal weapons, trying to make Ben and his family suffer by killing Sandra, slowly and scarily. It was even suggested at the beginning of his comeback that he had buried someone. So far, he's the only known person that Charmcaster fears besides her uncle Hex.
Zombozo rarely attacks alone, always gathering together a crew to do his dirty work for him. Originally, this was his Circus Freak Trio, but later, Zombozo lead a coalition between Vulkanus, Charmcaster and Sevenseven (and eight others who were all warded off by Max before he was injured fending off Sevenseven).
Powers and Abilities
Zombozo is able to teleport in an explosion of smoke and confetti.
Zombozo could terrorize Ben by creating illusions.
In Omniverse, Zombozo can stretch his arms very far.
As shown in Something Zombozo This Way Comes, Zombozo feeds on fear.
Psyclown
In his original appearance, Zombozo was using a machine called the "Psyclown" to give him the ability to drain happiness from people when they're laughing. This left them depleted, weakened and sad. In the most extreme case, it even seemed to age people, as it did with Gwen. The machine was connected to him by a line, giving him the ability to fly.
Toy Airplane
Zombozo using his acid seltzer
In Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction, Zombozo is shown being able to fly by holding on to a flying toy airplane.
Other Equipment
In Ultimate Alien, Zombozo relies on various clown-based gadgets as weapons, including: caltrops, an acid seltzer bottle, steel streamers, an extending arm, an electric joy buzzer, dynamite, and an over-sized mallet.
Weaknesses
Even though he feeds on fear, Zombozo is not immune to being scared himself. This is shown in Last Laugh when Ghostfreak terrorized him and in Something Zombozo This Way Comes when he is scared out of his wits by Toepick's nightmarish face.
History
Ben 10
In his first appearance, Zombozo stages shows to bring people in and then uses a machine, which he calls the "Psyclown," to drain the happiness and life energy from them for him to "eat", leaving them depleted and sad. In the most extreme cases, it even seems to age people. During all this, his the Circus Freak Trio rob the town.
Though not notably powerful amongst Ben's enemies, he proved to be somewhat hard to defeat, as Ben was suffering of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) at the time and so he couldn't fight him properly. Zombozo was eventually defeated when Ben overcame his fear of clowns after seeing the effect of the Psyclown on Max and Gwen, and Ghostfreak terrorized Zombozo by peeling back his skin, causing him to 'explode' in a burst of confetti (he only escaped) (At this point Ben implies that Zs'Skayr may have taken over by saying "Whoa! That kinda even freaked me out."). It is unknown where Zombozo went.
While Zombozo's henchmen reappeared in later episodes, he himself did not in the rest of the episodes in the original series. The three claimed that they have not seen Zombozo since his defeat.
Ultimate Alien
Zombozo in Ultimate Alien
After a long absence, Zombozo eventually returned in Hit 'Em Where They Live. After Ben's identity was revealed to the world, he, as the "ringmaster", organized attacks against Ben's family with the help of several of Ben's old enemies (including Sevenseven, Charmcaster, Vulkanus, and eight unidentified villains) in an attempt to get revenge on Ben. After most of the attacks were stopped by Max, Zombozo formed a team with Charmcaster and Vulkanus. He also appeared to have buried someone or something, due to him coming in with a shovel.
Zombozo kidnapped Sandra and used her as a hostage to bring Ben, Gwen,and Kevin to his hideout. He then separated them to let Charmcaster and Vulkanus take them down one on one. His plan eventually backfired when he tried to murder Sandra in a slow and cruel way, as it caused Gwen to get really angry and transform into her Anodite form, growing to a gigantic size and shouting at him to leave the Tennyson family and Kevin's family alone and to spread the word to all of the other villains.
According to Dwayne, Gwen let Zombozo go to warn the other villains of her warning message. It is unknown what happened to him after this.
Omniverse
Zombozo returns in The More Things Change: Part 1. He now looks more zombie-like, having mottled-looking skin, and only one visible eye, like Zs'Skayr. He has flies buzzing around him, and even a tear in his suit revealing ribs.
He stole a brain from Bellwood's "Brain Bank," and was pursued by Ben, Kevin, and Gwen, until they managed to trap him in a building. Lodestar quickly retrieved the container holding the brain from him - "I'm losing my mind!" He was quickly beaten and tied up for the authorities. After Gwen and Kevin left, Zombozo taunts Ben for not being able to accomplish such feats on his own. He is then struck on the head and left to be picked up.
In Special Delivery, he is one of the patrons at Psyphon's Undertown auction. Once Psyphon blabs that the Dwarf Star is missing, Zombozo teams up with Fistrick and Trumbipulor to get it. However, he is beaten along with his allies by Armodrillo. Psyphon calls him back along with the other factions who wanted the prize, to team up on Ben for the star in exchange for buying it from him, but was defeated again by Humungousaur.
In Something Zombozo This Way Comes, it's reveal that he somehow escaped Plumber Headquarters, locked up Jerry and put a costume of himself over Jerry to avoid being noticed about his escape. He brings back the Circus Freak Trio to feed on people's fear and turn them into zombie clowns. Ben's revived fear of clowns allowed Zombozo to return to full power, making Zombozo's body inflate. However, his fear of Toepick got the best of him and destroyed the machine containing everyone's fear. Zombozo escaped through a cannon to avoid being caught by the Plumbers.
Video Games
In Cosmic Destruction
Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction
Zombozo appears in Cosmic Destruction in Tokyo. He does not say why he is there, nor does Ben ask why.
However, Ben does tell him to give him Cooper's location, which Zombozo denies. He then attempts to kill Ben twice, though both attempts fail pathetically, it forces Ben to defeat Zombozo as Ultimate Spidermonkey. After defeat, Zombozo laughs insanely, which only results in Ultimate Spidermonkey throwing him into a web he made. Ben then says, "Am I good? Or am I good?"
Appearances
Ben 10
- Last Laugh (first appearance)
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
- Hit 'Em Where They Live (first re-appearance)
Ben 10: Omniverse
- The More Things Change: Part 1 (first re-appearance)
- Special Delivery
- Something Zombozo This Way Comes
Video Games
Etymology
Zombozo's name is an amalgam on the words Zombie and Bozo, who is a famous clown played by many actors.
Trivia
- Zombozo was voiced by John Kassir in the original series, and by John DiMaggio in Ultimate Alien. They both voiced The Joker at one point.
- Interestingly, both of them voiced Joker after they voiced Zombozo.
- According to Derrick J. Wyatt, Zombozo's escape rocket from the end of Something Zombozo This Way Comes was supposed to crash on Anur Transyl, but they dropped that storyline.
- Ben supposedly didn't remember fighting Zombozo in the original series; according to Dwayne, Ben pretended he didn't remember because he didn't want to admit to Kevin he used to be afraid of clowns.
- So far, every episode that Zombozo is the main villain ends with him being scared off by one of the main characters in an alien form.
- In Ultimate Alien, Zombozo's weapons, gadgets, and laugh resemble those used by Batman's archenemy, The Joker (electric joy buzzer and giant mallet are Joker mainstays) while his attempts to terrorize Ben into submission in the original series are closer to another famed Batman villain, Scarecrow.
- In Ultimate Alien, it seems Gwen holds a grudge against Zombozo due to the fact that he almost sucked her dry of happiness.
- Zombozo has appeared in multiple Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary commercials. In one of them, he walks in on a party between Batman, Ben, the Powerpuff Girls, and Generator Rex, which leads to their laughter to come to a halt. Aware of the reason behind their laughter, he distracts them by saying someone's in need of help in the distance, then steals some of the gifts at the party and runs off.
- In Special Delivery, Zombozo says that he used to work in a school lunchroom.