The Latest Bit of HEROES Comedy...

By virtue of this being too funny and accurate, we hereby decree that from this day forth, Luke - Sylar's teenage sidekick as of last night's episode of HEROES shall be known as...

Sylad, The Boy Microwave!

Thoughts on HEROES, Season 4, Chapter 2 - Trust and Blood

Last Time: Innocent people with superpowers are being abducted by the United States Government and shipped off to somewhere unpleasant in circumstances which are not at all inspired by any real world events and most of the cast is on a runaway plane...



7:55 - Switch from MSNBC to NBC and President Obama's press-conference is still going on. Will NBC stick with this historic press conference and delay the show? Let's see...

8:01 - And here's the quick catch-up with everyone being tased. It just occurred to me Peter should have shouted "don't taze me, bro!" (I know... I know...)

8:04 - And... plane appears to have made an emergency landing. Broke apart. Some people escaped. Wonder who...

8:05 - Ah, well Hiro is running. Runs into Mohinderance and Matt, who are apparently still buddy buddy. Apparently Matt hasn't heard about what his roommate was up to last season...

8:06 - Bad time to have a vision but luckily Mohinderance and Hiro know what the white eyes mean. And yeah... Matt is, amazingly, smart enough to realize that he isn't going to get a chance to try and mind-control the mob here.

8:07 - Aha! I knew Bennet had something else going on here! "Things are more complicated than you can imagine." Well, if Jeph Loeb had a hand in writing this, that's no small wonder...

8:08 - If you had any doubt the Defense Department was involved - missiles! The solution to all problems!

8:11 - And yes - if only to try and make Nathan seem SOMEWHAT sympathetic after everything else - he chews out the decision to call in an air-strike on a plane full of mostly helpless civilians and we find out that Mr. Marine Grunt Field Commander is a mutant-hating psychopath.

8:12 - Ladies and Gentleman - Peter Petrelli telling someone to quit their whining! I appreciate the irony even as I rejoice in Peter's new attitude.

8:13 - Okay, that bit with the Redneck shirt was priceless! Of course what are the odds that the clothes will actually fit?

8:14 - Hmmm... Daphne and Hiro are still talking. That's convenient but understandable given Hiro WOULD be the type of person to trade Christmas Cards with his ex-Nemesis. If he celebrated Christmas, that is. You all know what I mean...

8:15 - Yeah. Hiro is definitely Lawful Good. But why is Mohinderance wearing Freddy Kruger's sweater?

8:16 - And... yeah. Actual drama. And another big question... how exactly is Matt doing this? I have some ideas, which I will share later...

8:17 - What the.... new characters? Or did we just suddenly switch to some Lifetime movie?

8:18 - "No, I'm going to torture them in front of you." Saw that line coming but... yeah. It's good to have Sylar back as a bad guy.

8:23 - Nice logic there - he must be alive because I'm supposed to kill him! Nice to see someone remembering the future visions for a change.

8:24 - And yeah... Peter AND Tracy both want revenge. I'm liking this team-up.

8:25 - "I'm not going to be your excuse anymore." And yeah - turns out I was mostly right. Bennet still thinks the people with powers need to be controlled but Claire being spared was a condition of his coming to work with Nathan. And he SO played the "I know what you really are" card and threatened to tell Killboy Powerhead Marine that his boss is a filthy mutant.

8:28 - Holy crap that was... an awesome scene! And apparently Nathan is in the hot-seat with somebody over what just happened.

8:29 - Okay. Fun is fun but seriously... we don't care about the Sylar and his daddy subplot right now... especially after we just saw Daphne get shot down and Matt go crazy.

8:30 - Huh. Didn't see THAT coming. Looks like Sylar is going to get close to his new friend.

8:36 - "What are you going to do?" "For now, nothing.... I'll do what I can." Ah... so it looks like Column A is a possibility after all. Because if Nathan is uncomfortable with a bunch of trigger-happy grunts trying to kill Claire, Bennet SURE AS SHIT is not going to take this lying down.

8:38 - You know... I'm honestly not sure who is going to betray who here... is Tracy going to sell Peter out? Is Nathan going to show up with a small army? Is Peter going to see all the sudden but inevitable treachery coming and take out everyone? Okay, maybe not the last one, but that would be cool...

8:40 - "If that's a coincidence, God's improved his sense of humor." Good line. And I think Sylar is looking to take on an apprentice...

8:42 - Should I be the least bit disturbed that I feel more sympathy for the kid at this point than I do the tortured soldier?

8:46 - Heh. That line about letting someone live being a big deal - priceless.

8:48 - "He's not my brother anymore and he's not your boyfriend." Cold, but cool... and accurate.

8:49 - Ah-ha! Double the double crosses. Tracy is about to sell Peter out, Nathan lies about coming alone and Peter was playing everyone playing "the crazy brother" so he could get close to Nathan and get the perfect means of escape. I think Peter just became my favorite character again.

8:50 - And yeah. If looks could kill, Tracy would freeze Nathan in a second. Bennet let Peter go. Nathan thanks him. And Bennet sure looks like he'd like to say "I didn't do that for you, asshole."

8:56 - So Matt, Peter, Ando, Mohinderance and Hiro are forming the X-Men. Sylar is on the way to a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. And Claire is at home... looking bored.

8:58 - The house would be empty without you. Yeah, well except for your younger brother who we haven't seen in about half a season... but why quibble.

8:59 - Hmmm... wonder if that's Peter sending the text? Or maybe even West. Lord knows he'd be up for "fighting the robots".

9:00 - And yeah. Big surprise - Nathan was talking to Angela, asking for help and she just told him to go fudge himself.

9:01 - And Nathan's line there about good people not being able to control themselves... that's definitive Lawful Evil.

9:02 - Whew. Looks like Tracy will live for one more episode at least, based on the preview. That's a relief. One blonde Fridging per episode is enough.



The Final Thoughts: To every Lost fan who has been going on and on all week about HEROES was obviously going to become a Lost rip-off after last week's episode with the plane crash... fudge you. Seriously.

It's back, baby! Yeah!

Random Heroes Theories, Going Into Tonight...

Why did Peter's powers change? Didn't Arthur say that the forumla would restore Peter's abilities after Arthur took them away?


My guess is that Peter's power is the same as it ever was; just more limited.

A quick flashback or two before I explain.

We already know that a person's emotional state can alter their ability to use their powers effectively. Hiro spent the middle-third of Season One powerless after failing to save Charlie because his confidence was shot. Niki couldn't use her own powers because she didn't think she was strong enough to fight Jessica.

Now think back... what's the first thing we see Peter doing when we saw him in A Clear and Present Danger? Failing to save someone's life and then muttering about how he needs to be better. That he needs to be stronger...

Now consider the nature of Peter's power and how it is dependent on his ability to connect with people on an emotional level. Peter went through a LOT of emotional trauma in Season 3, with everything culminating in his having to kill his own father (never mind that Sylar stopped him - Peter still fired the gun and made the attempt), nearly being killed by Nathan and pretty much having his faith in his mother and Nathan being basically good people deep down shot.

What kind of effect would having your entire family turn on you have on a person? It'd mess up your head a little, to put it mildly. Especially if you are someone who, like Peter, puts so much value on your relationships with your family.

So with all of that baggage and his general faith in people in general shattered by the Future he saw where superpowers became readily available to anyone and the world got ripped apart as a result... is it any wonder that Peter has become more insular, more cynical and self-absorbed to the point that - when failing to save someone's life - his big concern is not the loss of the life but his own inadequacy?

So that is why Peter now needs a physical connection to copy a person's power and why he can apparently only connect with one person at a time.


Why is Angela helping Nathan? Didn't he turn traitor on her when he joined forces with Arthur in Season 3?

Yes, but it's not like she's in a position where she can expose Nathan and his plans without exposing her own crimes.

Even if she did care to reveal the reality of super-powers to the world, it would be all too easy for Nathan to dismiss her as being senile and "telling stories", especially given Angela's carefully constructed facade as an eccentric if harmless rich lady with a penchant for shoplifting. And thanks to the events of Season One, there's already a public history of insanity in the family with Peter - the one person who is likely to give a damn about helping Angela - having been publicly painted as a suicidal, barely functional lunatic. With Nathan's apparent status as a media darling, he probably wouldn't even have to pay off a doctor to have Angela placed "under observation".

My guess is that Angela is biding her time, knowing that Nathan has just enough morality left to need encouragement that he is doing the right thing. By sparing his family the tortures he is inflicting on the rest of the the world, he can convince himself that what he is doing is necessary and that he is not evil. This would also partly explain...


Why is Nathan going out of his way to keep Claire from being sent away with the rest of the powered people? As Claire herself points out, Nathan has nothing to threaten her with and he has to know by now that - like Peter - she is too idealistic to be bought off.

Even if we ignore Nathan's need to keep telling himself he's a good person by sparing his family (when possible, of course - he turned on Peter easily enough), there is one other factor to consider: the Batman of the HEROES universe - Noah "Badass" Bennet. Which bring us to ask...


Why is Noah helping Nathan anyway? Noah was trying to destroy The Company because of the threat they represented through the end of Season 2 and only worked for Angela in Season 3 because of the greater threat presented by the Level 5 Escapees... so why is he suddenly hip to tampering with the lives of innocent people?

I can see at least two possibilities.

A. Noah is planning to bring Nathan's group down from the inside - He already tried this, with some success before Mohinderance flaked out on him - in Season 2 with The Company. And now - in a position of some authority - he's in the perfect place to bring together everyone he knows is trustworthy or who has a grudge against Nathan.

B. Noah is trading his expertise for Claire's safety - Even with Noah's change of heart regarding The Company, he's still just afraid of super-powered people enough to think that something like The Company is necessary. Depending on how much he learned about the aftermath of Season 3, I can see him coming to the same conclusion as Nathan - that even the well-intentioned people with superpowers can cause just as much damage as the would-be criminals. He is somewhat conflicted on this though, at least regarding people who he owes his life to - remember the conflicted look after he shocked Peter?

I'm leaning a little more toward it little of column A but mostly column B, simply because it would explain why Nathan would try and keep Claire off the plane. At least, keeping her off THAT plane - the one Noah was flying. Because Nathan knows Bennet well enough to know that the minute Claire is endangered (well, much as she CAN be endangered), all Hell will break loose. And if you don't think Bennet has a copy of Nathan's file and all the blood information to prove that he's a metahuman in his files at home... well, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Fast Thoughts - The Week of 2/4/09

COMIC BOOK COMICS #3: If you only buy one comic with a scene depicting Adam West at an orgy this year, make it this one!

This time we go into the history of The Comics Code Authority, the creation of Mad Magazine, science-fiction pulp's increasing influence on the medium and - in a quick jump into the future - the Pop Art movement of Warhol & Lichtenstein and the hipster's loving mockery of comic culture.

Whew! That's a lot of ground.

As usual, Van Lente and Dunlavey give us a funny and educational read. But more importantly, they give us a balanced look at more well-known events and figures of this history. For instance, at the very start they describe Dr. Fredric Wertham's noteworthy accomplishments as a psychiatrist and the good he did as a progressive activist before raking him over the coals for his biased and unscientific "study" of comic books and juvenile delinquency. Van Lenter and Dunlavey also describe Wertham's complaints which had some merit (negative portrayals of non-Caucasians, unrealistic female body images and excessive BDSM imagery) and the ones (comics teach kids how to commit crimes, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin are obviously gay) which were a little more out there.

We can only hope this same unbiased view remains next month as we go into the heated world of 1960s Marvel and that the book doesn't go into describing how Saint Kirby and Saint Ditko overcame The Devil Stan Lee.


KULL #4: It's barbarian kings fighting snakemen with all the blood, guts and weird horror that you'd expect from a comic book adaptation of a Robert E. Howard story. There's not much else that needs to be said except that if you are the sort of person who enjoys that sort of thing, you'll enjoy this. Good story. Great art. Can we have this as a monthly, please?


RED SONJA #41: This issue is all exposition but it is well-written and sorely needed exposition after Brian Reed's first story arc, in which many people died over an apparently powerful but ill-defined mystic doodad known as "The Blood Legacy".

Apparently The Blood Legacy is a magic gem with a long history of death attached to it that may or may not contain the blood of The Creator God and may or may not have been the first weapon. It also seems to wind up in the hands of red-haired warrior women more often than not and may have been stolen from Cthulhu (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) at one point.

While this grand history may well have been better told at the start of the new series before we had a few dozen people being killed over the thing, I must say that this book is finally starting to build toward an epic scope worthy of the grand tradition of Robert E. Howard and Roy Thomas. And - you know - redheads in scanty armor fighting Cthulhu are always awesome.


SECRET SIX #6: Another issue - another "do not spoil the sudden twist at the end" ending. Of course we all knew that a "sudden but inevitable betrayal" was bound to happen but I honestly didn't see it coming from this character or their being able to take out the rest of the team so easily. Damn good scene there, Simone.

We also get some background for Jeanette, find out that The Mad Hatter (who rather has a grudge after the events of the Secret Six mini-series) is out for the blood of his old teammates and even get a quick history of the new Secret Six, describing the events of Villains United and the Secret Six mini-series from MH's perspective. There's also a revelation about a new uber-powered baddy who is manipulating The Mad Hatter which bodes interesting things for Green Lantern: The Blackest Night... but of that, I will say no more.

This book is one of the best ones on the shelf right now. Pick it up before it goes the way of Manhunter and Birds of Prey.

Thoughts on HEROES, Season 4, Chapter 1 - A Clear and Present Danger.

We're back. And they're back. Let's see where it goes from here.



7:53 - See first commercial for new Season (I skipped the Super Bowl one). Looks interesting, although I wonder how bad things have gotten for Noah to have any interest in saving Mohinderance after... oh... everything that happened in Season 2, let alone what he probably heard Mohinderance did in Season 3.

7:55 - Dammit! The skipping is starting again!

7:56 - Okay. Gone for the moment.

8:00 - Three months later. Nathan is somehow in charge of Homeland Security. Tracy hasn't talked to him in two months. And naked Ali Larter. Good start so far.

8:02 - Okay... agents protected against freezing, thanks to some special Snake-eyes style ninja suit. Tracy is the first one. VERY good start so far. And we cut to commercial after 3 minutes? They're quickening the pace if nothing else.

8:06 - Back in Tokyo. Shades of Ghostbusters - converted Firehouse for a base. And yeah - this is perfect, if predictable. Hiro trying to be a second-hand hero despite his power loss and Ando being rather sick of Hiro trying to turn him into the hero Hiro walways wanted to be, complete with secret base, costume and motorcycle. Ando, still being the smart one who realizes just how useless a lone superhero whose only power is enhancing other people's powers is in a fight. Especially with Hiro as your back-up.

8:08 - New York. And wow - looks like we've got Peter back to his usual self. Paramedic. Saving lives. Wishing he could do more to help save lives and, not surprisingly, missing his powers.

8:09 - Hmm. Claire is still in NY with Angela helping her pick colleges. Naturally Claire is less than thrilled about the idea of a normal life. And of course, genre savvy as she is, Claire knows that Sylar is still out there. Even if they DID find dental records. And The Company is apparently dead, even though Noah is apparently still going out on "business trips".

8:11 - The Fallout 3 theme? And yes, Sylar is still alive. And in Baltimore. Which is only slightly better than dead.

8:12 - Awwwww... it's Sylar's long last real daddy. Or is it?!?!

8:16 - Hey, it's a Matt and a Daphne. Matt is a bodyguard. Daphne is a bike-courier. Matt wants to live a normal life. Daphne is a little reluctant. And Matt is still having visions of Usutu, for some reason.

8:18 - Okay. Any doubts about Nathan going bad are gone. He's getting ready to "take down" his own brother and Matt - probably the only two people he knows with powers who are least likely to be a threat to anyone.

8:20 - Ah-ha! So THIS isn't his real dad either. Called it! But it is his uncle. OR IS HE?!?

8:22 - Just in case the political commentary earlier with Nathan being in charge of Homeland Security and talking about dangerous people being brought under control was too subtle for you... we have an Iranian talking about the dangers of the government trying to control people deemed dangerous.

8:24 - Oh, crap! He's still alive! I mean, I know he was still alive. But it still sucks to see. So why didn't Mohinderance go back to India if he's trying to lay low rather than staying in New York City?

8:26 - You know... that was a very effective little action scene. Even if I'm confused as to why the hell Noah would be helping Mohinderance escape.

8:27 - Ah. Cause he isn't. Again, I'm torn. Because Noah is the epitome of badass. And yet... he's clearly working for the bad guys. More than likely it's just because Nathan agreed to keep Claire out of it, which has always been Noah's priority one. And after everything with Sylar last year, I can see Noah losing patience with all the decent metahumans he knows (i.e. Hiro, Peter, Matt)

8:31 - Peter finds Nathan. This is not going to end well. And now I'm wondering if we're back on track from Season One, with Nathan betraying "his own kind" and being on the road to the Presidency, with Sylar on the way to replacing him.

8:32 - Peter is sounding very bad ass here. And I just realized that his scar is gone. Obviously he's met Claire at least once since Season 3 ended. And Peter, for once, isn't holding The Idiot Ball as he refuses to tell Nathan what powers he has.

8:34 - An illusion? So... not a ghost. And Matt is getting precognition to go with his telepathy? Well, I guess somebody had to even if I'm fuzzy on how.

8:35 - Hiro as Oracle. This feels oddly right.

8:36 - The Ando cycle is a chick-magnet. "It's the car, right? Chicks dig the car." Yes, I'm just as ashamed to make that reference as you are to get it.

8:37 - And... Hiro gets kidnapped. Oh, this is going to cause a scandal if the Japanese government ever finds out about it. American soldiers kidnapping a citizen on foreign soil?

8:40 - Claire and Matt in the drawing? And a drawing of Daphne and Ando? Bit late to realize what that dart was, though.

8:42 - I like this new attitude on Peter.

8:43 - Apparently Peter hasn't seen Matt in the last few months. Either that or they are being subtle about the telepathy, assuming he's reading Nathan's mind here.

8:44 - Yeah. Definitely no telepathy. You'd think Peter would learn about hugging family members he has active disagreements with by now. And is it just me or is Noah looking more than a little bit conflicted on bringing down Peter?

8:45 - Ah. So Sylar's daddy is a Taxidermist. OR IS HE?! (I'll stop doing that soon, really!)

8:46 - Apparently Elle's powers make Sylar immune to tasers. Logical, although I'm a bit lost as to how they've been able to track him.

8:51 - Ando? The password is Ando? I would have guessed Charlie first.

8:52 - And yeah... Claire being tough as ever, pointing out that Nathan has nothing to threaten her with and the "free pass" buys him nothing.

8:53 - Ah! Claire was playing up being drugged. Makes sense because there's no way any sedative should have that much effect on her metabolism.

8:55 - Looks like we have some new faces here... and Peter apparently has to do skin-to-skin contact to absorb a power now. That's interesting and it also makes him a little less powerful, but still a threat.

8:57 - Yeah. Peter has totally gone badass now. And Noah is flying the plane?

8:59 - You know - this is a bit of a false cliffhanger since, you know, we know Peter can fly. Unless he can't store the powers he copies anymore...



The Final Verdict: Ladies and Gentleman... the magic is back. And HEROES is worth watching again for reasons other than to see how much worse it will get.