A few weeks ago I came across a newspaper article reviewing new Fall series which said that those who remembered the first season of Heroes fondly were eager for Heroes Reborn; those who remembered the other seasons were not. While I realize there were issues with story and writing during seasons 2-4, I enjoyed all the stories involved with these characters until the end. So when 8 p.m. on Thursday came, I was ready to see what new journeys those characters that came back would have.

Heroes Reborn starts with the explosion at the Odessa Summit; an event discussed in the prequel series “Dark Matters,” which for some reason Mohinder Suresh claims to be behind. Supposedly Claire Bennet is killed during the explosion, which is why we find Noah working as a car salesman again, putting the life of Primatech and his family behind him to start a new life with his third wife. Of course, we know Claire cannot be killed as easily as her character has been written out of this story, but perhaps this mystery will be explored later in the season.

Meanwhile, more “evos” are on the run as two mysterious individuals are hunting down and killing anybody with powers. “Evos,” or anybody who has evolved further than normal humans, were revealed to the world when Claire jumped from the top of the Sullivan Bros. Carnival at the end of the original series, causing commotion as more and more people with powers posted their own coming out videos online. This, as any X-men storyline can teach us, never turns out to be a wise idea.

At the same time, Quentin, whom we meet in the same prequel series, is still searching for his sister who was taken by police during the Odessa explosion, but has not been seen since. With information on Primatech and all those involved with the company, Quentin finds Noah and helps him realize his mind has been wiped. We don’t learn the extent to which his mind is wiped, but this realization does introduce us to an even crazier big bad than Primatech, an organization using the company’s resources to find evos.

We are introduced to many new characters, most of whom have powers similar to past characters, possibly because the special effects had already been established, so why be creative?

• Tommy: Tommy can teleport people and things to anywhere he thinks about. This is a bit strange, but after seeing this actor play an evil Peter Pan, this friendlier persona is a good change. As we are introduced to Tommy at the beginning of the show there is a large pile of 9th Wonders comics in the car with him. Collected issues from Isaac’s run of the series, or another precog artist?
• Miko (Katana Girl) and Ren: Miko looks like a stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl, who is met by a geeky Ren, a boy who finds her address as a hidden code in a video game he’s playing—Evernow. He’s convinced she is actually the hidden character in the game, and even connects her to the tie-in comic from the game. Ren acts like a younger version of the Hiro we knew when he got his powers. I knew I would like this character when, as soon as he put his headphones on to help Miko inside the video game, he screamed out passionately “Leeroy Jenkins!”
• Lucky Penny Colonel Sanders: This man does not have a name yet, but he uses a penny to hypnotize people as he wipes their memory similar to the Haitian. He looks a lot like he belongs on the front of a chicken box though.
• The Gutierrezes: A Mexican wrestling Batman. I won’t reveal which one is the Batman, but he’s helping the community in Los Angles while creating his own underground railroad for evos. Oscar’s son has his own special gift as well that appears like it will be important in the future.

Other characters that were noted to come back for this series have not been seen yet, including Matt Parkman, Hiro, and Mika, though one character has come back in a different guise. Molly Walker, the young Google map who Matt adopted then immediately forgot about with nobody else in the world blinking an eye, is back but played instead by Francesca Eastwood, somebody who couldn’t look any different, even with the time lapse. According to imdb, the original actress, Adair Tishler, has not done a lot of acting on camera since the original series, and since 2010 has been non-existent. This may be the reason for such a change, but it is still bizarre to bring the character back in this manner.

I enjoyed these first 2 episodes of the new series, and am hopeful that this is not the only season of the show. I am hoping other characters come back than those already announced, including Claire even if just for one episode or scene. Mostly though, I’m holding out for Hiro.