Cover art for Parody Press Comics' Hewoes # 1, available this July
Ever since NBC decided to place pretty much every egg they've got in the Heroes basket, I've been waiting with bated breath for the show's inevitable journey to the printed page. So imagine my surprise this week when I learned that my fears and suspicions were indeed well-founded, but not at all in the manner I had imagined. I give you Hewoes #1, to be available on comic store shelves this July.

Nira-X creator Bill Maus helms this satire, which brings together Klair Bendit--who discovers her invicibility during a rambunctious game of Twister--the constipated Japanese pencil pusher Hewoe and Mohinder Night Shyamalan, desperately searching for answers all the while being stalked by Styler, a hairdresser with a grudge.

Panel from Parody Press Comics' Hewoes # 1, available in July
If you're thinking this sounds exactly like an issue of Mad magazine, I would have to agree with you. In fact, just this month our favorite gap-toothed coverboy took a hit at the show. Even the interior artwork is similar with grey tones and square word bubbles. But if ever there were a show that takes itself too seriously, it's Heroes. Save the cheerleader, Save the world, which the announcers declare with such bravado, has got to be one of the lamest attempts I've seen at stirring up drama from the bottom of the barrel since Secret War II.

Don't get me wrong--I enjoy watching Heroes, I missed it during the hiatus and I was happy to welcome it back on Monday. As my friend Michael says, I watch it because I just really want to have superpowers. But I still welcome any parodies that may come along, if for no other reason than to remind NBC that comic stories can poke fun at themselves without losing dramatic tension.

In any event, check it out at the Parody Press website, where you'll find a bad-guy variant cover along with the first couple pages of the book. Maus has, in my opinion, struck an appropriate chord with the humor that most fans of the show should appreciate.

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