Heroes
Gods & Empires Monthly (September Issue): Flip to page 50
NBC’s primetime television program Heroes has one of the most convoluted plots in superhero history. Not only is there a seemingly endless number of characters to keep track of, but the lines of good and evil manage to grow so blurry at times that I consider getting my vision checked. Many comics manage to weave a bit of a dark side into their heroes, and it’s not uncommon to feel a pang of compassion for the villain. However, in the world of Heroes, the very fabric of good and evil has become so inextricably knotted into one another that they are virtually inseparable.
For starters, it’s a fact that good people do bad things. Two of the heroes who are undeniably “good guys” have brought about particularly gruesome deaths to countless individuals. During the first season, Niki Sanders was not able to control her own powers of super-human strength. Instead, her alter-ego Jessica would take over and fly into a berserker type frenzy in which she would literally rip apart the bodies of her victims. Of course, these “victims” were typically “bad guys,” but sometimes it was questionable as to whether they were bad enough to deserve being torn in half.
Maya Herrera is another example of a good guy with an overwhelmingly dark element. It’s easy to tell that her heart is pure, but that doesn’t change the fact that for the majority of season two, a panic attack could result in the untimely deaths of everyone in her vicinity (with the exclusion of her twin brother, Alejandro). Maya’s power initially manifests during stressful situations and leads to her eyes turning completely black, which in turn causes her and all those around her to cry black tears. Her victims then collapse and die shortly thereafter. Although Maya learns to reverse the effects of her power with the help of Alejandro and is later able to do this on her own, a sizeable number of innocent people died of her accord.
Next, it is sad yet oh-so-true that too much of a good thing can be very, very bad. Throughout the series, there have been so many instances of the heroes being painfully idealistic and naïve (and doing woefully stupid things as a result) that viewers find themselves chewing straight through their nails and into their fingers. More than a few of our heroes get caught up in a web of manipulation created by the bad guys. The innocent are too often gullible and therefore become mere pawns for sophisticated villains.
Mohinder Suresh, a visionary and idealist in many regards, has a penchant for making some bad decisions. At the beginning of the series, he is pretty quick to catch on to Sylar’s disturbing nature, but in the episode “Five Years Gone” which depicts a world five years after the bomb goes off in New York City, Suresh ends up working for Sylar (who is posing as President Nathan Petrelli). In season two, Suresh ends up juggling back and forth between his allegiances to two very “morally grey” characters: Noah Bennett and Bob from “The Company.” While his intentions are always entirely good, he ends up being used for the ends of those who are more sophisticated (and whose ambitions are certainly less than pure).
Sylar’s manipulation of Maya is perhaps the most difficult to watch, probably because he is the least convincing. She pays no heed to her brother’s pleas that the guy is untrustworthy and more than a little creepy. When he digs up an article on Sylar’s murder of his own mother, she believes the lie that it was an accident and manages to become twisted even further around his finger, bonding through the fact that she has killed many by accident herself. It is not until later, when Molly Walker clues her into the fact that Sylar killed her twin, that she realizes the full gravity of her own ingenuousness.
The most lethal manipulation by a villain occurs when Peter Petrelli and Adam Monroe meet each other as prisoners at “The Company.” Peter is first convinced that Bob and Elle have him locked away so that they can “help” him, but once Adam wins him over to his side the most powerful hero falls into the hands of one of the two most powerful villains. After they escape and Adam’s blood is able to heal Nathan’s injuries, there is nothing in the world that will convince Peter that Adam is anything less than a saint, even though he’s about to kill 93% of the world’s population. His loyal and trustworthy nature made him a shapeless ball of soft clay to be molded by the first villain with some charisma, and there was nothing Victoria Pratt, Hiro, or Matt could do to show him the error of his ways. He also displays the same obsessive single-mindedness in his convictions as his mother does, which is quite dangerous.
Since it is human nature to try to systematically categorize people into terms of black and white, the high number of “morally grey” characters spins more confusion into the plot. Noah Bennet (better known as HRG for “Horn-Rimmed Glasses” by some) is a prime example of the morally questionable character. In season one we learn that he has been abducting various evolved human beings to conduct experiments on them and to track them. He feels no remorse in forcing Eden to persuade Isaac Mendez to pick up heroin again so that he can continue painting prophetic pictures. When Noah, Claire, and the family move to Costa Verde, California and Claire falls for the Superman-inspired West, we discover that West was abducted by none other than HRG as a kid. West’s utter horror at seeing HRG again emphasizes his bad guy status. However, the amount of personal sacrifice that Noah undergoes (taking a bullet on two occasions, allowing his memory to be erased, living constantly on the run) is done solely in the name of protecting his beloved daughter, who he sentimentally names “Clairebear.” For this reason, HRG often seems like a sheep in wolf’s clothing. One final instance that might tip the scales to the dark side is when he tried to kill the young and innocent Molly Walker because she has the powers to locate any living human being, and he would rather kill a little girl than risk his daughter being found.
It’s very easy to find oneself wanting to believe that the core of Angela Petrelli is good. She is, after all, the mother of two of our favorite heroes (Peter and Nathan Petrelli). While she has taken steps to ensure her granddaughter Claire’s safety over the years, it is likely that it was for selfish reasons. She is a master of manipulation and keeps all involved parties as much in the dark as possible (Nathan is kept unaware of his daughter because his campaign could be hurt by illegitimate offspring). She admits to being compelled by Adam’s plan to wipe out most of the human race, yet states that she realized it was wrong just in time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear her change of heart was a whole one, as she was essential to the planning of the explosion in New York. Perhaps she believes that taking out a city is acceptable, but the whole world is just going too far. She is a very good example of someone who lowers their moral standards to do bad things in the name of some perceived greater good. She is also the most elusive and mysterious of all the characters, which makes it impossible to fully understand her at this point. We are at the dawn of the third season, yet viewers are still waiting on the edge of their seats, desperate to know what “Mama Petrelli’s” superpower is. After all this time, it had better be good.
Bob from “The Company” was spearheading the abduction of evolved humans for years and years, so that definitely strikes him off of the good guy list. However, his actions against much more serious bad guys does gain him some merit. Locking away Adam Monroe did the world a lot of good, and so did injecting Sylar with a strain of the virus that would suppress his powers. Still the fact remains that he was insistent on preserving the most lethal form of the virus (strain 138), and would therefore be as responsible for its release as Adam.
Elle, Bob’s daughter, inspires a lot of scorn due to her cold nature and sadistic ways. The way in which she treats other people as mere toys and seems to get off on jolting them with her electricity spells out villain pretty clearly. This perception of her quickly changes once a little light is shed on her past. The fact that she has been living with her power under the surveillance of “The Company” for nearly her entire life reveals that it would have been impossible for her to turn out normal. Elle learns that her father, curious as to how much wattage she could produce, pushed her far beyond her limits at the young age of seven (which probably had a hand in causing her mental instability). When she learns that the reason she can’t remember these incidences is due to the Haitian, she feels hurt and betrayed, and we finally catch a glimpse of true humanity beneath her demented exterior.
So who are the true heroes and villains then? The ever-endearing Hiro Nakamura, whose name already says it all, is the quintessential hero in this series. His intentions are pure and he is constantly striving to do what is for the greater good. When Hiro meets Kensei (later to be known as Adam Monroe, that guy that nearly wipes out the human race), he’s not so much of a bad guy. True, he’s a lazy drunk who only looks after his own interests, but apparently the seed of evil existed within him. Unfortunately, Hiro was the one to germinate that seed when he “betrayed” Adam by showing his love for Yaeko. He may be a “Super-Hiro,” but the fact still stands that he is human. It seems that even though Hiro did the “wrong” thing by acting on his love for Yaeko, it was probably ultimately the right thing to do.
As miraculous, revved-up, and powerful as this series’ characters are, they are all beautifully flawed. Whether they are good, bad, or morally questionable, they demonstrate the gut-wrenching difficulty that comes along with trying to do what one thinks is best, because there’s never one right answer, and there are a whole slew of wrong ones. The only character that is not affected by this dilemma is Sylar, which lends to the feeling that he is not even human at all. The last episode of season two sees a major shift in the situations of our two main villains. Sylar, rendered powerless by the Shanti virus, regains his abilities. Adam, on the other hand, is transported by Hiro to an empty grave where Hiro believes he “can never hurt anyone, ever again.” Still, it is doubtful that Adam will be permanently out of the picture, and if Sylar were the sole focus of yet another season the show would put fans to sleep.
The third season is titled “Villains,” and Tim Kring has stated that we will see an uprising of individuals with awesome powers and less than heroic spirits. While Sylar would be the natural ringleader of a band of no-good mutants, chances are he wouldn’t be able to resist slicing open their skulls and having a peak inside. Still, it’d be interesting if Sylar learned how to place nice with others. Otherwise, it seems the heroes and villains may be forced to follow the old aphorism “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and join together to stop him. Actress Brea Grant will be coming on board as the lightning-fast thief who will become the “Joker” to Hiro’s “Batman.” With an ever-expanding crew of bad guys, this season is sure to be the most exhilarating tournament of good, evil, and everything in between.
