Hello there, friends. For your geeky enjoyment, I am pleased to bring the second edition of Media Maven’s summary of the Heroes Online Graphic Novels. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, I refer you to my earlier post on this subject, which explains what the novels are and offers a summary of novels 1-20.
For those of you who have already read that post or are already caught up on the novels on your own and are missing a few steps here and there, this is where we begin. As with my previous post, I’ve broken down each novel into one of three categories to give you as little legwork to do as possible. So please enjoy the the summaries, let me know what sort of crazy theories pop into your head after readings these or any other comments you might have.
And again, Note- If you don’t already watch Heroes, this is probably a waste of your time. Unless you’re super nerdy, like me.
1) Additional Character Info – 21, 23, 24, 29, 32
2) Character Back Story – 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 35, 36, 37, 38
3) Cool Narrative Info You Otherwise Wouldn’t Have – 28, 30, 31, 33, 34
Novel #21 – “The Path of the Righteous” — Hana Gittelman, a.k.a. Wireless, attempts to track down HRG’s bosses, in hopes of bringing down The Company. Her search brings her to Las Vegas, where she momentarily abandons her mission to break up a kiddie porn ring.
Easter Egg: Niki in the asylum
Novel #22 – “Hell’s Angel” — Texas, 1992. Then partners Noah Bennet (HRG) and Claude (The Invisible Man) go on a “bag and tag” mission to locate and track a new “hero.” When they enter her apartment building, the unseen hero uses her powers to set the building aflame, leaving Bennet to find an abandoned baby girl in a crib inside. The baby, as we already know, is Claire.
Easter Egg: Parkman and the Propmaster
Novel #23 – “Family Man” — This novel picks up where the episode “Company Man” leaves off, with the Bennet home in flames and HRG ordered to bring Claire in for The Company to examine. This is the moment where HRG decides to change sides, as he is now determined to bring down the company he once served. Using a computer in a crowded coffee shop, he sends an e-mail to Hana Gittelman, asking her to help him destroy The Company.
Easter Egg: Hana’s blog
Novel #24 – “War Buddies – Part 1 of 6: Lonestar File” — This 6 part arc was used to fill the gap during Heroes March hiatus. In this first installment, Hana Gittelman agrees to work with HRG to destroy The Company that manipulated them both. Using intel from HRG, Hana poses as a date-seeking single to hook up with Casey Smith, a government official. After sleeping with him, she steals his passkey to get into the Pentagon’s private library.
Easter Egg: Hana’s blog (again)
Novel #25 – “War Buddies – Part 2 of 6: Unknown Soldiers” — Still in the Pentagon library, Hana Gittelman reads from a folder called the Lonestar file. The file recounts the story of a 5 person task force sent deep into the Vietnamese jungle during the height of the Vietnam War. While aboard their vessel, the team takes heavy fire. All are killed except for the brazen team leader, codename Dallas, and the shy, lanky medic, codename Austin. During the firefight, Dallas takes a bullet to the chest, but miraculously, Austin briefly places his hands on Dallas’ chest and the wound disappears completely. Dallas is terrified of what he has just witnessed.
Easter Egg: Issac’s loft from the episode “.07 Percent”
Novel #26 – “War Buddies – Part 3 of 6: Unknown Soldiers” — Picking up where the last novel left off, Dallas and Austin are now alone in the Vietnamese jungle. Dallas continues to treat Austin with anger and hate, frightened and confused by his incredible ability. Austin can’t take the tormenting anymore and explains that his ability has been a great burden; as a child, he used it to heal his mother of cancer, though his parents were, like Dallas, too scared to appreciate and love their son, and so he’s been alone ever since. The two soldiers locate a downed plane, whose mission it had been to destroy Au Co, a nearby, fruitful farming village. Finding the crew dead, Dallas decides to carry out their mission alone, wanting to kill as many Vietnamese as he can. After some prodding, Austin agrees as well.
Easter Egg: Niki and Linderman on set
Novel #27 – “War Buddies – Part 4 of 6: No Turning Back” — As Dallas and Austin do reconnaissance to prepare for their assault on Au Co, they realize that the source of the village’s thriving vegetation is a young girl, who, like Austin, has an amazing ability. Austin, feeling a sudden connection with this girl, gets cold feet about the mission, but the ever forceful Dallas (who looks a LOT like Nathan Petrelli) screams him into compliance. Their plan goes off perfectly, as they use explosives to burn the entire villages to the ground, killing dozens of Vietnamese. As Dallas uses his machine gun to finish off the survivors, Austin and he both realize that Au Co isn’t the name of the village; its the name of the young girl with the ability. Dallas levels his gun at her, to finish the mission, but Austin tackles him to the ground as he begins to fire.
Easter Egg: Mohinder and Sylar in action
Novel #28 – “War Buddies – Part 5 of 6: Introductions” — Picking up where the previous novel left off, Dallas succeeds in shooting Au Co. Austin tries to save her, but Dallas restrains him so that he cannot use his ability. The mission is a success, but any link between Dallas and Austin is severed. They are awarded medals for their successful mission, but when Dallas tries to explain Austin’s ability to their superiors, Austin denies it and Dallas is disgracefully discharged from the army. Years later, an older, more fiery Austin appears at Dallas’ home, where Dallas sits with his wife and young son. Austin thanks Dallas for teaching him that sacrificing the lives of a few, no matter how special, is always worth it in order to save many. They exchange real names, finally. Dallas’ real name is Petrelli. Austin’s is Linderman.
Easter Egg: Linderman on set
Novel #29 – “War Buddies – Part 6 of 6: Call to Arms” — Back in the present, Hana has finished reading the file Bennet sent her to find. Using her abilities, she learns that her previous night playmate Casey has woken up and alerted the Pentagon of her high level security breach. As a tactical team swarms the building, Hana uses her ability to send a fake e-mail from Casey to his superior, explaining that he found his missing key card and Pentagon ID in his washing machine. She then hops a plane to Vegas, hoping to get in closer range with Linderman’s heavily encrypted server. Once she does, she searches it for the name Petrelli and learns that Linderman plans to rig the upcoming election in Nathan Petrelli’s favor. She then announces she’ll need all the help she can get to unrig the election. (NOTE- This lead to a massive online campaign at Hana’s blog that required user aid to unrig the election. I participated briefly. It was dumb.)
Easter Egg: None
Novel #30 – “String Theory” — New York City, 5 years in the future. Hiro Nakamura (the future one with no accent and the ponytail) saves a fellow “hero” named Sparrow from an NYPD assault (she was out past curfew). As he does every night, Hiro returns to Isaac’s (now abandoned) loft to construct an elaborate series of clippings and strings, hoping to locate the exact point in time to which he must return in order to stop the terrible future he is in from occurring. Hiro explains that he needs to find a way to get Peter Petrelli to stop Sylar from killing Claire Bennet in the past so that Sylar, the exploding man, won’t regenerate when Hiro stabs him to stop him from exploding. So Hiro travels five years into the past, to the moment on the subway depicted early in Season One, to warn Peter: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” Hiro returns to the future, but nothing has changed. He returns to his loft, only to find his friend Ando and himself, from the past, waiting for him.
Easter Egg: None (It was a screenshot of the final image from Novel #29, which featured the names of dozens of real internet users involved in the Heroes 360 experience swirling around Hana Gittelman, but the link has been taken down.)
Novel #31 – “Walls: Part 1 of 2” — Moab, Utah, 1 year in the future. Hiro recruits Peter to help him bust 200 “heroes” out of a government facility where they are being detained. They freeze time, take key cards off the frozen guards, walk into the facility, freeze time again to unlock all of the jail cells, and then Peter goes in to the main cell block, where he tells all the prisoners to run to safety. At the end of the block is a steel door with one prisoner inside. Using his radioactivity ability he gleaned from Ted, Peter opens the door to find Niki Sanders inside. A close-up of Peter reveals a long scar running across his face. He and Niki run from the prison only to find that the entire thing was a setup, orchestrated by “Director” Matt Parkman. Armed men surround the prisoners while 3 “heros” dressed in black keep Hiro at bay. One is a burly man with some sort of super strength, one is an oily, levitating man with lighting bolts crackling from his hands, and the third is a short black woman with super speed.
Easter Egg: Claire getting ready to save the day
Novel #32 – “Walls: Part 2 of 2” — (Note– for the sake of pronoun saving, I will use nicknames for all evil heroes). Picking up where Part 1 left off, the three evil heroes are using their respective powers to subdue Peter and Hiro outside the prison. Niki uses her superstrength to knock Shorty into a brick wall, freeing Peter. Peter uses the lightening power he absorbed from Oily Man to shock Tubby, freeing Hiro. Both try to freeze time, but one of the evil 3 has the ability to somehow prevent them from doing so. Hiro faces off against Tubby, Peter uses his firehands (when did he meet up with Claire’s birth mom?) and newly acquired superspeed to chase Shorty, while Oily Man whooshes after Niki. Using her pole dancing skills, Niki grabs onto the pole supporting the jailyard basketball hoop and swings around it, kicking Oily Man into Shorty, Oily Man’s lightening debilitating them both. Good guys 1, bad guys 0.
Easter Egg: Sylar and Ellen Green, a.k.a. his creepy ass mom
Novel #33 – “The Death of Hana Gittelman: Part 1 of 2” —1 year ago, the North Pole Noah Bennet leads Hana Gittelman deep into the tundra, toward the magnetic pole where wireless communication floats around most heavily. The flood of communication is overwhelming for Hana, but HRG insists she must learn to control it. Jump to the present. Hana holds a gun to HRG’s face. Accompanied by Parkman and Sprague, HRG tells Hana that only she has the ability to take down the satellite that is tracking people with abilities who have been injected and “tagged” by The Company. Using specs of the satellite supplied by Bennet, Hana is able to locate it with her mind, but like the enhanced communication caused by the Arctic tundra, Hana must travel to outer space, where the signal will be the clearest. She approaches a Chinese spacecraft, but before she can board, she’s surrounded by a cadre of armed soldiers.
Easter Egg: Claire and Uncle Peter
Novel #34 – “The Death of Hana Gittelman: Part 2 of 2” — 13 years ago, Tel Aviv. 2 weeks after the deaths of her mother and grandmother, a young Hana Gittelman leaps off a hillside with an umbrella, believing she can fly like an angel. Her whole life since then, Hana has been taught: to be respectful, to obey, to careful. Jump to the present. Hana fights back against her captors, kicking ass and taking names. As she does this, she uses her ability to forge a wireless communique from the Israeli government to the Chinese base, announcing her arrival as part of a scientific display of friendship between the two countries. A Chinese official hurries to the scene to stop the fighting and to welcome Hana to the base. Hana then sets about preparing for the launch and joins the crew aboard the spaceship. They launch into space and Hana admires the beautiful sight of the Earth below her. She exits the spacecraft for her “scientific spacewalk” a.k.a. a chance to get close to the satellite. She locates the satellite and attempts to send a self-destruct message to it, but something is wrong. Her nose begins to bleed and the capillaries in her eyes start to swell. The satellite has a defense mechanism: a virus, which has somehow infected Hana and is quickly killing her. With her last breaths, she leaps from her own spacecraft, hurtling through the abyss towards the satellite, landing aboard the satellite, sending it into a fiery crash towards earth…. Jump to Las Vegas, two days later. Micah Sanders is in his room crying, scared for his dad, who is in the hospital, but who should make a full recovery. He sits at his computer, instant messaging with Samantha48616e61 (reminder- Hana’s blog address is Samantha4861636.com), who tells him not to be scared. She says: “My name is Hana Gittelman, but you can call me Wireless…death might seem like an ending, but really the journey is just beginning.” (Note– this installment coincided with the Heroes’ series finale)
Easter Egg: “Dodge This.”
Novel #35 – “It Takes a Village: Part 1 of 4” — The present. The Haitian and HRG stand over the sedated body of Matt Parkman in som sort of medical facility. The two men discuss what it feels like when The Haitian takes away a man’s memory, which he then does to the unconscious Parkman. Jump to the past, a small village outside of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. The Haitian’s father, Guillame, is the village holy priest, known as a houngan, who acts as the hand of the village’s spirits, the Loa. The young Haitian loves his father immensely and brags about him to all of his friends. One day, the “Tonton Macoutes”, Duvalier’s private militia, arrive in the small village, armed to the teeth, asking to see Guillame. Guillame steps forward and using his divine powers, brings pain and sickness to the militiamen. However, as soon as the young Haitian approaches his father, Guilliame’s powers suddenly fail him, allowing the Tonton Macoutes leader to knock him to the ground.
Easter Egg: Nathan to the rescue
Novel #36 – “It Takes a Village: Part 2 of 4” — The Tonton Macoutes have chained up Guillame like an animal, and no Haitian has dared to attempt to cut him down. With their protector incapacitated, the Haitians have had their village looted, their women raped, their goods stolen. Guillame is cut down finally and vows that his powers will return, as long as his son promises to stay far away. Ashamed, the young Haitian goes off with his friends to offer a pig sacrifice to the gods to restore his father’s powers. As the rowdy villagers march after Guillame, angry that the gods have deserted him, Guillame’s powers return and the villagers anger turns to joy. However, when his song comes to gaze upon his father in delight, his powers desert him once again. Guillame turns to the boy in disgust, beating and choking him with rage. The young boy becomes filled with shame and dismay and with his mind, he lashes out against his father and all around him. Suddenly, the color drains from the eyes of all the villagers. The people are nothing more than empty shells.
Easter Egg: Blonde Bombshells
Novel #37 – “It Takes a Village: Part 3 of 4” — Picking up where the last novel left off, Guillame and his son head to the mountains to make right their mistakes with the gods. The villagers are still soulless and motionless, their eyes totally white. As they wait atop the mountain for the sun to rise, Guillame tells his son the story of the crane and the serpent. In it, the serpent, an ambitious creature who longs to fly, swallows the crane whole, absorbing its power so it can fly. It has the ability to the fly, but it has nowhere to go, no real use for this power; it has “forgotten the ground,” as Guillame says he too has in abusing the powers the Loa have given him. He draws a picture of the snake and crane intertwined in the sand: it is the same picture that is on Jessica’s tattoo, Kensei’s flag, etc. When the sun rises, Guillame draws two swords, giving one to his son. Confused, the son asks the need for these swords. Guillame responds by kicking his son to the ground, shouting, as if possessed, that the gods have punished him for “forgetting the ground” by poisoning his offspring, and that the only way to repent will be to cut out the poison and kill his only son.
Easter Egg: Partners
Novel #38 – “It Takes a Village: Part 4 of 4” — As he prepares to strike down his only son, the gods rewards Guillame’s passion and his powers return to him. Using his new strength, he kicks his son off the ledge, sending him rolling down the mountain to another plateau, where he lies bleeding and weak. Guillame follows the boy down and brings his sword up over his head. Proud to die for his father, but not wanting to leave without touching the man he worships one more time, the boy reaches out and grabs his father’s knee. As soon as they touch, their minds become one and the boy is able to file through his father’s memories, showing to him the radiance of his love for his son and family. These flashing memories remind Guillame of who he is: a man. He apologizes to his son, admitting that he has forgotten the ground, like the serpent, and giving to his son a necklace with the symbol of the crane/serpent. Heavy with shame, Guillame throws himself from the cliff. The young boy returns alone to his village, where he comes upon a white man searching for Guillame. When the white man sees the empty villagers, he asks how the boy did this. The boy draws a picture of a hand plucking worms from the head of a man. The man introduces himself as Mr. Thompson and together, they leave the village behind.
Easter Egg: Niki’s got a gun
Whew! That was long. Hope you enjoyed it. Comments, anyone?
