NBC's smash hit show Heroes will return for its second Season on September 24th at 9PM EST. If you're just tuning in for Season 2 of Heroes or need a refresher, this is a good primer* for the various heroes and characters you will see on the show.

Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) - ability to remember and use powers of those he comes in contact with. As of the end of Season 1, Peter was a human bomb as he had come in contact with a radioactive hero previously. His brother Nathan flew both he and Peter up into the stratosphere to save New York from the explosion. Peter's status is unknown as of the start of Season 1, as the last we saw from him was a huge explosion up in the air.

Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) - ability of human flight. Nathan won a landslide New York election just before flying his explosive brother out of New York, preventing a massive explosion. Nathan's status is unknown for life/death or injury.

Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) - Matt is a former police detective who has the ability to hear people's thoughts. At the end of season 1, he had tried to shoot supervillain Sylar, but Sylar used telekinesis to throw the bullets back into him. Parkman's status is unknown for life/death or injury.

Niki/Jessica Sanders (Ali Larter) - Niki has a dual-personality she assumed after the death of her sister, Jessica. Jessica often comes out in Niki's personality as the vindictive, greedy individual. Niki/Jessica has the power of superhuman strength and often would fly into blind rages where she blacked out and didn't realize the damange she had caused.

Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabrera) - Micah has the power to manipulate electronics devices. He has been seen making ATM machines spit out money and making broken electronics items work. He also helped to rig/throw the election which Nathan Petrelli won by altering the computer voting system with his power.

DL Hawkins (Leonard Robeters) - Hawkins is the husband of Niki and father of Micah and has the power of phasing (moving himself or body parts through solid objects). At the end of Season 1 he had been shot in the stomach area by villain and mob boss Mr. Linderman. His status is unknown for season 2, but he is not listed amongst the cast members as of this entry.

Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) - Claire has the ability to regenerate/heal from all injuries. Considered the "invincible cheerleader". Claire is also the longtime missing daughter of Nathan Petrelli (niece of Peter) and they had been reunited prior to the finale.

Noah Bennet, HRG (Jack Coleman) - HRG stands for "Horned Rimmed Glasses". Noah was an agent for Primatech, a corporation which was tracking the Heroes and trying to get rid of certain heroes. HRG later ditched his company and teamed up with the heroes to help them in their fight against Sylar. Coleman was injured in the battle against Sylar when Season 1 ended but did not appear in critical or serious condition.

Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) - Hiro has the power of teleportation and time-travel. At the end of season 1, he had stabbed the villain Sylar with his ancient sword, just before Sylar used telekinesis to fling Hiro towards a building. Hiro quickly teleported away and ended up in ancient Japan, amongst Samurai Warriors. It is believed Season 2 will start and take place here for Hiro for a short time.

Sylar/Gabriel Gray (Zachary Quinto) - Sylar was the supervillain and serial killer in season 1. Originally a simple watchmaker, he has the ability to take the powers of heroes by stealing their brains. It is believed he may ingest them to take over their powers. At the end of season 1, Sylar had been beat up and then stabbed through his midsection by Hiro Nakamura. However, Sylar's body was shown missing on the street, with a trail of blood leading to an open manhole.

James Kyson Lee will reprise his role as "Ando" the friend/sidekick of Hiro Nakamura. Ando did not have any known powers in Season 1. He was left in Japan by Hiro Nakamura before Hiro did battle with Sylar. Hiro told Ando they would meet again.

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List of a few of the new cast members/characters for Season 2:

* Takezo Kensei (David Anders), a legendary 1,000 year old warrior.
* Maya Herrera (Dania Ramírez), a Dominican who is on the run from the police. She has superhuman abilities, although they have not yet been revealed.
* Monica Dawson (Dana Davis), described as a "young hero" who is willing to "give up everything to help the people around her." She is a relative of D.L. Hawkins.

Note: Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez), Tawny Cypress (Simone Deveaux), and Leonard Roberts (DL Hawkins) are not listed as part of the main cast.

**There may be other names added into the mix and Heroes we don't see back from the list above.

Apparently a doctored photo of Hayden Panettiere holding a sex toy was circulating the internet as a of a few days ago. The site What Would Tyler Durden Do shows a comparison of the real image to the fake and criticizes PerezHilton.com (another gossip site) for publishing the image and inviting readers to comment as to what Hayden was up to.

Check out the photos of Hayden here at WWTDD.com

In other news, a few DVD's have been out for a little while now featuring Heroes' stars in supporting/cameo roles or other capacities. "Rocky Balboa" has been out on DVD for quite a while now and features Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli) in a great supporting role as Rocky's son, Robert. In fact Milo turns in one of the better performances in the movie (go figure). "Bridge to Terabithia" is a Disney fantasy film and features a song recorded by Hayden Panettiere. Jack Coleman who plays Noah Bennet aka "HRG", can be seen in an episode in Season 3 of the HBO series "Entourage". He plays a producer on the show who discusses a film opportunity with Vince and his agents. Jayma Mays who had the short-lived role of "Charlie" on Heroes (the girl with super memory) was also in several episodes of Entourage Season 3.

The above mentioned song and cameo roles are currently on DVD's available through rental at Blockbuster or Netflix. Check them out if you need a fix of your favorite characters from the show while you await the show's return this fall.

Fatherly Love for Claire?

WWTDD.com (What Would Tyler Durden Do) is a popular gossip type website/blog which looks at the celebrities out in the public eye. A recent post caught Claire (Hayden Panettiere) hugging up on and possibly kissing her Heroes' dad, Mr. Bennet aka HRG (Jack Coleman).

Check out the photos and full article here.

wwtdd.com also posted a bunch of candid photos of Hayden, posing in such things as body paint and a Storm Trooper mask from Star Wars. View the Goofy Hayden pics post here.

Hayden also appeared on NBC's Fireworks show last night and sang a slow song from the movie "Bridge to Terrabithia".