Customer Reviews

Heroes Vol. 1

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'll give a lot of credit to Wildstorm and DC Comics for their thinking outside the box with the creation of the Heroes webcomic, 9TH Wonders. It added an enormous amount of material and depth to the sprawling series about real people with amazing abilities living amongst us. The graphic novel collects thirty-four installments of the online comic and tosses in some hot extras as well.

The webcomic in theory fills in the gaps between episodes and while it does do that, it also does much more. The chapters are each five to seven pages in length, including the covers. A word about the covers...they are designed to look like well-beaten Silver Age comics, complete with tears and creases and carrying a "Helix Comics" label. Readers will recognize many of the Tim Sale covers, which were used in the shows in the form of the paintings of Isaac Mendez. A nice touch is having the covers increase in price from 12 cents to 20 cents along the way. But...is it just me or did the covers look a heckuva a lot like old Marvel Comics Silver Age books than DC? The imprint label and even the typeface of "9th Wonders" on the covers was very much in the style of Marvel's old monster and sci-fi comics of the 50's and early 1960's. There's even a Heroes value stamp at the end of the book and any Marvel fan during the 70's certainly recalls those letter column collectibles. I found that to be rather curious.

The book begins with several self-contained stories, that do fill in the gaps in the show and provide additional layers to several of the characters. We will see Hiro's inspiration for becoming, well...a hero; shortly after denying his powers to his brother, Nathan Petrelli must use them to rescue a young child from a burning building; D.L. Hawkins uses his powers for the first time; Isaac Mendez' first ominous painting of the future ends tragically at a showing of his work; and Micah has to fend off a schoolyard bully.

There are a few multi-part storylines included that serve to introduce new characters such as Hana Gitelman. In fact, Gitelman appears in more episodes in the graphic novel than any other character. While the character made a couple of brief appearances in the show, she plays a greater role in the webcomic. Hana, who has the ability to act as a living electronic transmitter and receiver, is first introduced on the four part "Wireless" episode and later in "The Path of the Righteous" and the six-part "War Buddies" storyline. It's a lot of story to devote to a character who did not play a major role in the TV series but I think you'll find it well worth it.

I won't right down the entire list of writers as there are a lot. The bulk of the art was handled by Marcus To and Micah Gunnell and was uniformly outstanding throughout. I was amazed at how well the artists captured the real life look of all the actors. Other artists included Michael Turner, Staz Johnson, Michael Gaydos, and Phil Jimenez. The book also includes an interview with series writers Aron Eli Coleite and Joe Polaski, conducted by TV series Executive Producer Jeph Loeb.

My only complaint about the Heroes Graphic Novel is that you really had to have watched the show religiously to know what's going on in the book. There was no attempt made to try and draw in new fans to the show as it assumed knowledge of the various events. That said, this is one great book.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

This book reprints 34 "comic books" based on the TV show Heroes. These comics were originally published on the internet, and are very short, generally being five pages long. They tell additional stories about the characters on the show, which provide more info about them. The stories (by various creators) are generally well written, and the artwork is fantastic. It's very interesting if you are a Heroes fan, but if you aren't, you won't be the least bit interested in this.

HEROES: VOLUME ONE is a collection of 9th Wonders webcomics that appeared on the NBC official HEROES site during the initial run of the first season of the television show. The 34 comics contained in HEROES: VOLUME ONE fill in the gaps between some of the storylines of the first season of HEROES as well as provide complete background information for a character that was only briefly seen on the show (Hana Gitelman, aka Wireless). Each of the comics are only about six pages long and it only takes about an hour to read the entire book.

The thing I found most impressive about the book is the artwork. Each of the chapters include a cover of the fictional 9th WONDERS comic book, some of which were seen in the television show drawn by the character of Isaac Mendez, which in real life were drawn by artistic geniuses of Tim Sale and Dave Stewart. The illustrations in the book include a variety of styles and are very well done.

Some of the stories the book examines include Hiro's special relationship with his grandfather; how D.L. Hawkins (Micah's father) escaped from prison; the first time Matt Parkman used his powers to fight crime; the first prophetic painting of Isaac Mendez; what happened to Ted Sprague after he first began going atomic; and the story of how Mr. Petrelli Mr. Linderman first met. The book also includes a long multi-part story about Hana Gitelman and her importance in the Heroes first battle against the forces of evil and Noah Bennet's plans to bring the Company down.

The table of contents is illustrated as a series of ads that were once popular in comics and children's magazines, such as BOY'S LIFE. The book is prefaced by a few words from Masi Oka (the actor who plays Hiro) about the importance of manga and comics in our culture while the end of the book has an interview by producer Jeph Loeb with writers Aron Eli Coleite and Joe Polaski.

I'm a huge fan of the television show HEROES and am eager to learn more about the characters and their stories. I was a bit disappointed by the original webcomics because I have limited Internet access and really don't have the time to sit down and read comics on the computer. Therefore, I was extremely excited when I learned that those webcomics were going to be collected into a graphic novel. I wasn't disappointed with the result. Highly recommended for fans of the HEROES television show.

Any fan of Heroes would be doing themselves a huge favor by picking up this graphic novel. This book contains a pretty large assortment of short stories that take place in the Heroes world. Not only do the stories contained give us a lot of nice backstory on the main characters from the show, but they also shed some light on a few of the minor characters such as Hana and Eden. With a few minor exceptions, the stories are well written for being so short and are beautifully illustrated. Speaking of "beautifully illustrated", check out the sweet Alex Ross cover... It's worth the price alone just to look pretty on your bookshelf!

If you've never watched the show before, then you may not appreciate this book so much. In fact, you probably won't understand what is going on at all... So do yourself a favor and buy the first season DVD set Heroes - Season One, and then come back and buy this awesome companion to the show. If you are a fan of DC or Marvel comics you will NOT be dissapointed by the show, and you will definitely LOVE this book!

Season One of "Heroes" is an addicting, adrenalin-laced joyride of a TV show: one filled with great special effects superceded only by the creation of characters we really care about. The "Heroes" graphic novel (graphic short stories??) presented in this volume are the type of product first appearing in media fanzines and called "incidental music." They are basically short stories that explain in more detail some of the events occurring on stage -- or rather, on your TV screen. I read the entire book within an hour, and wished it could have gone on for hours longer. Characters cut out of necessity in the TV show ('Wireless', for example) have a very real presence here. Actions that might have seemed somewhat ambiguous are more delineated here. I agree that the book might not mean that much to someone who has not seen the show, but for someone who has, this multi-dimensional treatment adds immeasureably to consumer enjoyment.

In short, if you loved -- or even if you only enjoyed -- "Heroes", do yourself a favor and pick up this book.

I'll be brief. I am very pleased that the webcomics are now in print as I just don't enjoy reading comics online, but there's been a lot of focus - in the ad copy I've seen - on the inclusion of Tim Sale's art from the show. Well, there are a few pieces of his work, mostly as covers to comic books as Isaac's character in the show would have used them, but I was really expecting a sort of gallery of all the paintings featured in the first season. I love the book, don't get me wrong, but I'm very disappointed by what seems a deliberate attempt at false advertisting just to get more people to buy this book. Now they'll probably release a limited edition Tim Sale oversized collection in the $50-$75 range. Too bad.

The heroes graphic novel is entirely worth the 20 bucks you'll spend on it. Yes you can read these same episodes on nbc.com but it's 10x better to be able to hold it in your hand and flip through the pages, the way comic books are meant to be read. The art is really good as is the writing and is entirely relevant to the series. If you love heroes or comic books you'll love this book.

"Heroes," a DC Comic published by Wildstorm is a compilation of disassociated stories based on the television show "Heroes" and is not a graphic novel nor can it stand on its own. The first page inside the cover of "Heroes" claims there are "34 Complete Stories Inside!" This is not true, the stories are not complete and many of them just leave you hanging wanting more.

The 34 installments present a series of people who appear ordinary but have acquired extraordinary powers they are trying to cope with while being hunted by an unknown organization that wants to control or contain them.

The artwork is good in some of the stories and great in others. I don't recommend "Heroes" Volume one unless you are a follower of the television show "Heroes" and are looking for additional background information.

This graphic novel contains a serie of short stories that were previously published on the internet and that give you additional information about the characters and all the story. It's an amazing read if you're a fan of HEROES, as it provides you with some interesant hindsights on the Heroes's world.
Also, the drawings and the story telling are superb.

If you're a devoted fan of the show Heroes, you will love this collection of short comic stories. Each adds something to the Heroes storyline and develops the characters further (for example, one of the stories reveals that Hiro was named after Hiroshima, making his desire to stop 'the bomb' all the more understandable).

This collection may be a little confusing if you haven't watched every episode of the show, as there is little continuity between the short stories presented here. A few do fit together to form larger stories but for the most part they are short scenes that fill in holes from the tv series.

This is also worth getting for reproductions of Tim Sale's artwork from the show- used here as 'cover art' for the fictional 9th Wonders comic strip.