They're My Heroes

It was long, at 23 episodes, and admittedly not everyone's cup of tea, but a great show for fans who were brought up on super-heroes who wear their underpants on top of their trousers.
The story so far, dear readers, is Heroes tapped into the fanboy market faster than a speeding bullet.

TV adapatations of comics have come a long way since the days of the camp Batman series.
Holy nostaglia, Robin, what happened to the good old days?

Heroes was for comic fans who demanded a bit of angst with their hero and villain slugfests.
Not a cape or mask in sight, no spandex, no secret identities, but still plenty of derring-do - and the goods guys still won.

The story had all the classic bullet-points from the comic writers' handbook. Make the readers, or in this case, the viewers, empathise with your characters - and then put 'em through hell, Throw in a few soap elements, turn goodies into baddies, baddies into goodies, and there you have it. X-Men meets EastEnders with a bit of Star Trek thrown into the mix.

And don't forget the obligatory alternative future story and the equally obligatory flashback sequences. All familiar concepts in super-hero land.

Heroes was peppered with tributes to its source material. From the names of streets - Kirby Plaza was named after the legendary Jack Kirby - to a nod of the head to Chris Claremont's famous (famous to comic collectors, anyway) Days of Future Past story in X-Men.

There was even a cameo appearance by Stan The Man Lee. Without Lee there would have been no Spider-Man, no X-Men, no FF, probably no Heroes, so it was a fitting tribute.

To be continued. as they say in the funny books,