Peter Parkman?

Will Peter Petrelli develop Parkman's ability to control minds, or will he have to come into contact with Parkman again to gain that ability?

Depends on how stupid the show's producers are. Peter is waaay overpowered for a good guy.

Given Parkmans' ability to control is merely a development of his existing ability I'd say Peter already has the ability but he has to develop it.

Good thing he is a bit stupid as well

I'd back HRG against Peter every time.

This is the nub of the problem. Peter's overpower makes him the producers' choice for top face. But he frustrates fans, therefore he's not top face. Instead, Noah is top face. The problem is that Noah is a human, and therefore cannot be top face. But the fans have made him thus, so he is. (They could make Heroes a show about a human who battles mutants, or something like that. But that's not what it's been designed as.)

The show's producers need to figure this out and fix it, because the situation is not tenable

I don't know if King is passing that quote off as his own, but it belongs to William Faulkner. A quick look at some other books on writing will affirm that.

Different type of comic/story.

Both tenable ideas. I like the former better. I think it has really good potential for compelling stories, actually.

I don't think King is. I'm not sure that's the first place in the he mentions it, but I was in a rush and that was the first reference I found. Any confusion here is certainly my fault, not King's.