Four Months Later... NBC's HEROES

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Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

So the biggest hit of last season returned to the Fall line up, and I was extremely disappointed.

As a serious comic geek there are things about the show that I absolutely love, but then again there are things about the show that I find insulting -- until I realize that 90% of the audience probably didn't read comics (seriously I mean), so they're amazed by the show. And most viewers who are under the age of 25, probably never read a comic.

The things about HEROES as a show is that it's interestingly apolitical, when it really could be -- look at Fox's "24" or HBO's "The Wire" -- shows that tap into the country's zeigeist and exploit one way or another.

In the days of yesteryear, when superheroes were first created they stood for some piece of the American Ideal, the American Dream.

However, in today's age where selfish motivations are the overriding impetus for damn near everything we do, I'm surprised that we don't see a HERO who is doing things for himself, who is essentially a villain because he uses his special gifts for personal gain instead of serving humanity -- and he's not swayed by the so-called voice of reason.

In the new season, we've been introduced to Maya, a Latin American refugee with special gifts, and we already know from the way her story is unfolding she's going to be ending up on the side of "good." This a little ho-hum to me, because she could be like like Hugo Chavez, and have a mindset of a revolutionary, who is looking to use her powers for reasons that don't jibe with the North American halcyon view of things.

That would be cool... will Tim Kring and his people go down that road? Odds are "nah", but we'll see... it would make the show that much more interesting.