The Toronto Star reminds us that NBC’s Heroes returns tonight, and rolls out an interview with creator Tim Kring, who talks a little about the show’s success, genre and archetype:
“These are archetypes that I’m dealing with, not so much the domain of particular comic books. These are archetypes within history that have been built over and over again. And so I think that’s sort of why people connect to (the show). I mean, there are only so many superpowers that you can land on, before it starts feeling like something somebody else has already done.”
The show is probably better for Kring’s “outsider” status (besides, he has good friend and executive producer Jeph Loeb, a comics writer, among the many geeks on staff that Kring has surrounded himself with). Think of his inspiration taken from The Incredibles. That story of retired superheroes recalled to action is largely a revision of the Fantastic Four, but with some elements taken from other well-known comic books. The blended result is something that is much more than the sum of its parts – it’s a new mythology.
The article is accompanied by an illustration by Cameron Stewart (The Other Side, Seven Soldiers: The Guardian), who posts the un-cropped version on the RAID blog.
Heroes airs tonight at 9 Eastern on NBC.
