New Heroes characters to be unveiled for an online graphic novel could also appear in the television incarnation of the show.

According to Sci Fi Wire, Aspen Comics’ boss Frank Mastromauro revealed: “All these characters are debuting online at NBC.com throughout the summer, and then, towards the end, characters who get the most votes [from fans] will probably wind up making it onto the show this fall.”

He added: “We just received a whole bunch of new mini-scripts for this. Just in the last couple weeks, [artist] Peter Steigerwald designed 12 new characters for Heroes.”

The second season of Heroes is currently being shown on BBC2 in the UK, with the third season to premiere in the US this September.

> Click here for our review of the latest Heroes episode