What if you and I, and regular people like us -- all around the world -- got super powers? This is the idea that spawned NBC's new Monday night drama series, Heroes.

 The cast of characters in Heroes ranges from an artist who paints the future, but only when he's high, to a high school cheerleader who is literally indestructible (what teen doesn't think she's invulnerable?). As with ABC's Lost, the characters of Heroes will be revealed to us a bit at a time. Thus, we see Claire Bennett, our cheerleader, played by Hayden Panetierre, experimenting in dangerous ways to determine the limits of her power (watch for the hand in the garburator stunt), and Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), a Japanese office drone as he figures out his ability to teleport -- can you say "ladies' rest room?"

One of the ways that Heroes works is that it plays with our expectations in such a way that we can't be sure what powers, if any, an individual might have. This is especially effective in the case of brothers Peter and Nathan Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia and Adrian Pasdar, respectively). The young and slightly disreputable Peter keeps dreaming that he can fly -- but can he? And why does his big-on-Wall-Street brother seem so aloof?

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Originally a two-hour event, Heroes' premiere has been split into two one-hour, the first of which only gives us the briefest of glimpses at why these characters might have been given these abilities.  Clues lie in the fevered paintings of Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera), the junkie artist. In the meantime, with a large cast of eleven characters, we barely get halfway through the roster before the hour comes to an end.

The Heroes pilot is convoluted in a way that calls Lost to mind with its character moments and mythology moments. There is an intricate balance being set up here, and writer/creator Tim Kring manages to provide enough real character moments that the mythological elements feel believable. David Semel's direction manages a pace that balances both elements beautifully.

Though Heroes has been getting some great and deserved buzz, it's also been called humorless -- but with a character like Hiro, who is so thrilled to discover he's special, it certainly doesn't lack humor. Heroes may not be the next Lost but it may be the next X-Men.