I’m a huge fan of Heroes. I absolutely loved the Season 1 and waited patiently for the Season 2 to air. Having just finished watching “Powerless”, which served as the end of Volume 2 (and perhaps the end of Season 2, in large part due to the writer’s strike), I’ve been able to come up with a few comments of the season thus far. Overall, I found Season 1 much stronger and much tighter than Season 2. Perhaps it was the constant revelation of everyone’s secret powers, perhaps it was the great storyline, perhaps it was because everything tied together so well. I’m not getting any of that this season. And with the exception of Kristen Bell’s character, Elle, is anyone else underwhelmed by the new batch of heroes? I also think there are too many characters this season, which led to the dilution of the plot and too many side stories going on. I still enjoy the show, but I think it could just be so much better this season. What do I think of each character? Well, if you don’t mind the spoilers…

Claire Bennet: Has an awesome power, too bad she spent most of this season brooding and being angry. I would have liked more development on the Nathan/Claire-father/daughter angle.

Noah Bennet: His one-man crusade against The Company was kind of boring and went against his main objective to keep his family safe. If you want to protect your daughter, wouldn’t you want to run away from the threat, as opposed to running towards it? As it stands now, he can’t protect his family anyway because he’s been captured (loosely speaking).

Mohinder Suresh: Pick a team. Stick with it. Stop jumping all over the map.

Hiro Nakamura: Hiro brought the “happy” to Season 1. In Season 2, he brings the “tormented”. It was fun watching The Adventures of Hiro and Ando last season as they tried to save the cheerleader and save the world. But now that Isaac Mendez is dead and Hiro doesn’t have a comic book to tell him what to do, I guess the writers had to give him another storyline. Too bad it all revolves around Hiro trying to fix his mistake when he travelled back to feudal Japan.

Peter Petrelli: Needs to think for himself. So far this season, he’s let the Irish guy and Adam/Kensei walk all over him and tell him what to do. He could have easily used his powers to kick Irish guy’s ass to get his possessions back and he could have just walked through the wall and destroyed to virus himself, instead of opening the safe door and letting Adam go in alone to “destroy” the virus. Peter definitely needs to pick up his game in the next volume.

Nathan Petrelli: I enjoyed his storyline in Season 2. It flowed naturally from the end of Season 1 and what happens to him at the end of the second volume should be a catalyst to the third volume.

Matt Parkman: Nice to see him developing his powers even further. Joined forces with Nathan, which makes his storyline interesting, by default.

Niki Sanders: Not quite sure what your purpose is this year, other than to serve as Suresh’s guinea pig. Ali Larter’s hot and all, but her death (if she did, in fact, die) could have came sooner.

Micah Sanders: An extension of his mother’s subplot, Micah also doesn’t have much going this season. Slowly phase out his character, please.

Monica Dawson: One of the new characters this year, has a somewhat cool power. However, we’re not sure if she retains everything or if it’s just the last thing she saw. In any case, she’s another extension of Niki, so we can do without her.

Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei: I was totally psyched to see David Anders in Heroes, ’cause I’m a huge Alias fan. He’s got the same powers as Claire, too bad he’s a crappy villian. I hope he gets a chance to redeem himself in the next volume. Speaking of villians…

Sylar: He’s not dead! That’s awesome ’cause he’s an awesome villian. Sylar had a crappy storyline in the second volume but now that he’s got his powers back, let’s hope he gets back to creating massive havoc (and I hope he kills off some of the other heroes).

Elle Bishop: Best. Addition. Ever! Kristen Bell rocks! Sad to see the end of Veronica Mars, but much delighted to see her joining Heroes (and even happier she didn’t join Lost). Cool power, with the electricity, and good character development. She’s a badass who looks to be on the verge of being one of the good guys.

Bob Bishop: Still don’t know if he’s good or bad. I’ll say bad for now and I predict Elle will kill him sooner or later (and then we’ll find out who Elle’s real father is. Because, you know, that’s what’s going to happen).

West Rosen: Useless. Please fly away.

Maya Herrera: Also useless. If Maya wasn’t introduced, Sylar would have been in another, potentially much better, storyline.

I hope much better things happen in the next volume. And I hope the characters we think are dead are dead. I’ve just about had enough of the reviving of thought-to-be-dead characters. Stop using Claire’s blood as a easy solution to everything. Kill some heroes and leave them dead.

I hope this break doesn’t go on too long. I may get Heroes withdrawal.