SupermanHawaii.com

by Jason Tayros

As a kid in the 80s, I was a BIG fan of the X-Men. I read the comics for years and fell in love with the large cast of characters and their fascinating powers. Even some 20 years later, when my dreams came true and Hollywood finally managed to pump out some (in my opinion) quality X-Men films, I still wanted more.

I know a lot of X-Men fans wanted more. Especially more of their favorite characters. People called for Gambit. More Jubilee. I called for more Colossus. Some, for Omega Red. And so on. It was this want for more of the X-Men that prompted me to say to MANY of my friends, "They should just do a live-action X-Men T.V. show." That way, they can spend more time with the characters we love. A two-hour movie every couple of years just wasn't enough. I wanted to see characters I care about once a week. Meet new people with different powers every week. See new story arcs over a few episodes at a time as well.

Then Heroes came out on T.V. and broke my heart by beating Fox and the X-Men to it. Before the first episode aired, a friend even said to me, “It looks like X-Men lite”. I laughed at the comment but was still willing to give the show a chance.

Busy with work in the many months that followed, I was not really able to watch Heroes religiously during its original T.V. run. A friend who bought the DVDs and was willing to lend them recently remedied that. For better or for worse, I force-fed myself all 23 episodes in the span of less than a week.

Watching the show from the first few episodes, my small mind naturally compared everything to the X-Men universe and other comic book lore. "Oh, she's like Wolverine. He's like Superman. She's like the Human Torch. Oh, she's kinda like Mystique, but moreso", and so on. Surely, though, I realized early on that, by expecting the Heroes show to fit in an "X-Men" mold, I was cheating myself of being able to appreciate the show on its own merits.

To you reading this article right now: If you have ANY inkling of checking out Heroes, please let me do you a favor by telling you now: The show is definitely worth watching.

It's weird since, at work, many of my co-workers were raving about the show as I was missing it. And, when I, known to be a comic book reader to most, told them I hadn't watched the show yet, they looked at me with surprise. "Of all people, you should watch it. You'll like it!", they said.

They were right.

Why worth watching?

The characters are likeable. All the "good guys" and "good gals". Heck, even the villains, as much as I hate to admit it, display redeemable qualities. Three-dimensional characters fill Heroes. Listing examples would make keeping this article spoiler free rather difficult but I'll try. Claire Bennet, the cheerleader everyone's trying to save, tries to redeem herself of the abandoned pursuit of popularity. She develops a genuine friendship with a boy she hasn't spoken to since grade school. Matt Parkman, the beat cop who can't quite seem to make detective, has to not only deal with his new found powers but also a failing marriage. Micah, a very young boy, struggles to keep his parents together and doing the right thing even though his intelligence and ability to express himself surpass those of some adults. [And those attributes aren't even his "super" power!] Believe me, from the beginning, I was in the ready to simply disregard any one of the characters in Heroes as 2-dimensional, or boring, or a carbon copy rip-off of something I had seen before in the X-Men or elsewhere. Episode after episode, as I watched, I just realized I couldn't do it. The writers of this show really gave some thought into each character. They care about each character, even if the writers want us to ultimately label or see a character as a "bad guy". As a result, the show makes liking the characters that much easier for the viewer.

There's enough action. In every episode, there's always something going on. Sure, I must admit, sometimes the whole dwelling of "Is it my destiny? Is it not my destiny?" or even the follow up question, "Can I change the future or not?" becomes kind of tedious and redundant after a while. As a viewer, I just want to yell at certain characters "Get on with it already!" [In regards to this, Hiro Nakamura, who, don't get me wrong, I like a lot, comes to mind first!] However, the fact that the majority of Heroes' characters even bother to ponder such things as destiny and their long-term purposes in life constitutes the fortunate flip-side to what would have otherwise been superficial people. No, you'd be hard-pressed to find happy-go-lucky characters in this show. In any case, the easily understood motivations of most of the characters constantly moves them forward, driving them to find each other or come in to conflict with each other. The special effects that convey the action when these characters collide impress me considering they are on a T.V. budget. I can only imagine what Season 2 will be like in that respect.

Heroes constantly keeps the viewer guessing. Some of the characters that we would potentially believe to be the villains in the show seem to harbor motivations that aren’t as easily understood as their benevolent counterparts. So, we the viewers have to keep guessing as to why this apparently evil character is doing what they are and hope that the good guys manage to come out on top.

As my friend, Ericson, who owns the DVDs said, “Each episode seems to end with a cliffhanger that just makes you want to watch the next one”. I must heartily agree with him. It makes it that much harder to just go to bed instead of watching just one more episode.

In conclusion, I must confess that, even in later episodes, I wanted to see Professor Charles Xavier wheel his chair into Heroes. I was half expecting to see the people I suspect to be “baddies” in the show to rally around Magneto and plot the end of the world. Alas, in a show where I do not remember even once hearing the word “mutant”, the viewer learns that the line between sides is not yet so easily drawn. We keep learning where each character’s personality comes from. Why they want what they do or don’t want what they don’t. So, maybe, as time goes on and after learning where most of the characters figuratively stand, I COULD fit the X-Men universe and the Heroes universe together as one and the same. The bottom line is: I wouldn’t need to. Heroes can stand on its own. Save the cheerleader, save the world. Indeed. I can’t wait for Season 2 to start!

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