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in Chapter 68, we run into a young man, Matt Neuenberg, with the power of memory, very much like Charlie I expect. Standard school nerd/geek problems, ostracized for being smart, abused for cheating/copying from.

He decides to try and gain from his ability by participating in a competition. The crowd calls him names and such. Elle is waiting in the wings to talk him into going with her to the Company. Being her typical self with shows of her power to impress him.

He finds the Company is no better than regular life due to the testing regimen and isolation. Elle starts playing footsie with the lonely young man, very like how she treated Peter.

Hercules67 · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:29 pm Post subject:

At first I thought Matt, was our Matt, but I guess, I am wrong....

I wonder if this character proves to be important.... They really have not introduced a character in a GN which they have made important in the show since Hanna, have they?

VeryBadOmen · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:42 pm Post subject:

This ability that Matt has is actually real. People who are autistic savants have done things just as amazing as he has, even more so. Most of the savants in existence have been severely mentally retarded, with small islands of genius in the brains.

Except, more recently a man from England has the savant syndrome, but suffers from absolutely no mental disabilities. His name is Daniel Tammet. Read more here-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet

I've seen some of the things he's done, and he has really unlocked unforseen potentials of the human brain. He can visualize numbers as different shapes and colors, and relates a feeling, an emotional response to each number. He recited 22,514 digits of pi in just over five hours correctly. No other living human has done so. He can also learn any language in a very, very short amount of time (one week), and speak them fluently. Daniel currently knows 11 languages. And by the way, it seems entirely unrealistic to call Matt a freak, because no one who has been around savants have responded that way. Even learning about them in an immature high school course, everyone in my class was just like "Wow, I wish I could do things like that!" It has always been a response of pure astonishment at the actions of these people. They really show you what humans are capable of.

So, this ability of Matt is a real ability, no question. It's more enhanced intelligence, for he carried out pi, just like Daniel. I really hope they show him do something more super-human, like inventing wild inventions or theories with his ability, not just remembering a bunch of useless information.

mattk25 · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:17 pm Post subject:

I'm wondering if he's going to become a character on the show? Didn't seem like there was much resolve in that GN. Maybe they didn't want any though? I was definitely reminded of Charlie when I saw this GN though.

popkorn615 · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject:

Personally, I didn't like this GN much at all. Firstly, I doubt a crowd (of adults and parents) would react in such a way to a student who is just simply answering questions because he appears to be very smart. A dumb move on the writers' part, IMO. Seeing someone fly or shoot electricity from their hands is one thing, but having a photographic memory and using it is completely different. As VeryBad has said, this is something that a handful of humans already possess, whether it is the savant syndrome, or just a normal photographic memory that's highlighted in something like MTV's True Life: I'm a Genius.

Unless Matt Neuenberg turns out to be (spoiler ahead) the brains behind the group of villains that get together during Volume 3 (ahh, I've got a NEW THEORY), then I don't see the point of this novel or where the writers are trying to bring us.

VeryBadOmen · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:02 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I agree with you about the whole reaction of the crowd. His community seemed like a bunch of turn-of-the century torch-holding farmers who are going to lynch someone for being different. No one in our day and age reacted to people with Savant syndrome negatively. I've seen group question and answer sessions with another Savant named, Kim Peek (The character in the Rain Man is based off of him). He is severely mentally retarded, and can only function as a sort of endless memory bank. He can read two different pages at one time and remember everything about them, but cannot do something as simple as button up a shirt by himself. Everyone at these meetings, was more in total awe at the amount of knowledge this guy could recall. People try and stump him, but Kim usually always answers right because he recalls 98% of everything he's ever read, seen, or heard. His disabilities tend to get the best of him after awhile, and the meetings have to be ended.

This story was written by new writers since the strike is still on, hence the lesser quality of story in places. They really should have shown the reaction of the crowd after Elle practically burned the place down. I think the company is going to treat Matt like the next head of company. He has endless potential and will probably be put to work soon enough. His ability isn't dangerous, but the company will probably twist him and make him a mad-scientist type. He could create the next weapon of mass destruction!

Another problem is that we hardly saw Matt's personality. Alright he has no friends because he's smart...and? It looks like he really likes Elle though.

Hey creators of Heroes, if you need someone to play this guy on TV I look exactly like him!

Jormengrund · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject:

I'd love for there to be a few GNs in these next few weeks that introduce new characters that we're going to be seeing in the next series.

A kind of "Meet the new bad kids on the block" type of thing. Give us the reasons why they're doing some of the things that they're doing. Giving us some minor background for the whole "bad guy" persona..

I mean, I could see Matt wanting to take revenge on the Company after the excruciating tests they put him through, and then the pet-like playing of his emotions by Elle would've broken just about anyone, I think.

So I'd love to see more if this, if it were possible. Give us some info on the new evil we're going to be seeing this next chapter! Let us know what's making them and their evil plans tick!

madstract · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:45 pm Post subject:

In my opinion the characters that have been introduced in GN's haven't really panned out into much.

I don't have high hopes for Nuenberg. It just seems to me that they are introducing someone that will be killed fairly quick. Either a tasty new brain food for Sylar or potentially even someone that accidentally gets in the way of a pissed off Peter. Doesn't really matter- I don't see him lasting long.

You never really know, but my expectations are low.

Blufyre77 · Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:37 am Post subject:

It seems like Neuenburg will actually be a force to be reckoned with, now that he has the OWI mainframe in his memory.
This story in particular was extremely corny and unbelievable. Why an auditorium of parents would start shouting at this "freak" after like only 10 digits of Pi was so silly I laughed. I think that I know that much of Pi, and it seemed in the story that that's when the stupidity of the parents started. From my experiences being pretty smart (yeah, that's me:lol:) and seeing others interact with smart kids who are a little weird, it seems impossible that such soul-crushing things could be said to a kid that has that kind of talent. On my Knowledge bowl team in Middle School, there was a kid that was slightly autistic, I think, that had amazing calculation skills. When he produced answers to pencil-and-paper math problems from his head in about ten seconds less than it would have taken the rest of us, the feeling was one of envy, awe, and pride (maybe too intense words, but it was that kind of reaction), not a "OMG, get the heck out of here, you freak!" Yes, the Academic team was obviously more accustomed to it than others might be, but no American citizen is so stupid to think that intelligence is a bad thing.

Jormengrund · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:47 pm Post subject:

To be honest, I don't think it was stupidity as much as fear.

Granted, there are folks who can do some seriously amazing things with their mind. However, most of these folks are also ostracized in social circles because of their ability to make others feel somewhat inferior.

I was also one of those kids in school who everyone considered an anomaly. I graduated High School in only 3 years, and had my Batchelor's degree in Computer Science also when I graduated, thanks to extra classes taken at the local college WHILE I was going to school.

Most kids thought I was some kind of freak. Others, they wanted to only use me for their tests and quizzes. Some wanted to hang around me hoping that some of my intelligence would "rub off", and they'd become smarter just by being in the same room as me.

That's not to say that I was treated badly, but there weren't many times where I was invited to the parties, or asked to go to dances, or many of the social activities that were going on around the school. One, because they didn't know how to classify me. Was I a Freshman? Senior? Junior? What?? Second, because I was also going to college while still in High School, I had quite a few older friends from the college who didn't fit in well with the other kids. This made for some interesting conflict, which isn't really relevant to this topic.

However, I can relate to feeling a bit out of place. Now, I'm no supercomputer brain kid that's been chased out of my own hometown because of what my mind can do. However, there are still those folks even here at my work who tend to shy away from me because of my ability to recall things quickly. To them, it's something they can't understand, and because of this, they fear it. Same with Matt.

The people he was around don't understand what his ability and gifts are. Because of this, they feared his talent, and pushed him away. This is going to be the basis for his grudge, along with the blatant abuse of his ability by the Company. Matt could be a fearsome asset to whomever turns him, but I don't think he's going to be someone that's going to make any serious challenges by himself.

Hercules67 · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:53 pm Post subject:

I knew you were a SUPERHERO. wink

madstract · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject:

Jorm-- It's a good thing you aren't completely like Matt, because like I called it, he did not last long- getting killed off even faster than I expected.

The characters introduced in GN's are born with a deathwish if you ask me. Once you establish a character in a GN the real show just can't give us the same thing. Some things are best left in a GN.

Jormengrund · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:20 pm Post subject:

Well, as long as they don't make a comic about me, I think I'll survive.. BARELY! lol

I'd have to say that it's pretty sad when the GNs this time around are more entertaining than the show actually was! I remember that we'd been complaining last season about how poor the GN was compared with the show, and now I find myself actually looking forward to the GN, and dealing with the show secondhand! Shocked

I think one of the best things they could do for this show is to develop some kind of background for each villain that they're going to introduce in the new series first in a new GN series. Once established, then we'll know why they "turned", or what their motivation is for going rogue, or being the sinister villain that they are. That was one main reason why Sylar's character was so intriguing last year. They developed the character so much, folks fell in love with the power-hungry beat with no moral compunctions about slicing and dicing his way up the food chain!

Now, if they could only repeat that success, I'd think they'd have a blockbuster of a show to present!

Anyway, that's just my twocents