Heroes is an American science fiction drama television series created by Tim Kring and originally broadcast on NBC. It premiered on September 25, 2006. The show tells the story of several people who "thought they were like everyone else...until they realized they have incredible abilities." These people soon realize they have a role in preventing a catastrophe and saving mankind. The series emulates the style of American comic books in aesthetic as well as storytelling (i.e. short, multi-episode story arcs that build upon a larger, more encompassing arc). Kring said "we have talked about where the show goes up to five seasons."Heroes employs a large ensemble cast with many largely unknown actors. Several famous actors appear in minor and recurring roles.

When the series premiered in the United States, it was the night's most-watched program among adults aged 18-49, attracting 14.3 million viewers overall and receiving the highest rating for any NBC drama premiere in five years. The second season of Heroes will consist of 24 episodes, and the first season of a new spin-off, Heroes: Origins, was to include six episodes. The second season premiered on September 24, 2007 with Heroes: Origins expected to air in April and May of 2008. However, due to a strike by the Writers Guild of America, this project is currently postponed.

In its first season, the show features an ensemble cast of twelve main characters. Although NBC's cast page lists only ten characters, Leonard Roberts (D.L. Hawkins), who first appeared in the series' fifth episode, was an additional member of the original full-time cast. Later Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet) was upgraded from a recurring role to become the twelfth full-time cast member as of "Fallout". The series also features many guest and recurring characters, including friends and family of the main cast, criminals and villains, and other individuals with remarkable powers.

Zachary Quinto and James Kyson Lee, who were recurring cast members in the first season, join the main cast for the second season. They are joined by new cast members David Anders,Kristen Bell, Dana Davis and Dania Ramírez. Santiago Cabrera, Tawny Cypress, and Leonard Roberts are no longer listed as part of the main cast.

* Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), a high school cheerleader formerly of Odessa, Texas, now living in Costa Verde, California, who has a spontaneous regenerative ability. She is Mr. Bennet's adopted daughter, as well as Nathan Petrelli's biological daughter.
* Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman), more commonly referred to as "Mr. Bennet" or "the Man in Horn-Rimmed Glasses (H.R.G.)", initially worked for the Primatech Paper Company, which is actually a cover operation for an organization that investigates people with superhuman abilities. He currently works for a generic "Kinko's" like store in Costa Verde called Copy Kingdom.
* Monica Dawson (Dana Davis) (season 2), a restaurant worker at the Burger Bonanza in New Orleans. She is D.L. Hawkins' niece and Micah's first cousin. Micah compares her ability to replicate any physical motion she witnesses to that of a 'muscle mimic' or 'copy cat' in the 9th Wonders comic.
* Simone Deveaux (Tawny Cypress) (season 1), an art dealer and gallery owner whose skepticism and complicated romantic life are tested.
* Elle (Kristen Bell) (season 2), a young woman in her 20s[20] who is in search of Peter on behalf of The Company. She has the power of electric manipulation.
* D.L. Hawkins (Leonard Roberts) (season 1), a former construction worker and gang leader with the power to alter his physical tangibility and phase through solid objects. He is Niki's husband and Micah's father.
* Maya Herrera (Dania Ramírez) (season 2), from Honduras, is wanted for murder by the police and is on the run to America. Under stress, Maya can create a virus when she cries which is fatal to those around her. Maya's twin brother Alejandro has the ability to neutralize the virus and cure his sister's victims.
* Ando Masahashi (James Kyson Lee) (season 1 recurring, season 2), Hiro Nakamura's friend, coworker, and traveling companion. He is not known to have any superhuman abilities.
* Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera) (season 1), an artist living in New York who can paint future events during precognitive trances. He also writes and draws a comic book called 9th Wonders! which has also been shown to depict the future.
* Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei (David Anders) (season 2), an Englishman who originally creates the role of the legendary warrior Kensei in feudal Japan. Monroe has a spontaneous regenerative ability which has made him effectively ageless, as he survives to the present day.
* Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), a programmer from Tokyo with the ability to manipulate the space-time continuum. He is convinced that he is a hero, and with other "special persons", he can change the future.
* Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), a former Los Angeles police officer with the ability to hear other people's thoughts.Parkman has also showed signs that he has the power of his father "everything the mind controls, you control"(Bob) He is currently an NYPD detective and the guardian of Molly Walker, a child who has the ability to locate others.
* Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar), a former New York Congressional candidate with the ability of self-propelled flight.
* Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), a former hospice nurse with the ability to absorb the powers of others he has been near and recall them.
* Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey), a child prodigy and also a technopath, which allows him to "talk" to electrical devices, giving him control of machines and electronic devices. He is D.L. and Niki's son.
* Niki Sanders (Ali Larter), a former internet stripper from Las Vegas who exhibits superhuman strength and an alternate personality who goes by the name of Jessica, the name of her dead sister.
* Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), a professor of genetics from India who travels to New York to investigate the death of his father, Chandra. Through his investigations, he comes into contact with people his father listed as possessing superhuman abilities. Mohinder's blood contains antibodies against a virus which only infects people with special abilities.
* "Sylar" (Zachary Quinto) (season 1 recurring, season 2), real name Gabriel Gray, a former watchmaker with an intuitive understanding of how things work. He is a serial killer who seeks out superhuman individuals, killing them in order to take their powers. Sylar has multiple acquired abilities. Sylar takes his alias from the brand name of a watch company.

The series begins as a disparate group of people gradually become aware that they have special abilities. Events illustrate their reactions to these powers, and how the discovery affects their personal and professional lives. At the same time, several ordinary individuals are investigating the origins and extent of these abilities. Mohinder Suresh, a geneticist, continues his father's research into the biological source of the change, while Noah Bennet represents a secret organization known only as "The Company".

While coping, each of the characters is drawn - willingly or not - into the Company's conspiracy to control superpowered people, and into a race to stop an explosion from destroying New York City and millions of its inhabitants. Throughout the season, the predatory stalkings of the serial killer Sylar and continued manipulations from casino-owner and mobster Mr. Linderman affect the characters directly and indirectly. The characters' individual stories, Peter Petrelli's abilities, his brother Nathan's campaign for Congress, Claire Bennet's search for her biological parents, Hiro Nakamura's adventurous journeys and the precognitive visions of Isaac Mendez all culminate in a climactic meeting of the characters at Kirby Plaza in New York.

The second season explores the heroes' lives four months after the events of the first season's finale.

The Petrelli brothers are still alive: Nathan has since lost his career and is now an alcoholic, while Peter has amnesia and is found chained to a shipping crate in Ireland. Peter falls in love with a gangster's sister named Caitlin, and has no desire to find out about his past, until Elle, a mysterious blonde with the ability to manipulate electricity, shows up looking for him. Peter, in trying to discover why he is being hunted, inadvertently travels to the future, making a horrifying discovery: in one year, 93% of Earth's population will be dead.

Hiro is in feudal Japan (his story has not skipped ahead four months), where he assists his lifelong hero, Kensei-who is revealed to be an Englishman with the power of spontaneous regeneration-become the man history meant him to be. However, he finds himself conflicted when he falls in love with the swordsmith's daughter, Yaeko, who is supposed to be Kensei's love interest. In a twist of fate, Kensei betrays Hiro, who decides to accomplish Kensei's tasks for him and fulfill history.

The Bennets have moved to California, where Claire struggles with being normal when she knows otherwise. Noah Bennet is working with Mohinder to infiltrate "The Company", looking for a series of eight paintings depicting eight deaths while Mohinder gains the resources to cure the disease that killed his sister, Shanti.

Matt Parkman, now divorced, has adopted a troubled Molly Walker with the help of Mohinder. Matt soon discovers that his father, also a telepath, is the "Nightmare Man" haunting Molly's dreams, and tries to track him down with Nathan Petrelli.

Niki Sanders temporarily leaves her son Micah in the care of her late husband's relatives in New Orleans while she goes to the Company, hoping to overcome her multiple personality disorder with their help. In the meantime, Micah discovers his cousin Monica Dawson has mimicking abilities.

New heroes Maya and Alejandro are introduced, each possessing a power; Maya produces a potent and lethal illness, while Alejandro's power is the antidote. They run from the law towards America, where they hope to find help from the author of the book Activating Evolution, Chandra Suresh, unaware that he is deceased. They pick up Sylar lying on the road (half-dead and powerless), who claims to know Suresh and says he can lead them to him.

Several elements appear repeatedly throughout the series: the helix, the scar, the eclipse, the virus, the cockroach, and Chandra Suresh's book, Activating Evolution. The "helix," as it is referred to by the writers, is a symbol that first appears on the right shoulder blade of Niki Sanders/Jessica in episode Collision, and is seen on the sword hilt in the episode "Godsend." Writer and co-producer Aron Coleite has stated that it literally means "God sending great ability. The symbol frequently appears as a pattern formed by mundane objects, but it also recurs on certain plot-significant items and on several characters.

A mark consisting of two black parallel lines has been shown close to the neck of multiple super-powered characters. The mark is the scar left by the two-pronged needle of a pneumatic injection device, which, as revealed in a biography of Hana Gitelman in the Heroes 360 experience, injects a radioisotope to allow tracking. At the end of Season 1, a virus is revealed that targets those with powers. It is neurological and interferes with the user's powers. The Company has hired Mohinder Suresh to find a cure. Currently the antibodies in his blood are the only cure. Starting with episode 7, the virus becomes the central plot element to the second season. After Peter and Caitlin are taken into the future (2008), they find that 93% of the world's population has been wiped out by the mysterious virus.
Activating Evolution
Activating Evolution

In addition to being the series logo, a solar eclipse has been a recurring image in the series itself. A terrestrial eclipse (an eclipse in which the Earth covers the Sun, as viewed from some observation point away from the Earth) is used in the series' title sequence. A cockroach has appeared and has been mentioned several times in the series. Activating Evolution is a book written by Chandra Suresh. It describes Suresh's discoveries and predictions about the emergence of humans evolved with special abilities.

After completing half of its first season, Heroes had already collected an assortment of honors and accolades.

On December 10, 2006, the American Film Institute named Heroes one of the ten "best television programs of the year."

Three days later on December 13, the Writers Guild of America nominated the program for "best new series" of 2007.

The next day (December 14), the Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated the program for a Golden Globe Award for "best television drama", and nominated Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura) for Best Supporting Actor on a TV Series.

Heroes won the award for Favorite New TV Drama at the 2007 People's Choice Awards.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People nominated Heroes on January 9, 2007 for an Image Award in the "Outstanding Drama Series" category.

On February 21, 2007, it was announced that Heroes was nominated for five Saturn Awards. The nominations included "Best Network Television Series", "Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series" for both Greg Grunberg and Masi Oka, and "Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series" for Hayden Panettiere and Ali Larter. The series won the award for "Best Network Television Series"; as well, Masi Oka and Hayden Panettiere won the awards they were nominated for.

On July 19, 2007, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced their nominations for the 2007 Primetime Emmy awards. Heroes was nominated in eight categories, including Outstanding Drama Series. The first episode, "Genesis", earned six nominations: Outstanding Directing (David Semel), Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series, and Outstanding Stunt Coordination. The episode "Five Years Gone" also received a nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects for a Series. Masi Oka was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. On September 16, 2007, the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards were held and Heroes failed to win a single Emmy award despite the eight nominations.

On July 21, 2007, the Television Critics Association awarded Heroes with the prestigious Outstanding Program of the Year title during their 23rd Annual TCA Awards ceremony.

The cast of Heroes was named in the 2006 Time Magazine's Person of the Year issue under "People Who Mattered".

In Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald lift-out section, "The Guide", listed Heroes as one of the best shows to come in 2007. It was described as a "Modern twist of The Tomorrow People."