I grew up reading comic books and watching “The SuperFriends” on television after school. Like many red-blooded American boys, the superhero phase represented a unique time in my life. It taught me concepts of good-versus-evil and showed me that heroes can exist.

To fully appreciate the humor of “The Tick,” you have to be a comic book fan. And to fully appreciate the humor of the television series, you have to have watched plenty of superhero cartoons.

“The Tick” is a clever spoof of the whole superhero genre. However, at the same time, it works as a superhero piece itself. By deftly poking fun at the silliness of these shows (and comics), the show sets itself up in a grand fashion.

The Tick has a sidekick, like most superheroes. The sidekick’s name is Arthur, and he dresses as a moth. However, instead of coming up with the costume when he decided to be a sidekick, Arthur started wearing it while he worked at his day job as an accountant. Once he’s fired, he decides to go into the superhero business.

Not only do the Tick and Arthur provide a tongue-in-cheek look at the genre, but so do the villains. For example, Chairface Chippendale is a man with a chair for his head, an extreme take-off of the absurd and grotesque bad guys in “Dick Tracy.” Other crazy adversaries include a sock-puppet crime lord, a mutant dinosaur grown from a nerdy scientists, an 70-plus supervillain who spouts antiquated catch phrases like “Twenty-three skidoo!” and an evil Tick made out of our hero’s own snot.

There’s also other heroes protecting The City (which is the town’s only name), some of them really stretching to find a schtick. Take the Civic Minded Five, which spoofs the unending number of superhero teams. Their members include a man with four legs, a feral boy who drives the car and a man who wears a carpeted suit to help him control static electricity. Other off-kilter heroes include American Maid, the Batman parody Die Fledermaus and the stenchy Sewer Urchin.

The genius behind “The Tick” is that it doesn’t always hit you over the head with the jokes or references to the genre. In fact, sometimes it’s pretty darn subtle. For example, whenever the Tick jumps from building to building, he cracks the concrete and busts up the roof tops. No one complains, of course, but it does make you wonder if people got upset at Batman for leaving bat-erang scrapes on their gargoyles or if anyone was cheesed off at Spider-Man for leaving sticky web goo throughout the city.

“The Tick vs. Season One” collects twelve episodes of the classic series in a two-volume set. (One of the episodes was excluded “for creative considerations,” according to the studio – whatever that means.) Disc one is heavier than disc two, and sadly there really aren’t any special features to write home about. However, it still represents a uniquely clever series that should cause any fan of the genre to chuckle.



Specifications: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound. Fullscreen (1.33:1). French language track. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.