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Column:
Letters from the Editor
NBC's Heroes
By Louis Vitela
Published: 2006-11-28
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If you’re a comic book aficionado and haven’t checked
out NBC’s Heroes, it’s worth a look. As of this
writing, Heroes just aired its tenth episode. The show smacks
of a well-done television version of Marvel’s Ultimate universe.
Given the genuinely dark plotlines, the comparison is inevitable. The
bad guys — even those who might only be marginally bad —
have a moral compass that swings only from “crabby” to
“murderous.”
I wasn’t sold on Heroes after the premier episode. Nor was I
sold after the second or third episodes. These first three episodes
were jam-packed with the stories of eight humans with powers, and
creator/writer Tim Kring took on the task of squeezing each separate
story into the forty-odd minutes that make up a prime time episode.*
Despite not being sold, I found myself drawn in by the extremely
compelling characters.
A strong story line really began to emerge in episode four
(“Collision”), and I found myself appreciating the
characters and the writing even more.
One thing I really appreciate about Heroes is that it has
managed to avoid the teen-angst/teen-romance trap that will ultimately
prove to be Smallville’s lethal dose of kryptonite.
Heroes managed this by making all but two of the powered beings
adults, and only one of the those two minors is a teen. Another
aspect that could add to the show’s longevity (and I personally hope
it continues), is that all the heroes play an equally important role
in the story. Given that we’re not sure how these heroes are
developing their powers, any number of people around the world could
be developing them, paving the way to easily add (and remove) powered
characters along the way. Yet another great aspect is that the powers
are not all positive, save-the-world kinds of powers, like the poor
fellow who suddenly found himself saddled with radioactive powers and
unwittingly gave his wife an advanced case of terminal cancer.
I find Heroes’ popularity surprising — with over
14 million viewers, its premier was the most-watched program in the
United States for that evening — especially when it’s so
popular among those who never pick up a comic book. Interestingly, in
an interview posted over at 9thwonders.com (“The official / unofficial
fan site for Heroes”), Mr. Kring notes that he himself is not a
comic book reader. With regards to Heroes he didn't do any sort
of research by reading comics largely because he didn’t want to
be influenced and unintentionally rehash or even steal others’
ideas. More significantly, he stays away from comics because he has a
form of dyslexia that causes him confusion trying to track the order
of the dialogue bubbles. “I get easily frustrated and give up
very quickly whenever I’ve tried to read comics.”
What I like about its popularity, however, is that Heroes
represents on the screen the best of what today’s superhero
comics have to offer, much more than did Superman Returns (which I
did enjoy) or the somewhat lamentable Who Wants to be a
Superhero. One hopes that at least some viewers will discover
that the same compelling, character-driven superhero stories can be
found at the local comic shop.
Heroes can be seen on NBC on Monday evenings, and reruns of
the latest episode can often be found on the Sci-Fi channel on Friday
evenings.
* Tim Kring’s name is on the writing credits for the first two
episodes, but comic veteran Jeph Loeb (who Tim Kring names as a close
friend) wrote episode three, “One Giant Leap.”
—CCdC—
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