The new issue of Entertainment Weekly hits the stands today with a spoiler-laden sneak peek at the second season of NBC’s Heroes:

As any student of TV history can report, sophomore seasons can be slumpy. Cockiness, ambition, the ridiculously unreasonable demands of journalists (those jerks!) and network execs (see: No. 4 NBC, desperate to maintain its one certifiable hit) — a small sample of the kryptonite that can cripple a phenom’s follow-up year. Heroes — created by Tim Kring, the non-nerd whose ingenious conversion of geek tropes into mainstream drama has made him TV’s newest cult pop auteur — would seem to have the brains and humility to avoid these pitfalls. Listen to this: ”I’ve been a stick in the mud the past year,” admits Milo Ventimiglia, whose Peter the Power-Absorbing Super Sponge was last seen blowing up over Manhattan with brother Nathan the Flying Slimeball (Adrian Pasdar). ”Parts of this — the crowds, the blind excitement of people — terrify me. That kind of closed me off. But this year…I’m trying to embrace it more.”

Nonetheless, there are reasons to sweat. First, there was the nearly 20 percent drop in ratings last spring after a momentum-killing seven-week break. Then there was the cliff-hanger-heavy finale, which spawned much What happens next? wonder, yet also inspired a lot of That was it? disappointment. And now, with the departure of writer Bryan Fuller, who left to create ABC’s new buzz fantasy Pushing Daisies, the show must press on without one of its most valuable players. Emmy nods or not, it’s time for Heroes to prove itself all over again. And Kring knows it. ”Season 2, in many ways, is about lessons learned,” he says. ”The stakes are higher, that’s for sure. But I try not to think about them, because it doesn’t make an already challenging job any easier.”

The Season Two premiere airs Monday at 9 p.m. Eastern on NBC.

Related: EW.com’s Season One episode guide

Related: EW editor, and comics writer, Marc Bernardin, on the above cover

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