Isaac Mendez

Isaac Mendez was an artist and comic book author living in Manhattan. He had a loft studio in Lower Manhattan. His art dealer and former girlfriend was Simone Deveaux. Isaac was addicted to heroin, although he had been through rehab twice. Many of his works of art are prophetic, accurately depicting events of the future. After he predicted his own death, Isaac was murdered by Sylar.

Urged on by his instructor, Dominick Cabalo, Isaac honed his art skills and took various summer classes to help develop his craft. It wasn't until high school when he began winning illustration contests. With even more classes in illustration and comic design courses under his belt, Isaac moved to New York and soon after high school took various courses in college for comic book illustration. It wasn't until the annual New York comic convention that he caught the eye of Camacho Comics and they hired him on the spot. He worked there for 3 years, all the while learning the ins and outs of the business. Then in 2002 he self-published his own line of comics under his old uncle Burk's name—one of the few people in his life who supported his love of comic books. (9th Wonders!, Issue #14)

Season One

Isaac discovers that whenever he paints while high on heroin, his paintings come true, which terrifies him enough to break up with Simone Deveaux, his girlfriend. When she brings Peter Petrelli to help him with his addiction, Isaac is found barely conscious, and a picture of a nuclear explosion in New York is painted on the floor. With Peter's help, who turned out to be able to do the same thing as Isaac, he finds a pattern in his paintings and figures out that saving a cheerleader is vital to prevent the explosion. Eden McCain comes and takes Isaac to Primatech Paper Co., where he meets with Mr. Bennet, the cheerleader's father, who tells him there's a serial killer called Sylar on loose, and that he will be after his daughter. Bennet says they will help Isaac to fight his heroin addiction, but he must help them stop Sylar first. However, Isaac cannot paint anything which could help Bennet with his goal - instead, he paints more of the explosion to come.

When he fully recovers from his drug addiction, Isaac leaves the Company's building and receives a call from Hiro Nakamura. When they meet, he learns of Hiro's friend's death by Sylar's hand and realizes he doesn't need drugs to paint the future anymore. When they return to Isaac's loft, they encounter Simone and Nathan Petrelli, and Isaac is told that Peter could be the source of the explosion. He attempts to paint Peter again and again, but is unaware that he is present on all of his paintings - he just cannot be seen. He has a moment with Simone, but unknown to them, Peter is watching. When Isaac paints a half-invisible Peter, he calls Mr. Bennet, who gives him a gun to fight Peter if needed. Soon, Peter arrives, driven by jealousy and anger for Isaac telling Bennet about him. The two face off and Simone is accidentally killed during the fight. Out of grief, Isaac reverts to his drug addiction and paints himself dead, with the top of his head removed. Later, Sylar comes after Isaac's power and kills him exactly as he had painted.

Powers

Isaac has the ability to "paint the future".

When Isaac is in a trance, he seems to be actually perceiving the future. His eyes become milky white and he sees the future events visually as if he's present. He also seems to have little awareness for sounds around him.

It's also worth noting that 9th Wonders! might depict present or past events in addition to future events. Since Issue #14 was released in the future timeline, and since Simone mentioned that the comic was late in the present, then it's possible that the events depicting Hiro before his journey to New York and after his return to the present occurred before or as Isaac drew them. This potentially means that his ability includes present-time or past clairvoyance in addition to precognition.

Isaac also paints a picture of Peter standing in his room, seemingly the same time Peter becomes visible behind him (Unexpected). This may indicate that Isaac is able to paint present events as well. However, Isaac could have merely painted the event a few seconds before it happened.

Initially, Isaac had only painted future events while high on heroin. After going through rehabilitation under Eden's care, and with encouragement from Hiro and Ando, Isaac finally succeeded in painting (and sketching) events without the heroin, but with intense concentration instead. However, after Simone's accidental death, Isaac relapsed.

While the events portrayed in Isaac's paintings appeared to be random at first, Isaac has begun to show the ability to focus his paintings on a particular person. (Distractions)

According to the 9th Wonders! comics, Isaac's power may include some form of translation of foreign languages.

Equipment

• Art supplies—used to produce paintings
• Gun—given to Isaac by Mr. Bennet; used to accidentally shoot and kill Simone
• Heroin—initially used by Isaac to access his powers
• Paintings—the product of Isaac's prophetic visions
• Primatech security keycard—given to Isaac by Eden McCain; presumably used to leave Primatech Paper Co.