James Heller, the soldier who lost everything and on a mad quest for revenge, was turned into the very thing he pledged to destroy. On the plus side, it gave him the power to do that. But just how great is this living virus? Well, why don't we break it down?

Background Music: "The Infection" by Disturbed

Backstory: Like a great many characters, Heller's story is tragic and depressing. During the second outbreak of "the Mercer virus", James' wife and supposedly his daughter were killed, enraging the at-the-time Sergeant, who became obsessed with destroying the man who took everything from him: Alex Mercer. During a mission in the red district, James' tank and team were attacked and destroyed, leaving him as the sole survivor. And guess who showed up to check on the damages after the crash? Yep, good old Alex, except now he's evil for some odd reason. James furiously fought Mercer with nothing but his army knife and, if Alex had been as easy to kill as a regular human, would've won, but since Mercer was a nigh indestructible living, regenerating virus, no such luck. He beat the shit out of James, who still attempted to follow and kill him and, after a decently long chase and dealing with other monstrous infected, Mercer got the drop on him and infected him with the virus as well, giving him the same physical abilities as Alex himself. He used this curse to tear through the military that betrayed him as well as Alex's forces, eventually finding both Alex's sister and his daughter, but then Alex kidnapped them, prompting one final battle between the two ultimate evolved, in which, much like the background music of the fight, James Heller murdered his maker, absorbing Alex and gaining a massive increase in power, enough to allow him to save his family and completely eliminate the remaining infected. Guess Alex should've taken more time to consider the cons of who he turns into people on par with him.

Speed: Heller is incredibly fast, able to outrun speeding cars and get out of the way of missiles and bullets. However, he doesn't OUTPACE the bullets, he just DODGES them, two entirely different things, like the difference between outrunning a car to avoid being hit and just stepping out of the cars way. He is also capable of running along walls, but this appears to be more from his viral powers clinging him to the wall than from actual speed, as it appears he moves up the walls rather slowly. We're going to put him at 200 mph at maximum.

Agility&Reflexes: Heller is actually not much more agile than a regular human, his greatest dodging abilities coming from either diving or rolling out of the way of attacks, but his reflexes greatly make up for that. He is capable of dodging bullets and missiles. To dodge something requires either moving before the projectile is launched (ex: moving out of the way of a gun before someone pulls the trigger), or to get out of the way with the speed of the object, so we're putting him at Mach 2 reactions (1,255 mph) for being able to dodge missiles.

Durability: Like the rest of the evolved, Heller is incredibly durable. Even before he was infected, he was able to survive a car getting thrown at the tank he and the rest of his troop were in, being the only one that actually did survive with no serious injuries and just minutes later, was able to fight Mercer and get thrown around like a rag doll, which only slightly wore him down, then more monsters attacked him and beat him up, smashing him through a wall and dying on top of him and he was still able to resist Mercer strangling him up against a wall before he was injected with the virus. For a regular human at that point, this guy was TOUGH. After that, he was then fried in a testing lab and shot by the guys who came to make sure he was dead and he just consumed them to heal up quickly and was burnt a second time, which barely phased him. He literally eats people with his virus to heal. This brings us to his second line of defense: a healing factor. The evolved have been shown to have a very good healing factor, as shown mostly by Mercer, being shot in the head with no real damage and eating the guy who did it, or when Heller slit his throat and repeatedly shanked him in their first fight or in their last fight, when Heller repeatedly ripped his arms off and he just grew new ones, which we're assuming all the other evolved, Heller included, can do.

Skill: Heller was a highly trained soldier before he became infected, showing clear superiority to Alex even before he was infected, dodging all his punches and shaking him 3 times. This also showed after he became infected, mastering his new abilities almost as soon as he got them and again, showing superior skills over Alex in their final fight, allowing him to defeat the man who gave him his powers. He also has the skills of a large number of soldiers he has consumed in the past to gain their knowledge and aptitude with weapons and vehicles.

Weapons: He may have used a knife when he was human and he can fall back on guns fallen soldiers and vehicles have left behind, but James Heller does not carry or need a weapon... He is one. With his already insane physical abilities, he can easily tear most creatures apart, at which point he can consume them and gain their abilities, skills and memories, as well as have them for a disguise in the future. This ability is what got him his deadly transformable arm weapons, After absorbing a monster known as a Hunter, he got the beast's brutal claws, capable of slashing through people like a hot knife through butter. From a juggernaut, he absorbed the bloated monsters massive Hammerfists, trading speed for immense power, allowing him to easily crush tanks and other vehicles or an ariel attack in which he dives at the ground and sends massive spikes up from it. He absorbed other members of Mercer's Evolved: people he infected with some higher form of the virus, turning them into people much like him as opposed to the mindless zombies or other beasts, giving him their shields capable of stopping bullets and rebounding missiles, which later became spiked and fit for offensive purposes, the menacing blade that can cleave just about anything in half with a few swings, the whipfist, allowing him to snag or tear enemies apart from the distance, organic armor to make him even harder to damage, the ability to control Hunters and Juggernauts, turn people into viral bombs, sending tendrils from them to destroy anything close by and the tendrils themselves, an ability even Mercer was never shown to have, in which he lashes out with fists made of thin, but powerful tendrils, again capable of splattering just about anything and are his secon-best weapon for destroying tanks and the best kicker is he can stick his tendrils to certain things, which then lash out, grabbing whatever is nearby and bringing them in at high speeds to crush whatever he attached it to. And of course, he's also capable of performing the terrifying devastator attacks, in which he send giant spike pillars into the ground to raise up and impale anything unfortunate enough to be on the ground near him or, my favorite, the tendril attack, in which he sends dozens of tendrils in every direction, to ensure that no matter where you are, if you're anywhere around him at any angle, you are GOING to DIE. Jeez, with all those crazy powers, why would you EVER need to fall back on guns and stuff like that?

Other abilities: Heller also has an infected radar, allowing him to track down other infected like him and he can glide good distances across the city, depending of course where he jumped from: the higher he jumped from, the farther he's able to go. And as mentioned before, after consuming someone, he's capable of assuming their form, allowing him to use the form as a disguise to avoid detection when he's being searched for or sneak into restricted areas. *shows him turning into a woman* I should look into this virus, I could have some fun with that...

Strength: Heller is stronger than Mercer, who was able to kick a helicopter so hard it crashed, which probably requires a couple tons of force and he was able to effortlessly grab and throw a tank. Tanks like the one he threw generally weigh 50 to 60 tons. The one Mercer threw was ruined however, probably bringing it down to 40 tons. But to be able to fling it with one arm as far as he did requires at least a hundred tons of force, far more since he was standing straight up, not using his knees for extra leverage and therefore not using the full strength of his arms and legs, plus he only used one arm as mentioned before, so he's easily far stronger than that, safely 200 tons. And in a battle of Hammerfists, which remember, makes them even stronger, Heller ripped off Mercer's arms, requiring that minimum of 200 tons to overpower Mercer's own strength, plus however much more is required to rip off those gorilla-sized arms.

So, what have we- wait, did I say that last time? Yes I did. Let's start over: So clearly, Heller is far superior to any human and a good number of others on this list. His stats are again quite lower than many other characters on this list, but FAR from the lowest and his infected powers more than make up for that. Heller gets a fair 8 out of 10.