With Heroes gone and Smallville ended, viewers are bound to clamor for a new TV series to fill the “superhero” genre. Enter the new show called Alphas, a cross between Heroes and CSI with the usual mutant versus human topic introduced by the X-men comic books.
The Alpha team is comprised of six members which I will try to explain in understandable X-men concepts. They have a Professor X like character in Dr. Rosen, although a non-mutant psychologist leader who nurtures each member of the team. Another character, Nina, is like Jean Grey, she can hypnotize people once she can look into their eyes. Her powers allow her to have a new sporty car each episode.
A strange character for a field leader would be Bill, an FBI agent with super strength, but has a limited time span – too much exertion and the guy looks like he’ll have a heart attack. And the reason I refer to this as strange is that field leaders are usually smart, and the last leader I remember who had super strength was Fairchild of Gen 13 fame. (Sure Superman has super strength and a whole lotta other powers, plus smarts). Bill is more of a bull.
The Wolverine type character of the group is called Hicks. But his super power is really more like the villain Bull’s Eye, from the comic book Daredevil. He is also the anti-authority member in the group, always reluctantly following orders and has some gripe about his task.
And the final two are pretty original in terms of character design. Rachel so far has shown the ability to focus her senses – hearing, smell, sight. But once focused, and concentrated, she tends to be vulnerable since she sacrifices her other senses. (Not hearing when focused on smell). Gary is a “special” child with the ability to literally see the electromagnetic spectrum (cellphone signals, TV, and Internet) and can even send messages to electronic gadgets as of the latest episode.
While Heroes initially took the approach of “amping” known superhero types (Peter Petrelli was Rouge on steroids before being nerfed in succeeding seasons), Alphas seem to have taken an opposite approach, making some of the heroes less strong ( a weaker empath and strong-guy). Or perhaps these heroes will improve the control of their abilities and overcome limitations as the show progresses.
What I’m interested more is the creativity in villains that the show is creating. While the Ghost was pretty lame, the Cause-and-Effect guy and the Universal Translator girl seem to be on the path of becoming the arch-nemesis of the Alphas as Magneto is to the X-men. I can’t wait to see the next villain, and I hope the ideas remain fresh and are not rehashes of comic stereo-types. (I know at some point it probably will be, but that would be the death of the series.)
But kudos to the show’s creative team. Keep us, your audience, interested and hooked as long as you can. And if the show is going to be cancelled for some reason, please end it appropriately, and don’t leave the audience hanging (like Heroes, cough, cough…). And lastly, if you guys plan on showing a big fight scene between a hero and villain, don’t do it behind a closed door with some lighting effects. Show the actual fight. (Again, Heroes, not cool)
Nathan's Soliloquy 