The Tick. Featuring Crowning Moment of Awesome.

I said I'd review it, and although my desire to actually do reviews has waned significantly, what the hell, I'll do it anyway. It's just the series on a whole anyway.

The Tick was created by Ben Edlund as the mascot for a local newspaper/deli/something. The character managed to get considerably popular amongst the community, so they funded a proper comic book series entitled, 'The Tick.' It was in Black and White, but the writing and artwork were excellent. The basic premise was that The Tick was a superhero who was more interested in fighting super villains than defending the innocent. Unfortunatley, the city he ends up in is one of the most peaceful ones you could imagine, leading to boredom.

The original series set up the boredom of The City (yes, that is it's actual name) and multiple characters and relationships. We had Paul the Samaurai, The Man-Eating Cow, Oedipus, his chubby moth sidekick Arthur, his battlecry of SPOOOOON!, some of his more popular Rogues Gallery, and the fact that New York is Superhero Central.

My favorite part comes in the first issue set in New York. The Tick is challanged by another, apparently more powerful superhero also named The Tick, for the right of the name. Though he gives the first punch, The Tick gets owned completley, and is slowly being crushed to death under The Tick's shield. The psychotic weirdo proceeds to push harder and finish the job. Tick proceeds to pull away the shield and punch him through the wall. This is my favorite comic book fight scene of all time.

The original series was great, but it only lasted 13 issues. But if it's so good, how could that be? Well, I guess you could say that The Tick's success was also his downfall. Within it's 13 issue run, it was successful enough to garner an animated series, which to this day is said to be fantastic. The series changed a few elements, such as making The City a place of excitement and making it Superhero Central. It also introduced the moderatley popular side characters, Die Fledermaus and American Maid, parodies of Batman and Captain America respectivley.

The series lasted three seasons and was very successful. Unfortunatley, in order to keep it awesome, Edlund had to come into work on it, menaing that he wasn't writing the comic any more. This resulted in an issue which attempted to address all the hanging plotlines. I actually feel that it did an okay job, but it still left too much hanging. I have to admit it's another Crowning Moment of Awesome to see EVERY. SINGLE. HERO. show up to combat the villains, but it missed a few things.

The series came back as The Tick: Karma Tornado, which I'll admit to not having read. In fact, I've missed a lot. What I do know is, Tick started a superhero team, The City seems to be more exciting, and Edlund hasn't returned to the series.

In 2000, a live action series was commissioned, starring Patrick Warburton in the title role. Having not seen it, I have to say that my opinion is non existant. There have been multiple complaints that the series was too much like a regular sitcom and didn't feature enough action. By what I've heard, this is accurate, as only about three of the eight episodes feature a super villain, or at least one capable of fighting. Die Fledermaus and American Maid returned as new characters, Batmanuel and Captain Liberty, for the reasons of the legal kind. However, they were too well known amongst the fanbase to be left out.

There was also a video game based on the comic series during the popularity of the show. Unfortunatley it mainly followed the Ninja storyline, which wasn't adapted into the show, thus few people recognised the characters aside from Tick. Also, the gameplay was rubbish and the number of enemies were considered insane. Sorry Tick.

The latest Tick Series have been in color, which I like, I mean TMNT are still in Black and White, and that Franchise has been a billion times more successful.

Personally, I hope The Tick is revived in one of these new fangled superhero movies. I bet they could pull it off. In fact I've written half a script based on the original thirteen issues...it's rubbish.