The TICK and ARTHUR The Complete Works by Sean Wang

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects a year worth of Tick comics. Durihng this year, Sean Wang's regular Tick series, "The Tick and Arthur" alternated with issues of the anthology series, "Tick: Heroes of the City."

The first three Issues of "The Tick and Arthur" begins as an epic crossover event featuring Paul the Samurai and a host of villains and heroes, the return of Oedipus (now wanting to be called Ashley) and the Ninjas from the original Tick series. It includes a few retcons and a host of villains. The ninjas are hilarious but from a fan perspective, it was probably not the best way to start given that the Tick Luny Bin mini-series had just come before that.

Issues 4 and 5 are a lesser story in which the Tick and Arthur find they have some imitators-the Flea and Doyle. (Yes, really.) The story has some fun moments around side kickers and some somewhat uncomfortable moments with a superhero abducting a child to be a sidekick which is meant to parody Batman. I'm borderline on it.

Issue 6 finds the new Superhero team the Tick and Arthur formed being confronted by Chainsaw Vigilante, but they all have to team up to fight an invasion of killer intelligent trees. It's inspired Tick goofiness.

The first three issues of, "Heroes of the City" features three stories. The first is the Tick, prompted by Arthur complaining he doesn't understand what it's like to be a sidekick, renting himself as a sidekick to weird superheroes. Essentially each story is the same as the Tick totally undermines the existing hero. Thankfully, it doesn't long enough to become repetitive.

The second are solo stories with Arthur, which are actually quite fun. It's nice to see Arthur taking a lead role, even kicking a bit of tale.

Finally, are the tales of Myndi, the Pom Pom Protector. It's an absolute hilarious story of a cheerleader themed superheroine. I enjoyed it and was disappointed with an ending that suggested, "It was all just a dream."

Issues 4 and 5 featured a two part story featuring Paul the Samurai and Ashley, each featured a two page Tick and Arthur story, and two other features with miscellaneous heroes.

The Paul the Samurai and Ashley story had some good moments, but Paul just doesn't work as a regular team. The Tick story for Issue 5, "The Savage Tick" was kind of ordinary, but Issue 4's Brunch is probably one of the most hilarious short Tick features I've ever read. The other features with characters ranging from Red Eye to the Crazy Blue Rocket, Hand Grenande Man, and Man-Eating Cow were merely okay.

Issue 6 is an all Tick and Arthur issue that has the Tick concluding that he and Arthur need secret identities and day jobs. In many ways, this hails back to the earliest Tick stories. It was actually pretty fun.

Overall, this book is a real mixed bag in terms of quality and style. I didn't enjoy it as much as, "Big Blue Destiny," but there are still some good moments. There's one story where having read The Tick Specials The Complete Works would have made it easier to understood, so I do recommend that.



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