Heroes: That's better

“Heroes” is back.

I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting to say those words.

When the show premiered a couple years ago, it was instantly among my favorites. But as that season and others progressed, we loyal viewers were regularly disappointed with clunky storylines.

Remember Hiro’s ill-conceived, never-ending detour to feudal Japan? How about when an amnesiac Peter worked for a group of Irish gangsters? Or the build-up to the mysterious “Nightmare Man,” who was supposedly scarier than Sylar but ended up being Parkman’s lame-o father?

I rest my case.

But this latest volume finally broke the streak.

Over the weekend, I had my very own marathon of the show’s most recent batch of episodes — 12 to be exact, including Monday’s season finale; I’m nothing if not dedicated — and it was good.

I’m talking first season good, with a plot that brought all of the core characters together.

Just as important as seeing them work together was why they were doing it. It wasn’t to stop some virus from being released, or to prevent Papa Petrelli from doing whatever it is he wanted to do in the last volume (The fact that I can’t even remember his endgame probably speaks for itself).

This time around, the heroes had to protect themselves after a traitorous Nathan told the president about the existence of people with powers — omitting the fact that he was one of them — and convinced him they need to be imprisoned for the safety of the public.

The situation quickly spun out of control when Homeland Security agent Emile Danko (Zeljko Ivanek, who is quickly becoming a good go-to creep; see his previous work on “True Blood”) became obsessed with the cause.

I don’t want to bore you with a play-by-play of the entire season, but here are some things that worked for me: Hiro and Ando’s adventures with Parkman’s son, which were cute and hilarious without being annoying; flashbacks to Angela’s time at Coyote Sands, a 1960s-era, government-run encampment for people with abilities, and the place where she and her cohorts formed The Company; Sylar’s identity crisis; and the return of technology-manipulating Micah as Rebel.

Another upside was the elimination of Hiro’s time traveling ability.

Before, the stakes just weren’t high enough. If a character died, Hiro or a power-absorbing Peter could just go back in time to stop it from ever happening. I’m not saying I want any of my heroes to die, but no action or event has any real significance if we know it can be undone in the next episode.

Watching a powerless Hiro was rough at times, but it all changed in a great moment when Parkman’s son — whom Hiro and Ando endearingly referred to as “Baby Touch and Go” because of his ability to turn things on and off with a single touch — gave Hiro his time-freezing power back. It was almost as exciting as the first time we saw him do it back in season one.

The final episodes also introduced a cool new ability: shape shifting.

And almost as soon as I could think, “Wow, I hope Sylar doesn’t get a hold of that one,” he did, which set us up for the season finale.

Sylar decided he wanted to be the most powerful man in the world and, morphing into Nathan, arranged a meeting with the President. With one touch, he would then be able to turn himself into the Commander in Chief.

We all knew he would never get that far, but it was still nerve-wracking to watch Sylar in action, especially during those creepy scenes with Claire as they waited to meet the President.

Words can’t express how truly great Zachary Quinto is as Sylar. He’s menacing yet insanely likeable and, at times, pretty funny.

“I’ll keep trying to kill you for the rest of my life,” Claire told him angrily at one point.

“Well,” he responded nonchalantly, “everybody needs a hobby.”

My man Peter eventually stopped Sylar, but not before he killed Nathan (and right as I was starting to like the eldest Petrelli again!).

Then things got really crazy. Unable to accept her son’s death, Angela convinced Parkman to use his mind control powers to make a drugged-up Sylar permanently shape shift into Nathan.

I’m a little unclear how that’s going to work out — I’m guessing badly — but it sets the stage for what should be an exciting fifth volume.

“It’s a new beginning, Mom,” Sylar-turned-Nathan tells Angela at the end.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself.