A (fairly Emo) hospice nurse who starts to feel that he's meant to do something special in life, which leads him on a journey to understand his developing superpowers, and ultimately use them to try and make a positive difference in the world (although he spends most of Volume Two actually doing the exact opposite, thanks to being a Genre BlindUnwitting Pawn with the Idiot Ball superglued to his face). A highlyempathicperson, with the ability to passively absorb the superpowers of others around him through their emotional connection, which (according to his own mother) makes him potentially the most powerful of all supers. After his Volume Two Unwitting Pawn tenure, his Drama-Preserving Handicap ineffectiveness continues in Volume Three where he goes on an evil kick for a few episodes after absorbing Sylar's ability of understanding (and its corresponding compulsion towards killing) in order to understand the show's plot so he can prevent yet another prophesied apocalyptic future. He finally gets Brought Down to Normal when his Big BadEvil Overlord father steals all of his abilities and becomes a Physical God (Nice Job Breaking It, Hero), forcing him to spend the rest of the Volume opposing his father's master plan without any powers. In Volume Four, he returns with a Nerfed version of his powers courtesy of a stolen batch of his dad's Super Serum; now he can only copy one power at a time and must absorb it through touch. Though in a writing trade-off, he appears to have started getting smarter.Associated Tropes:
Beat Them at Their Own Game: In Volume 5, thanks to his Discard and Draw ability, Peter now mainly fights by copying an enemy's power then fighting them with it one-on-one. Including a superspeed knife fight with Edgar early in the season, and his climactic Earthbender vs. Earthbender battle with Samuel Sullivan in the season finale.
He also does this to Sylar during the Volume 4 finale, with even quicker success: since Sylar has so many powers, it was totally unexpected that he'd use shapeshifting to beat him.
Black Sheep / White Sheep: The Petrelli family are ruthless, corrupt, scheming, and ambitious. Peter is sweet, idealistic and Genre Blind. He chose to become a nurse (and later, a paramedic) because he'd rather help people instead. However, Peter is also not above using the same manipulative tactics if he has to, judging by his future self's actions and his behavior towards Isaac Mendez.
Also, Peter shares his first name with a certain boy who can fly (also known as "The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up"). This is especially significant in the first episode, where we are led to believe that flight is Peter's primary ability.
The Messiah: In Volume 5, Peter finally seems to have gotten over his various Emo, Idiot Hero, and Darker and Edgier kicks, and has finally become the empathetic idealist that he was originally envisioned as. Hell, he even manages to redeem Sylar, for crying out loud.
This trope is basically a lifestyle choice for Peter. In Volume Two, he released Adam Monroe from the Company's prison. In Volume Three, his assassination attempt on Nathan changes history and puts the planet on track for an Earth-Shattering Kaboom. And in Volume Five, he undoes the measures taken by his mother to get rid of Sylar...by doing what he was explicitly told not to do by the Haitian.
Personality Powers: His personality seems to shift a bit whenever he takes on a new power. He becomes notably Darker and Edgier whenever he plays around with powers he acquired from resident villains Sylar and Elle.
This Is Your Brain On Evil: Apparently, the ability to "understand how things work" also comes with an uncontrollable addiction to cutting open peoples' heads to eat...err..."study" their brains.
Workaholic: By Season 4, Peter becomes extremely devoted to his job, ignoring his mother who's been telling him he works too much, and only takes powers that he would find useful at work such as speed or super strength. He even attempts to pull another double shift after getting off of one, but is dissuaded by his partner and told to go home instead.
A highly ambitious politician, self-described "shark", and Peter's brother. Nathan has the ability to fly, but has absolutely no interest in his superpowers, instead wishing to gain power via the political process. Something of a Manipulative Bastard, he finds himself torn between his ruthless political ambitions and his genuine affection for his idealistic brother. He reluctantly joins The Company's plan to unite mankind by destroying New York City, but at the last moment The Power of Love motivates him to perform a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Volume One to save everyone instead. He spends most of Volume Two acting as The Atoner... then spends most of Volume Three back to being a Jerkass again, first siding with his Big BadEvil Overlord father in the hopes of helping mankind by giving everyone superpowers, then when that plan goes down the crapper he cooks up his own scheme to round up and render comatose all existing supers to "protect" normals from them... before finally becoming The Atoner yet again when his own status as a super is exposed and he's ultimately hunted and finally forced to confront his own hubris and self-hatred. Damn this guy gets around.... Tends to get assassinated Once A Season.Associated Tropes:
Back from the Dead: Repeatedly! Honestly, two bullets and a sibling nuclear bomb didn't kill this guy. And he doesn't even have regeneration!
Once he returned while being dead.
Beard of Sorrow: In the first couple of episodes of Season 2. Its ugliness was lampshaded in-universe, as his kids tell him they don't like it and he should shave. Ouch.
Death Glare: Deployed a lot, especially against his little brother Peter, Danko (... all the damn time), Ma Petrelli, Parkman, even Noah Bennet (to no effect).
Even Evil Has Standards: Not only did he not know that Tracey Strauss's escape was orchestrated to manipulate a government official into keeping the division up and running instead of shutting it down, but as soon as he found out about it, he told off the guy who orchestrated it, Danko.
Flight: His ability, and unlike other flying characters, he's able to do it at super-speed. Ironically, the most stick-in-the-mud character gets one of the most fun powers.
Manipulative Bastard: Again, mostly in Season 1. Then subverted as he gets manipulated to hell and back by everyone in subsequent seasons.
No Party Given: Enforced to the extent that, when we see the ballot for his congressional election in Volume One, no parties are listed for any of the candidates.
Puppy-Dog Eyes: Uses them on everyone - Peter, Heidi, Claire, even Noah in a couple of scenes.
Put on a Bus: Not him, but his family: his wife Heidi and his two sons disappeared and were never mentioned again after Season 2.
Justified since they divorced and she moved Out of Focus with the kids, but they're briefly glimpsed at Nathan's funeral, sitting next to Angela and Peter.
An "invincible" teenage cheerleader with the ability to regenerate from all injuries, meaning she essentially can't die. (She also has the ability to appear in more episodes than any other character with superpowers - and, along with her adoptive dad, more episodes than any other character period. Which may not be unconnected to her being played by the rather Fanservice-y Hayden Panettiere.) She's quite disturbed by her powers at first, fearing that they make her a freak, and spends quite a good amount of time angsting about this. It doesn't help matters that her manifesting powers make her family life incredibly unstable, thanks to her dad turning out to be a Secret Agent Guy doing everything possible to hide her existence from the Company (which he works for). It's clear she inherited her uncle's Angst genes. Thankfully Took a Level in Badass in Volume Three where she (eventually) stops wangsting, takes an active role in the fight against the Level 5 Supervillains and later Pinehearst Industries, culminating in a showdown against arch-villain Sylar where she helps save her father and grandmother. This continues in Volume Four where she aides the resistance against the Government's superhuman roundup.Associated Tropes:
Cute Bruiser: Once she starts acting more proactive in Volumes Two and Three.
Daddy's Girl: Noah and to a lesser extent, Nathan, will do anything to protect her. Zigzagged as their actions tend to strain their relationships with her.
Death Glare: Renders her immune to psychological warfare, and can cause Noah to undergo a Heel Face Turn.
Future Badass: Volume Three, Dark Future version 3.0 & 4.0
Good Thing You Can Heal: Especially bad in Season 1, where she had to have been the most fatally accident-prone teenager ever.
Girls Love Stuffed Animals: A large collection of teddy bears can be seen in her room and she brings a teddy bear with her when she goes off to college.
Hair of Gold: In the first season, Claire's hair was styled with ringlets to emphasize her youth and innocent personality. As the seasons progressed, the ringlets were ditched for a more manageable hairstyle as she began to cope having an ability.
Suddenly Sexuality: Arguably one of the reasons why Volume 5/Season 4 ended up being the last Heroes-related thing ever, nevermind its last season, was due to this. In prior seasons, Claire, in regards to orientation, was at best implied to be heterosexual, only interested in the opposite sex. With Volume 5/Season 4, however, for some reason, they decided to change her orientation to either become a lesbian or bisexual, a move that was controversial at best.
Teens are Short: She is the shortest character on the show (and this is a series with Kristen Bell in the cast), excepting Micah and Molly as they are still children.
Took a Level in Badass: Defusing a Sadistic Choice scenario and taking out one of Volume Three's first genuinely menacing villains. And to top it off, in the Volume Finale she's the one who gets to have the big final showdown with Sylar (after coming thisclose to killing him in the season opener, as Sylar himself admits in the course of duplicating her power). Her actions in Volume Four continue this.
Too Dumb to Live: In season 2 she willfully endangers her family and blow their cover when they were actively being hunted down by a ominous Criminal organization because... she wanted a normal Highschool life, a boyfriend (whom she knew was nearly hunted by her father) and was doing what amounts to a 4 year old pout. A suicidal pout. It was painful.
Blows the lid in the final episode that there are people with abilities on live television. Yes, Claire, because when people discovered Evolved Humans in at least 3 Dark Futures everything worked out splendidly.
And how exactly is she supposed to know about said Dark Futures, since she can neither see into the future (with or without drugs) or travel through time without help from Hiro and the late Arthur Petrelli?
By paying attention to everything that has ever happened to her? Claire has encountered at least three organisations in the present who became aware of those with powers and then decided to routinely imprison and experiment on them. Not to mention that she knows Nathan told the American Government about them and their first move was to attempt to round them up.
Well, Sylar did say it was a brave new world...
Noah Bennet
A.k.a. HRG (Horned-Rimmed Glasses) for his iconic spectacles. Initially (and falsely) identified as the Big Bad in the first few episodes, before the plot really got rolling. A Badass Normal agent of the Company, whose job is to track down and tag superpowered individuals. This is complicated by his own daughter being just such a "person of interest", a fact which he is hiding from his superiors. After being pushed too far, he ultimately decides to screw his job and take down the entire Company himself (it doesn't turn out too well). In the 3rd season he's revealed to have been the Company's number one operative in the fight against supercriminals and directly responsible for the capture of most of the Level 5 Supervillains, making him something of the Heroes universe's version of Batman. He's reinstated by the Company in Volume 3 to help re-capture the escaped villains (including a very awkward brief partnership with a seemingly reformed Sylar that quickly degenerates into the two attempting to off each other), and later in Volume 4 is hired to help co-head Unit 26 in it's crusade against all supers (although it quickly turns out he's acting as a Reverse Mole loyal (in his own roundabout way) to the interests of supers, particularly daughter Claire and his real boss Ma Petrelli).Associated Tropes:
Ascended Extra: Kind of. He was originally only supposed to be in a few episodes in the first season, but he proved so popular they wrote him in full-time.
A financially distressed single mother, who owes a considerable amount of money to the mob. Further complicated by her super-strong Superpowered Evil Side Jessica, a ruthless split personality who has absolutely no qualms about slaughtering everyone in her path (including her estranged husband) that threatens the well-being of her and her son. She ultimately manages to gain control over her split personality, but joins the (kinder, friendlier) Company to try and set things right, and ends up seemingly being Stuffed into the Fridge by the end of Volume two. Later confirmed to be dead in Volume 3.Associated Tropes:
Niki and D.L.'s son. A child prodigy and comic book fan, with the ability to communicate with technology. From comic books he's gotten the notion that he and his family should be using their powers to help people, but mostly he's just caught in the tug-of-war between his flighty ex-con father and his mother's possessive psychopathic split-personallity. He finally finds a kindred spirit in his superpowered cousin, but their first attempt to fight crime goes horribly wrong. In Volume Four, he succeeds in orchestrating a resistance against Building 26 and the Government's crusade against evolved humans, using the codename "Rebel", which in the on-line comics is revealed to actually be the name of a super team he's formed with fellow evolved humans West, Abigail and Sparrow RedhouseAssociated Tropes:
The Cast Showoff: Noah Grey-Cabey is an accomplished pianist. Guess what we see Micah doing in Volume Two?
And his actions on the show are nothing compared to the Graphic Novel. He forms a team of bad asses (Including former Scrappy Wes) and proceed to lead them into battle where they kick the ass of every single one of Danko's agents, rescue people from Building 26 and, in the most recent graphic novel when Micah is tied up and at the mercy of Thompson Jr (Son of Bennet's old boss), manages to destroy the entire building with a remote control crane, summon his super team to beat Thompson senseless and then put Thompson's name on the top ten most wanted lists...all while TIED TO A CHAIR. Yes it IS a huge Crowning Moment of Awesome.
True Companions: Micah forms these when his wish to form a Super-Team comes true
D.L. Hawkins
A former thief with the ability to phase (become intangible), which he uses to escape imprisonment for a murder he didn't commit. He mostly just wants to have a normal life and be a good father to his son, which isn't easy considering his wife's Superpowered Evil Side wants him dead, and the leader of the Company/mob boss is gunning for him due to a misunderstanding over a buttload of money.Associated Tropes:
Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the stupidest way imaginable, and just as the fans were starting to really like him.
Reformed, But Rejected: As Jessica points out, life is tough for a Black ex-con, even without a psycho assassin trying to kill him.
Scary Black Man: A total subversion of the trope. Initially described as a bloodthirsty felon, he turns out to be a cuddly, devoted, hardworking dad.
Hiro Nakamura
A Japanese Salaryman and geeky Otaku who discovers he has the ability to bend time and space (which includes stopping/rewinding time, teleporting, and time-travel). Unlike all the other heroes, who spend several episodes just trying to figure out what the hell is going on, thanks to years of learning from comic books, Hiro knows he's got superpowers, and almost immediately and eagerly sets out on a quest to use his powers to Save The World from the impending nuclear destruction of New York City, dragging his non-powered lifelong buddy Ando along for the ride. After learning of his destiny to help save New York by stopping arch-villain Sylar, Hiro ultimately succeeds in his quest but in the process sends himself back to Feudal Japan. Here he meets his childhood idol, legendary hero Takezo Kensei, only to discover the man is a cynical, drunken, and rather goofy British mercenary more concerned with gold than helping to free the populace from the resident Evil Overlord. Hiro spends Volume Two attempting to tutor him into becoming the great hero of legends, but the two have a falling out over a girl, leading to Kensei's transformation into the Volume's immortal, humanity-hating Misanthrope SupremeBig Bad (Nice Job Breaking It, Hiro). After returning to the present Hiro learns of Kensei's(read: Adam's) scheme and stops him too. Hiro spends Volume Three attempting to prevent the prophecized destruction of the world caused by Pinehearst Industry's distribution of Super Serum, only to have his abilities stolen during his first confrontation with Physical GodBig BadEvil Overlord Arthur Petrelli. He spends Volume Four coping with the loss of his powers while trying to stop Building 26's crusade against evolved humans; he ultimately recovers a partial version of his original powers back (which he ultimately uses to pwn Danko and Building 26 once and for all), but it seems to take a major toll on his health as the new version forces him to Cast from Hit Points.Associated Tropes:
Adjusting Your Glasses: he has the character tic of pushing his glasses up by the bridge of the nose in a way that straddles the line between the western 'dork glasses' and eastern 'serious moment.' This is also lampshaded from time to time, like when Hiro meets his younger self, and they both adjust their glasses at the same time.
Cast from Hit Points: Hiro gets a weakened version of his power back from Matt Parkman Jr.'s power, only to find out that every time he uses it takes a toll on his body and brain and is slowly killing him.
Did Not Get the Girl: Happens early in Volume One with Charlie. Happens again in Volume Two with Yaeko, and in Volume Five where he manages to save Charlie from Sylar, but still loses her when she is sent back in time and builds another life without him.
Japanese Pronouns: "Boku" for regular Hiro, "Ore" for his future self. It's another major show of the differences between them when they first meet (aside from the shiny ponytail, pitch black wardrobe, broody exterior, and tiny beard, of course).
Psychic Nosebleed: As of Volume four, it appears using his partially restored powers is causing Hiro some sort of brain trauma
Rebel Prince: He doesn't want to take over Yamagato Industries and pointedly tells his father that Kimiko would be a better fit.
Steven Ulysses Perhero: His first name is a homophone for "Hero", and he's named after the city of (Hiroshima), which was destroyed in a nuclear explosion, calling back to his Volume One quest to stop New York from being destroyed by a nuclear explosion.
Stupid Good or Lawful Stupid: "I can't kill someone begging for forgiveness. It's not part of the bushido code."
Wrong Genre Savvy: Sadly, Hiro's behavior towards Daphne and Ando seems to show Volume Three is his turn to hold the Idiot Ball). (He bounces back to Genre Savvy pretty quickly, though, so props to him.)
Matt Parkman
A put-upon L.A. beat cop who discovers he has the ability to read minds. His powers put considerable strain on his family life when he learns his wife cheated on him with his partner. His life is further complicated after he's briefly kidnapped by the Company, and later he is recruited by the FBI to help track down superpowered serial killer Sylar. In Volume Two, he ends up divorced from his wife, adopting Molly alongside Dr. Suresh, discovering his deadbeat dad is a founder of the Company, and ultimately developing the ability to control people's minds. Volume Three saw him on a "Spirit Walk" where he gains prophetic powers which lead him to fall in (puppy) love with speedster thief Daphne(His vision of the future shows the two of them were married). He spends the rest of the Volume attempting to reform her away from Pinehearst Industries (to his credit, at least he manages to avoid the evil/dick phase that all the other characters save Hiro were going through at the time). He instead goes dark in Volume Four, where he goes on a revenge kick against Danko after the Building 26 leader denies Daphne medical treatment, leading to her death. He gets saved at the last minute by Hiro, who helps him recounsel with his enstranged family from Volume One(now including his new son, Matt Parkman, Jr.). The season finale sees him arriving in Washington D.C. just minutes too late for either final showdown (vs. Building 26 or vs. Sylar), although he does play a role in the finale as a walking Deus ex Machina thanks to his ability to reshape minds. Even so, he is still a fan favorite.Associated Tropes:
Berserk Button/Beware the Nice Ones: He loses it in Volume Four when Daphne gets killed. He starts using his powers to kill and torture people to get revenge.
Just ask Sylar. He certainly learns his lesson about messing with Parkman and his family.
Book Dumb: Sometimes. In Volume Three, he is able to lecture the other characters on how the Theory of Relativity posits that Daphne should be able to Time Travel if she can go fast enough.
Butt Monkey: Especially in Volume One, but he can never quite catch a break at any point in the show.
Left Hanging: The subplot about his sudden development of precognitive powers is completely dropped in Volume Five and the powers themselves are never mentioned.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: After Volume Three, they needed a new precognitive artist, so he suddenly developed the power. Even though he can't even draw. Which gets lampshaded.
Papa Wolf: Against Maury, in order to rescue Molly from her nightmare. It's badass.
Threaten Janice and Baby Matt, get trapped inside a nightmare in your own head. Matt even goes as far as to build a brick cell around Sylar's comatose body.
Superpower Lottery: Excepting Sylar, Peter, and Papa Petrelli, he's probably won it.
Mohinder Suresh
Professor Suresh is the series' narrator, an Indian geneticist whose father theorized the evolution of superpowered humans in response to impending global and environmental crisis. After his father's murder, Suresh travels to America to follow in his father's footsteps and investigate his theory of superpowered humans. Although he early on discovers he has an enemy called "Sylar" (the murderer of his father), he mostly ends up running face-first into dead ends, being the Chew Toy of the Company, falling in love with The Mole, and ultimately ending up as an Unwitting Pawn for Sylar himself. In Volume Two he helps Mr. Bennet infiltrate the Company with the intention of bringing it down, only to be seduced by their "kinder, gentler" new image and ultimately joining them in earnest, killing Mr. Bennet for them (he gets better) and ending up as their Unwitting Pawn. Volume Three saw him crossing the Moral Event Horizon by engineering his own superserum for the Big Bad and experimenting on himself. Volume Four saw him trying to atone for this.Associated Tropes:
The Atoner: Credit where credit is due — Mohinder's every bit as hard on himself as the fans are. He spends most of Volume 4 feeling rotten about Volume 3, for instance.
Beware the Nice Ones: In Volumes Two & Three, his allies often remark that Suresh is absolutely trustworthy and completely harmless, just a few minutes before he shoots them in the face, cocoons them in spiderwebs, or simply beats them up.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A rare non-Magnificent Bastard example. Suresh's constant betrayals towards his allies are more out of confusion and desperation rather than any master plan, and the only reason he keeps getting away with it seems to be the show's unusually high Idiot Ball quotient.
For Science!: The cause of many a poor move in Volume 3. Lampshaded by himself in Volume 4
Genius Bruiser: The superserum results in him gaining super strength and agility, but...
Going Native: Mohinder works with Mr. Bennet to take down the Company from within, but eventually becomes convinced that the Company is really the heroic organization and Bennet was misleading him.
Idiot Ball: He loves playing with it in Volume Two
Ignored Expert: For the extremely brief moment at the beginning of Season 2 when he holds the Smart Ball, Mohinder is the first person to warn about the Shanti Virus. He's regarded as a crackpot.
The Immune: In the first season, his blood contains the cure for the Shanti Virus which killed his sister.
Improbable Weapon User: He has attacked people with tuning forks, syringes, microscopes, rolling chalk boards, elephant sculptures, and taxi doors with an astonishing rate of success.
Though it's reduced to Super Strength after he takes the catalyst.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Volume Five, he is directly responsible for Samuel discovering the true nature of his powers, thus triggering the A-plot of the season.
Opening Narration: Almost every episode of Season 1 and 2, although at this point he's toned it down to a couple per season
Papa Wolf: Whatever else you can say for Mohinder, at the end of Season 1 he does manage to single-handedly take down Matt Parkman and holds HRG off at gunpoint in order to protect Molly Walker.
Put on a Bus: He's largely absent from Volume 5, due to having been murdered by Samuel Sullivan 3 months earlier, then saved by a time-traveling Hiro only to get put into an insane asylum. In his last appearance, he waves goodbye to everybody and walks off, stating that he can't participate in the upcoming final battle against Samuel because he has to go home and patch things up with his girlfriend (although he is good enough to build them a compass to locate Samuel with).
Too Dumb to Live: The number of instances is painful. Mohinder is not alone in this category by any means, but he stands out the most and warrants mention.
What Have I Become?: A side-effect of the serum includes scales and gradual mutation (in one of the future timelines)
The Villains
Sylar/Gabriel Gray
"The Face of Evil", Sylar is a manipulative serial killer who hunts down and kills other superhumans to steal their abilities, due to a drive to be "special". Formerly a New York watchmaker named Gabriel Gray, his initial ability to "understand how things work" allows him to steal superpowers by extracting the brains of his victims and study "what makes them tick". He ultimately attempts to destroy New York City in a complicated bid to become President of the United States (it actually does make sense), leading to a climactic showdown with the Heroes. In Volume Two, he's been stripped of his powers by the Company, and spends most of his time attempting to get them back, while manipulating the twins Maya and Alejandro to achieve his goal. After getting his powers back, Angela manipulates him so that he spent Volume Three as The Atoner (with foot stuck in the Heel Face Revolving Door) partnered with Noah Bennet and protecting his "family" (believing Angela to be his mother, and Peter to be his brother). He is shown reformed with a family in a possible future. We learn from a flashback episode that before he became Sylar he was dating Elle and that the Company pushed him to become Sylar. He rekindled his romance with Elle only to kill her afterwards when he realized that it was all based on a lie. He then proceeds to give Big BadEvil Overlord Papa Petrelli a fatal case of cranial intrusion (granted, Peter and The Haitian were about to kill the guy anyway), then goes after Mama Petrelli, leading to a final showdown against Claire, Mr. Bennet, Meredith Gordon, and the remaining Level 5 Supervillains. He spends Volume Four searching for his biological family on a search for self that only leads to disappointment when he learns that he really takes after his real dad, a once feared power-stealing supervillain who's now a broken old man dying of lung cancer. Determined not to end up like his old man, he joins forces with Danko in order to capture and consume all evolved humans, which leads to him taking on a shapeshifting power that he tries to use to achieve World Domination but which ultimately leads to him losing his sense of self...Associated Tropes:
Abusive Parent: His adoptive father neglected him a few times, and his mother seemed to be domineering towards him, wanting him to be perfect, even ascending to the Presidency (which evidently contributed a lot to his character). In addition, when she discovers his powers she reacts like Carrie's mother in Carrie and tries to kill him, but Sylar inadvertently does so by embracing her.
They were pretty bad, but they had nothing on his biological father, who sold him to them for pocket money and then murdered his biological mother right in front of him.
Adorkable: Arguably, Gabriel before he became Sylar. Just look at those glasses...
Angry Eyebrows: He does this thing with his eyebrows when he's particularly pissed off. Combine with the Kubrick Stare for an especially angry Death Glare.
Arch-Enemy: To pretty much every main character on the show.
Ax Crazy: He even says as much: "I really do want to change. But I'm insane, remember?"
Badass Bookworm: In Volume One, his apartment is shown filled from floor to ceiling in books. In Volume Five, his "living space" in his mental prison was shown to have piles and piles of books and clocks.
Berserk Button: Don't ever tell him that he's not special, lie to him about it, or exploit his issues for your own plans; that's just asking for it.
Beta Test Baddie: Sylar's desire to know how everything worked and his need for validation as special influenced his every decision. However, since he received nothing but constant rejection, it eventually drove him from mentally unstable to homicidally insane.
Big Eater: He's often seen snacking on something and once ate an entire pie by himself.This video even rounds up how often he's around food or mentions it. His desire for more abilities is explicitly described as a "hunger".
Big Ol' Eyebrows: It's his most distinctive characteristic. Aside from the psychotic serial killer thing.
Body Horror: Never mind the lobotomies. It seems Sylar's new shapeshifting power has a few side-effects... like extra teeth, uncontrollable shifting, and mental instability because The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body.
Brain Food: Heavily implied in the first season. Debunked in a later season.
Brainwashingfor The Greater Good: Applied to him by Parkman on Angela's orders. He manages to break through it, albeit at the price of being thoroughly confused about himself by the end of the series.
Breakout Villain: Thanks to a strong showing in Volume One, he's become the Face of Evil for the show.
Even Evil Has Standards: Sylar is horrified when he learns he might be the one to blow up New York. "They're innocent. There's no gain. So why would I do it?" He gets over it pretty quickly after his mom dies though.
Also around the time he decides he doesn't want to work with Danko anymore because killing a scared, lonely orphan is low even by his standards.
Evil Mentor: To Maya in Volume Two, as well as Luke in Volume Four (although that one doesn't last too long).
Evil Is Not a Toy: Every Big Bad who has ever tried to use Sylar to fulfill their own agenda has had it blow up in their faces. Often with fatal results.
Exact Words: When Sylar meets the person who uses Telekinesis, he offers to help him get rid of the power he has. He certainly meant it when he said that he'd help him get rid of it. What he doesn't tell him is that the way he's going to help him is by bludgeoning his head with a crystalline paperweight.
Gender Bender: The first thing he does when he gets the ability to shapeshift.
The Gift: Rapidly masters all acquired powers, whereas most original owners (including our intrepid heroes) have to go through a long period of How Do I Shot Web? and Power Incontinence.
Good Thing You Can Heal: When he took Claire's abilities, he basically stops trying to avoid getting hurt. Snap his neck? He sets it right back. Go ahead, shoot him, he'll get right back up. And when Elle blasts him full of all the electricity she can muster, all that gets destroyed are his clothes. This got especially glaring since up until he had her power he was a very good fighter and deflected bullets with ease so he never got hit in the first place. Jamming a shard of glass into the back of skull would've never happened to pre-regeneration Sylar. Now he treats his body like a meat shield.
Heel Face Brainwashing: Twice: when he's turned into Nathan, and after being stuck for five mental years in a nightmare.
Heel Face Revolving Door: He switches sides every other episode in Volume Three, before finally settling down back to his old villainous self. At the end of Volume Five, his latest Heel Face Turn seems to actually stick.
Hero Killer: Has by far racked up the show's highest count of both main character and supporting character kills. Every hero knows that when Sylar shows up, they're in for the fight of their lives. It's a credit to the heroes that by Volume Five most of them have become powerful enough in their own right to successfully fight against him.
At this point it's less that they have become more powerful (though they have), and more that it seems Sylar has Fallen A Level In Badass, especially because he doesn't quite know what he wants, and either can't or doesn't want to kill.
I Just Want to Be Special: This is the foundation of Sylar's entire characterization. No matter how erratic he is, it's all because of his pathological need to be genuinely acknowledged as special.
Improbable Weapon User: He likes nailing people to walls and ceilings with common household objects.
In the Blood: Looks like the Hunger runs in the family.
Informed Flaw: For all the show's talk about "the Hunger", Sylar seems perfectly capable of interacting with other supers without the uncontrollable urge to kill them and eat...err..."study" their brains. Notably, he has spared both Luke and Micah, and also refrained from snacking on Doyle despite dragging him across the country for more than a day.
It's All About Me: He normally couldn't care less about the intentions behind blowing up New York or the rounding up of specials to lock them away; it's when his severely disturbed mental issues are exploited as tools that he gets really pissed.
Joker Immunity: Sylar was supposed to die in Volume One but had become far too popular by the end. The writers have been trying, with increasing desperation, to justify his role on the show ever since. Volume Four briefly continued the trend by introducing yet another villainous father figure in his biological father, Samson Gray.
Just Between You and Me: Sylar tells Alejandro that he plans on using Maya as a toy after he gets her to harness her plague power. It's justified in this case, as he is perfectly aware that Alejandro won't understand a thing he says anyways, as Alejandro does not speak nor understand English.
Line-of-Sight Name: He got the name Sylar off the watch he was fixing when he killed his first victim.
Lonely at the Top: In Volume Five, after receiving a kickass "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Hiro and being haunted by the absorbed memories of family, love, and brotherhood from Matt and Nathan, Sylar finally realizes that being the Ultimate Evil may have allowed him to become the most powerful man on the planet, but it's also completely cut him off from all human connections, making him destined to spend eternity alone. This eventual prompts a complete Villainous Breakdown and finally a seemingly genuine Heel Face Turn.
The Aloner: Spends 3 years alone in a world where he is the only person alive, and an additional several years alone with only Peter Petrelli to keep him company, all thanks to being trapped in his worst nightmare by Matt Parkman.
Manipulative Bastard: Is currently taking it to new extremes while he's sealed up inside Matt Parkman's head. It bordered on Mind Rape eventually.
Meaningful Name: Gabriel Gray: Alliterative, Biblical, and "Gray" can mean boring, neither good nor evil, or even "gray matter". Don't forget that the color gray is what you get when you mix all the colors of the spectrum.
Misapplied Phlebotinum: Has the ability to "understand how things work," which could potentially be used to crank out Nobel Prizes on a weekly basis, and all he can think to do with it is steal brains.
Justified by "The Hunger," which for some reason forces him to want to eat brains (or whatever it is he does).
"The Hunger" is his need to know more. Humans are naturally curious creatures and Sylar is still human, if he understands how everything works except for abilites, it makes sense that he would have "hunger" to figure them out.
My God, What Have I Done?: Briefly during Volume Three, in a flashback to his days as Gabriel Gray, shortly after his murder of Brian Davis when a horrified Gabriel tried to hang himself.
And again in Volume Five, when he suffers from amnesia and begins to relearn his memories.
My Hero Zero: He was Chandra Suresh's "patient zero."
Power Parasite: Another Power Sponge-type. Throughout the series, he has collected the following powers (several of which were lost after Volume One when he was infected with the Shanti virus):
Mega Manning: He uses his power of "intuitive aptitude" to study the powers of others, which allows him to steal them. Initially, he does this by cutting open their heads and actually physically examining their brains (and not, as was previously believed, by eating them). Later, he learned how to do it without the slicing and dicing, but he still prefers that method anyway.
Mind Over Matter: Favorite / most used power and first acquired through the slice and dice method from Brian Davis.
Personality Powers: Like Peter, his personality seems to shift a bit whenever he takes on a new power. The actor has said that this is intentional on his part and that Sylar has been absorbing parts of his victims' personalities when he steals a new power
President Evil: In "Five Years Gone." And he is narrowly prevented from becoming one in the main timeline in the Volume Four finale.
Psychopathic Manchild: Type C. Sylar is extremely powerful and is more than capable of holding his own in a fight. He also loves messing with people using toys and other typically mundane objects, and has a tendency to make childish comments or play up an innocently childish demeanor. Sylar is shown to treat abilities as a toy collection and has referred to Maya and other specials as new toys. All of this emphasizes how deeply unhinged and extremely dangerous he actually is.
Really Gets Around: Hooked up with Elle, Maya, and ostensibly Lydia, and has kissed Claire and Angela. Except that he later kills Elle, shoots Maya, Claire jams a pencil in his eye as retaliation, and he kissed Angela just to mess with her. (Lydia managed to escape his wrath, but she ends up being killed by Samuel and Eli.)
Redemption Demotion: Seen in Volume Five during the process of his Heel Face Turn. Having lost his "killer instinct," Sylar is quite a bit less effective now that he's unable to kill (to the point of being taken captive by Doyle, a man who had previously been his Butt Monkey on at least three separate occasions). Although he was apparently still powerful enough to pwn Eli the Replicating Man. On the other hand, he did manage to easily deal with Doyle shortly after being taken captive without killing him (by wiring him like a puppet and tying him up)
Signature Move: Using his telekinesis to slice through a victim's forehead. Originally, he did this in order to get at the brain. Eventually, he started doing it to everyone, powered or otherwise. In Volume Four, he uncovers a repressed memory and learns that he picked it up from his biological father, who used it to murder his mother.
Slouch of Villainy: Done in Volume Five, as he torments Parkman at home and at work.
Social Darwinist: His initial justification for snacking on supers, although unlike most examples of this trope he doesn't seem to have any ill will towards normal, un-evolved humans... as long as they don't get in his way.
Stealth Hi/Bye: Does this almost as much as Jason Voorhees.
He even manages to do it from sitting in the back seat of an occupied car. The most ridiculous part is none of this has ever been explained by any of his abilities either.
In Volume One, it was heavily implied that he could levitate using telekinesis, which could explain most of his stealthy appearances and disappearances.
Sweet Tooth: Every time Sylar is seen eating, it's always something sweet or some kind of junk food. He lights up at the sight of a cake, except for the fact that his hands were soaked in blood. Sylar loves pie so much that he ate an entire one by himself.
Terrible Ticking: The ticking clock sound effect that plays whenever Sylar's up to his old tricks evokes this trope. Even though it's not literally a ticking he can hear, it symbolizes that he can see how everything works in a way no one else can, which drives him insane.
Villainous BSOD: Sylar suffered from it thrice: Once was when he learned about his potential role in destroying New York City. The second is shortly after he gains his chameleon abilities, where it becomes apparent that he is losing touch with his memories and especially his sanity, where he is forced to write "I Am Sylar" in such a way that would potentially expose his survival just to ensure he held onto his sense of identity. The third (and presumably final) time he experienced this was when he is sealed off. Sylar also was implied to have suffered one after Hiro meddled the timeline.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Apparently, "understanding how things work" also comes with an uncontrollable drive to poke around inside people's brains. Okaaaaay, then.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Sylar didn't kill Molly Walker, spares Luke's life, and outright saves Micah from Danko. He did messily kill the Alpha Bitch and made a good-faith effort to snack on Claire's brain, though.
Mr. Daniel Linderman
A Las Vegas businessman/mob boss, Linderman is in fact a ruthless puppetmaster and the leader of the Company during Volume One. An affable old man with the ability to heal via touch, Linderman is sick and tired of human suffering, and after realizing that healing one person at a time simply isn't doing the job, wants to unify the world and create a utopia by... staging a massive national tragedy. Namely destroying New York City with an exploding superhuman. He spends much of Volume One attempting to seduce Nathan to his cause and harassing the Sanders family to play their part in his scheme, which ultimately backfires on him when the Sanders family tracks him down and caves his head in. Returns in Volume Three as a ghost, initially. It turned out that Linderman is simply a mental image planted into Nathan Petrelli and new Volume Three character Daphne Millbrook by Maury Parkman.Associated Tropes:
Anti-Villain: Given what he was like in the War Buddies chapter, as well as his implied guilt about causing the Petrelli's accident and attempting to make amends by healing Heidi, its hinted by Volume 3 that he was this.
Even Evil Has Standards: Linderman gets sick of having to watch Arthur routinely brainwash Angela.
He also began to have doubts about doing a second assassination attempt on Nathan from Arthur.
Linderman also did not like it when his accountant took the money from DL Hawkins and made it seem as though he wasn't closing the deal and stole the money to buy diamonds for himself.
It was Linderman's money that was stolen. That's not standards, that's just punishing betrayal.
Freudian Excuse: Malcolm McDowell implies that Lindermann's motivations stemmed from a bad childhood in an interview. Given what was shown in Volume 4, its likely that his "bad childhood" was being placed in Warehouse 8 (the former Warehouse 8 from the 1950s), and given his reaction and deduction about what the camp actually was, its also likely that he may have spent some time in a Concentration Camp, or at least was descended from people who were put in the Concentration Camps.
Save The Enemy: Subverted, He intended to heal a Vietnamese girl who could manipulate plants after Arthur Petrelli shot her, but Arthur stopped him before he could.
You Said You Would Let Them Go: Subverted: When DL Hawkins gives Lindermann's Amoral Attorney Lindermann's fees, the Amoral Attorney implies that Lindermann was backing out on the deal. However, the next episode has Jessica killing the Amoral Attorney for stealing the funds to buy diamonds for himself, implying that Lindermann actually intended to keep his word.
Elle Bishop
A young, self-described sociopathic thrill killer and agent of the Company with the ability to generate lethal bolts of electricity from her hands. She's the daughter of Bob Bishop, the new leader of the Ancient Conspiracy following the death of Mr. Linderman. At the end of Volume Two, she starts showing doubts about her path in life after Mr. Bennet reveals to her that her screwed-up personality is largely due to painful experiments conducted on her by her father throughout her entire childhood, and ends the Volume saving Mohinder, Molly, and Maya from Sylar, for which they call her a "hero". After her father is murdered by Sylar at the beginning of Volume Three, Elle is fired from The Company and spends some time searching for a purpose in life (even briefly teaming up and bonding with Claire over their mutual Superpower Incontinence) before finally falling back into bad habits alongside the other supervillains over at Pinehearst Industries. Has a Pet the Dog moment when its revealed that she indulged in a pie eating/soul saving session with proto-serial killer Gabriel Gray and then later does an Evil Is Sexy turn when she gets it on with Sylar. Beforehand she gives him advice: do what he wants for himself, which ultimately leads to her getting Sylared.
The oldest, first known superpowered human. Adam Monroe was a British mercenary fighting in Feudal Japan under the identity of Takezo Kensei (a legendary hero and childhood idol of Hiro's) who discovered he had the ability to regenerate from all wounds, effectively making him immortal. Although initially a rudderless drunk, he was inspired by a time-traveling Hiro to become a legendary hero. However, the two had a falling out over a girl, leading to Adam Monroe pulling a Face Heel Turn, spending the ages fighting in constant wars and growing to hate mankind more and more. He ultimately comes to think of himself as a god, founded the Company by seeking out 12 like-minded disciples(Most superpowered), and ultimately attempts to wipe out 99% of the human race with a super-virus to end hunger, poverty, and war and allow him to rule over the remaining survivors as their "hero". Adam returns in Volume Three when Hiro needs information about the Company's superserum. He makes a break for it and is ultimately caught by Arthur Petrelli's Legionof Doom and has his immortality stolen by Arthur, "aging" him to death.
Light is Not Good:Light seems to be a theme with him, due to his Knight Templar motivation and his Fallen Hero status, so much so that the episode where he is killed is called Dying of the Light
The mother of Peter and Nathan Petrelli, revealed to be one of the 12 leaders of the Company. A ruthless pragmatist who was highly involved in Linderman's plan to make the world a better place, even if it meant killing off 0.07% of the human population. Has the superpower of precognitive dreams, which was the first superpower her son Peter absorbed. Is also extremely adept at manipulating people to do what she wants. As of Volume Three and Four, while she isn't exactly a good guy, it's harder to call her a straight-up villain.
Humiliation Conga:The start of Volume Two, where she's apparently hit financial tough times after her plan to destroy New York went bust. She got better after assuming control of The Company after Bob's untimely Sylarfication, though.
Manipulative Bastard: Sylar all but tells her that he is in awe of her level of manipulation and lying and even he would love to aspire to that level of evil.
Meaningful Name: This may be a coincidence, but Mama Petrelli shares her first name with the actress who plays Raymond Shaw's mother in The Manchurian Candidate. You know, the mother who is willing to sacrifice her son and let him become a killer in order to get another male relative elected president, so that through him she and her shadowy syndicate can take over the U.S. government under the pretext of hunting down undesirables, even though she and her friends are in fact members of said undesirable groups themselves. Sound familiar?
One of the twelve founding members of the Company, Angela's estranged husband, and father to Peter, Nathan, and NOT Sylar. Believed to have committed suicide prior to Volume One, Arthur reemerged in Volume Three as the head of Pinehearst, an organization acting in opposition to the Company, seeking the secret to creating artificial superhumans... a secret which the show's clairvoyants all agree will lead to horrible disaster.
All Your Powers Combined/Combo Platter Powers/Mega Manning: Much like Rogue of the X-Men, he can steal powers with a touch. Unlike Rogue, his thefts are always permanent. He uses this ability to steal Adam's power, as well as all of Peter's accumulated powers up to that point, giving him:
He also had Telepathy dating back to before his first appearance. It is unclear if this is his own naturally occurring power or if he stole it from someone else. He is shown to be able to use it to activate a Compelling Voice, create Laser-Guided Amnesia, and administer a Poke In The Third Eye.
Amoral Attorney: For Linderman, before the events of Volume One.
Evil Overlord: Fits pretty much every item on the checklist.
Eviler than Thou: In the two episodes following his introduction, he sucked the life out of Adam Monroe, killed Maury Parkman with a gesture, and overpowered Sylar without breaking a sweat. He's defeated more villains than any of the actual good guys!
And as of Our Father, he got his own Eviler-ing at the hands of Sylar.
Offing the Offspring: He doesn't hesitate to try and kill Peter and Nathan at the first sign of trouble.
Orcus on His Throne: When he bothered to act, he accomplished his goal immediately. But he didn't do it very often, instead deligating most tasks to an increasingly incompetent series of superpowered minions.
The Other Darrin: In the famous group photo of the Company founders, his face is kept obscured from the camera, but the man identified as Arthur Petrelli is clearly not Robert Forster.
Physical God: Thanks to effective power stealing, including Peter's copying power, Arthur can basically do anything at this point. Go read the list of Physical God traits. He has most of them.
Screw Destiny: He knows that all of the show's precogs and time travelers are predicting that his plan will end in an Earth-Shattering Kaboom, but he believes he can avert it. Which is not entirely unreasonable for a Time Master.
Too Powerful to Live: With all of Peter's former powers, most notably Hiro's ability, he pretty much had to die for the show to continue.
Superpower Lottery: Like Sylar, but he doesn't have to kill people. And now he has all of Peter's powers too... and unlike Pete, he seems to have perfect control over all of them.
Tempting Fate: He tells Peter he doesn't have the guts to shoot him. Needless to say, he was wrong.
Villanous Breakdown: When he realizes that his powers no longer work and Peter doesn't share Nathan's loyalty, he looks visibly panicked and tries to taunt and guilt Peter into not killing him.
We Can Rule Together: To Peter and Nathan. Peter doesn't fall for it. Nathan, on the other hand...
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He believes that he can use the Super Serum to grant good powers to the best people and thus make the world a better place. Unfortunately, in the Heroes 'verse, Never Be a Hero is the order of the day.
Also, it is hinted that, had Arthur succeeded with his plans, it would have resulted in someone blowing up the planet (its unknown who, although Volume 5 implies that it is Samuel Sullivan).
The veteran leader of Nathan's government Black Ops team tasked with hunting down and capturing all evolved humans. A single-minded, ruthless, and somewhat unstable hardliner, he regards the supers as targets rather than people, and repeatedly expresses deep fear and hatred of them, seeming to believe that they should be killed off instead of merely detained. This attitude frequently leads him into conflict with Nathan and Noah Bennet, who advocate a more "humane approach" towards the superhuman roundup. His drive to be proven right and vindicated no matter what the cost leads him to attempt to fake a suicide bombing of Washington D.C. by a superpowered individual to turn public opinion in his favor. When that fails, leading to him being fired, he ends up shoving his boss Nathan out a window and taking total control of the operation himself. From there he gets crazier and crazier as the series progresses, to the point where he ends up secretly teaming up with Sylar, thinking that it's a good idea and he's got the situation completely under control. Sure, good luck with that...
Bad Boss:Especially in the online comics and mini-series, where he's shown pushing his men to the brink and also sending them into potentially hazardous situations blind with poor intel. Plus it's implied that he's fed two of his men to Sylar so Sylar could assume their identities, as well as setting things up so that one of the personnel would end up killed by Tracey Strauss in an escape orchestrated by him to prevent an implied shutdown of the division by the government.
It should be noted that when push came to shove, Danko's men were completely prepared to believe that he'd cracked and shot his own men, rather than believing Danko's story of shapeshifting killers, despite knowing that such things are entirely possible. Apparently that's the sort of reputation you get amongst your co-workers when you enlist them to fake attacks on your own citizens by the enemy.
Enemy Mine: Danko was implied to have been called by Samuel Sullivan's brother to arrest Samuel. Considering the fact that he actually accepted an offer from someone who is implied to be a well known evolved human, its implied that things with Samuel are as bad as they are gonna get if he actually wishes to work with the very thing he hates just to get rid of another one.
A Father to His Men:Although he sometimes treats his men like dirt, he does seem to genuinely care about their lives. This is seemingly the only attribute of his that is in any way remotely positive... However, he did feed two of his men to Sylar so Sylar could assume their identities.
Humiliation Conga: Sylar frames Danko for murdering his own mooks so that they detain him at Building 26.
Manipulative Bastard: In the earliest point of the season, he deliberately set things up so that Tracey Strauss would escape and eventually kill a guard who tried to restrain her so as to give a reason why the division shouldn't be shut down, an action that was not only something Nathan disapproved of, but was also implied to have been done behind Nathan Petrelli's back without Nathan's knowledge.
Morality Pet:His secret girlfriend, although since he was deceiving her and using her to fulfill his emotional needs, even that aspect of his life was pretty dickish.
Muggle Power:Pretty much his entire reason for existing.
Perpetual Frowner:His two main emotions seem to be deeply upset or completely pissed.
Smug Snake:Especially in "I Am Sylar", where he thinks he has Sylar completely under control. When he realizes this has been, in fact, a fatal mistake, the look on his face is priceless.
The Starscream:When he says he intends to take down all evolved humans, he means it, even if its towards his own boss.
Villainous Breakdown:You can just see all the little psychological cracks in his brain get bigger and bigger as the season progresses. Not that it makes him any less dangerous, though.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted: Danko attempts to kill Sylar once his usefulness is at an end by stabbing his sweet spot. It backfires horribly after it became apparent that said "sweet spot" moved as a result of his enhanced chameleon abilities.
Samuel Sullivan
The owner of a carnival, Samuel is the new villain on the scene, but his motives are, for now, shrouded in mystery. Though it seems that his primary motivation is a huge thirst for power...
Berserk Button: Hurting one of the "family" members (although he himself has no qualms of doing so if it means framing a normal human, as evidenced by when he had one of his mutants kill another mutant and frame Noah Bennet for the deed).
Biblical Names/Meaningful Name: In the Old Testament, Samuel was the prophet who drove the Philistines from the Holy Land, formed the Kingdom of Israel, and anointed Saul as its first king.
Cain and Abel: He murdered his brother Joseph in a rage after the latter refused to tell him the truth about his power.
Death by Childbirth: It's implied that his mother died in the massive earthquake that coincided with his birth. Might also fall under Self-Made Orphan, as it is also implied that the massive earthquake happened because of his birth.
Devil in Plain Sight: He looks and acts fairly sinister, but the only character who immediately sees his evil upon meeting him is Noah Bennet.
Dishing Out Dirt: With a twist. He apparently utilizes some sort of unseen energy that connects Powered Humans to each other. The more that are close to him, the greater the magnitude of his powers. And thus his single-minded determination to gather specials to him.
Disproportionate Retribution: After being turned down by his long-time crush, he wipes out an entire town and goes on to try and destroy New York City. This guy does not take rejection well.
Heck, in the second episode, he creates a giant sinkhole under the house where he was born, killing and maiming a dozen people (and maybe more). Why? Because the owner of the house gave him the brush off when he asked to have a look around.
Faux Affably Evil: He makes a big show of being a wise and caring Father to His Men, but inside he's a cold and manipulative Jerkass who cares only about satisfying his own selfish desires.
Fetus Terrible: He nearly destroyed Coyote Sands when he was still in the womb.
From Nobody to Nightmare: He used to be a drunk-off-his-rocker useless layabout assistant to his brother Joseph, a rather upright ring leader. It was only after accidentally killing his brother and learning more about his powers did he hijack the carnival, reinvent himself as a idealistic, charismatic messiah offering sanctuary, and claw his way towards Magnificent Bastardry.
Genre Savvy: Maybe he reads some X-men comics on the side, but the whole "sanctuary for people like us" schtick was something he had to come up with as a lure on his own. And it worked about as well as it does in the comics.
Gotta Catch Them All: He'll recruit as many "specials" as he can get, by hook or by crook.
Jumped at the Call: Possibly. He mentions something to the effect of, "I was free when I found I could move the very earth beneath my feet."
Love Makes You Evil: Subverted. Although it is implied shortly after Vanessa breaks off the relationship with him that he decided to eliminate all of humanity because of her breakup, he later admits that his wanting to eliminate normal people's only relation to Vanessa was when she expressed fear of his powers, something he actually liked, meaning that her breakup had barely anything, if at all, to do with his next actions.
Monster Clown: Technically speaking, as he runs a carnival that more often than not would have people you'd expect from the circus, he qualifies as a clown. And boy, is he monstrous.
New Era Speech: He really loves to give these to his "family," especially over their communal dinner table.
Omniglot: Despite having no formal education whatsoever, he is fluent in at least three languages (English, Japanese, and American Sign Language), which just happen to be the three languages he needs to converse with every one of the season's major characters.
Person of Mass Destruction: Without a notable power-up that he eventually intends to gain, he's able to level entire towns with a little concentration. If he gathers enough people around him, he'd probably rival Ted in sheer power, except Samuel would actually be able to control it. Supported by the many Volume 3 prophecies in which the earth is cracking open in a world full of specials.
Popularity Power: An in-universe example. The more "specials" he gathers around himself, the more powerful he becomes.
Self-Made Orphan: Sort of... His parents are never mentioned, but the closest to a parent is his brother, and he essentially murdered him after learning his brother called Danko to arrest him.
Also, as noted by the Death by Childbirth trope, his mom died while giving birth to him during an earthquake, and it is implied that the earthquake was caused by his birth.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Subverted. His stated goal of creating a sanctuary where "specials" can be protected from Fantastic Racismwould be a laudable one...but it's only a cover for gathering together enough "specials" to boost his power to godlike levels.
You Kill It, You Bought It: Despite the name, the Sullivan Bros. Carnival was really run by his brother Joseph...until he killed Joseph and took it over.
Supporting and Minor Characters
Ando Masahashi
Hiro's best friend and a fellow coworker at the same company. Despite his Deadpan Snarker personality, he is loyal to Hiro and is his almost-constant companion, though occasional feuds (such as the one caused when Hiro saw Ando kill him in an alternate future) do happen. More worldly than Hiro, often tries to rein his friend in, but he secretly enjoys their adventures sometimes. Recently gained some powers of his own from a Super Serum. Most of his dialogue with Hiro is in Japanese (though he speaks English better than Hiro.)
Translator Buddy: He becomes this to Hiro in Volume 3 when Arthur Petrelli uses his powers to alter Hiro's memory and makes him think he is a kid. Hiro therefore knows only a few English words until he gets better.
Molly Walker
A young girl with the ability to locate anyone. She was orphaned after her powered parents had a run-in with Sylar. She was adopted by Matt and Mohinder, then unceremoniously Put on a Bus.
Has Two Daddies:Mohinder and Matt raise her together in Volume Two
The Little Detecto: She has the ability to locate anyone. Bennet referred to her as The Company's new tracking system until she was put in the care of Matt and Mohinder.
Win the no-prize for being the most loathed new characters in Volume Two (and generally considered the most loathed characters of the series, though some campaign hard for Mohinder, Claire and anyone played by Ali Larter). Fans call them the Blessed with Suck Twins, which says it all.
Micah's cousin who is able to mimic the (non-superpowered) abilities of anyone she sees. She was also introduced in Volume Two, but was much more well-liked by the fandom. She has also been unceremoniously Put on a Bus.
A painter and comic book illustrator. He also had precognitive abilities — the catch was that his ability was dependent on heroin. He was killed by Sylar about halfway through Volume one. That hasn't stopped him from being a fairly important supporting character though...
A cynical fellow with the ability to make normal people not notice him, essentially making him invisible. He became a Trickster Mentor to Peter and is one of the most popular minor characters.
Actor Allusion: One of the first things he says is "fantastic" in a very sarcastic tone. This was the catch phrase of another of Christopher Eccleston's characters.
No One Could Survive That: The flashback sequence where Bennet shoots him and he seems to fall to his death. (Though he obviously did survive that since he's around to teach Peter.)
Magical Native American: Averted. Despite being a Native American the only stereotypical facet to the character is her "One with the Earth" powers and they don't make a big deal out of it.
Caitlin
Oirish chick who is, as far as we know, still stranded in Bad Future Version 2.0.
One of the twelve founders of the Company, who takes it over in Volume 2 after the death of Mr. Linderman. Killed by Sylar offscreen as part of the great season 2 character purge.
Boring, but Practical: Both his power and the man himself (unlike his Magnificent Bastard predecessor, Bob's sole motivation seemed to be to just keep the Company running smoothly and doing what it was created to do, instead of using it for his own utopian schemes).
Screw Destiny: The other founders believe that the destruction of New York is inevitable, but he thinks Peter can avert it through The Power of Love.
Kaito Nakamura
Hiro Nakamura's father, CEO of Yamagoto Industries, and one of the twelve founders of the Company. He was killed by Adam Monroe at the beginning of Volume Two.
Well Done Son Guy: To both of his children. He withholds his approval from Hiro because he sees him as weak and from Kimiko because she's a woman. He finally does give Hiro his approval, and then is killed either shortly before or shortly thereafter, depending on how you look at it.
Matt Parkman's father and one of the twelve founders of the Company. He acted as a minion for both Adam Monroe and Arthur Petrelli, until the latter killed him.
Even Mooks Have Loved Ones: He was a terrible father, but he only worked for Arthur Petrelli on the condition that his son would be protected, and his objection to Arthur reneging on that promise is what gets him killed.
Card-Carrying Villain: Mainly because his backstory was cut from the show proper:though it is available in webisode format.
Disney Death: Possibly: Despite being shown to have been frozen and shattered in the final Volume 3 episode, he was shown on a wanted billboard at the warehouse, implying that he was at large.
Even Evil Has Standards: He did not like the idea of Arthur Petrelli trying to mass-produce supers (which also acted as the reason why he intended to destroy the serum).
Luke the Nuke is Sylar's sidekick that he picked up in Volume 4 who was helping him find his father. Luke hero-worships Sylar and considers him to be his bestest friend ever.
A guy with the power to create miniature black holes, who accidentally killed his neighbour and got locked up by the Company in Level 5 for it.
Bad Powers, Bad People: Subverted, almost to the point of being a deconstruction. Despite what the Company (and Claire, at first) think, and despite his having the perfect power for a legitimately threatening villain, he isn't a bad guy. He's very desperate to subvert this image, to the point of killing himself rather than take another life, even if it is the life of a serial killer.
Hitman with a Heart: He wants out. He gets his wish when HRG and Claire re-appear at the carnival and he helps them get the rest of the carnies away from Samuel.
Ship Tease: With both Samuel and Edgar. And possibly Sylar...
Single Mom Stripper: Kind of. She has a teenage daughter named Amanda and a job taking off most of her clothes.
Stuffed In The Fridge: She's murdered by Eli in a setup by Samuel to gain back the support of the carnival as part of his final endgame. Though it's less a "fridging" than Samuel taking out his most powerful obstacle within the Carnival.
I Just Want to Be Special: At least part of her attraction to Claire seems to be Claire's own specialness. Plus there was her desire to play Nancy Drew when Claire's first roomate died.
Lethal Harmless Powers: And when she channels her emotions into them, she can create incredibly powerful effects such as drawing people in like a siren, or slicing/smashing things like a telekinetic.
