I was told by a friend that the original plan for Maya, in the scrapped virus storyline, was that she would be the one to stop the virus and save humanity. Sounds like a nice subversion of the streotype you mentioned.

Hiro was a positive stereotype/archetype to begin with, agreed. But there were negative ones, too. Like Nathan as the corrupt and selfish politician. Heck, DL was introduced as the dangerous African-American murderer escaped from prison, and look how that got turned on its head once we got to know him more. Niki also developed into more than "stripper"...

Yeah, that's all. Thanks for your life story, it does not change that I'm optimistic when it comes to Maya.