Sylar is one of the most powerful characters to appear in Heroes, having collected a wide variety of powers from various victims to make himself stronger. Heroes was first released in 2006, ahead of the boom in superhero content that came with the launch of the MCU two years later. The show became an instant hit thanks to its unique exploration of powers and heroes which made it stand out from traditional superhero projects.
In addition to the unique powers and story which were featured on the show, the villain, Sylar, was one of the most compelling and intimidating figures to appear in superhero TV in a long time. Played by the exceptionally talented Zachary Quinto, the show was his big break in the industry and led to him receiving many other opportunities to expand his talents and play various roles. However, Sylar is a dark and twisted figure who takes power from others, in order to feed his innate hunger.
Sylar is one of the many evolved humans that appear in the series who has inherited a natural power through a genetic anomaly. Sylar developed the gift of intuitive aptitude without fully understanding how far it extends, as he became a talented watchmaker with a gift for being able to ascertain what was wrong and how to mend it. This gift was inherited by his father, Samson Gray, who possessed the same gift. However, it also came with an intense hunger for more power.
This hunger eventually led Sylar to shed his old identity as Gabriel Gray the watchmaker and become the monster Sylar. His innate hunger for knowledge and understanding led him to try to understand and replicate others’ powers, and his first victim was a man by the name of Brian Davis. Sylar found Davis through Chandra Suresh’s records, and invited him to his workshop. While there, Sylar brutally murdered Davis, in order to get a look at his brain and through his depth of understanding, he was then able to replicate his gift of telekinesis.
Shortly after killing Brian Davis, Sylar begins to harness his powers of telekinesis to kill more victims and acquire their abilities. Such as Trevor Zeitlan, who Sylar had on his list from Suresh and killed in order to gain the power of shattering. Unlike disintegration, shattering causes objects to explode and shatter into pieces. A less frequently used gift by Sylar, but certainly a powerful one.
Later, Sylar moves on to another victim when he meets Zane Taylor. Taylor had the ability to melt objects at will, without raising temperatures. The power could melt either entirely or partially whatever the user targeted. Sylar then acquired this ability and was once again capable of using it in order to enact his own will on whatever chosen target he saw fit.
Enhanced hearing allows individuals like Dale Smither to hear the most minute noises from a great distance. Whether that is someone’s beating heart from several feet away, to the sound of cockroach steps on the floor, it is an incredibly potent ability. However, when Sylar takes this ability on, it causes him to suffer greatly as he learns to control it. He may understand the process of accessing the ability, but controlling it is a different challenge, and it requires time to refine these skills.
The precognitive ability is one of the most prolific within the Heroes show, as several different people express this ability over time. However, Isaac Mendez appears to be one of the first and most gifted when it comes to accessing this power. Sylar murders Isaac in order to acquire the ability, and then finds himself able to draw the future through his visions. However, this is also one of the many gifts which Sylar lost after enduring the Shanti Virus, which removed all of the powers he possessed up to this point, aside from intuitive aptitude and telekenisis.
In an alternate version of the future which is witnessed by Peter Petrelli, who is still learning to control his abilities, Peter meets a future version of Sylar who has a child and the ability to emit massive radiation. Where exactly he acquired this gift is not explicitly stated, but it is likely he stole it from Ted Sprague, who had the same powers, which were then copied by Peter Petrelli as well. While Peter was set to blow up New York with this power, Sylar showed a much higher level of control over the gift in this alternative future.
Another power which Sylar had in an alternative continuity is the gift of enhanced memory. Hiro and Ando meet a young woman with the ability to recall anything and learn rapidly in a remote café. However, while there, Sylar murders the girl and takes her powers. Charlie Andrews clearly lost her life in Sylar’s quest for power, but thanks to Hiro’s powers, which allow him to control time and space, he travels back to save Charlie from Sylar, thus preventing Sylar from acquiring her gift.
Once again, an alternative future version of Sylar also acquires the gift of regenerative healing from Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), the cheerleader. However, in the main timeline, Claire is saved from Sylar before he can acquire her powers. Had Sylar stolen Claire’s gift successfully, it would have made him essentially invincible. He is already ridiculously powerful as it is, it would be deeply problematic for him to also be immortal.
Once Sylar was cured of the Shanti virus, he begins his killing spree anew on the hunt for more powers. One of the first abilities he acquires in this period is alchemy from a man named Bob Bishop. This power allowed Bob, and consequently Sylar, to turn any object into gold. This gift surely came in useful while trying to acquire money and funds to pursue other powered people.
Bridget Bailey was ordered to enter Sylar’s cell at Primatech by Angela Petrelli. Once inside, Sylar detected her gift and swiftly set to killing her in order to take her powers of clairsentience. This gift led to Sylar being able to read the memory of objects and people he came in contact with, and made him a more useful weapon in the hands of Angela Petrelli and Primatech.
In the same episode where Sylar kills and stole Bridget’s gift, he also kills a prisoner named Jesse Murphy in order to assimilate his powers. Sylar stole the ability to manipulate sound, which resulted in him being able to produce powerful sound waves and blasts, and replicate noises at will. This power was also shared by another of Sylar’s victims earlier in the show, but he did not acquire this power until he killed Jesse Murphy.
Sylar eventually undergoes training in Primatech where he isn encouraged to try and expand his powers to allow him to replicate others’ abilities through empathetic means rather than needing to physically open them up. Sylar forms a romantic relationship with Elle Bishop (Kristen Bell), who has powers that allow her to manipulate electricity. Over time, he acquires this gift empathically, proving he can evolve his powers. However, he later reverts to his old ways and chooses to kill Elle despite already having her gifts.
After some time with Angela and Arthur Petrelli, Sylar forms a close connection when Angela reveals that they are his biological parents. However, Sylar has doubts, and in an attempt to get to the truth, he seeks out a person with the gift to detect when people are lying. He kills Sue Landers and extracts her power in order to put his ‘parents’ to the test and learn the truth for himself.
Sylar is eventually persuaded to work with Primatech as he is promised a way to acquire numerous powers. On a mission to recover a shapeshifter by the name of James Martin, Sylar is told he can take the powers, but not to leave any marks. As a result, he absorbs the ability empathically. Later, this gift is used against him when Sylar is disguised as Nathan Petrelli and rid of his memories of being Sylar. Then he finds the body of Martin on ice, in the form of Sylar, and chooses to burn the body to be rid of the monster.
Later, when Sylar is regaining his former memories, he sets out to acquire a new ability from a man named Tom Miller. Sylar once again pretends to be a trustworthy figure and has Miller showcase his power. After witnessing the ability to disintegrate objects, Sylar kills Miller swiftly and robs him of his gift, before setting off on his mission to kill and acquire more powers. He also displays his earlier power for telekinesis in the process of killing Miller, revealing it has remained after the virus and his memory loss.
Earlier in the show, but still after the Shanti Virus, Sylar faces off against the Petrelli brothers. Nathan and Peter team up to try and take down the murderous master of so many powers, but thanks to his newly acquired ability to replicate abilities empathically, he steals Nathan’s powers without laying a finger on him. From this moment onward, he has the power to fly, which aids him when he falsely pretends to be Nathan himself.
Late in the series’ run, Sylar acquires the gift of empathy. Unlike typical empathy, this power is used in order to express and feel other people’s emotions, and when used by Lydia, she uses ink on her skin to express what is being felt. Sylar acquires this ability after getting intimate with Lydia, but he struggles to properly control it at first. However, it does round out the full list of gifts acquired by Sylar throughout the course of Heroes.