Sexism in Heroes

I don't want to seem alarmist so early on, but what started as a few sour notes in the premier seems to be continuing without abate in the second episode:

• First, most obviously, is our new characters, the Wonder Twins Maya and Alejandro. Not even touching on how this plays into the diseased immigrant stereotype, Maya has an uncontrollable power that kills people by making them bleed out of their eyes (which is not as creepy as I think it's supposed to be due to both Firefly and The 4400 having already done it, and from more than just the eyes), and the only way to stop her is for her brother to be around. So her brother follows her everywhere, insists that he always be with her, constantly tells her that he's going to make everything okay . . . which would be perfectly acceptable, even interesting, since that is almost certainly what the dynamic between a pair of South American siblings would be, except that for the show this is apparently all true. Again, it's early in the season, but we've no indications that Maya will learn to control her power without her brother's help, which is . . . disturbing.


• Second, Claire. I never minded the whole Bennet protecting her thing because I love Bennet and strong father/daughter relationships are a rare thing on television, but West irks greatly. After the premier I considered him a pretentious asshole and a creepy stalker -- but after the second episode I'm worried the show actually wants us to like him, which is just disgusting. If West does turn out to be some sort of guide or teacher to Claire about her abilities, I'm going to vomit. Claire knows a hell of a lot more than him by what we've seen, and why is it never a woman teaching a man how to use his powers? (Seriously, has the Guide/Wizard/Martial Arts Master/Wise Old Man/Ben Kenobi ever been female?)


• Third, Angela Petrelli. She's a badass in the premiere and her "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" is great in "Lizards" but I hope the business in the interrogation room with Nathan does not become routine. Really this is getting worked up over nothing, except for what the last two points suggest about this.


• Fourth, another sort of a non-entity, Molly. Actually I kind of love Molly, the creepily precocious/overly mature kid. She seems to know better than Parkman what to do (yeah, go after the bad guy, because that worked great for you last time, right, Matt?)


• Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, where the fuck is Nikki? (Okay, the previews show she's back next week.) I got excited in the finale because she seemed to finally get over her MPD bullshit and then she disappears for the first two episodes, giving the floor to a bunch of weak and hiding women? I want to see Nikki kicking ass again.

Okay, so ultimately this doesn't amount to much -- yet. And for that I'm glad; I don't want my favorite shows (or any shows, but that's a fool's dream) to be sexist and to play into sexist narrative tropes. As of now it's mostly conjecture and what-ifs. Until those what-ifs become a reality, I'll lay off.