HURRAH! somebody in the Heroes forums said what I've been thinking about for months.
well, a combo of folks said it.
Thank God that Heroes is not like the comic book genre live-action of the past. Tim Kring is my Hero for NOT having read/watched any of the whole mega-verse as research while thinking about the series as an idea, and that appears to be a huge reason that the show is so innovative (& part of why it's so enthralling), but there are areas of overlap.
I find myself forced to admit having wandered into an X-Men: Evolution, the animated WB kids show complete series, seasons 1 through 4 (or was it 5... arrhhh, crud), torrent that I was disgusted with at first but got totally sucked into the plot of & ended up watchinging the entire series. Not having read the comics, it was, surprisingly, a window into their powers; the parameters & ramifications of which, have inspired a big part of my extra-curricular intuitive thinking about where this, lovely show of ours, shall lead.
The crux being Rogue, dat singly-white-locked southern life-force-sucking-via-skin-contact temptress at the core of movie #1's plot; turned out to BE the undercover dynamo powerhouse of the series. Time after time, being capable of sucking another mutant's power for 3-7 minutes use became increasingly more killer ass-kicking, effectively deadly against any danger.
The trick was the synergy in combining three factors:
first, she could take the power of anyone who attacked her AND the power of anyone who likes her, cares about her, or wants to help her;
second, she began to understand her ability & the abilities of others, and her training as fighter, thinker, and action-taker, generally work to make her GREAT at using any power that she comes across;
third, and most crucially, she learned to take the power of more than one person at a time and began to combine several powers all at once, becoming more powerful than any other mutant.
These three factors combined to become vastly, exponentially, more valuable than their sum. Peter Petrelli is currently developing all three of these crucial elements. These Alone will make him an absolute POWERHOUSE. It is just obvious that one person being attacked by four supervillains each having one superpower, if able to tap into and use those same four powers all at once combining and enhancing each other in tandem, this individual could easily destroy all four attackers. It's as easy as 1+1+1+1=4 in relation to metaphysics; individuals can work at the same time, on the same task, in collaboration with each other but can never combine in the medium of consciousness. Four separate powers under the the domain of four separate individual consciousnesses can never equal the power of those same four powers wielded by the faculty of one individual consciousness.
If you want it put even more obviously, imagine five men; the brain of each is configured to allow them to use only 1 of the five senses each: one can only see, one can only taste, one can only smell, one can only hear, and the last can only touch or feel. and
then compare the experience and abilities of these four men working together on the same task, in collaboration with each other, with the experience and abilities of one man who can see, hear, touch, smell, and taste.
Now ask each team to make you dinner & watch the hilarity ensue.
On top of all that, which alone, is like, totally gi-friggin-gantic, Peter's abilities are proving to be even more fantastic than Rogue's in terms of power retention (though it's probably part of her potential as well). It's now totally clear that they are about to make obvious that Peter will learn how to access the powers of those he has met, at ANY time he chooses. This should mean an ATOMIC bomb of Obviousness throughout this show's forums in terms of all who write here knowing he is becoming WAY more powerful than any other charactor on this show and the OBVIOUS LEADER of the loosely tied alliance among good heroes that we so anxiously await. Going back to the scene on the subway in 4 & 5, where Hiro brings Peter a hint, if you look at his words carefully, it almost implies that Peter is their leader. In a sense, especially the early episodes seem to have a really pro-Peter gloss on all his scenes, suggesting that this is definitely the Tim Kring plan.