The Big Picture
The Tick was a well-crafted superhero comedy that unfortunately ended too soon, but it would have fit perfectly in Prime Video’s current lineup of superhero-themed shows like The Boys and Invincible. The show had a talented cast and offered a unique flavor of superhero comedy, while also satirizing classic and modern media tropes in superhero stories. The Tick explored themes of mental trauma and postmodern satire, and left several unresolved subplots that could have been further explored in a potential third season.
Ever since the breakout success of The Boys in 2019, Prime Video has gradually become a destination for superhero-themed programming. Granted, The Boys is more of a satirized, outrageous, and extreme take on characters with superpowers and capes, but multiple types of superhero stories are now available or in the works for Prime Video. In addition to the first live-action spinoff of The Boys, Gen V, this year finally saw the long-awaited return of Invincible, based on the excellent post-modern comic book series created by Robert Kirkman, and the streamer will also premiere the new animated Batman series titled Batman: Caped Crusader.
With all these epic superhero shows finding a home on Prime Video, it’s a good time to revisit another superhero series based on a beloved property: The Tick. The latest live-action update of The Tick did not have the most auspicious run, at only two seasons and 22 episodes, but it was still a tremendous adaptation of Ben Edlund’s classic superhero spoof. Although the show predated Amazon’s recent success with comic book superhero properties, it’s still more than worthy of a third season.
The Tick
In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an accountant with no superpowers comes to realize his city is owned by a super villain. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero.
Release Date August 19, 2016
Cast Peter Serafinowicz, Griffin Newman, Valorie Curry, Brendan Hines
Main Genre Superhero
Genres Superhero, Comedy
Seasons 2
Studio Amazon Studios
‘The Tick’s Biggest Problem Was That It Launched Too Early
Image via Prime Video
Amazon’s version of The Tick fared better than the short-lived 2001 live-action television series starring Patrick Warburton, but it still does not receive the respect and attention it deserves. The series ended its run shortly before The Boys made its debut on Prime Video and became a breakout hit, followed later by Invincible. Had The Tick managed to continue, it would have been a perfect fit for Prime Video’s current superhero-themed lineup. While The Boys, Gen V, and Invincible are more mature takes on the superhero genre, The Tick had its own unique flavor of superhero comedy while also riffing on both classic and modern media tropes for superhero stories, films, and TV shows. The latest series offered a more grounded take on the titular hero’s mythos, which was appropriate in comparison to the many superhero shows and films coming out at the time. The first season also provided a solid origin story, introducing Arthur Everest (Griffin Newman) on his superhero journey, along with The Tick (Peter Serafinowicz).
The Tick’s cast was nothing short of tremendous, anchored by Newman as Arthur and Serafinowicz as the lovable, bombastic, big blue superhero. The series provided a timely comedic riff on the superhero media craze and updated Arthur’s storyline, making it a microcosm for mental illness and trauma. As a child, Arthur was witness to a terrible event in which the shuttle of the superhero group the Flag 5 squashed his father to death in an event orchestrated by The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley). Arthur never truly recovered from this childhood trauma, and the memory continues to affect him well into adulthood, as he struggles to cope with his everyday life in his search to expose The Terror’s criminal conspiracy.
The show presents a mild suggestion in the first season that The Tick himself is possibly an entity that Arthur somehow conjured into reality. One working theory is that The Tick is a subject of Arthur’s psychological id. In a way, Arthur creates The Tick as his perfect role model and superhero mentor to guide and nudge him along in his journey to becoming a superhero. It would explain how The Tick gradually evolves and changes throughout the show, changing costumes without warning or explanation; something Arthur notes throughout the story. This would also explain The Tick’s lack of memories of his past or where he came from. In the comic book fantasy world the show creates, it makes sense for Arthur to have the power to mentally create a superhero into physical existence.
Besides the exploration of overcoming childhood mental trauma, the show’s postmodern satirization of superhero stories was also on point. Season 1 villain Ms. Lint (Yara Martinez) decides to opt for a superhero upgrade in the second season, disguising herself as the new superhero “Joan of Arc.” When social media detectives catch on to the fact that the two are one-in-the-same, a befuddled Ms. Lint comedically asks, “How can they tell it’s me? I’m wearing a mask!” Hilarious comedic world-building was woven into the series, such as The Tick’s version of the 28th Amendment of the Constitution, which offers legal protection to superhero identities. The amendment was created due to an incident involving The Terror murdering the family of a superhero named Cat-Man-Dude after his identity was made public. Of course, the amendment is nicknamed “Murphy’s Law.”
Overkill (Scott Speiser) also provided a nice riff on extreme, violent superhero vigilantes, essentially becoming the live-action show’s take on Big Shot; a more direct parody of Marvel’s The Punisher from the classic animated series adaptation of The Tick. In a post-Man of Steel and Batman v Superman world, Overkill provided the perfect response to harder-edged, darker superheroes of the Zack Snyder DC movies, with his skull mask, oversized blades, and overly grim disposition. Plus, Overkill had a snarky AI-powered vehicle named Dangerboat, impeccably voiced by Alan Tudyk. While Dangerboat is a state-of-the-art watercraft, its AI system aspires to become an EDM DJ. While the latest live-action series of The Tick presented its own unique cast and ongoing storyline, it still captured the broad comedic spirit of the original comic series. As the show progressed and introduced more of its world, it began to greatly resemble its previous comic and animated counterparts.
‘The Tick’ Season 2 Left Many Subplots Unresolved
Image via Prime Video
While Season 2 did not end on a huge cliffhanger, it hinted that more was to come in the third season involving Superian (Brendan Hines), who acted as this show’s version of Superman. Superian is a good example of why The Tick might have been a bit too ahead of the curve, depicting a less moral, flawed Superman proxy, who is obsessed with his public perception and image, much like Homelander (Antony Starr) in The Boys. Throughout Season 2, Superian struggles to win back the public’s affection, but in doing so, he only makes things worse.
In the Season 2 epilogue, Superian is about to pull the same trick that Superman did in the classic 1978 Richard Donner Superman film by flying around the Earth to reverse time, while also throwing in a bit of riff on Snyder’s Superman about to take off into the air for good measure. However, before Superian can execute this technique, he’s greeted by a mysterious alien spacecraft calling him “Fugitive 11-X” before the show hits the closing credits. It makes sense for Superian to be a deadbeat fugitive from his home planet who has been hiding out on Earth for over 100 years while moonlighting as a superhero. Watching Superian gradually fall from grace throughout the first two seasons was one of The Tick’s better subplots, and it would’ve provided a strong storyline for Season 3.
In the first season, The Terror offered a surprising layer to his character. When his plans have been foiled, he has a gun to Arthur’s head, but he holds back from pulling the trigger. The Terror reveals that he’s not trying to take over the world but “trying to take it back.” What did The Terror mean here? Was he trying to take the world back from superheroes? Take it back from AEGIS, the uber-powerful organization and this world’s version of S.H.I.E.L.D.? The show’s intimation that The Terror was not quite the irredeemable curmudgeon he initially appeared to be was a fascinating one, and it did not receive much further exploration. It’s likely The Terror was hinting that his true goal was to bring down AEGIS. In Season 2, it’s revealed that the organization’s leader, Tyrannosaurus Rathbone (Marc Kudisch), is housing some type of tentacled, Eldritch Abomination inside his body. There is a probable sense that AEGIS is corrupt, so Arthur and Tick probably would have had to deal with that corruption or the evil monster who uses Rathbone as its vessel in a hypothetical Season 3.
‘The Tick’ Was Ahead of Its Time
Image via Prime Video
Sadly, series creator Ben Edlund revealed in May 2019 that Amazon had canceled the show after two seasons. Later, in July 2019, the hope of the show’s continuation died when Edlund announced that the show’s crew was unable to find a new broadcast home for the series, writing, “After much door-knocking, we have found no new home for the Tick series in this current market.” It’s an unfortunate fate for a great, timely series, but one that always seems destined to befall The Tick.
The classic 1994 animated series, which ran for three seasons on Fox Kids, was also ahead of its time. Despite airing on Saturday mornings on the Fox Kids block, the animated series became more popular with adults than kids, leading to its future syndication by Comedy Central. Eventually, The Tick would find new life with an attempted reinvention as a live-action, single-camera sitcom in 2001. The series predated the comic book superhero movie boom that was soon to come in the 2000s. The first live-action television series is another underrated hidden gem, featuring a fantastic performance by Patrick Warburton as The Tick.
The newest series at least managed to earn a second season, but it always seems like whenever a new adaptation of The Tick materializes, it never quite catches on or realizes its full potential. At the same time, The Tick’s longtime struggle for media adaptation success goes hand-in-hand with the indie underground spirit of the original comics. At the very least, something new with the property seems to happen for every generation. When the next adaptation of The Tick comes around, perhaps the fourth time will be the charm.
The original 1994 animated series of The Tick is available to stream in full on Hulu. Both seasons of the 2016 live-action series are streaming now on Prime Video.
Watch on Prime Video