Fans who stood in line for many an hour before Saturday (July 26) morning's Heroes panel at Comic-Con's Hall H may have been a smidge disappointed by the lack of time for a formal Q&A with the assembled cast, but they did get to see something even more valuable (in terms of online bragging rights, at least)... a sneak screening of the full premiere episode for the upcoming third season.

Series creator Tim Kring only asked one thing of fans -- other than the obligatory request that they not bootleg the episode -- that they tell their friends "that the show is terrific and that it's back, better than ever."

Are you, dear readers, my friends? If so, Heroes is terrific and it's back, better than ever!

If, however, you count on me to give you the straight truth, however damaging it may be, then I'll have to tell you...

The premiere episode of the third season of Heroes, titled "The Second Coming," is an action-packed episode, far better than anything that aired in the wheel-spinning second season. What can you say about an episode that features the return of at least three characters previously left for dead? There are definitely some pretty massive surprises.

The episode established another potentially apocalyptic event that needs preventing, a series of disasters set in a future in which Peter is scarred and Claire has become a fetching brunette. All I'll tell you is that it involves a mysterious formula and it builds into a religious subtext hinted at in the episode title, a theme that presumably will carry through the season. You learn who shot Peter within the first five minutes, but the Level 5 "Villains" concept, which gives the season its title and has been developed in teasers and webisodes, is only barely touched upon, though what we see is intriguing enough that I'm on-board.

What's awesome? We meet one new character (played by a Friday Night Lights veteran) whose power is introduced in a mighty cool way. We see surprising sides of two established characters that nobody could see coming (the surprising sides, not the characters, you'd see them coming). Several characters, including Hiro and Sylar, make veiled references to the counter-productive second season. And Ali Larter appears in lingerie. Good times.

What's less awesome? Suresh makes a medical discovery that's so mind-boggling simplistic that his deceased father's PhD should be retroactively confiscated. It's really dumb, frankly. And a couple favorite characters aren't in the episode nearly enough. But they may just be favorite characters of mine, so you might not miss them.

Is that vague enough? Good. Now you've been titillated. Just wait until September.

The episode took long enough to screen -- after the panel was already delayed for a variety of reasons -- that the audience was left with fewer than 10 minutes for questions. And the first person at the mic wasted time and space by requesting a photo opportunity with Milo Ventimiglia.

Boo!

The next questioner, a bit more on-the-ball, requested that the panelists describe the season in one or two words.

The responses:

Jack Coleman: "Fantastico"
Hayden Panettiere "Ummm... Wonderful, magical."
Milo Ventimiglia: "Melt-your-head"
Masi Oka: "[Something in Japanese]"
Greg Grunberg: "Sexy"
Adrian Pasdar: "It's sexy because you get to see Greg in a thong"
Dania Ramirez: "Twisted, for sure"
Zachary Quinto: "Bruhaha"
Ali Larter: "Fantastical"
Sendhil Ramamurthy: "Deeply dark"
James Kyson-Lee: "Rollercoaster"
Cristine Rose: "In my day, we would have said far-out and groovy"
Tim Kring: "Adrenaline"

The only other question of meaning that got asked involved which powers the actors would want from *other* characters.

The three responses:

Milo Ventimiglia: "I would take Sylars' power"
Coleman: "I would take anybody's power."
Hayden Panettiere: "I guess it would probably be Nikki's power first season, because I'm tired of being beaten up."

So I'll just leave you with the promise that "the show is terrific and that it's back, better than ever."

Or maybe, instead, I'll say, "I don't blame you if you quit on Heroes last season, but if you liked the show before, check out the third season premiere in September. They may be going somewhere cool."

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