Isaac Mendez

Name: Isaac Mendez
Portrayed by: Santiago Cabrera
Superpower: Precognition; Paints the Future
Age: 28

Isaac Mendez's story began in the first episode, where he was a struggling, tortured artist living in New York City. His girlfriend and art dealer was Simone Deveaux. However, Mendez was addicted to heroin, and had little success quitting permanently, which put a strain on his relationship with Simone. This strain is worsened when Isaac realized he could see ambiguous future events and paint them when high on heroin. Isaac at first assumed the paintings to be "evil" and tried to destroy them, but Simone saw them as artistically impressive. Near the end of the pilot, Isaac overdosed. Simone brought help in the form of nurse Peter Petrelli, and Isaac survived.

After he recovered, Isaac seemed to have accepted his "destiny" to save New York from a large, nuclear-level, mushroom cloud explosion he saw in one of his precognitive trances. Isaac had also come to believe he needed the heroin to "paint the future", and no longer cared about quitting. Simone doubted Isaac's powers and would not stand idly by while he ruined his life using heroin, so she left him. During their conversation, Simone also mentioned that Isaac's comic book, 9th Wonders!, may be late as he continued with his precognitive painting.

In the fourth episode, Simone came to Isaac requesting new paintings for a showing at her art gallery. Isaac offered earlier works instead, saying that he needed the newer ones to tell the future. Simone doubted she could even sell the older ones and was still unconvinced of Isaac's powers. Isaac proclaimed he knew about her kiss with Peter the previous evening. Simone assumed that Isaac had followed her, but he showsed her his drawing, saying he had made it seven weeks prior. Isaac then said he needs money for "painting supplies", by which he meant heroin, which he hoped would help him find a way to stop the nuclear explosion. Simone left and Isaac broke out his "tools" to shoot up. At one point in the episode, he said "I'm gonna be a hero". After shooting up, he experienced a vision of Claire Bennet at her school around Homecoming time, being chased and cornered by a shadowy figure.

In the fifth episode, Peter came by to find images of "the cheerleader" that a future version of Hiro Nakamura told him to save. However, Isaac was distraught over the current state of his life and felt he'd wasted his time. Peter disagreed and persuaded Isaac to look past their differences. Peter found the kind of painting he was looking for, though Isaac explained he could not finish it, as he was out of both heroin and money to buy more. Peter still believed they should keep trying and, through his ability to mimic other people's powers, managed to paint the picture himself, saying he could see the finished work in his mind. The phone rings after he finishes. Issac explains that it's just some Japanese man (in fact it's Hiro) that he can't understand, and Peter realizes that it's Hiro.

In "Better Halves", Isaac and Peter realize they don't know who the cheerleader was or where she lived. They noticed that one of Isaac's canvases of the future was missing. Isaac realized that Simone had taken it to sell with his other paintings. He didn't remember what he had painted, because he was high at the time. After Peter left to try to track down the painting another way, Eden McCain visited Isaac's apartment, claiming to be a fan.

In the following episode, Isaac and Eden were in a paper plant in Odessa, Texas where Mr. Bennet worked. Bennet told Isaac that he helps people with special powers to better use them, and suggested that he could teach Isaac to use his powers without heroin. However, Bennet desperately needed Isaac to finish a painting of an attack, which he believed would let him protect his daughter Claire. Isaac tried again to paint without the drugs, but after that proved unsuccessful, Mr. Bennet had Eden persuade Isaac to take heroin willingly and paint an image.

In "Homecoming", Isaac painted a picture of a man glowing brightly, which Isaac later describes as "a man exploding", rather than anything related to Claire. Then, in "Fallout", he began painting again, though he didn't believe the paintings to be anything more than art since he hadn't taken any drugs since painting the previous image. After Eden told him that Claire had been saved, he realized that the future could be changed. Eden gave him a phone and an access card, suggesting that he do something. To that end, he called Hiro and arranged a meeting. After meeting Hiro, seeing the future issue of 9th Wonders!, and realizing that his most recent drawings were in fact of events from the then-future, he decided to again paint without heroin. Relaxed and advised by Hiro to concentrate, he successfully activated his powers, painting a picture of Hiro, brandishing a katana, encountering a dinosaur. Hiro also mentioned that Isaac had been killed by Sylar in an alternate future.