The Winchester Family Business already published our
“Crew Review” of T
he Tick. The pilot was also reviewed on many sites on the Internet. Many of the reviews were very favorable.
A darker version of The Tick sounds weird, but what is The Tick if not weird? Ben Edlund deciding to use his superhero parody to better reflect modern superheroes (and more importantly perhaps, modern superhero TV Shows and films) makes a lot of sense, and this Tick is one that definitely works best when viewed next to the recent DC Comics movies or Marvel’s Netflix shows, with their dark, tortured versions of comic book characters. It’s not as hysterically funny as previous Tick stories, but the humor is still present (including at least one great line taken verbatim from The Tick’s past). Suffice to say, I would like to see where The Tick goes and hope it makes it past Amazon’s pilot stage.
What’s funny, however, is that in the issue’s “Tick Talk” question-and-answer session, Edlund answers a Q&A riffing on what’s going to happen to the Tick in the near future. He imagines 1,001 issues, with New England Comics going bankrupt on Tick #1000, which was sent to “every household in America.” Number 1001, issued in 2014, would be “extremely rare,” with only 100 copies worth $60,000 to $90,000 apiece. Edlund laughs, heartily, when I mention this, saying that “we were just fooling around”—but it was a “bold premonition.” What’s really funny, though, is that this prediction sort of came true. The spirit of that teenage goofing around survives; 30 years later, Edlund is still working on The Tick. And in the age of superhero anxiety, the big, blue hero is a necessary corrective: a guy who can both save the world and crack a legitimately funny joke at the same time.
The pilot just debuted, and oh man, it’s exactly the superhero satire that the world needs right now. One reason the 2001 Fox iteration failed was that it, much like 1999’s underrated Mystery Men, was making fun of a genre that hadn’t really taken off yet. The superhero boom was in its embryonic stages at that point, so what was there to send up? It was a punch line without a setup. But now, as the entertainment industry continues its long march toward Peak Superhero, the time is ripe for a big, blue dude armed with super-strength and an endless stock of quasi-absurd, faux-profound proclamations about heroism and destiny. He has arrived.
And for a superhero genre that’s facing its own identity crisis of light against darkness, Amazon has given Hollywood a much-needed reminder that comics used to be called “funny books” for a reason.
The sensation of Edlund writing over his own past makes for great subtext, generating a sort of playfulness that augurs well for the rest of the series. This version of The Tick aims to be a show about shows about superheroes, complete with hero-centric search engines, fluff daytime talk show interviews, and YouTube videos of super-fights. We can’t avoid superheroes now, as much as some folk might want to. Too much of a good thing can do weird things to a person’s brain, superheroes included, and it feels like The Tick is going to cannonball butt-first into the weirdness that’s been welling up in the collective nerd hivemind. That is, if it gets the chance.
‘The Tick’ has latched on to Amazon’s new lineup of shows, but one thing is for sure: it definitely doesn’t suck.
That push-pull between The Tick’s old-fashioned form of superheroics and Arthur’s more modern reality creates an interesting tension. Backed by solid Edlund punchlines and a great lead duo, I hope to see that conflict explored when (not if) The Tick goes to series.
If you loved the animated The Tick series or the live-action with Patrick Warburton… pull out the DVD collections of those and skip this new version. Unless dark and gritty is your thing.
All of that makes this bizarre new take on The Big Blue Bug The Dark Knight to the 2001 show’s Batman: The Animated Series. The latter’s certainly more faithful to the original, but the former has a lot more to say.
Stream it, for sure. The Tick is an odd addition to Amazon’s roster of shows, but it’s the live action superhero parody you dreamed about. It’s fun, smart when it wants to be, dumb all the other times, and well-made enough to eliminate most of your doubts. Keep away from the kiddies.
Ultimately though, the pilot falls between two posts. The work that’s gone into making this version of The Tick’s story sustainable leaves it awkwardly close to the material it once parodied. However fondly you might feel towards the character and those involved in this revival, you’re left wondering if its purpose is still to skewer the superhero genre, or to jump on the bandwagon.
In essence, I guess I’m saying that against all 30-year-old comic book odds, The Tick is unequivocally worth your time and I can’t recommend enough you at least poke your nose into this pile of low-key dementia.
I think it’s fascinating that each new version of the character has grappled with the superhero landscape of the day—now we’ll have a Blue Avenger ready to tackle a world that has not only lived through the blimp scene in Watchmen, the back-breaking scene in The Dark Knight Rises, and the electroshock scene in Suicide Squad, but also binged Daredevil and Jessica Jones and Arrow and Flash and Legends of Tomorrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D…. if anyone can make superheroes fun again, it’s the Tick, and in Amazon’s version, I think we may have gotten the hero we both need and deserve.
Now that The Tick has been picked up by Amazon, we will be able to see just how Ben Edlund will handle the show that has always been closest to his heart.
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