A BURLY BLUE MAN FOR BOOTY

There is a new crime fighter spreading his buttery justice over the nooks and crannies of tired television. He is The Tick. Yes, Ben Endlund’s cult comic is back as a live action TV show. The Tick is a gigantic seven-foot mental patient who desperately wants to dish out large helpings of justice pie to the miscreants of The City. He is wonderfully portrayed by Patrick Warburton, who played “Puddy” on Seinfeld. Of course, every superhero needs a sidekick. The Tick has Arthur (played by David Burke), a mild-mannered accountant who desperately wants to become a superhero and was just fired for wearing his bunny suit (it’s a moth, really) to work. In the pilot episode, we meet two other superheroes, destined to end up in Tick and Arthur’s above-average adventures: Batmanuel, a latin playboy who saves busloads of buxom young cheerleaders at least three times a night, if you know what I mean; and the powerful Captain Liberty, who has a rack like a bowling case full of trophies (and isn’t afraid to show it in one hell of a revealing costume). The pilot episode opens with the Tick successfully defeating the evil, nefarious bus station coffee machine. He then decides to depart to The City, where he first encounters Arthur, who has just angered a gang of communists bent on destroying The City’s postal network. After quickly dispatching these unruly pinkos, he unwittingly releases their ultimate weapon, The Red Scare, a big, red surplus robot from the ‘70s, armed with a huge hammer and sickle. This deadly robot, having never received new orders, attempts to carry out its original orders-- to kill former President Jimmy Carter, who just so happens to be in town for a goodwill tour. Yes, The Tick has it all: wacky adventures, nifty costumes, a big city with lots of crime, and, of course, Apocalypse Cow: a 50-foot cow that shoots fire from its teats. Check it out on Comedy Central.