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Heroes Volume One by Michael Turner, Phil Jiminez and Tim Sale
01/01/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Titan Books. 240 page hardback graphic novel. Price: £17.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84576-706-3. Buy Heroes Volume One in the USA - or Buy Heroes Volume One in the UK  check out websites: www.titanbooks.com and www.dccomics.com and www.nbc.com/heroes/novels
Now this book is a bit of an oddity in my opinion. When the first season of the NBC SF TV series 'Heroes' was first run, on the Internet there was a weekly five page comicstrip acting like filler between the episode events for the fans who wanted more. This book is a compilation of those short stories into one very big volume. Considering the comicbook roots of the series, it is hardly surprising that an adaptation such as this wasn't difficult to do. Although I never looked for the original website, looking at the pages here, one certainly can't deny the effort put into give illustrations a sharp look. There is also a cover for each picking up the fact that each vignette is a short story. That was until I came across the Hana Gitelman storythread that burst into a six-part series. Before you wander through your 'Heroes' DVDs looking for her, Gitelman in one of those additions put in that would have been problematic and expensive to put in series but easily accomplished here and providing a different perspective to some of the elements of the first series without necessarily having to be acknowledged on TV.
Occasionally, reading this book, I hit on things from the series that made sense. You see a bit of character events of practically all but mind-reader Matt Parkman getting something to do here but as I think his life was pretty much laid out in the TV series that left little to do here.
I should also point out that the three credits here don't really do justice to the number of people actually involved. There are two and a half pages of credits at the beginning of the book, set out in the style of the old 60s gadgets adverts that American comics always ran. When I first saw them, I thought that was the point of them until a closer inspection revealed the details.
If anything, this book complements the TV series without you having to live by it. There is a little fleshing out of events which sometimes starts with an event from an episode before showing a little more. As it has TV creator Tim Kring's approval, it might well be regarded as canon as well. If you are coming to this book expecting great revelations you might be a little disappointed. If you something depthy, the same might apply as the art pulls you along far more than the dialogue does. However, despite all the interviews and such in the media mags, there is very little 'Heroes' merchandise out there yet and as such this book will probably be picked off the shelves very quickly, if only for the Alex Ross cover, then you'd be foolish not to be amongst those at the checkout with a copy.
GF Willmetts
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