Prime Video’s 2-Part Superhero Thriller Is a Better Watch Than ‘The Boys’ or ‘Invincible’

Prime Video has become one of the most versatile streaming services in the television world, thanks to its wide variety of original shows. Two of its biggest shows are Invincible and The Boys, which often skewer superhero conventions. In the case of The Boys, it uses the superhero genre to offer commentary on current events — even if that commentary often veers into extremely crude territory. Invincible, on the other hand, explores how being a superhero can take a toll on you mentally and physically (especially physically). With The Boys having concluded its five-season run in May 2026 and Invincible continuing its story, both were beaten to the punch by another series that satirized superheroes.

That series is The Tick, created by Ben Edlund. Based on Edlund’s original comics, The Tick follows Arthur Everest (Griffin Newman) and his encounters with The Tick (Peter Serafinowicz), a boisterous, blue-clad superhero who wants Arthur to be his sidekick. Arthur and Tick begin investigating a mysterious conspiracy involving the criminal mastermind known as The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley). While it lasted only two seasons, The Tick was a near-perfect satire series that got lost in a sea of superhero adaptations, but it still deserves its due.

‘The Tick’ Expertly Balances Comedy and Drama

A large part of what makes The Tick work is its willingness to spoof every form of superhero media​​​​. The Tick and Arthur live in a world populated by superheroes that include the mighty Superian (Brendan Hines) and the trigger-happy Overkill (Scott Speiser). Overkill is obviously a dig at more lethal vigilantes in comic books like the Punisher or Ghost Rider, while Superian’s eventual fall from grace predates the darker turns on Superman’s legacy that Invincible and The Boys brought to the table with Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) and Homelander (Antony Starr). Unlike those shows, The Tick mostly plays its parodies for laughs, and more often than not, it earns those laughs.

Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger
for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it
would cost you to stay.

You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are
loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the
room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.

• The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and
  reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process.
• You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the
  real entry requirement here.
• The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement,
  usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building.
• When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.

You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The
X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something
in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.

• This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being
  wanted gone by the same people they keep saving.
• You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will
  not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable.
• The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else
  to go and are never once asked to explain themselves.
• You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.

You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are
the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an
inconvenient side effect.

• Every Titan is somebody’s sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the
  villain of the week, is what the team is actually about.
• You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you,
  which is far less lonely than being the only one.
• The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more
  honest model of growing up than any other team here manages.
• The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.

You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a
while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people
in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.

• The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage,
  patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences.
• You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed
  not to mention.
• This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged
  people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean.
• You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.

What helps The Tick stand out from other superhero parodies is its earnest approach to Arthur’s mental health. It turns out that Arthur’s mild-mannered personality is the result of a deep-seated trauma, as he watched his father die in the middle of a battle that involved the Terror. Despite his sister, Dot (Valorie Curry), wanting him to live a normal life, Arthur eventually comes to embrace his role as the Tick’s sidekick and faces off against the Terror. The Tick beat Invincible and The Boys to the punch in exploring the balance between superheroism and mental health, and it didn’t have to shed any blood in the process.

‘The Tick’ Was Overshadowed by Other Major Superhero Movies and TV Shows

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

• Image via Prime Video

While The Tick might have been Prime Video’s first foray into superhero satire, it had to contend with a plethora of superhero shows and movies in the marketplace​​​​​. Its pilot premiered in 2016, before the rest of Season 1 began arriving in 2017, during which pop culture debates were sparked over Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad.

Future episodes would have to contend with the release of other big blockbusters like Wonder Woman and Avengers: Infinity War, and Season 2 would be overshadowed by the premieres of Avengers: Endgame and The Boys. Despite this uphill battle, The Tick still managed to cultivate a loyal following, even when Ben Edlund revealed that the series wouldn’t receive a third season.

“I’m sorry we could not reward your glorious support with better news. I am so proud of the show, of the cast and crew and writers, and so warmed by the fans.”

“I’m sorry we could not reward your glorious support with better news. I am so proud of the show, of the cast and crew and writers, and so warmed by the fans.”

The cancellation couldn’t have been worse, as The Tick ends with a collection of unresolved subplots. One of its cast members would go on to star in another Prime Video superhero satire, as Valorie Curry went on to play the ultra-patriotic superheroine Firecracker in Seasons 4 and 5 of The Boys​​​​​​.

Her appearance serves as a bittersweet reminder that Prime Video had true gold on its hands with The Tick, and that the seriesstill deserves to be watched. Invincible and The Boys might be popular picks now, but The Tick offered its own take on superhero satire years earlier.

The Tick