The Tick (2016) is officially making the leap to Netflix this July

The decade-long wait is over

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Usually, when you get multiple interpretations of the same superhero, at least one of them is going to be bad. As far as Batman movies go, just over half of them are good, and while Sam Raimi’s take on Spider-Man was great and the hero is currently riding high with his outings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Amazing Spider-Man films suffered from tons of plot issues. (Also, Spider-Man 3 is terrible. Sorry Sam!) The Tick, however, is four-for-four with great iterations.

First there was the original, edgy comic series by Ben Edlund, then the hilariously silly Saturday morning cartoon, followed by the sharp, sitcom-like 2001 live-action series starring Patrick Warburton. Finally, there’s the 2016 Prime Video series, which brought a new level of humanity and optimism to the material by delving deeper into the Tick (Peter Serafinowicz) and his relationship with Arthur (Griffin Newman) than ever before.

Now, after a whole decade of the series being exclusive to Prime Video, the most recent version of The Tick it is coming to Netflix on July 9.

The Tick debuted on Prime Video as a pilot in August 2016. A year later, it returned with 11 more episodes. It was then renewed for a 10-episode second season before its untimely cancellation. Despite lasting only 22 episodes, the show got a chance to explore the main duo more thoroughly than before by cleverly shifting the focus of the series. In previous versions of The Tick, a majority of the screen time naturally went to the hero whose name is in the title. The problem is that the Tick’s psyche is as nigh-impenetrable as the hero himself. He has no origin story, no insight into himself, and isn’t even sure if his ever-present blue outfit is a costume or his skin. All those things make him hilarious, but hard to relate to.

When the Tick's creator, Ben Edlund, launched the Prime Video series, he shifted the focus to Arthur, the Tick’s put-upon sidekick. When the series begins, Arthur is haunted by the death of his father at the hands of the supervillain The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley), who is reportedly dead, but Arthur feels otherwise and begins to investigate. This is how he meets the Tick, who is inspired by Arthur’s sense of justice. In time, the Tick will inspire Arthur to become a superhero, specifically his sidekick who wears a flying moth suit (that everyone thinks looks more like a bunny).

By changing the focus to Arthur, the show allowed for deeper exploration of both heroes because Arthur is us. He’s a real person with real hopes and desires and especially real fears. And by seeing the Tick through Arthur’s eyes, we see why he loves the big blue lug and also why the Tick drives him nuts sometimes.

Despite its short run, The Tick (2016) was an excellent showcase for its characters and for the brilliantly funny mind of Edlund, who has managed to re-interpret his characters again and again without missing and without repeating himself (as he’s been heavily involved with each iteration). Saying 2016’s The Tick is the best Tick ever is probably overstating things, as there are uniquely funny things about each version, but it's just as excellent as any other version and worth a watch when it arrives on Netflix on July 9.

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