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Well, that was MUCH better than I was anticipating.
Heroes Reborn may not have the panache of Heroes’ debut series, but it’s certainly a step up on the dismal third season. Will Heroes Reborn go down as a classic? No, probably not. But from these opening two episodes, I think the Heroes franchise may be able to bow out on a high.
Except … the opening scenes showed that this is ‘Volume One: Awakening’. This suggests that Tim Kring is hopeful a second season will be commissioned – which I sincerely doubt will happen.
Last year, when Heroes Reborn was announced, I wrote about the fundamental thing that this miniseries needed, and that was a concrete ending to the franchise. Viewing figures dropped to little more than 4 million in season 4, and I doubt Heroes Reborn will amass many more. We need a definitive ending, but at this moment I don’t think we’re going to get one. Damn you, Kring!
Heroes Reborn picks up five years after the shocking end of season 4, and one year after an explosion wiped out Odessa, Texas. Opening ‘Brave New World’, fans glimpse humanity and Evos living in harmony, before this tranquility is blasted to smithereens in mere moments.
It’s heartbreaking but inevitable – we don’t want to see everybody happy. We want the fighting, we want the anguish, we want the intrigue, we want the good vs. bad. That’s what made season one so captivating.
We’re introduced to several new characters, most of whom seem engaging enough. Luke and Joanne Collins (Zachary Levi and Joanne Collins) make a distinct impression, though for sparring reasons. They’re a pair of vigilantes who lost their son in the Odessa bombing, but Luke doesn’t appear to agree wholeheartedly with their hunting and killing of Evos. He’s the one fans will root for, because Joanne is grating instantly. I hope we’ll see some emotion from her in future instalments.
We also meet Quentin Frady, a conspiracy theorist who teams up with Noah Bennett (more on him in a moment). He is perhaps the only character I don’t like yet. Henry Zebrowski plays the role with much annoyance, which is probably intentional. I have my reservations about whether I’ll grow to like him or not.
Next up is Ryan Guzman as Carlos Gutierrez, a seemingly ordinary former soldier who takes up the mantle of El Salvadore when his brother is killed. El Salvadore is helping Evos to hide, hidden behind a wrestling mask. Whilst Carlos seems powerless, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see one manifest. After all, powers seem to be hereditary (just look at the Petrelli family), and his nephew has the ability of phasing.
But the two most interesting new characters come in the form of Robbie A. Kay’s Tommy Clarke, and Kiki Sukezane’s Miko Otomo. The former takes on Claire’s role of the hiding teenager, but he has a unique power in that he can teleport anybody or anything anywhere. And from the trailer at the end of the episode, it looks as though he’ll be able to wield that power himself before long.
The latter takes on Hiro’s role as the Japanese sword-wielder, with an even more unique power. She has the ability to enter a video game-esque world in which her father has been kidnapped. I’m very excited to see where these two characters go.
Though, at the moment, I’m finding it hard to figure out how everyone will be connected. But then, it did take a while for everyone to come together in season one.
Now onto the returnees. We only see a sparse few, and even fewer if you disregard the vocal cameos of Claire Bennett and Mohinder Suresh.
In this new world Claire is dead. Does anyone else think that she actually ISN’T dead, and that she’ll pop up somewhere down the line? Wishful thinking, perhaps, but the signs are hinting that she isn’t dead. All information about her has been wiped, just like the information pertaining to Molly Walker, and we now know that she’s still alive.
Mohinder, meanwhile, has publicly owned up to the terrorist attack, which basically means that Mohinder is innocent. He doesn’t have a destructive power like that anyway.
But we also see Noah Bennett, The Haitian, and Molly Walker pop up, and some returns are more rewarding than others.
Heroes wouldn’t be Heroes without Noah, so thankfully he is onboard. Here he has spaces in his memory, and has shacked up with a new woman. It’s revealed that he and Claire fell out when she outed herself at the end of season four, so presumably Sandra sided with Claire. But why is he forgetful, I hear you ask?
Well, because The Haitian wiped his memory, of course! I was so excited to see Jimmy Jean-Louis back, but I was floored when he died mere moments later. What the hell was the point in bringing him back?! It gave the first episode some raw emotion, yes, but if Kring decides to off any more old characters I’ll be very unhappy. The Haitian is one of Heroes‘ best creations.
The second episode, ‘Odessa’, revolves around the hunt for Molly Walker, and the reveal that Primatech is still up and running, deep in the bowels of the ruinous Odessa, Texas. Quite how, we do not know, and nor do we know why. But this mystery is what will drive Heroes Reborn forward, most likely.
There’s also a plan involving Molly – one which I can’t quite fathom at this moment in time. I hope we get to find out how Molly got to where she is now, because she’s very different from when we last saw her in season three.
The only thing seemingly lacking in Heroes Reborn is a big bad. We need a villain. Though, given that a blackhole is poised to open up and swallow the Earth whole, and that the trailer hints that the end of humanity and the rise of a utopian ideal is coming, perhaps the villain itself will be humanity. Either way, I’m sticking around for the outcome.
I never thought I’d say it again, but I am once more excited by Heroes.
