I Need A Hero

Take one cheerleader with the ability to regenerate, a politician who can fly, a Japanese Star Trek geek who can play with the space-time continuum and a nurse who can absorb all of these powers and more; pop it in the DVD player, sit back, relax and watch them come together to save the world.

For those of you who thought superheroes were all about pants outside tights and strong, chiselled jaws think again. Heroes follows a motley crew of very different people – ex-con Nikki Sanders (Ali Larter) with a dangerous split personality, her husband DL Hawkins (Leonard Roberts) who can pass through walls, police officer Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) and his ability to read minds, cheerleader Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) who can heel herself and the drug-addicted artist Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera) who can paint the future to name but a few.

Geeky-but-cute Hiro (Masi Oka) gets the actions going as he travels through time and space from Japan to New York to see the city explode, and he sets about saving the world. Hiro, as it turns out, is also the star of Isaac’s 9th Wonders comic book series – and the comic book theme runs throughout, with oddly placed subtitles like speech bubbles, odd angles and cartoon-style font. Mendez’s ability to paint the future predicts Hiro’s fate and helps him, and the other heroes, along the way.

A painting similar to the scene which Hiro experiences, painted by heroin addict Isaac, is shown to Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), a nurse with the ability to take on the super powers of those who meets, who also goes on his way to help save New York and the world.

The heroes gradually creep out one by one, all bizarrely connected in some way, as they discover their powers and figure out how to use them – with new names, faces and abilities cropping up in each episode, each more wildly imaginative than the last.
Of course, a good superhero story is nothing without the token bad guy, and Heroes does not fail to deliver.