Every time you hear about a new superhero property being adapted into live-action, the word “dark” inevitably comes up in the conversation. Someone involved in the project always talks about whether or not it will be dark. In Marvel’s case, the conversation usually goes in the “not as dark” direction. When it comes to DC, we always hear about things being “dark and gritty”. And when it comes to projects outside of the big two such as ‘Kick-Ass’, ‘Hellboy’, ‘300’, and beyond, they can land anywhere on that dark spectrum. However, the absolute last hero that you would think to hear that adjective attached to is The Tick. The big blue bug-man has never been known to take himself or the world around him too seriously. But it seems like he’ll be moving in that direction when his series is revived at Amazon very soon.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, original series and comic creator Ben Edlund discussed the differences between the last live-action series from 2001 and this new version of ‘The Tick’. For starters, instead of following Mighty Blue Justice and his super friends Captain Liberty and Batmanuel, the new show will focus on Tick, his sidekick Arthur, and Arthur’s sister Dot. But when the topic moved onto the tone of the show, Edlund used the D-word to describe the latest telling of his creation’s story:
“We’ve got this show about superheroes [where] we get to have fun with the idea of superheroes by starting with kind of a comedic parody of [an] event-oriented-like universe. It will be darker and more grounded. And it’s going to have a real story, a real hero’s myth. We’re the ones that get to have fun with it and that’s kind of the situation where right now that’s an open field in this area of entertainment.”
Though “darker and more grounded” is where most superhero movies live these days (even the lighter ones), that’s not really a place where one would expect to find The Tick. Although, the material has always been a bit absurd, so seeing this hero bring his trademark brand of humor to today’s perception of superhero movies and TV shows could be interesting. Either way, there are definitely a lot of people looking forward to hearing the hero proclaim “SPOON!” all around The City.
What do you think about this new direction for ‘The Tick’? Are you excited to check out the pilot starring Peter Serafinowicz, Griffin Newman, and Valorie Curry? Let us know in the comments below.
Despite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences and puns far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
