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As Marvel and DC film and TV adaptations became more popular in the 2000s, Heroes provided a fresh take on the superhero genre unburdened by established IP. The show, which premiered on NBC in September 2006, transported viewers to a world where people with special abilities, a.k.a. Evos, lived in secret. The starring protagonists would repeatedly come together to save the world and avert horrific futures, but without the flashy costumes, masks, and secret identities.
Heroes’ main characters showed off a lot of amazing powers during its four-season run, from Hiro Nakamura’s space-time manipulation and D.L. Hawkins' phasing, to Claire Bennet’s rapid cellular regeneration and Elle Bishop’s electricity manipulation. In the case of Peter Petrelli, Sylar, and Arthur Petrelli, their inherent abilities allowed them to obtain multiple superpowers. Even many of Heroes’ minor characters had useful powers that made them either worthy allies or formative villains.
However, there are seven Heroes characters who didn’t fall into either category. While their respective amounts of screen time varied, they all had one thing in common: their powers were terrible. Among all the dazzling superhuman feats from this show that redefined the superhero genre, these particular abilities either failed to impress or came with too many complications.
Alejandro Rivera
Shalim Ortiz’s Alejandro Rivera was the only character on Heroes who required a specific individual for his power to work. When making contact with Maya, his twin sister, he could negate and reverse the effects of the poison she emitted from her body when distressed. If Maya wasn’t around, then he was just a normal man. While Samuel Sullivan’s terrakinesis functioned similarly, at least it would resurface if he was around any Evos.
Adding insult to injury, Maya eventually learned to control her poison emissions on her own thanks to Sylar’s help and encouragement. As such, there was no longer any narrative use for Alejandro by the time Sylar killed him. It would have been a different story if Alejandro had been able to survive any kind of poisoning, but his ability as it stood ultimately went from being underwhelming to unnecessary.
Hana Gitelman
Though mainly depicted in the Heroes graphic novels, Hana Gitelman did appear in two season 1 episodes, where she was played by Stana Katic. Hana’s cyberpathy allowed her to receive, intercept, and transmit electronic messages with her mind. In other words, she didn’t need a computer or phone to handle emails, text messages, and calls so long as her power was working.
Hana used her cyberpathy as an agent for The Company, and it makes sense to a certain extent why she was valued there. Overall though, her ability isn’t that impressive, especially now that smart devices are more advanced compared to when Heroes was on the air. There are hackers and computer experts that can accomplish the same things she can do on her own, and the cyberpathy would be rendered useless if there was an electronic blackout across the United States or the entire world.
Bridget Bailey
Ironically, Bridget Bailey was never actually shown using her special ability on Heroes. After she was introduced in the Heroes 360 online experience, Tehmina Sunny played Bridget at the beginning of the season 3 episode “One of Us, One of Them,” where Angela Petrelli “fed” her to Sylar. By killing her, the Evo serial killer became able to use psychometry, i.e. seeing an object’s history by touching it.
The only major narrative purpose psychometry served on Heroes was when Angela manipulated Sylar into touching objects belonging to the late Nathan Petrelli in order to jog his “memories” and keep up the ruse that he was actually Nathan. Psychometry is a great ability for a historian or archaeologist to have. Within the Heroes framework, however, it’s just not that interesting compared to other powers.
Zane Taylor
Midway through Heroes season 1, Ethan Cohn’s Zane Taylor got in touch with Mohinder Suresh about his ability. Unfortunately, Sylar got to him first, pretending to be Mohinder, and then killed him to gain the power of liquefaction. This was first indirectly shown when Sylar entered Zane’s apartment and saw all the household objects its occupant had melted, and then Zane demonstrated in front of “Dr. Suresh” with a kitchen pot. Then, when Sylar assumed Zane’s identity to fool Mohinder, he showed off this ability with a toaster, and then a wrench.
Liquefaction is visually interesting, but it’s not a handy power to have. All it accomplishes is making a mess, and no one likes to deal with those. Granted, it’s conceivable that Sylar could have melted a person, but something like that would have been too graphic to depict on a network TV show, not to mention destroy the one part of their anatomy he needed to replicate a victim's ability.
Trevor Zeitlan
The Heroes season 3 episode “Villains” flashed back to Sylar 18 months prior, showing how Ell Bishop pushed the suicidal Gabriel Gray to becoming an Evo serial killer on orders from The Company. She ultimately pushed him over the edge by introducing him to Jeff Staron’s Trevor Zeitlan, who could shatter objects when pointing at them, which Elle repeatedly called “special.” Eventually, Gabriel had enough and killed Trevor for this ability, thus setting him on his path to become one of Heroes' most powerful characters.
Trevor only shattered glass objects during his brief amount of screen time, and Sylar never shattered anything at all, since it was an ability he was retconned to have during season 1. In other words, shattering functions as nothing more than a glorified party trick. Also, Sylar showed he could accomplish the same thing with the cryokinesis he obtained from James Walker, which has a lot more uses.
Tom Miller
Although Sylar and Danko were temporarily allied during Heroes season 3’s “Fugitives” arc, the partnership fell apart after the former became capable of shapeshifting. While that’s unquestionably a great ability, the one Sylar got afterward was not. He tracked down Clint Howard’s Tom Miller, the next target on Danko’s list, and tricked him into thinking he was Rebel. After seeing Tom disintegrate a porcelain figure by snapping his fingers, Sylar killed him and took that power for himself right before Danko and his agents arrived.
Though Tom said he could “hurt” Sylar with his ability, it’s unclear if he was actually able to do this, or if he just assumed he could, and the disintegration truly only affected inanimate objects. Based off what was shown on Heroes, disintegration is nothing more than a novelty to pass the time, and it pales in comparison to the series’ other primarily offensive abilities.
Matt Parkman Jr.
Matt Parkman Jr. didn’t inherit telepathy from his father and grandfather. Instead, he was born with the ability to activate and deactivate objects. This was primarily shown in him turning on toys and electronics in his mother’s house, with Hiro and Ando learning that the infant’s mood dictated whether he would turn something on or off. Matt Jr. was also unexpectedly able to reactivate Hiro’s ability to stop time after it was originally stolen by Arthur Petrelli. However, it took some time for the teleportation and time travel aspects to return.
While Matt Jr.’s ability was narratively useful for Hiro, it’s ultimately more trouble than it’s worth. There are not a lot of upsides to turning things on and off with the mind, and when an infant has little to no control over this, it’s outright annoying, if not dangerous. Furthermore, Hiro’s body later started to reject his restored powers, and he would have died from a brain tumor had Peter not healed him. In other words, Matt Jr. activating or reactivating a person’s powers on Heroes comes with a price too steep to pay.
