Heroes Reborn Review: Brave New World and Odessa

Heroes Reborn is back in a big way and our own Leonard Marciano is here with our ComiConverse review of the first few episodes.

Heroes Reborn debuted last night and we’ll be reviewing episodes one and two titled Brave New World and Odessa. Today’s review will focus on both episodes as a whole and will contain spoilers, so reader beware! We deal with the good, the bad and the not so certain parts of these stories.

First off all, let me start by saying that the Heroes Reborn webisodes played a good part in bridging the gap between the two series, but viewing them wasn’t a requirement to enjoy the new episodes. The writers and creative team also did a great job overall with their story telling and, while there were some moments that dragged on a bit, they did well in keeping you entertained and engaged as a whole.

Episode one, titled Brave New World, introduced us to a familiar yet seemingly new world. To start off with, a slow build and some narration from HRG in Odessa was a good idea, as it gave us some insights into where he and Claire stood after the series finale of Heroes. The explosion at the Evo summit also played into events that this generation of young TV viewers can relate with.

The good of this story is that Heroes Reborn definitely kept up a good pace story-telling. There was a lot of action and new plot points going on for the audience to follow. Killing off Renee (the Haitian) came as a big shock, as it seemed as though he was due to play a pivotal role. The creative team did a great job in showing the audience that this time they are playing for keeps. Gone are the days when close calls would be used for shock value and ratings.

Although, when it happened, I expected it to be some kind of allusion or something. It definitely kept me wondering what was next.

Credit: Heroes Reborn

The big twist at the end - Molly being the girl in the green dress - was a nice touch and kept the audience engaged as they followed along with the story of Molly’s whereabouts.

I, for one, thought that either the girl in the green dress or the other black-haired girl would end up being Molly. It’s great that her character seems to be getting a lot of attention, just as the series is beginning. We knew how important she was in Five Years Gone, and it’s great to see that she is equally important today. Although it would’ve been nice for them to bring in Adair Tishler; the Molly reveal came as a pleasant surprise.

The weakest part of the two episodes were that some of the stories felt a little rehashed. The Carlos story was done well, and was probably the one I was most interested in, in terms of the new characters. Still, it did feel a lot like the Petrelli’s familial drama that we’re used to. They did do a good job in making Carlos feel more like Nathan, and killing off his brother reinforced their "playing for keeps" approach in this series.

The Miko story also felt a lot like Hiro and Ando’s, but they did an excellent job in integrating the computer graphics into the overall story. What her link to Hiro is will be interesting to see how it plays out as well.

It was nice to see Luke and Joanne as part of the cast, but my only gripe is how easily Luke got out of Level 5 with a child’s stool; however this is a show about people with special abilities so I won’t put too much stock into it.

Credit: Heroes Reborn

The not so certain part of the season will be how the creators and cast will be able to keep us - the audience - interested week after week. The strength of Heroes has always been in story telling. The mysterious penny guy following Tommy does have me interested, as he is almost like an Anti-Sylar in the way he goes about handling things. It would be interesting if somehow it turns out to be Sylar as we saw in one of the possible futures where Sylar tries to become a complete pacifist when he has a child.

Only time will tell if these episodes will serve to as a major platform for new audiences, or if the Heroes comeback will be all too short-lived.

Leonard Marciano is a Contributor to ComiConverse: Follow him on Twitter: @LeonardTLM