Claire Bennet
 Claire Bennet Six months prior to the start of the series, Claire was preparing to become a cheerleader at her high school and living an active but normal life. Jackie Wilcox, another cheerleader, befriends Claire and helps her join. Though Claire is "popular" like Jackie and others, she tries not to "be a bitch", unlike Jackie.
In the pilot episode, set several months later, Claire has recently become worried and frightened after discovering she is virtually indestructible, due to a healing factor which enables her to recover almost instantly from any injury. To help cope and test her powers, Claire confides in Zach, a high-school classmate who videotapes Claire testing her regenerative power by attempting to injure herself. Zach thinks Claire's powers are the "coolest thing to ever happen in [their] town"; Claire believes they make her a freak and is afraid of being discovered. Her younger brother, Lyle, also discovers Claire's powers after finding the tape Zach filmed. Claire swears him to secrecy.
Powers
Claire can spontaneously regenerate any tissue in her body, allowing her to recover from any injury in under a minute. She also shows no visible sign of pain after being injured, since she fails to notice several broken ribs on one occasion and does not complain when her head is twisted 180 degrees. She did, however, grimace when her hand was damaged during her retrieval of a class ring from an active garbage disposal and when her brother fired a staple into her hand. Series writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite would only comment that she "feels pain, but not the way most of us do."[2] Clarie's ability has not been shown to have any definite limit thus far. Between her tolerance for pain and seemingly unlimited healing potential, Claire has been compared to the X-Men character Wolverine, although she is "less hairy and without claws" according to Panettiere.
The only limitation of Claire's powers shown thus far is that she cannot heal herself if a foreign object is left in the injured area. The episode "One Giant Leap" demonstrates this when Claire is "killed" after being accidentally stabbed through the neck by a stake. The stake remains in place for what must have been several hours, since an autopsy is begun over the period. During the autopsy, the stake is removed, and Clarie automatically begins healing a few seconds later. This is true of other characters with healing factors who can still heal incorrectly, incompletely, or not at all if certain conditions are not met, just like normal humans. For example, because her upper torso had been spread open from the classic "Y-Incision" made in the chest of autopsy subjects, she had to close the flaps of skin back into place manually before they could heal.
Character details
Played by: Hayden Panettiere
First seen: Genesis
Source: Wikipedia |
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