We lucky few (thousand) who made it into San Diego Comic Con’s Hall H this morning were treated to the first episode from the upcoming season three of Heroes. And Holy Hell, it was great! The episode is titled Second Coming and it definitely kicks off the new season with an entirely different tone from season two’s ambling disarray. The feel of the episode was dark, with nearly every one of the heroes seeming to go against character and making some very questionable decisions.

Before I get into serious spoiler territory, I’ll say that although they brought out the entire ensemble cast, plus writer/creator Tim Kring, and co-producer Jeph Loeb, there was very little time for panel discussion and audience Q&A (for obvious reasons — they spent the time showing the entire episode!). But audience reaction the panel was immense, and especially towards Zachary Quinto, who plays Heroes villain Sylar.

Also, the Season 2 DVD, which will be released August 26th, will include some unaired episodes that didn’t make it on screen because of the writers’ strike.

Ok, so onto the spoilers …

WARNING: SPOILERS

Some of the sweet nuggets we get to see in this episode are the return of Malcolm McDowell as the enigmatic and powerful healer Mr. Linderman (did anyone really think he was gone for good?). There’s also some more of George Takei as Kaito Nakamura, this time via a posthumous video message to his son Hiro (Masi Oka), which informs him that he has half of a secret formula in his possession and that it is his duty to protect it. A formula for what we obviously don’t find out yet, but regardless Hiro is tasked to be the steward of its safe-keeping.

Also huge was that in a gruesome succession of scenes between Claire and Sylar that were reminiscent of John Carpenter’s Halloween, we are FINALLY are shown how Sylar ’steals’ powers from his unlucky victims.

Hiro immediately loses his half of the formula in a scene that introduces us to a new female hero (or villain?), whose powers are basically like DC’s the Flash. In fact, she’s so fast that Hiro’s time-stopping abilities don’t seem to affect her and through this interaction we learn that his powers are actually more a severe slowing of time and not a full-stop (yet?). We then briefly follow Hiro into another possible future so he can see what the outcome of this secret formula being released into the world is. He arrives to see his future-self and Ando in an apparent battle… and Ando has powers(!). And not just any powers, but powers that looked to me like Ken’s Ha-do-ken from Street fighter! It was freakin’ bad-ass!

Anyhoo, having been nearly nine months since the last time we saw any new televised material from the show, it was definitely a lot to take in, but again.. it was frakin’ sweet!