Edlund, Ben

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

4 out of 5

(1 book)

The Tick Omnibus Vol. 1

(Art by Ben Edlund, Maxfield Banks and Dave Garcia)

The first adventures of the superhero known as The Tick sees him escape from an insane asylum in search of adventure.  Taking up the mantle of a hero, he models himself on the lantern-jawed Caped Wonder (AKA Clark Oppenheimer, journalist for the Weekly World Planet), rescues a damsel in distress, acquires a sidekick called Arthur and teams up with the mighty Paul the Samurai to fight a million zillion ninjas.

I fondly remember the Tick cartoon from the 90s, so it was interesting to read the comic stories that inspired it and I was pleased to see that the wry, sometimes meta, humour is very much in evidence.  Comedy is a tough nut to crack in the comics medium, but Edlund gets it just right by perfectly balancing the Tick's slightly clueless and naieve approach to the world with him being a genuinely powerful and heroic character.

There are many great moments in this book, but some of the highlights for me included seeing the Tick confronted by an army of ninjas and, when they mock his costume, he simply decides "I'm going to throw a chimney at them..."  ("Heh, heh.  Those darn ninjas."), as well as the moment of deep personal growth where he realises he can hear his own internal monologue and, finally, the shocking revelation late in the book... that his costume had pockets all along.

This book nicely balances its clear indie comics origin with all of the reasons that The Tick is still a known character three decades later.

4 out of 5

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