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The Founders
Angela Petrelli
Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose)
- Ability: Precognitive Dreaming
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.
Associated Tropes:
- Anti-Hero: See Nominal Hero
- Batman Gambit
- Big Good: In Volume 3. And in Heroes Reborn.
- The Cassandra: Averted. Her visions and dreams are considered serious and valuable insights, although she has been wrong on occasion.
- Consummate Liar: She managed to keep such major secrets such as superpowers, ancient conspiracies, unknown family members, and multiple homicides from her sons for years even after one of them acquired powers like mind reading. She also totally crushes Danko when he questions her trying to get dirt on her other son / his boss.
- Cryptic Conversation: Whatever "Pandora's Box" was.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Angela has the ability to see the future while dreaming. She also seems able to appear in other people's dreams, as she used this aspect of her power to wake Sylar and get him save Peter, even while she was trapped in her own mind.
- Evil Matriarch: All her actions have shady motivations and she's not above using her children if the end justified the means (even considering killing one son at one point).
- In light of the events of V3, however, it's difficult to figure out if Angela was always such a Cold Hard Bitch, or became one after she found out that her husband had been mind-controlling her for years, mind-raping her into going along with the aforementioned (narrowly averted) Offing the Offspring.
- Evil Old Folks: Sometimes.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: She tends to go around and around the sides of morality throughout the series.
- 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.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Her favorite justification.
- Kick the Dog: Many, many times.
- Knight Templar: She justifies all kinds of evilness by saying that it's for the greater good or to save the world.
- Love Makes You Evil: Averted, considering she learned her husband's treacherous and violent nature and attempted to poison him.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: She revealed herself to be Sylar's mother, but was lying.
- Mama Bear: She poisons her husband to stop him from killing Nathan. But also subverted in Volume 2 when Peter is being manipulated by Adam, she tells Matt to put a bullet in Peter's brain if he has to.
- 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: 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?
- Nominal Hero: Angela cares about protecting herself and her erratically heroic sons more than anything else. For anything short of saving the world, getting her help will likely involve more evil than you're trying to stop.
- Parental Substitute: She keeps trying to adopt Sylar, with mixed results.
- Power Hair: She has this to go along with her painfully perfect cutthroat high society aide. It really shouldn't come as a surprise when it turns out she's an Evil Matriarch and in league with Linderman to destroy New York.
- In later seasons the actress's hair got longer, and she started arranging it in a very tight updo which creates an even more power-y effect. The comparison became obvious in a flashback to pre-season 1 before Arthur's apparent death.
- Stepford Smiler: Obviously never smiles until the most opportune moment.
Daniel Linderman
Mr. Daniel Linderman (Malcolm McDowell)
- Ability: Healing
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.
- Affably Evil: He acts more like a kindly grandfather then a mob boss. Hell, the first thing he does when he is confronted in Vegas was offer the person accosting him a pot pie. McDowell describes him as such:The man is a healer. He has obviously got a wonderful side to him. He's wonderful with children, wonderful with pets. What more can I say about him? He's the life and soul of a party. He tells a good joke. He's a delightful man and the kind of person that would be a very fine uncle to your children. But having said that, there is a side to him which is a little bit dark, he has this power thing. And he feels that, and I'm not saying that I feel that which is what he feels obviously, is that the world is in such a state that the human race is so decadent and out of - is that me? No. Anyway that, he thinks the answer to that is starting again. And it's obviously a kind of strange way of going about things but there are other people on this planet at the moment I'd say that think the same unfortunately, and they are dangerous. And Linderman, I don't know. He must have had quite an unhappy childhood I think for him to have taken it that far.
- Anti-Villain: It's hinted by Volume 3 that he was this, 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.
- Beard of Evil: He sports one hell so a beard.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Split between him and Sylar in Volume One.
- Big Eater: He's a man of incredible means but seems to enjoy cooking most, believing that people are at their happiest when eating.
- The Chessmaster: Linderman seems to have his hooks in everything, especially DL and Niki. His apparent omniscience is helped along by being a collector of art... particularly art made by Isaac who paints the future.
- Cool Old Guy: Malcolm McDowell did not hold back in his age making this guy so badass and intelligent at the same time. His final plan for the Sanders family may or may not be his best way to end his career as a villain, however.
- Dark Messiah: A self-proclaimed "humanitarian", his stated goal in life is to "heal the world"...which he plans to start by blowing up most of New York. He also comes with a set of Healing Hands that can make the blind see and the lame walk, just in case you missed it otherwise.
- Diabolical Mastermind: Tim Kring compared him to a James Bond villain:I looked at Linderman almost as a Bond villain. The Bond movies always have someone new and interesting; Linderman was our first. He was our Dr. No.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- He gets sick of having to watch Arthur routinely brainwash Angela.
- He was also horrified that Arthur was planning on murdering Nathan to begin with, appalled that anyone could be so heartless about their own children.
- Evil Brit: Kind of. Linderman was portrayed by Malcolm McDowell, but the character's last name as well as his reference to concentration camps in Volume 4's flashback implies that he hailed from Germany or at least was descended from Jewish Germans.
- Evil Old Folks: He looks like he is in his 70s-80s, and is plenty evil.
- Freudian Excuse: Malcolm McDowell implies that Linderman's motivations stemmed from a bad childhood in an interview. Given what was shown in Volume 4, it's 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, it's also likely that he may have spent some time in a concentration camp, or at least was descended from people who were put in concentration camps.
- Friend to All Children: He takes a real liking to Micah and helps him use his gifts for what he believes to be the greater good.
- The Ghost: He spent the first half of the first Volume as an invisible character. This was later revealed to be due to budget constraints. The show's budget wasn't big enough to pay for the high cost of Malcolm McDowell appearing from the start. In Volume Three, he appeared as sort of a literal ghost.
- Good Powers, Bad People: He has the power to heal, but his goal is to blow up New York. He usually uses his power to manipulate or control people by giving, withholding or revoking healing.
- Healing Hands: He has the ability to heal the injuries and illnesses of living organisms; this includes healing the "scars" created by mental manipulation, thereby allowing him to restore lost memories and remove implanted thoughts.
- Large Ham: He obviously enjoys being the
Magnificent Bastard Chessmaster he is. - Loan Shark: Niki Sanders borrows money from him, who sends thugs after her to retrieve it. In a twist, Linderman actually doesn't care much about the money. He's much more interested in having Niki's family under his influence.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: He's a wealthy mob boss and casino owner with the largest collection of Kensei artifacts in the world. He also enjoys cooking.
- Manipulative Bastard: Put simply, he has the potential to own the entire world through intellect alone.
- Meaningful Name:
- According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a "linder" is "a woollen waistcoat or undershirt".
- In French, the similar-sounding "lendemain" means "the next day" or "the immediate future".
- In German, the dried flowers of the tree "Linde" ("Tilia" in English) have healing powers.
- The German word "lindern" means to cure an illness or a wound.
- Posthumous Character: He appears as a ghost in season three speaking with several characters. However this was really the work of Maury Parkman who was acting under orders from Arthur to make sure things went as planned.
- Real Men Cook: He's introduced in his casino's kitchen making a mean pot pie.
- Save the Villain: Subverted, he intended to heal a Vietnamese girl who could manipulate plants after Arthur Petrelli shot her, but Arthur stopped him before he could.
- Visionary Villain: He plans to "heal the world" begins with the destruction of New York City.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He believe that killing 0.07% of the world's population to end violence and war is an "acceptable loss by anyone's count".
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Subverted: When DL Hawkins gives Linderman's Amoral Attorney Linderman's fees, the Amoral Attorney implies that Linderman 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 Linderman actually intended to keep his word.
Arthur Petrelli
Arthur Petrelli (Robert Forster)
- Ability: Ability Theft
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.
- Amoral Attorney: For Linderman, before the events of Volume One.
- Archnemesis Dad: He becomes the central antagonist in Volume 3 and he ends up taking one of his sons’ powers. It’s also revealed that he once planned to have Nathan killed, seeing him as a potential obstacle for his goals.
- Big Bad: Of Volume Three.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Dirty Coward: After he realises his powers don't work against Peter, he proceeds to start begging him into not killing him.
- The Dreaded: The otherwise unflappable Adam Monroe has a full-blown panic attack when he sees that Arthur is alive, as Arthur is the one person on the planet who can kill him.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He didn’t understand why his wife refused to have Nathan killed and instead called it "sentimental" to care about your children.
- Evil Old Folks: He's a visibly aging man who thinks that Linderman had the right idea and takes it even further than him.
- 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.
- Evilutionary Biologist: He's not a biologist, but this is his motivation.
- Faking the Dead: Arthur was reported to have committed suicide in April 2006 after a long battle with depression although in truth his wife Angela poisoned him. He survived, albeit completely paralyzed and faked his own death.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's polite and charming but he's an utterly ruthless, cold-hearted monster beneath it.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His plan might have succeeded had he not made the mistake of pissing off Sylar.
- Invincible Villain: After stealing Peter's powers.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Made even worse by the fact he barely ever used them, effectively becoming the invincible villain who never did anything.
- It's All About Me: Everyone is expendable to Arthur if it can help him in his goals.
- Jerkass: He was already a complete dick long before becoming a villain.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: NOT Sylar.
- Manipulative Bastard: The best case being trying to manipulate Sylar into believing he was a lost Petrelli son, which ended in Arthur's death.
- 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 delegating most tasks to an increasingly incompetent series of superpowered minions.
- 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.
- Power Parasite: 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: Dreaming of Things to Come, Flight, From a Single Cell, Intangible Man, Invisibility, Mind over Matter, Playing with Fire, Shock and Awe, Super-Strength, Teleporters and Transporters, Time Master and Walking Wasteland.
- 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, though a likely victim was Charles Deveaux. 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.
- Pretty Little Headshots: Dies via a neat bullet to his head by Peter and Sylar. (Peter may have fired the gun, but Sylar dealt the killing blow.)
- 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.
- Smug Snake: The man redefines smugness. Sadly he pisses off Sylar who redefines the term [1].
- The Sociopath
- The Stoic: No evil laughter for this one, folks.
- Superpower Lottery: Like Sylar, but he doesn't have to kill people. He also acquires 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.
- 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.
- Villainous 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.
- Visionary Villain
- 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 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 (it's unknown who, although Volume 5 heavily implies that it is Samuel Sullivan, whose power exponentially grows based on how many super-powered people he is around).
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Treats Peter like this long before he shows up as a villain.
Robert "Bob" Bishop
Bob Bishop (Stephen Tobolowsky)
- Ability: Alchemy
One of the twelve founders of the Company, who takes it over in Volume 2 after the death of Linderman, claiming he wishes to return it to its original purpose of safeguarding Evolved Humans and killing or capturing the evil ones. He experimented on his own daughter, Elle, to test the limits of her abilities, leaving her a dangerous psychopath. Killed by Sylar off-screen during Volume 3.
- Abusive Parents: To Elle.
- Affably Evil: He oppresses Evo's, including his own daughter, but is genial to most of the people around him.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: He seems to operate on this principle, going from a affable morally gray anti-hero to a outright villain, sometimes in the same episode.
- 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. His power of Alchemy is the straightforward ability to transmute matter into different forms, but it lets him fund the Company by creating infinite gold.
- He can, however, use it offensively. When interrogating Hampton Connolly for information, he transforms the man's arm into gold, which is apparently very painful. Bob then turns him into a gold statue and has him melted down.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: A case of Real Life Writes the Plot: Stephen Toblowsky was injured in an accident and had to wear a neck brace, making it impractical for him to keep appearing.
- Evil Counterpart: To Noah, just as Elle is Claire's Evil Counterpart.
- First-Name Basis: He insists that everyone call him Bob.
- Jerkass to One: He's mostly a jerk Elle, though he's pretty affable with everyone else.
- Midas Touch: Quite literally, as he can turn any object he touches into gold. Unlike the trope namer though, he needs to concentrate on what he's touching to transmute it.
- The Sociopath: Possibly. He completely disregards dead agents, subjected his own daughter to torture to figure out the limits of her powers, erased her mind of some of the worst of those events, turned a man into gold, etc. all without a hint of regret.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": He uses "Midas" as his password.
- Pet the Dog: His actions towards Monica Dawson.
Charles Deveaux
Charles Deveaux (Richard Roundtree)
- Ability: Telepathy
Peter's last hospice client, Simone Deveaux's father, and one of the twelve founders of the Company. He succumbed to cancer early in Volume One.
- Magical Negro: His character basically exists to give Peter sage advice...even from beyond the grave.
- Posthumous Character: He appears to Peter in a dream after succumbing to his cancer and later shows up in flashbacks in Volume Four.
- Psychic Powers: Charles had telepathic abilities.
- Retired Badass: He's perhaps the only found of the company shown who has no interest or involvement with it any more.
- The Reveal: His power. For years, before it was revealed to be Telepathy, a lot of people thought it was likely Dreaming of Things to Come, since this was one of the first powers that Peter shown possessing and was shown talking to Peter in a dream.
- 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.
- Telepathy: His power. He's quite advanced with it too, able to use it to command others with ease.
- Token Good Teammate: Out of all the founders that were seen, he was the most morally pure.
Kaito Nakamura
Kaito Nakamura (George Takei)
- Ability: Variable Prediction
"We have the power of gods. That does not mean we can play God."
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.
- The Atoner: He has doubts about the actions he did in the past and works hard to build a wall of actions between them.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: A deleted scene shows that this is his power.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Kaito is a brave man with some impressive powers who always dressed the part of a Japanese CEO.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive
- Face Death with Dignity: He refuses to let Hiro save him and instead meets Adam with fists raised.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: He disapproves of Hiro's quest, wanting him to succeed him as CEO. He eventually relents and helps him.
- Mundane Utility: In the aforementioned deleted scene, he mentions that he made his money by playing the stock market with his power.
- Perpetual Frowner: Hiro tells Ando that his father always looks angry.
- Posthumous Character: Thanks to the magic of Time Travel, flashbacks, and video wills, he's made more appearances after his death than he did before.
- Retired Badass: HE helped found the Company but has little to do with it anymore.
- "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.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: He does his best to drill this into his son's head, so he won't become like some of his old friends.
Maury Parkman
Maury Parkman (Alan Blumenfeld)
- Ability: Telepathy
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.
- Archnemesis Dad: He served as a secondary antagonist in Volume Two to Matt.
- Con Man: Apparently, he was one before joining the Company.
- Disappeared Dad: He walked out on his family some time in The '70s and never looked back.
- The Dragon: Briefly to Arthur Petrelli, until Arthur kills him.
- Even Evil Has 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.
- Evil Counterpart: To Matt.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In Volume Two, Matt traps him in the nightmare he conjured up to hold Molly.
- In-Series Nickname: The Nightmare Man.
- Killed Off for Real: When Arthur explains that Daphne will have to kill Matt, Maury is shocked. He reminds Arthur of their arrangement, which was Maury's service for Matt's safety. Arthur then breaks Maury's neck telekinetically, killing him, and then dryly thanking him for his years of service.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: He was able to trap people in nightmarish visions that drew off the victim's own thoughts and memories.
- Master of Illusion: He could project visions to the point of convincing a target they were having a conversation with a mental image of an individual though he was unable to fool their sense of touch.
- Neck Snap: His cause of death.
- Psychic Powers: Like his son, Maury is a telepath; however, his powers are much more developed than Matt's. Instead of just reading surface thoughts, he can read people's memories and manipulate their perceptions of reality, allowing him to trap people in nightmares based on their deepest fears and insecurities.
- Red Baron: He was known to be called the Nightmare Man, as coined by Molly.
- Telepathy: His base power.
Evolved Human Agents
The Haitian / Rene
The Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis)
- Ability: Mental Manipulation
A walking, not-talking Deus Ex Machina. He works alongside H.R.G., but also carries out tasks for Angela Petrelli. When he is not pursuing his own agenda of course.
- Affably Evil: As nice and good as a man who mind rapes people can be.
- Anti-Hero
- Cain and Abel: The Abel to Baron Samadi's Cain.
- Chrome Dome Psi: His ability to erase memories in most media is typically classified as a psionic ability. Pair that with his baldness, and you got this trope.
- Empty Shell: The graphic novels show that as a child, in a moment of terror, he accidentally reduced his entire village to soulless, empty husks.
- Enigmatic Minion: To Angela Petrelli.
- Back for the Dead: In Heroes Reborn he dies from an accidental gunshot wound to the heart in a fight with Noah. Especially since apparently he asks Rene to wipe his memories and kill him because of an upcoming tragedy. Noah deeply regrets this and it furthers his resolve to find the truth behind the Odessa bombing. When Noah changes the timeline, he's alive and well, working with Micah's Hero Truther movement. Too bad Matt clips him in the ear, but he survives.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: He has the ability to selectively erase the memories of anyone he wishes. He can erase memories of short periods, as demonstrated on Matt Parkman in "Collision", or erase a person's memory so thoroughly that they cannot remember their own name.
- No Name Given: It's not until Volume Five that he we learn that his name is Rene.
- Power Nullifier: The Haitian has a constantly-active ability to dampen or completely negate the powers of anyone within a certain distance of himself, akin to telepathic static. This ability deactivates if the Haitian is unconscious or if he selects specific individuals to allow the use of their abilities in his presence. His ability is not insurmountable; various characters have overcome it with great effort and the Haitian can exhaust himself from concentrating to suppress unusually strong abilities.
- Scary Black Man: May be a subversion given that he is actually a fairly decent guy... it's just that he has the bad tendency of taking orders from all the wrong people. Though as all of them have been white and he's been shown as being a good man when NOT following orders from them.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He often disobeys his current superior to do whatever he thinks is right. His bosses usually just ignore it because he is so useful most of the time.
- Token Religious Teammate: He expresses a belief in God—specifically, a belief that superpowers are a gift from God, and should be respected.
- Super Power Lottery: Not the most useful power for everyday life, but definitely the most useful for dealing with other superpowered people.
- The Voiceless: Subverted: he was only pretending to be mute but he still doesn't speak a whole lot.
- Wild Card: Especially in Volume 3. With the power to block other people's powers, he is necessary to stop and kill Arthur Petrelli.
Elle Bishop
Elle Bishop (Kristen Bell)
- Ability: Electric Manipulation
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 Power 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 a 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 killed by Sylar.
Associated Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Had Bell not become too busy to continue filming, Elle would have become the mother of Sylar's son in the future, Noah Gray.
- Anti-Hero: In season 3, she teams up with Sylar during one of his stints of working against the villains, becoming a Nominal Hero who primarily cares about Sylar.
- Anti-Villain: Type II: She's a Psycho Electro character whose only that way because of what happened to her as a kid and does have some Good Feels Good or Morality Pet moments.
- Axe-Crazy: Brutal experimentation has left Elle mentally unstable and homicidal.
- Beast and Beauty: The Beauty to Sylar's Beast. But also shows sides of Beast to Claire's Beauty.
- Break the Cutie: The reason Elle is a sociopath is because her father decided to take his little girl and see just how much torture it would take to break her.
- Broken Bird: Especially her monologue in 2x08.
- Cute and Psycho: A cute, childish, and sociopathic woman who delights in killing, hurting, and controlling people.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Elle wants to please her father, which is part of why she acts as his subordinate.
- Dark and Troubled Past: When she first arrived at the company, Elle was just a normal girl; but then they started testing on her, that the human brain cannot handle the amounts of electricity they gave her. Elle says that her father would never allow such a thing, but Noah says that he was leading the charge.
- Delusions of Parental Love: Elle believes her father loves her despite the fact that he just uses her as a weapon, and blames her when things don't go their way. This trope was made more explicit in the Season 2 deleted scenes where Noah figures out that Bob is using Elle as bait for Sylar. Elle refuses to believe it and screams at Noah "My father loves me!"
- Dub Name Change: Due to her name being homonymous with the French pronoun "elle" meaning "she", Elle is renamed to Ella in the French dub.
- Electric Torture:
- Elle does this to pretty much everyone she meets, even those she likes, particularly Sandra Bennett and then Sylar — though he literally asked for it.
- Noah turns the tables on her in season 2, when he straps her into a chair with her feet in a doggie bath, so that anytime she tries to shock him, she ends up zapping herself instead.Noah: Stings like a bitch, doesn't it?
- Elemental Powers: She can harness lightning and electricity.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Elle is disgusted that the Company pushed Gabriel to kill again.
- Evil Counterpart: To Claire. Elle was originally meant to be Meredith Gordon's daughter, and thus Claire's sister.
- Freudian Excuse: Most, if not all of her sociopathic tendencies were the result of her father subjecting her to very painful experiments while she was very young.
- Good Feels Good: She smiles and says it's cool after Claire tells her she saved the day.
- Honey Trap: Ordered under Company orders to get close to Gabriel/Sylar and find out about his powers. She ends up developing feelings for him, but when he discovered that she had been lying to him about abilities, he rejected her. Sylar was definitely not happy to see her showing up in Mohinder's lab and stopping him from killing Mohinder.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Elle is 5'1" and Sylar is 6'2".
- Love Martyr: With Gabriel/Sylar ...and then he killed her.
- Nepotism: In early Volume 3, her father is killed by Sylar, and Angela takes over the Company in the wake of it. Angela's first official act as the new head of the Company is to fire Elle, telling her point-blank that it was only due to Bob's influence that they kept Elle as an agent for so long anyway.
- Nominal Hero: In Season 3. See her Anti-Hero entry.
- Perky Female Minion: Elle's generally more cheerful than her father and other people around them.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's only about five feet tall.
- Power Incontinence: Elle develops trouble holding back her electrical shocks in season 3, with one of the tie in graphic novels showing that she gave herself a bad shock while taking a shower.
- Psycho Electro: Once she started indulging in electric sadomasochism with imprisoned pretty-boy Peter, it was clear she wasn't exactly right in the head. It's implied to be the result of years of being a test subject who's been denied a normal childhood.
- Psycho for Hire: Elle is capable of letting herself get guided into violent actions by multiple characters without too much resistance.
- Psychopathic Womanchild: "He's not a toy, Elle."
- Shock and Awe: Elle had the ability to generate electricity. She seemed to have excellent control over her ability, allowing her to generate electric arcs of varying intensity and target them precisely.
- The Sociopath: Elle says she has been diagnosed as a sociopath. However, she exhibits aspects that contradict how sociopaths behave, such as her guilt over actions that turned Gabriel Gray into Sylar and that fact she has genuine romantic feelings for him. Peter more accurately describes her as a Sadist.
- Stupid Evil: ''I'm bored... I know, let's kill a rental car guy!''
- Sweet Tooth: She has a fondness for Slushos and pie and the comics depict her as being a lover of junk food.
- Tyke-Bomb: Raised/tortured/experimented on by the Company from an early age.
- Villainous Rescue: It's lampshaded that she's the one to drive off Sylar and save the day at the end of season two.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: She does everything she can to make father proud of her.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Sadism and insanity aside, Elle is a broken woman who was experimented on by an abusive father since childhood and her first romantic interest became a serial killer because of her.
Eden Mc Cain
Eden McCain (Nora Zehetner)
- Ability: Persuasion
Born Sarah Ellis, Eden was a mole for the Company who lived next door to Chandra Suresh. She was a petty criminal before being recruited by the Company. She fell in love with Mohinder while spying on him, and swore to get revenge on Sylar for Chandra's murder.
- Abusive Parents: She was brought up by a stepmother who lashed out at her often, this was because she blamed Eden for her alcoholic father abandoning them.
- Accidental Murder: One day, after being pushed too far by her stepmother's abuse, Eden accidentally caused her death by saying "I wish you'd just die!" which caused her stepmother's heart to stop beating and kill her instantly.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: In order to prevent Sylar from stealing her power, she decides to commit suicide and destroy her brain.
- Boyish Short Hair: Eden doesn't let her hair grow down at all much.
- Compelling Voice: Eden had the special ability of vocal persuasion.
- Heroic Suicide: She fires a bullet into her brain and kills herself rather than to let Sylar get a hold of her ability.
- In Love with the Mark: She's spying on Mohinder but develops genuine feelings for and protectiveness of him.
- Jedi Mind Trick: Although it takes her a couple of tries, she even manages to use it on Sylar.
- The Mole: Hired by the Company to spy on Chandra Suresh and later Mohinder, earning his trust.
- Temporary Love Interest: To Mohinder.
Candice Willmer
Candice Willmer (Missy Peregrym, Rachel Kimsey)
- Ability: Create Illusions
Born Betty, Candice is an agent of the Company who works directly for Thompson and Linderman who has the ability to create illusions. Tormented as a child for the way she looked, she took revenge on her classmates by driving them insane. She was later recruited by the Company and became one of their top agents.
- Big Eater: Minor hints to her true appearance were given by her eating habits.
- Deadpan Snarker: She has a harsh wit to her at times, such as when Isaac bemoans Simone's fate.Candice: Maybe you should have thought about that before you shot her. Twice.
- Dropped a Bridge on Her: Killed by Sylar in early Season 2, due to the change in actresses.
If the actress had not changed, she would have been involved in a multi-episode arc with Sylar. - Faux Affably Evil: She may seem chipper and nice, but like everything else about her, it's an illusion.
- Freudian Excuse: The abuse she suffered in her childhood by her classmates due to being fat.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Gets dramatic with it in minor rant about people in a conversation with Micah.
- Holographic Disguise: Her actual form is a fake. After Sylar kills her, Candice reverts back to her original form as Betty, an obese brunette.
- I Have Many Names: Has several aliases, which her illusions make easy to create.
- Manipulative Bitch: Candice enjoys using her shapeshifting to play off people against each other.
- Master of Illusion: She was able to alter how people perceived reality around her. She could use this to "become" other people or even things and affect how others saw the world.
- Mind Rape: What she did to her classmates who bullied her, creating illusions that tricked them into thinking they were on fire, being attacked by monsters, etc. Threatens to do this to Micah.
- Only One Name: Her given name is Betty; her original surname has not been revealed.
- Too Dumb to Live: She thought it was a good idea to save a serial-killer who kills evolved humans like her.
Donna Dunlap
Donna Dunlap
- Ability: Telescopic Vision
A former dentist assistant recruited by the Company after discovering a painting by Isaac Mendez of her death. She became a mole for Evs Dropper after discovering the Company had erased some of her memory, but eventually broke off contact with them after falling in love with her partner, Eric Thompson Jr. and deciding that Evs Dropper was just as manipulative as the Company. She was killed in the final battle against Evs Droper, just as Isaac had painted.
- Action Girl: Donan develops into a decent fighter in the service of the Company.
- Agony of the Feet: Both of her feet are impaled to a bridge wired with explosives.
- Conspiracy Redemption: Donna beehives in this, trying to bring out more positive aspects in the Company and its agents.
- Damsel in Distress: She is captured by Evs Dropper and nailed to a bridge with a bomb strapped to it. Thompson Jr. tries to save her, but fails.
- Got Volunteered: She's a normal woman with a normal childhood who never tried to do anything sinficiant with her powers and is still recruited against her will by the company.
- Innate Night Vision: She used her powers to read in the dark at times.
- Internal Affairs: Her first job at the Company is this, and she notes that it makes a lot of her coworkers nervous when she is around.
- The Mole: Very briefly for Evs Dropper.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Thompson Jr. who is more loyal to the company.
- Super-Senses: She has telescopic vision.
- Unwitting Pawn: To pretty much everyone.
Connie Logan
Connie Logan
- Ability: Face Alteration
A former world renowned make-up artist, Connie was recruited into the Company and partnered with her daughter Penny, using her ability to transform a person's face and vocal cords for 24 hours to successfully carry out dozens of missions. Noted for her extreme narcissism and obsession with beauty. She is also one half of "Evs Dropper", seeking revenge with her daughter on the Company for using her husband as a lab rat to create hundreds of clones.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Most evident in her first appearence but she doesn't act her age, teases Penny about her love life and once refused to change her face after an undercover mission in order to increase Penny's chances of having fun that night and seemed pretty amused by the miscommunication that caused the next morning.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: As Evs Dropper with a Julien clone.
- Big "NO!": When Penny is killed.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Connie shows absolutely no signs of plotting with The Company with her daughter in their first appearance, even though it centered heavily around them, almost to the point where Fanon Discontinuity or Canon Discontinuity would be the best explanation for it.
- Femme Fatale: Connie enjoys flirting with all the men around her and is eventually shown to have some intense and bitter motivations.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: When you are running a conspiracy to bring down an evil company, it helps to have your moles be able to impersonate anyone you need.
- Killed Off for Real: Shot by the Kill Squad.
- Narcissist: She displays a lot of ego about her own infallibility and appearance, Amusingly enough coming across more this way in the issues where she isn't shown to be Evs Dropper.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Kill. THEM. NOW." She tells this to her clone army after Penny is killed by the Kill Squad.
- She Who Fights Monsters: She uses the same manipulative tactics and has just the same disregard for others lives as the leaders of The Company that she wants to dismantle.
- Walking Spoiler:Many of the tropes about her reflect on her being Evs Dropper.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Company is in a pretty sinister place and it makes sense for her to hate it.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: She can change other peoples faces for twenty-four hours.
Julien Dumont
Julien Dumont
- Ability: Cloning
A former petty crime lord in Belgium, Dumont was captured by the Company and convinced to become an agent. He was killed in the line of duty, but numerous clones of his continue to exist and serve the Company. He is actually being kept in a coma inside a Level 5 cell in order to be farmed for new clones to serve the Company. His wife Connie is one-half of Evs Dropper alongside another clone.
- Disappeared Dad: He's the father of Penny Logan and was taken by the company while she was young. One of his clones also fathers a child with Sabine right before being killed.
- Fate Worse than Death: Kept in a coma for years while being farmed for new clones. Upon being freed, the memory of all the clones he created while in a coma come back to him and create severe mental anguish.
- Killed Off for Real: His stem clone is shot to kill the others.
Bianca Karina
Bianca Karina (Nancy Mc Crumb)
- Ability: Adaptive Lungs
A Company agent whose lungs can adapt to breathe in any environment. She is engaged to Gael Cruz and partnered with Devin Patterson.
- Battle Couple: With Gael.
- Canon Immigrant: Appears very briefly in "The Butterfly Effect".
- Daddy's Girl: She was very close to her father when growing up, and was easily recruited into the Company when she met Gael Cruz and noted how similar he was in personality to her father. Then she and Gael got engaged.
- Killed Off for Real: Alongside Gael when attempting to stop Sylar.
- Neck Snap: How she is killed.
- Only Sane Woman: One of the few Company agents not to go crazy with paranoia when Evs Dropper starts turning agents against each other.
Felicia Brooks
Felicia Brooks
- Ability: Disintegration Touch
Felicia is a trainer for the Company with the ability to disintegrate anything she touches.
- Action Girl: She's a fearless fighter with some lethal powers.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: She's a combat instructor who Donan complains about the intensity of.
- Killed Off for Real: In the battle against Evs Dropper.
- Lady Swears-a-Lot: Felicia is an angry woman with a foul mouth.
- Ultimate Job Security: Felicia notes that it would be hard for the Company to replace someone with her skills and so she goes on a shopping spree and charges it to her expense account.
Leonard Cushing
Leonard Cushing
- Ability: Acid Secretion
An Evo with the ability to emit acid from his pores, Cushing was noticed by the Company after he made a name for himself by being a highly successful gold miner in his hometown of Arizona. After a long recruitment process, Cushing joined the Company and was eventually assigned to work with Thompson Jr.
- Frame-Up: Evs Dropper makes him look like he is behind the murder of five human agents, causing Gael, Thompson Jr., and Devin to hunt him down. Thompson wants to capture him, but Devin shoots him when he thinks Cushing is about to kill Thompson.
- I Work Alone: The Company had trouble finding a partner to work with him since he would drop off the grid for months at a time and disliked working with others. This led to his initial assignment with Company being solo work in Las Vegas, shadowing persons of interest. However, he and Thompson Jr. got along well and were eventually teamed up.
- Missing Mom: His Primatech file mentions that he was raised by his father and did not have a stable home life, with no mention of who his mom was or what happened to her.
- Red Shirt: Appears in one issue of the online comics before being killed. He is subsequently mentioned in two more issues and his background is expanded upon in his Primatech file.
Human Agents
Eric Thompson, Sr.
Eric Thompson, Sr. (Eric Roberts)
A high ranking Company operative and trainer, Thompson brought Noah into the Company and raised his son to be an agent. He served directly under Linderman and was involved in the plot to destroy New York City.
- Affably Evil: He is usually pretty cheerful and friendly, and is notably not completely without mercy.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Like most Company agents, Thompson wore a suit and is a very skilled operative.
- Boom, Headshot!: Courtesy of Noah.
- The Dragon: To Linderman.
- Pet the Dog: Letting Meredith escape after learning that she thought the Company had killed her daughter.
Ivan Spektor
Ivan Spektor
A high-ranking Company agent and trainer who retired to Ukraine.
- The Mentor: To Noah.
- Retired Badass: He used to be one of the Company's top agents and trainers.
Lauren Gilmore
Lauren Gilmore (Elisabeth Röhm)
An agent stationed in Odessa with Noah, Lauren was partnered with John Mulligan and was friends with Noah Bennet. After the collapse of the Company, Lauren joined the C.I.A. and was reunited with Noah in Washington D.C., where she worked with him to investigate the Sullivan Brothers Carnival.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: When still working for the Company, Lauren had The Haitian erase her memories involving her attraction and flirtation with Noah since she did not want to be the cause of him cheating on his wife.
- Remember the New Guy?: She was a Company Agent who worked with Noah and they were at the Burnt Toast Diner the day of Charlie's death.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She looks a lot like Tracy and resumes working with Noah after Tracy departs. It's suspected that her story arc with Noah was originally intended for Tracy.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: No mention of her was made in Heroes: Reborn, despite her and Noah having been in a relationship at the end of Volume Four.
Gael Cruz
Gael Cruz (Kanin Howell)
- Canon Immigrant: Appears very briefly in "The Butterfly Effect".
- Killed Off for Real: When attempting to stop Sylar.
Eric Thompson, Jr.
Eric Thompson, Jr.
- The Casanova: He has a reputation for seeking casual relationships with multiple women.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After Donna dies he gets more violent and angry.
Sabine Hazel
Sabine Hazel
Penny Logan
Penny Logan
- Action Girl: Penny has no powers but is well-trained in armed and unarmed combat.
- Butter Face: She has a somewhat voluptuous figure but a less attractive face (the exact details are Depending on the Writer especially given how her mom is constantly changing her face).
Devin Patterson
Devin Patterson
The partner of Bianca and a friend of Thompson.
- Killed Off for Real: The German kills him by redirecting dozens of bullets into him.
