I’m glad someone else was bothered by the whole mysterious Haitian thing! I love Heroes, but his character just screams magic negro.

Anu, I see your point. But I think that an exception should be made for the genre. Mysterious Character™ is a staple of comics. (wolverine is probably the best example of the mysterious character.)

Also, there’s nothing ‘black’ about the characters behavior. For the most part he just stands there and does his thing. I don’t see how you would have to change anything about his role if you wanted to make him a her, a white person, or a person of another color. Since he was kidnapped as a small child you’d probably have to pick a country of origin where this made sense. People in the industrialized world have access to a lot of resources for finding lost children. But I don’t see how they would have had to change anything to make the character a white Serbian woman.
Thoughts?

As far as race goes, I’ll continue watching Heroes until it turns into Lost. At first I loved lost because of its great storyline and drama and diversity, but as the show continues its gone back to being “all about the white people,” with even the characters of color being tangential to the plot.

Or maybe its just me. I refuse to watch shows without an apparent commitment to some semblance of diversity.

generally, it’s understood he can slow and stop himself, and it’s only others that can’t.

I f he were truly unstoppable, he’d have flown off into orbit long ago, as gravity could not stop the juggernaut. but that would be silly.

Juggernaut is unstoppable when running at full speed

Thats my point. The first time he ever ran at full speed, he’d still be running to this day.

Its the old god paradox. Can god make a boulder so heavy even god cant lift it? If Juggy is unstoppable, even he couldnt stop himself.

This and the blob example only serve to reinforce my belief that the writers didnt think some of the powers all the way through *L*

It also annoys me that they totally screwed up the Penance character. She’s my favorite.

The runaways are neat, but isnt there one with a pet dinosaur?

Juggy isn’t literally an unstoppable force. the joke has been made in canon “Whatdya mean “Unstoppable?” EVERYONE’S stopped the juggernaut!”
And in fact, there was someone in that same universe that was immovable as a power: The Blob. in fact, they’re both X-men villians. (or were. Juggernaut’s a good guy now, although not as powerful, and Blob is depowered)

it’s established that when both are using their powers properly (Juggernaut is unstoppable when running at full speed, Blob is only immovable if he plants his feet) that Blob stays rooted where he stands, and the ground gives way.

I work in a comic book shop. I know things.

Incidentally, Anyone who likes Whedon is highly encouraged to start reading Runaways. great book, the premise being “Here’s a bunch of teenage children of supervillians who decide their parents are assholes and run away from home, relying only on themselves and their inherited abilities.”

it was written by Brian K Vaughn, who is amazing. It’s now written by Whedon. And it’s still fairly young, so for less than 70 bucks you can pick up trades of ALL the backissues (which in comics terms is outstandingly cheap.) so you wouldn’t b missing anything.

now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go sob myself to sleep for the bastardization of Silver Surfer they put in that damn movie. He’s my genetic favorite hero (both my parents were Surfer fans) and I am filed with sorrow.

Belledame - not only am I reading the comics, I’m reviewing them. I should have ar eview of #4 up tonight.

He’s brave and selfless, but I’m not sure that you’re really a hero if all you do is make messes that other people have to clean up.

THANK YOU!

Yeah, I think I was 19 before I accepted that a writer might be more concerned with say, character development or a good story than making sure the characters powers were consistent story to story. My wife’s less geeky. She doesn’t care too much about internal consistency of a character’s powers. Were you as surprised as I was when Linderman revealed healing powers?

I’ve annoyed him to no end with questions on character powers that dont exactly make sense. Like Juggernaught. If he’s an unstoppable force, then he shouldn’t be able to stop himself. And what happens if he meets an unmovable object?

I dont know if they’re concerned with a good story or character development so much as they come up with a cool power and dont exactly think it through.

And it surpised me that he had healing powers, up until Kitty Pryde..I mean, Nikki’s husband killed him. So Im not so sure he’s dead. But he could be if the brain was messed up enough, since evidently their powers are in their brains and getting to the brain is how you kill them.

pheeno Writes:

Joe-

this is what happens when you marry a comic book geek *L*

Yeah, I think I was 19 before I accepted that a writer might be more concerned with say, character development or a good story than making sure the characters powers were consistent story to story. My wife’s less geeky. She doesn’t care too much about internal consistency of a character’s powers. Were you as surprised as I was when Linderman revealed healing powers?

Ando’s actions, I think, were to show that you don’t need powers to be a hero.

I guess I think that Mr. Bennett’s actions prove that. I’m not so sure about Ando. He’s brave and selfless, but I’m not sure that you’re really a hero if all you do is make messes that other people have to clean up.

I really need to rewatch the entire season. I don’t think I was watching carefully enough.

Joe-

this is what happens when you marry a comic book geek *L*

Ando’s actions, I think, were to show that you don’t need powers to be a hero.

The regeneration thing is open to me. They’ve shown that clair and peter can’t heal if there’s something in the way. They haven’t shown how well they can re-grow lost parts. (if they loose a finger does it come back?) Clair did heal chemical burns, which could be hot enough to remove flesh but maybe that’s different. In the future timeline they showed that peter had a scar. But we don’t know if he ever learned to regenerate in that timeline. Also in the future timeline Sylar presumably killed Clair by cutting her head open. But again we don’t know if she stayed dead. If the next season shows that clair (or peter) can or cannot be killed by a .45 to the head I won’t be surprised either way. My hunch is that the writers haven’t spent as much time on the physics of how the powers work as pheeno or me.

I agree, fly boy needs to stay dead. There’s very little suspense if we can assume that death is only temporary. Peter can come back though. btw, why didn’t peter just fly himself up?

I sort of disagree about Hiro not changing. Most of the season was about him trying to learn about his powers and toughen up enough to use them. Ando’s response was okay by me. If I thought I was destined to die and that there was no way to stop it I’d try to save myself in some way. Better to go down swinging if you have to go down at all. Hiro totally saved his life. Sylar wouldn’t even notice having to kill Ando. Besides, I figure that if one person is what the job takes, one person should do it. Don’t need Ando to kill Sylar? Don’t take him along. Do need Ando to help on my walkabout? Do take him along.

All in all it was pretty good.

Ill go kill Sylar MYSELF even though I have no powers and have seen how he doesnt even have to be near me to kill me.

Seriously?? SERIOUSLY?? Moron. No wonder you died in the first future timeline. I like Ando, but he ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.

And dont even get me started on Fred. Christ. And Angel. I didnt know it was possible to come up with a whinier vampire than Louis.

I’d have staked him within minutes, just to shut him up.

I miss Joss, too. Anyone else reading the “Buffy Season 8″ comics? I’m so not a comic person normally, but–it’s Joss & Buffy, dammit.

The characters I was thinking of as the rich powerful guys were Nathan and Bennett. They changed, and made decisions, and those decisions had an impact on the overall plot of the season. Peter, Claire, Hiro, Nikki - to the extent that they changed over the course of the season, the change wasn’t that significant and didn’t change what happened.

I wasn’t arguing against the logic of taking Ando back Joe - just that Buffy’s message was always “you’re stronger together than you are alone” rather than “a hero must go on alone.”

If Nathan doesn’t die I’m going to be more than a little pissed off.

Nikki is skinny, but she isn’t Joss-crazy-skinny like River, Dru and Fred (who got sane, but was crazy when she first appeared). It’s just a random, annoying, thing I’ve noticed about Joss’s shows.

Pheeno, I’m not sure where you’re getting the back of the head thing. They haven’t really shown us if the healing can deal with a loss of material. Cair and peter are the only healers so far (did I miss one?) and neither of them have had to regrow lost material.

Yeah, when the branch was in the back of her head, it had to be removed before she could heal. And again with the shard of glass, evidently objects in that area can block the healing ability. If that area is gone, well..there you go. At close enough range, it would have taken most of his head off. I doubt they’re going to write in immortality.