I wouldn't compare a TV show with comics.

There's alot more to comic books than a mishmash of super-powered characters in colorful spandex. The comic medium has become decades-old literature that holds a deeper essence while something like Heroes cannot compare to it on a metaphysical level.

If Heroes seems like a comic ripoff, it's because you can only invent so many 'original' superpowers (ie, Flying, Invisibility, Healing, Superstrength, Telepathy, etc) where an audience can easily relate to. These are some of the most common superpowers that have been created and thought about by the average person wishing they had some sort of supernatural gift.

Most people wish they could fly rather than control the Earth's magnetic field or absorb kinetic energy.

I think its a great show, good story, good characters, and always twisting.
It may be a bit of a rippoff but isn't every story that offers some kind of superpower?
I mean if you make someone fly, then they rippoff superman. Most of the "superpowers" have been used and it would be tough to make someone something without ripping something off of someone. :)