The Tick panel decided to stay until they turned the lights off. (I’m not kidding, they had to come in and tell us all to leave.) They also wouldn’t stop hugging each other, and the crow applauded nearly every audience questions.
What I’m saying here is SPOON = LOVE.
Click through for panel highlights!
The Tick panel was moderated by the always lovely John Hodgman, who was greeted with hugs, hand kisses, neck kisses, and firm handshakes by the cast as they came onstage. The panel was series creator Ben Edlund, Valorie Curry, Peter Serafinowicz, Griffin Newman, Yara Martinez, Scott Speiser, Brendan Hines, and executive producer Barry Josephson.
I can say this with total honesty: this was the best possible way to end my Con experience. The cast obviously loves each other, they love the show, and it was genuinely delightful to hear them laughing through each of the clips we got to see.
So, I’ll try not to say anything spoilery, or to describe the clips, but just to give you a brief rundown.
First: The Tick gets another new suit! It looks even better than the later suit from the first season, and Serafinowicz looks increasingly comfortable, commenting, “It’s a rubber tube and it looks great!”
Arthur’s arc is about to get even darker. Newman talked about his character’s choice to become a hero, saying, “The universe is calling Arthur’s bluff this season—he’s decided to do this thing, and now he’s seeing that there are people who are taller and better looking.”
He also talked about his longtime love of The Tick’s previous incarnations. After getting an email about auditioning for the reboot, it took him two full weeks to record a tape. “It took me that long to get out from under the covers, like, ‘I don’t want to ruin it!’”
The cast discussed the moral tension between The Tick and Overkill, who is trying to abide by his promise not to kill (“He’s Overhurt now,” Speiser grumbled) with Edlund saying, “It’s the Daredevil/Punisher moral complex , basically,” and Serafinowicz adding, “The Tick’s moral compass is screwed down and doesn’t move, so dealing with life where you do have to bend the truth…it’s so much harder to just live!” Then he turned to Edlund, “It’s really cool, what you wrote!”
Ben Edlund turned to us, delighted, “Oh cool! Peter likes the show!”
Arthur’s sister Dot will get out from under being identified as “Arthur’s Sister, Dot” all the time. Curry talked about the character’s arc:
She has a lot of anger. No one needs her to do their emotional labor anymore, so she pursues her own arc. It has nothing to do with Arthur anymore—which he LOVES. But her moral compass isn’t really set yet, and she has to ask, “Am I just going to accept the moral rules these guys are trying to set?”
Martinez was excited to explore the independence of Miss Lint: “She’s in a moment of crisis. She’s more comfortable in her own skin because she loses everything, and now her main goal is to conquer the city…but she has some stuff up her sleeve. I can’t say much!”
And while the Tick and Arthur get to experience life in The City as accepted superheroes, Superian has his first experience of doubt. Hines told us, “Superian is getting some blowback, he’s getting lambasted for not realizing that The Terror was still alive. He’s getting criticized, and he’s never had to deal with that before. AND, he’s being critiqued on social media.”
“Oh, that’ll get into your head,” Hodgman agreed.
Asked about the expanding world of The Tick, Edlund referred to The City as “free and open territory” and said that while they are introducing more characters, including one that may be familiar to longtime Tick fans, he couldn’t tell us much about them yet. However, “The other big turn is that AEGIS [the national superhero registry] is rolling back into town!” which means an avenue to introduce a lot of more heroes. It also meant that we got to see a clip of John Hodgman himself in his recurring role as Special Agent Dr. Hobbes!
Hodgman recounted getting a special notes from Edlund, in which Edlund said, “I don’t know if you ever watched The Muppet Show—” and before he could even finish Hodgman said, “You want me to do Bunsen Honeydew!”
Which is when Griffin Newman realized he had played his scenes with Hodgman as Beaker without even knowing about the note.
Serafinowicz took a moment to introduce Lara MacLean, the puppeteer who operates Tick’s antennae. “Best job ever!” MacLean yelled from the audience. (You can read more about the antennae action here.)
And finally, yes, the show will be exploring the character of Dangerboat, and his crush on Arthur.
“GET THAT BOAT!” a woman yelled from the audience.
See? The most supportive fans in the Javits Center.
