HEROES

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Character Season Played By Ability
Claire Bennet
1-4
Hayden Panettiere Rapid Cellular Regeneration
Noah Bennet 1-4 Jack Coleman None
Elle Bishop 2-3 Kristen Bell Electric Manipulation
Emma Coolidge 4 Deanne Bray Enhanced synesthesia
Ando Masahashi 1-4 James Kyson Lee power amplification and energy projection
Isaac Mendez 1 Santiago Cabrera Precognition (expressed through visual art)
Adam Monroe 2-3 David Anders Rapid Cellular Regeneration
Hiro Nakamura 1-4 Masi Oka Space and Time Manipulation
Matt Parkman 1-4 Greg Grunberg Telepathy; Mind Control
Angela Petrelli 1-4 Cristine Rose Precognition
Nathan Petrelli 1-4 Adrian Pasdar Flight
Peter Petrelli 1-4 Milo Ventimiglia Empathy
Micah Sanders 1-3 Noah Gray-Cabey Technopathy
Niki Sanders 1-2 Ali Larter Enhanced Strength
Tracy Strauss 3-4 Ali Larter Freezing; Water Manipulation
Samuel Sullivan 4 Robert Knepper
Terrakinesis
Mohinder Suresh 1-4 Sendhil Ramamurthy Enhanced Strength/Agility
Sylar 1-4 Zachary Quinto Intuitive aptitude

 

Claire Bennet- She is a high school cheerleader-turned-agent with the ability of to heal from any wound. Claire discovered her power when she was 15 in the first season. Frightened as to why she has this power, she and a high-school classmate videotape Claire testing her regenerative power by attempting to injure and even kill herself. Her story line consists of her dealing with her power while trying to live a normal life. In the third season, she convinces herself she wants to be an "agent" and learns several fighting skills. She is unsuccessful, however, and later decides to revitalize her goal to live a normal life. In this current season she struggles to stay in college after a fellow posthuman murders her roommate and a strange man (Samuel) offers her a life without hiding her ability.

Character List

Watch Claire heal! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ9MwXPSO0Y&feature=related

Noah Bennet- also known as the man in Horn-Rimmed Glasses (aka HRG) appears as businessman who works for a paper company in Odessa, Texas. However, he and his associates have actually traveled the world for years tracking and sometimes imprisoning posthumans. He deeply cares for his family and will do anything to protect them, his loyalty to his job and family knows no boundaries, and he always puts them above all else. However, he, later tries to bring the company down in order to protect his adopted daughter, Claire after they try to bring her in for study. He is also Angela Petrelli's "go-to man" when a job needs to be done because he is known to be comfortable in the "morally gray" department. Most of his storyline consists of protecting his family and trying to lead a normal life for them.

Character List

 

Elle Bishop- Elle is introduced in season two as an agent of the Company. She possesses the power to generate and manipulate electricity. Elle is portrayed as mentally unstable, which is attributed to extensive "testing" headed by her father to research her abilities when she was as young as seven years old. Her main goal in life is to please her father, of who shows her no respect. After her father is killed, she begins a love interest with Sylar, and they team up to round people with abilities. However, Sylar returns to his old ways of murdering those with abilities and kills her for her power in the third season. 

Character List

Watch Elle's Lightning! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huXGGDbS1Kg

Emma Coolidge- a deaf woman working in the same hospital as Peter, she is trained as a physician, but prefers to work in the filing room instead of treating them. She discovers that she can perceive sound as colors, with the louder the sound, the more intense colors she is able to see. Her ability manifests in the fourth season, and Peter helps her accept her ability instead of rejecting it. She feels guilty about her nephew's death because she was unable to hear his cries for help when he begins to struggle while swimming and eventually drowns. This event causes enough pain that it triggers Emma's ability to evolve into a sound blast instead of just seeing the sound. She is able to forgive herself, however, after saving a little girl in the hosptial hallway that is left unattended and causes her to rethink practicing medicine

Character List

Watch Emma's power! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs7dERQuVxE&feature=related

 

Ando Masahashi- Ando is a partner to his co-worker and friend Hiro Nakamura on various quests to save the world. He has many insecurities due to his lack of ability and being seen as Hiro's sidekick. At the end of the third volume, "Villains", he injects himself with the power-inducing formula and aquires the ability to amplify any posthuman's power he touches. Later in the fourth volume, learns to channel this energy into blasts, projecting the energy outward to knock back any targets.

Character List

Watch Ando blast his enemies! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHXavPB8064&NR=1

Isaac Mendez- is a struggling artist living in New York City. Mendez is addicted to heroin, and has had little success quitting permanently. Isaac realizes he can see future events and paint them, but only when high on heroin. He first believes the paintings to be "evil" and tries to destroy them, but his art dealer sees them as impressive and refuses him to allow it. At one point, Issac overdoses and his girlfriend calls Peter Petrelli because he is a nurse. Peter then realizes that Isaac has painted a picture of him without having previously met him and with Peter's help, Isaac survives the overdose. He then paints the basic theme of the rest of the season. "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" and his paintings serve as an outline for the rest of the first season and most of the second, even though Sylar kills him for his ability in the middle of the first season.

Character List

Watch Isaac predict the future! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRqtwhN54ZY&feature=related

Adam Monroe- The character first appears in the second season episode "Four Months Later...", although the legend of Kensei is referenced several times during the first season. He is a British imperialist from the 1600s who Hiro later finds to be the legendary Takezo Kensei. Hiro befriends him and trains him to be the great warrior in Japanese legends, but Hiro betrays his trust by having an affair with his true love and he becomes evil. His healing ability has halted his aging, making him hundreds of years old in the present of the series. He is the primary antagonist during the second season, trying to unleash a deadly virus that would destroy 90% of the world population.

Character List

Watch Adam heal! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX_JsvePPYM

Hiro Nakamura- an office worker at Yamagato Industries, living in Tokyo, Japan who one day discovers he has the power to manipulate time and space. Hiro is fan of superheroes and science fiction. He is the one character that aspires to the pure heroism of comic book crime fighters; he swears to a responsibility to use his powers for good. His best friend and usually sidekick is Ando Masahashi, who is always skeptical of Hiro's abilities. Every season Hiro has a new "quest" and uses his heroic attitude to complete it at all costs.

Character List

Watch Hiro control time and space! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0J7q0iGeZw&feature=related

Matt Parkman- Matt is a police officer, who works for the LAPD and NYPD in seasons one and two. He is a telepath; his ability allows him to read minds, and eventually learns to control them. He eventually learns that he has a son with an ability to produce power in anything he touches. He eventually gives Hiro his power back after losing it in season 3. Matt also uses his power to push the serial killer, Sylar's, mind out of his body and made him believe he was Nathan Petrelli. This results in Sylar being stuck in Matt's head and creates the story line for Matt in season 4.

Character List

See Matt read minds! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0V21qUQMnE&feature=related

Angela Petrelli- She is the mother of Nathan and Peter Petrelli. She wishes to make her son (Nathan) President or a leader at any cost. She has the ability to see into the future and the past through dreams, and can also enter and manipulate other people's dreams. This wasn't revealed until the show's third season premiere. She uses her ability to manipulate the people around her and fulfill her hidden agenda

Character List

 

Nathan Petrelli- He is a New York lawyer-turned-senator with the power of flight. Nathan, ambitious and pragmatic, has a villain type streak in most seasons, which worsens his complex relationship with his brother, Peter. During the third volume, he finally accepts his ability and tries to fight the villains, but later turns around in the fourth volume (third season) and he leads a government campaign on rounding up posthumans. Sylar eventually kills Nathan, and Matt Parkman infuses Nathan's mind into Sylar's body during the season finale. The struggle between Nathan and Sylar is most of the storyline for those two characters.

Character List

 

Peter Petrelli- He is a hospice nurse-turned-paramedic in his mid-20s with the power to absorb and mimic the powers of other people with special abilities, or powers. Empathetic and compassionate, Peter was initially defined by his complex relationship with his older brother, Nathan. He is seen as "the most powerful of all" and is often used for his abilities by villains such as Adam Monroe and his mother. His geniuine love for others results in him using his abilities to help people and stop the villains, much like Hiro.This current season he is investigating Sylar's "death" and discovers Nathan is actually dead with his mind in Sylar's body.

Character List

Watch Peter use his abilities! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y_ZVQ0iDm4&feature=related

Micah Sanders- He is the son of Niki Sanders and D.L. Hawkins. He is a child prodigy and a technopath. During the first season, he is kidnapped and used to rig the senate race and make Nathan Petrelli win by a landslide. He then becomes a hero to those hunted in volume four. Known as "Rebel", he uses technology to help other posthumans escape pursuit.

Character List

 

Niki Sanders- the wife of D. L. Hawkins and mother of Micah Sanders. Niki, a victim of Dissociative Personality Disorder, displays superhuman strength. Initially, she is able to access this power only when her alter ego "Jessica" is in control. She eventually gains control of herself and most of storyline consists of fighting her psychological disorder and protecting her son, Micah. She is killed in a fire in the season 2 finale.

Character List

Watch Niki struggle with her power http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsi4ijIfMvg&feature=related

Tracy Strauss- She has the ability to freeze anything that she touches. As the series progresses, her ability evolved to include water mimicry. Introduced in the third season, she is an adviser to the governor of New York who recruits Nathan Petrelli as a senator. She is the triplet sister of Niki Sanders and Barbara, all three having been injected with a power inducing formula and seperated at birth by the Company. That makes her the biological aunt of Micah Sanders. She returns to her job with the governor and later decides she cannot live her old life with her ability and goes on to live at Sullivan's Carnival in the fourth season.

Character List

See Tracy freeze! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQ8qll75nA&feature=related

Samuel Sullivan- has the ability to control earth and other minerals with his mind. The mysterious leader of a carnival ring, "Sullivan Bros. Carnival", he is introduced in "Orientation" while eulogizing his deceased brother, Joseph. He continues to recruit posthumans to join his "family" (the carnival) because it is later revealed that the more posthumans surround him, the powerful his ability becomes. He is the main villain of the fifth volume, Redemption.

Character List

 

Mohinder Suresh- is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and is a genetics professor at the University of Madras who holds a PhD in parapsychology. He is attempting to find the truth behind the sudden death of his father, Chandra Suresh, and to continue his father's research finding the posthumans on Earth. Suresh also provides many episodes with opening and/or closing dialogue, mostly philosophical inquiries regarding events that take place during the episode. He usually serves as the moral compass of the cast, however changes to a villain type character in the third season when he injects himself with a formula that gives him abilities. When he realizes his wrong doings, he isolates himself and isn't seen for most of this current season. However, it is later revealed he discovered Samuel's plan to enhance his power and he is murdered because of it. Hiro goes back in time and saves Mohinder to bring him back to the present and help stop Samuel.

Character List

 

Sylar- is a superpowered serial killer who targets other posthumans in order to steal their powers. He was primary villain of the first two seasons, and had begun the road to reconcilation in "Villains" before returning to his evil ways. He is always after people with abilities, however now he is trapped in the mind of Matt Parkman after murdering Nathan Petrelli in the season three finale. He has now escaped Matt Parkman's mind and is battling for his body with Nathan Petrelli.

Character List

Watch Sylar! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cKvLHgkz98&feature=related

 

Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Heroes

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Created by Chris Jennings for HONR 101 "Speculative Visions" with Professor Arthur Evans at DePauw University

For questions or comments, Email Chris Jennings

Last Updated: 12/3/2009