After last week’s heavy episode, it’s time for some fun. So Anthony & Doc travel to The City to talk about THE TICK! What makes this amnesiac superhero such an endearing character? And what TV theme do our intrepid hosts sing this week? Grab a SPOON! and listen now!

• Intro

  • Plug for Perfect Package Podcast – Chad & Dave each get 5 picks to make the perfect… whatever the topic is – Anthony will be guesting on an upcoming episode

• Background (3:40)

  • The Tick created by Ben Edlund in New England Comics Newsletter #14 (July/August 1986) – originally the newsletter mascot, got his own comic series in 1988

  • A nigh invulnerable superhero who escapes from a mental institution in his debut, he cannot remember anything from his life before becoming the Tick

  • Lives in the City, where absurd heroes and villains abound

  • Takes a job at the Weekly World Planet newspaper, working alongside Clark Oppenheimer, aka the Caped Wonder, a Superman pastiche

  • One of his allies and his eventual best friend is Arthur, an accountant in a moth suit

  • Oftentimes fun & oblivious, although he can get serious if the situation arises – when his ally Oedipus was stabbed, he attacked the ninjas responsible, and single-handedly destroyed their lair

  • Later revealed that at one point, he was married but separated

  • Takes a laissez-faire attitude towards discovering his past – Arthur seems more intrigued by it than he does

  • Adapted once in animation and twice in live-action – most of the characters change, except for Arthur and Tick

• Issues (10:40)

  • Amnesia about pre-superhero life

  • Attachment to Arthur (18:45)

  • Childlike Nature in an adult world (23:49)

• Break (36:13)

  • Plugs for Varmints & I Never Saw That, plus Cullen Bunn

• Treatment (37:40)

  • In-universe

  • Out of universe

• Skit (45:04)

• Ending (50:13)
  • Next episodes – Abe Sapien, Yorick Brown, Alfred Pennyworth

References:

• Cullen Bunn interview – Anthony (04:15)
• TV Tropes – Nigh Invulnerable – Anthony (06:00)
• Quantum Leap – Doc (15:45)
• Joker episode – Doc (21:25)
• The Odd Couple – Doc/Anthony (24:33)
• “Eyes of a Child” – Anthony (26:29)
• Meet Joe Black – Doc (30:55)

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