The Tick is always the perfect show for a saturation age of superheroes

Spoilers coming for season 1 of Amazon The tick.

Amazon's decision to give a go-ahead for a 2016 pilot project for a new live adaptation of Ben Edlund's superhero comic book The tick only becomes smarter with time. 2019 is expected to see the release of six major superhero movies, and there are now crossovers on almost all major networks and streaming services. The original animated version of The tick was a cult hit in the 1990s on Fox, then on Comedy Central, and a series of live activities that followed in 2001 used the same anarchic humor. But at the time, the gags were mainly aimed at young viewers who read comics or watched cartoons filled with superheroes. In 2019, the tropes The tick Mocking ones have become so common and ubiquitous that almost everyone can feel in the joke. More and more stories of superheroes give the series more potential fans and provide its authors with plenty of material to satire.

Therefore, The tick – who is coming back to Amazon with a new episode of 10 episodes aired on April 5 – is still reinforced in its second season. The series began its run a little darker and stranger than the previous one Check incarnations wondering if the super strong, almost invulnerable superhero (played by Peter Serafinowicz) was actually real, or just a manifestation of the mental health problems that rode Arthur Everest (Griffin Newman) since he was watching the supervillain The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley) kills his father and the legendary superhero band The Flag Five.

But at the end of season 1, the series confirmed that not only was The Tick real, but that Arthur was right, apparently paranoid believing that The Terror had not been defeated by the badog of Superman, Superian (Brendan Hines), and lying low and scheming his next spectacular diabolical feat. With The Terror neutralized, Arthur and The Tick begin season 2 ready to face all the new heroic challenges facing their fate.

Many series of conventional superheroes falter after finishing their story, but The tick finds even more solid now that he has the opportunity to introduce (and ridicule) new characters and conspiracies. Season 2 focuses on the reopening of A.E.G.I.S., a riff of the game S.H.I.E.L.D. of Marvel. led by Tyrannosaurus Rathbone, whom Marc Kudisch plays with the same level of rage of badbaditude as Nick Fury of Samuel L. Jackson. AEGIS. wants to restart the Flag Five and invites The Tick and Arthur to audition. This turns out to be a surprisingly invasive and bureaucratic process, largely driven by the discreet Dr. Agent Hobbes (John Hodgman). Arthur's dream would come true, but The Tick was mostly interested in pursuing his new enemy, Lobstercules, a humanoid lobster who was robbing banks, accompanied by a crew of Maine lobsters.

All is not what it seems at A.E.G.I.S., nor really anywhere in this particularly difficult season, which is full of surprises, betrayals and great revelations. As silly as the show is, The tick in fact asks very good questions about who we expect to be heroes, who we think are bad guys and who is totally rejected as a support character. Overkill (Scott Speiser) is at the center of this conflict. He parodies the punisher most directly, but also acts as a comment on many other male heroes emotionally suppressed. "I was trained to lock my problems in a mental glacier, under a thousand tons of mental ice," he says to Arthur's sister, Dot, in one of the many sweet scenes this season shares.

Overkill was trained by A.E.G.I.S. as an elite agent, but became a thug with the help of the stolen flying vessel Dangerboat, which Alan Tudyk expresses with the same dry comedy he reported to the K-2SO droid in Thief A. Overkill warns everyone not to trust A.E.G.I.S., but his allies push him and Dangerboat to face their fears and traumatic past.

Overkill's sinister attitude and affinity for the killing were a hilarious ride for boundless enthusiasm and The Tick's strict hero code in Season 1. He still pursues the same goal in Season 2 but he now demonstrates the true power of parody: the capacity of a place of love. The relationship between Overkill and Dot is a clear parallel between the vigilante Frank Castle and the paralegal turned journalist in Netflix Daredevil and The punisherbut The tickThe version is actually stronger, because Dot is more inclined to call Overkill on his bullshit and is more willing to show him his softer side. This plot also provides a sharp criticism of the frequency with which women are simply relegated to supporting characters and love interests in superhero stories. When Arthur learns that Dot goes on a mission with Overkill, he confronts her: "It's not what you're supposed to be, and it's not your story." His equally meticulous meta-response is: "I'm supposed to do what I want." ? Wait until you call me to participate in your adventure? Guess what, Arthur. It's my broken world, just like yours. "

The tick a surprising amount of material in each of his episodes of about 30 minutes, the season also exploring the impact of the reappearance and defeat of The Terror on his former lieutenant, Mrs. Lint (Yara Martinez), who is looking for a new way to gain power with the help of social media and social technology specialist Edgelord (Julian Cihi), a Kylo Ren look-alike who delivers all his lines in a hilarious impbade.

Meanwhile, Superian has become obsessed with trying to regain the trust of humanity through a series of increasingly bad ideas. The season also features new heroes who dream of joining the Flag Five. They do not add much to the story, aside from Dr. Strange's badogous Sage (Bennett Key), who nurtures jokes about his power and who originates from a third mystical nipple.

Despite all the powers and characters involved, The tickWriters are not particularly interested in spectacular action sequences. Most fights are either brief or played for laughs. This just leaves room for the mixture of sharp quips and loose monologues that make The Tick famous. This season cleanly ties most of the conflicts it has introduced, while preparing big problems for the next season. As long as the stories of superheroes retain their popularity, The tick will have a lot of ways to continue to scramble them.