Thursday, May 03, 2007

Mini "Heroes" roundup

Mild spoilers of NBC's "Heroes" follow. Don't say you haven't been warned.

After watching the latest episode of "Heroes" on Monday, and catching up on all the online graphic novels that fill in the gaps between episodes, I really can't wait to see how season one, (Volume 1) of the series will end.

The early tagline for the show was "Save the Cheerleader, Save the world." Even though I was enjoying the show, I thought this oft-repeated phrase was a little silly. After the events of "Five Years Gone," the full meaning of the phrase became clear, and what started as a pithy catchphrase became a grave and earnest plea.

The plot has taken a standard superhero direction, showing a future where people with their "genetic condition" (a PC way of saying "those super-powered freaks that might be dangerous"), are rounded up, watched and feared. This follows the "Keene Act" from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons "Watchmen," the "Mutant Registration Act" from the Marvel universe. It also echoes every "final solution" that dictators and demagogues have enacted throughout history. This is the sort of thing people in power do when they fear loosing that power. Order 66 anyone?

We also got to see a second, more intense showdown between the empathic Peter Petrelli and his foil, the brain stealing Sylar. Both have acquired countless powers from other heroes, including cellular regeneration, so no clear victor could be foreseen. They are likely to remain locked in their fire-and-ice battle until the world fell around them, which reminds me of the end of the Original Trek episode "The Alternative Factor"

In the end it's up to everyone's favourite hero, Hiro Nakamura, to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap...will be the leap home.

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