The fourth season of NBC’s Heroes began on September 21st, and it appeared that we wouldn’t see much of Sylar (Zachary Quinto). With the death of Nathan Petrelli (Adrien Pasdar), Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) essentially transformed Sylar into a Petrelli replacement. Although his memory had been wiped, pieces of Sylar’s past started to trickle into “Petrelli’s” head. I assumed we would see Sylar through Pasdar’s character, but I was wrong. Instead, Sylar is making appearances in Parkman’s life, in the form of visions, or hallucinations. Yes! Sylar is back, and as complex as ever.

Complex, yes, but is it possible that Sylar is the greatest TV villain of all time? Surely, many people would have other contenders but there is a case to be made for Sylar:

Abilities

Innately, Sylar has an intuitive aptitude to understand the structure and operation of complex systems without special education or training. This ability alone is pretty impressive, but the fact that he can take the powers of others (similar to empathic mimicry, but way more evil since he eats the brains of those whose abilities he takes) makes him almost unstoppable. Here is a list, courtesy of Wikipedia, that shows all the abilities Sylar has taken:

Not bad, huh? Oh wait, there’s more!

If you’re curious to know just what each of these abilities allows Sylar to do, check out the Wikipedia article.

So we’ve established that Sylar has an unbelievable repertoire of abilities that enable him to do just about anything. That’s not all he has going for him though.

Intelligence

Apart from his intutive aptitude, Sylar is an intelligent villain. Sure, this is nothing new in a villain, since many of them are of above-average to superior intelligence. In Sylar’s case, he uses his smarts to convince his adversaries to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do, without having to use his abilities. He knows exactly which buttons to push, and Zachary Quinto does an excellent job in portraying this quality.

Charm

Not only is Sylar an intelligent villain, he’s damn charming too. He’s the kind of guy that makes it easy to forget just how devious and menacing he is. This skill comes in handy when it comes to relating to people who either don’t know about his abilities or who are skeptical about his intentions. In a split second he can go from cold-blooded killer to Mr. Nice Guy. And the crazy thing is that despite how awful he is, a lot of fans (as evidenced by message boards and forums) are hoping that he wins.

Looks

Although the physical appearance of a villain doesn’t necessarily contribute to his/her prowess as such, there’s no denying that Sylar is able to use his rugged good looks to his advantage. Often times, the villain is unappealing (or at least uninteresting) to look at, but good ol’ Gabriel Gray can use his looks, charm and intelligence before ever having to call upon his super-human abilities.

Resilience

Every time you think Sylar is dead or rendered powerless, he comes back. The guy just doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit. Stabbed by a sword, wandering through a jungle half-dead, losing his powers, and even transformed into Peter Petrelli, he’s always managed to regain that Sylar edge. Even trapped in Parkman’s head this season, he is able to wreak havoc. There is seemingly no end to the lengths Sylar will go in order to continue his (ever-changing) quest.