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"Save the cheerleader, save the world!"
Hiro Nakamura[src]

Claire Bennet was one of the main protagonists in Heroes. She was a former college student and cheerleader who was raised by her adoptive parents Noah and Sandra Bennet in Texas. Her biological parents were Nathan Petrelli and Meredith Gordon.

History

Early Life

Claire was born to Nathan Petrelli and Meredith Gordon, two people possessing abilities. Noah Bennet and his partner, Claude Raines, agents of the Company, arrived at her mother, Meredith's, house to abduct Claire. Claude went inside to "do the heavy liftin'" while Noah waited outside until Meredith combusted and blew the door open. Noah ran inside to find Claude on the floor. Claude then told Noah to find Claire and he carried her out safely out of the house. Noah and his wife, Sandra, later adopted her. In the graphic novel Elle's First Assignment, which takes place before the series begins, Bob gave Elle her first assignment, which were to track and follow Claire, posing as a student at Union Wells High School. Elle was reluctant, but Bob informed her that Claire would be important to the Company. Claire never realized that Elle was following her.

Six months prior to the start of the series, Claire had just become a cheerleader at her high school, with the help of her friend Jackie Wilcox. During an argument on whether or not she wants to be a cheerleader with Jackie, Claire crashes into a glass case, cutting her hand. When they show Claire's parents, her mother, Sandra, suggests Claire might need stitches. After Claire, Jackie, and Sandra leave for the hospital, the phone rings and Noah answers. It is Chandra Suresh, a scientist who studies paranormal phenomena, informing him of Claire's power. Several days later, Noah asks if he can see her hand with the stitches. When they unravel the cloth around her hand, they are both surprised to see not even a small scratch.

Heroes

Season 1

After discovering this abnormal ability, Claire decides to try stunts. She has her friend, Zach, videotape her stunts to document her tests of her healing ability.e 

Season 2

To Be Added

Season 3

In Volume Four, Claire learns that her other father, Senator Nathan Petrelli, is heading a government operation to round up people with special abilities when she overhears Nathan telling Angela that they must keep Claire home and far away from this entire operation, having ordered immunity for Claire. 

In the process of trying to warn Peter and Matt about this plan, she manages to find Matt. However, upon arriving at his apartment, Matt is captured and Claire is mistakenly taken by Emile Danko's team and hooded as well. Claire is brought to Nathan, who unhoods her, frees Claire, has her released into his custody, and sends her back home. Nathan explains he has given Claire a free pass. It is revealed Claire is exempt from this operation due to being under the protection of both her fathers, Noah and Nathan, and Noah is revealed to be also involved with this program. She strongly disagrees with the operation and defies both her fathers.  

However, the operation spins out of control when Danko exposes Nathan's ability, prompting the end of Claire's free pass, and Nathan rescues Claire before the agents can take her. Her strained father-daughter relationships with Noah and Nathan are mended by the end of this volume.  

Season 4

To Be Added.

Heroes Reborn

In "June 13th - Part One", it is revealed that Claire did attend the Odessa Unity Summit, however, she left and later gave birth to twins. The boy was named Nathan after the son that Angela Petrelli lost, Claire's biological father, and the girl was named Malina after her adoptive father Noah Bennet's mother. During childbirth Claire died from cardiac arrest.

In "June 13th - Part Two" Angela realized that the reason Claire died was due to her son having absorbed her power during childbirth. But who is the father?

Powers

  • Rapid Cellular Regeneration: Claire can spontaneously regenerate any tissue in her body, allowing her to recover from almost any injury within seconds to minutes — though she does need larger objects, embedded foreign objects (such as a branch or a shard of glass) to be manually removed from her body, or bones pushed back into position for the wounds to heal properly. Although Sylar, after studying and taking her power, remarks that he wouldn't be able to kill her even if he wanted to and that she will never die, writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite have confirmed that methods such as decapitation or incineration would indeed kill her. On the other hand, she has survived nuclear explosions.[1][2] In addition to simple healing, Claire has been shown to regenerate at least small extremities. She has experimented with the limits of her powers by cutting off a toe. A new toe rapidly grows into place.[3] Later, Claire is able to continue regeneration even after being accidentally frozen by Tracy Strauss; she thaws out and her frozen foot, which had broken off in Tracy's hands, is replaced with another foot that regenerates, going beyond Claire's experimentation in which she cut off her pinky toe from the same foot.[4] The dark-future-Claire is able to regenerate her entire right arm after detonating a grenade during a terrorist raid while working as an HLS agent.[5]
    • Healing Blood: When her blood is injected into others, they are also healed, even if they were dead for a while, with no apparent ill-effects. It is revealed that her injected blood cannot cure tumors; her rapid cell reproduction would actually accelerate a tumor's growth due to it being living tissue.[6]
    • Contaminant Immunity: With the temporary loss of her powers, it is shown that Claire's abilities protect her from diseases, although this also leaves her natural immune system weak, as she has not built up a resistance to any sickness.[7] Claire reveals that she cannot become intoxicated. She has a drinking contest with a man to get more money for her and her father, Nathan. She drinks over 20 shots and does not demonstrate any signs of being intoxicated. She pretends to be drunk to hide her ability from the man. She later points out to Nathan that her tissue regeneration extends to internal organs like her liver.[8]
    • High Pain Tolerance: Thanks to her power, she has an incredibly high pain tolerance; Claire states that, when injured, she feels pain just as severe as anyone else who was injured in such a way, but her power quickly deadens the pain.[9] When asked about this, series writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite would only comment that she "feels pain, but not the way most of us do." Claire, describing her response to pain to West, says "I feel pain; I just get over it quickly." Between her tolerance for pain and seemingly unlimited healing potential, Hayden Panettiere compares her character to the X-Men character Wolverine, although she is "less hairy and without claws." Since having her brain examined by Sylar, Claire has stated that she no longer feels any physical pain of any kind.Template:E

Trivia

  • Claire gave birth to a set of twins.
  • Its unknown who the father is, though it can be implied from the final episode of Heroes Reborn that he is evil.
  • She died from cardiac arrest: due to her son's power manifesting in the womb, her regenerative abilities were absorbed and she wasn't able to survive giving birth.
  • "Savethechherleadersavetheword" could be alluded to her role as the mother of Nathan and Malina, destined to prevent a future disaster who could wipe out humanity.
  • Claire is the first ever character to be unhooded in Heroes. Yet in an odd coincidence, she's also the last Heroes (main) character to be unhooded, as shown in Volume 5, when she's kidnapped for her initiation.

Gallery

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