Spoon! See Peter Serafinowicz's THE TICK in action in new pics!

My love for The Tick is well documented on this site (I am of course talking about the blue, lantern jawed comic book superhero, and not that other bloodsucker around here, known as Nicholas Reay). The 90’s animated show was one of my favourite cartoons growing up, and I even dug the appropriately absurd 2001 live-action TV series adaptation starring Patrick Warbuton as the super-strong doofus.

As we’ve previously reported a brand new live-action series is on the way thanks to Amazon’s revival of the cult classic franchise, and this time Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy, Zoolander 2) will be donning the blue costume. A costume that we can now get an even closer look at thanks to some new pics that have popped up over on /Film.

Besides for Serafinowicz’s musclebound Tick, we also get to see Griffin Newman as his sidekick Arthur (although sans moth costume here), Jackie Earle Haley as villainous The Terror, Brendan Hines as the smug Superian, Whoopi Goldberg as… well, Whoopi Goldberg, and a whole bunch more.

I have to admit, I’m not entirely sold on Serafinowicz’s costume. Warbuton’s costume famously left his entire face uncovered, which was a big deviation from the comic book source, so at least Serafinowicz’s outfit has that covered (pardon the pun). However, his headpiece seems oddly shaped, and he also doesn’t quite have the character’s trademark jawline. And then there’s the word texture on the suit. I understand that they were going for a whole “insect carapace” look to make him more tick-ish, but I’m not a fan.

This is of course not entirely unexpected though, as you would have seen nearly all comic book movies over the last few years trying this whole textured look. And according to creator and executive producer Ben Edlund, this was just part of their vision to have the more modern style of superhero cinema merge with the character’s classic style of offbeat humour.

This has been a labor of love for Amazon, Sony, and all of us. The only way for this to have value was if we found a wholly new expression of ‘The Tick’ and Arthur’s story in live-action, and I think we’re on to something! Visually and thematically this new ‘Tick’ lives in the textures and rhetoric of today’s superhero saturation tsunami — and for it to be something you want to watch for hours, it needed to find its way to a story with heart and stakes, as well as absurdism. Is it a radically new hybrid of humor and super heroic action with characters you will care desperately about? YES! Yes it is.

Regardless of my misgivings about his new blue duds, if they nail that absurd, tongue in cheek tone, then I will definitely be all aboard for this new version. The pilot episode for The Tick will debut on Amazon on August 19. Here’s the official synopsis:

In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an underdog accountant with zero powers comes to realize his city is owned by a global super villain long-thought dead. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero. The Tick stars Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), Griffin Newman (Vinyl), Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Valorie Curry (House of Lies), Yara Martinez (Jane the Virgin) and Brendan Hines (Scorpion). The Tick is executive produced by Ben Edlund (Supernatural), Barry Josephson (Bones) and Barry Sonnenfeld (A Series of Unfortunate Events), directed by Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight), and written by Edlund. The Tick is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television.

Last Updated: August 5, 2016