Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Heroes. But whose?

The storyline of Tim Kring’s Heroes has a strangely similar plot to X-Men’s chapter of “Days of Future Past” (Uncanny X-Men issues #141 & #142 published in 1981 by Chris Claremont & John Byrne) which deals with a dystopian alternate future in which mutants are scourged. The storyline alternates between the present day, in which the X-Men fought Mystique's new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and a future timeline caused by the X-Men's failure to prevent them from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly, in which robot Sentinels ruled the United States and mutants were incarcerated in concentration camps. Save the Senator, Save the World? Hmm.


It is also clearly apparent that Tim is an ardent comic fan and the influences of comic book characters (from Marvel, DC to Independents) are evident in his made-for-TV-characters of different names and of feebly composed backgrounds. Mesh up a plot borrowed from tried and tested comic legend, pen in characters with unoriginally inspired powers, buy a ticket to Hollywood (cattle class), put together a shoestring budget, sign on B-grade talent (who have, in their defence, done pretty well), and you instantly get a shot at the red carpet.

Here's what I mean;

Claire Bennet = Wolverine, or Deadpool

Hiro Nakamura = Nightcrawler, or Kiden Nixon (Nyx), or Dr Manhattan (Watchmen)

Nathan Petrelli = Warren Worthington III @ Archangel

Peter Petrelli = Synch, or Mimic, or Rogue

Niki Sanders = Bruce Banner @ The Hulk

Micah Sanders = Forge


Matt Parker = Professor X
DL Hawkins = Shadowcat @ Kitty Pryde, or Silver Surfer

Claude Rains = Sue Storm @ Invisible Woman

Sylar = Mr Sinister, or Magneto

Theodore Sprague = Pyro, or Johnny Storm @ Human Torch

Eden McCain = Mesmero, or Emma Frost

The Haitian = Dorian Leach

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, just came across your entry about the show Heroes. I feel the same towards the show. I really like X-Men or whatever movies that show human with extraordinarily fantastic power, so I was very excited about Heroes. But when I started watching it, my liking for it just began to dwindle. I can overlook the unoriginality, but the style of the whole show's just lousy. It seems like they're trying too hard to make the show cool, with the background music, camera zooming in out out all over the place. These are SUPPOSED to make the show cool...but they didn't for Heroes.

And I haven't even begin with the glaring plot flaws.

eldiablo said...

yea i hear you.. gimme stan lee's "who want's to be a superhero?" anyday!!

lame finale.

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