Product Description

The Emmy Award-nominated NBC TV series HEROES comes to comics in this spectacular hardcover graphic novel! With art by some of comics greatest illustrators and stories by the writers of the HEROES TV series, this volume features all 34 comics chapters from Season One, previously seen online at NBC.com. This volume also includes an introduction by Emmy Award-nominee Masi Oka (Hiro), an amazing new cover by Alex Ross, and artwork by Tim Sale that first appeared in the TV episodes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13000 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-07
• Released on: 2007-11-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover Comic
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Although essentially a tie-in to a pop culture hit, this graphic novel isn't bad. Conceived as an integral part of the popular TV show, the book collects a series of weekly online comics that appeared right along with the TV show. The comics are used to skillfully introduce both new characters and equally engrossing plot lines into the Heroes story, and they offer background info that supplements what's on TV. Heroes is the story of a group of otherwise normal people spread around the world, who have extraordinary—and potentially destructive—powers they often barely understand. These special people are hunted down by both a mysterious organization and a superpowered serial killer. The comic follows the show's major characters, but also introduces new ones, like Hana Gitelman, known as Wireless, who can literally hear digital communication transmissions; the comic also provides background on politician Nathan Petrelli and the mysterious Linderman that takes them back to the Vietnam War. Produced by a long list of prominent creators, the art is inconsistent, ranging from competent to excellent (War Buddies and Tim Sale's 9th Wonder covers shine) and is held together by the rich color production. An impressively readable melding of TV and comics storytelling. (Nov.)
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Customer Reviews

Fanatics Rejoice...Everyone Else, Yawn
I love the show 'Heroes,' but this isn't the show. This compilation of the on-line comics is nice to read, but not essential to the enjoyment of the show even though it does add to the cache of information the show offers. The artwork is not very good at all in some of the mini-issues, and the writing is minimalistic.

If you like comic books and the show, I recommend you read this. If you like the show but don't like comic books, don't come near this. If you don't like the show but love comics, stay away.

I'm glad my library had this in stock! I'd have hated to pay for it just to get 30 minutes of entertainment.

beautiful, but more of a collector's item than a book
i'm a huge fan of the tv show, heroes. and i love illustrated books. so i was pretty stoked when friends gave me this gorgeous book for christmas.

the chapters in this book (each very short) were created, originally, as web comix for the show's site. they were developed prior to and concurrently with the show's script development. as a result, they're complimentary to the show, as opposed to merely being a recap of the first season. there are characters who aren't in the show, and scenes with the show's characters that aren't in the tv episodes.

that said, this book would be almost impossible to follow for someone who didn't see the show.

the illustrations are stunning, and i really enjoyed it. but, ultimately, it's a book for fans of the tv series.

Excellent additional character development!
Over the years we've seen superheroes leap from the four colour pages of comics onto the big screen and even the television.

The quality of these shows has varied greatly over the years. But, for the most part, the movies were terrible up until the turn of the century.

Take a look at the movies that we had based on superheroes, until Tim Burton's Batman, (lets try and forget Batman 3 & 4, ok?) they pretty much all sucked! Any of you old enough to remember the original Spiderman movies from the 70's? Dr. Strange anyone? Or, how about the Swamp Thing?

The same can be said about most superheroes that made it onto the small screen. Sure, there were some pretty good shows (Flash anyone?), some that were so campy I'm shocked that they survived (Batman from the 60's), and some that were just mediocre, but somehow managed to stick around for several seasons (Mutant X comes to mind).

I personally found that the best way for superheroes to be portrayed was, of course, through the animation medium. We've had numerous Spiderman, Superman, Batman and X-men incarnations over the years, and every few years the studios try to re-imagine our favourite superheroes.

Once again, to varying degrees of success.

Now, Back in September of 2006 we had a show hit the airwaves that totally changed the face of entire genre for television.

Heroes hit the airwaves.

Now, this show, as anyone who follows it knows, isn't about flashy special effects or multi-coloured spandex... it's about people.

Ordinary people who are doing their best to lead normal lives, people who discover that they possess extraordinary abilities that set them apart from humanity.

And, of course, the secret organization that plans on controlling these special people.

Another thing that really set the show apart from others of its ilk that didn't survive (Birds of Prey, anyone?) is the fact that it was also supported online. Fake blogs, trivia, production stills, being able to watch entire episodes online and finally, one really, really cool feature...

The online graphic novel.

In my case, I didn't bother reading the online graphic novel, simply because I'm not all that big into comics, and, to be totally honest? I completely forgot about it!

That is until I found the first volume, which contains the first 34 issues of the online comic, at my local bookstore.

Being a fan of the series that I am, I decided to pick it up. Despite the fact that I'm not really what one would call a fan of the four colour books.

I bought the book for several reasons. First of all, I skimmed the book and was, for the most part, pretty impressed with the artwork throughout. Even years ago, before married life took hold of me when I was heavily into comics, I found that if I didn't enjoy the art, it didn't matter how well it's written. I just couldn't read it.

That wasn't the case with this graphic novel.

Secondly, and the biggest reason is because I AM a fan of the series. It was really neat to see all these short comics that add more depth to the main characters, and others that showed up only for a very brief period of time in the show.

To me, it was just filler, background information, but useful information, not regurgitated info that we already knew about in the show.

Since I haven't followed comic book writers or for that matter artists for nearly two decades, I have no idea who the people were that were mentioned in the credits. I don't know what work they have done previously to the graphic novel, so I can't say if any of them are considered to be powerhouses in the industry.

Still, I enjoyed the artwork throughout. It was, as one person has put it in the past, up to my fascist demands when it comes to artwork.

As a bonus, there is an introduction Masi Oka AKA Hiro Nakamura and an interview between series executive producer Jeph Lobe, and series writers Aron Eli Coleite and Joe Pokaski.

Now, in ending, the book is hardcover, and because of this, quite expensive at $[...]Canadian and $[...] American. But, consider that it is over 234 pages in length, you're getting your money's worth.

5 out of 5