X-Men ’97 Is a Chance to Bring Back Another Classic 90s Superhero

The arrival of X-Men ’97 sometime in early 2024 is cause for celebration among Marvel fans after a long and wearying 2023. The excitement is well-earned. The original X-Men: The Animated Series — which ran from 1992 to 1997 on Fox Kids — became the first formal adaptation of Marvel’s Merry Mutants to find mainstream success. Besides introducing an entire generation to Charles Xavier and his students years before the live-action movies, the series earned copious praise for its accurate incarnation of numerous beloved story-lines from the comics. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe reeling from a series of commercial disappointments — and the X-Men looking to ride to the rescue — X-Men ’97 arrives not a moment too soon.

Its elevated status draws attention to another animated superhero series from the same era, equally worthy of an update. The Tick is based on the parodic comic books by Ben Edlund and similarly introduced a previously niche hero to mainstream audiences. It became a cult classic alongside a number of equally well-regarded live-action versions. It ran concurrent with X-Men: The Animated Series, and shares the same sense of freshness and loyalty to the source material. More importantly, it hasn’t aged a day, and in an era when superhero fatigue holds the genre in a vice-like grip, a new season may be just what fans need.

Like The X-Men, The Tick Animated Series Is a Cult Classic

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The Tick first aired in 1994, during a much different era for superhero adaptations. The success of Tim Burton’s two Batman movies produced a wave of projects hoping to capitalize on them, including X-Men: The Animated Series. In addition, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had become a sensation, with both live-action movies and animated series during the former indie comic into a pop-culture icon. The Turtles began as a parody of popular superhero tropes at the time (specifically Daredevil), which generated interest in the similarly themed Tick comics. Pairing with co-writer Richard Liebmann-Smith, Edlund successfully sold the pilot to Fox, and remained very hands-on during the subsequent production, including writing the vast bulk of the show’s 36 episodes alongside Liebmann-Smith.

The resulting series perfectly captures the unique tone of Edlund’s comics, as the titular big blue goofball protects The City from the likes of El Seed and Chairface Chippendale with the help of his sidekick Arthur and a passel of equally silly heroes. The sophisticated writing and hysterical vocal performances struck a chord with adults in an era when animation was still largely considered a children’s medium, while Edlund’s surreal sensibilities gave the visuals a ready timelessness. The Tick himself is a perfect riff on the Superman archetype: well-nigh invulnerable, incorruptibly ethical, and not particularly bright. He’s also brought to life by voice actor Townsend Coleman. With superhero movies just entering a phase of decline in the wake of the Joel Schumacher Batman sequels, the show’s spot-on parodies of well-known superheroes felt timely in the extreme.

Its successful run of three seasons enabled the later live-action adaptations: the first starring Patrick Warburton and premiering in 2001, and the second starring Peter Serafinowicz for Amazon Prime in 2016. Both similarly gained cult classic status, though they suffered budgetary restrictions and attendant short lifespans. The animated series, on the other hand, allowed for a fastidiously loyal adaptation of the comics, but the kind of scope that live-action simply can’t provide. Superhero parodies are restricted without the pure spectacle of epic combat to lampoon. While the 2001 Tick had to leave villains like Apocalypse Cow to dialogue-only references, the animated Tick could go full Dinosaur Neil. It remains a first among equals in a very strong field and has lost almost none of its punch in the ensuing decades.

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Parody has always been a big part of the Tick’s appeal. Edlund and his co-creators zero in on the essence of superheroes and honor them even while sending up the specifics. For all his child-like naïveté, the Tick means everything he says, and uses his powers solely for selfless good deeds. Similarly, characters like American Maid tackle omnipresent problems in the genre, such as the difference between gender representation and sexual objectification in female heroines. For example, she’s an outspoken feminist whose powers and identity center around domestic service. That comes on top of spot-on parodies of such four-color evergreens like Aquaman and The Punisher.

Exquisite timing also helped. Schumacher’s Batman Forever arrived in the middle of The Tick’s run, signaling a decline in DC’s movie fortunes that wouldn’t abate until Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. Marvel’s heroes were trapped in financial hell, with the X-Men and Spider-Man movie franchises still years away. Things looked brighter on television with Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men: The Animated Series, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Yet,the genre had begun to feel overexposed and past its prime.

The Tick was simply the right parody at that moment, boosted by Edlund’s direct participation in the project, which was far from the norm at that time. Hollywood normally did as it pleased with superhero properties, which resulted in some of the decade’s most notorious misfires. Edlund exercised a huge amount of creative control and successfully transferred the soul of the comics to the animated series. The subsequent live-action Tick shows pulled off the same trick, but never with the elegance and purity of the animated version. That frees The Tick from the confines of its decade.

The animated series’ unique animation style isn’t bound to the trends of the time, and besides a few indicators such as the presence of dial phones, it could conceivably have been made any time. Its superhero parodies have lost none of their touches and centered on characters rather than stereotypes and unafraid to develop some truly wild concepts. Like X-Men: The Animated Series, its visuals are extremely comic-accurate, another trick the live-action follow-ups simply couldn’t hope to duplicate. It could just as well be mocking the MCU or DCEU as superheroes from the 1990s, and more recent superhero fans will pick up on its vibes without effort. The tropes it parodies have become pop-culture basics.

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The most important thing about The Tick is that he taps into the same affection that fans hold for X-Men ’97, airing at the same time on the same network. Both shows are shining examples of how to adapt a comic with affection and respect. Just as in the mid-1990s, the superhero genre finds itself in the doldrums, as the DCEU staggers to a close and the MCU is still trying to figure out what hit it in 2023. The enthusiasm for X-Men ’97 may come as a badly needed refresher, along with a number of 2024 superhero projects that are either openly parodic like Deadpool 3, or based on dubious hopes like Sony being primed to repeat its Mobius mistake in one form or another.

In other words, it’s the ideal moment to bring back the animated Tick in a manner similar to X-Men: The Animated Series. With DC and Marvel both taking a much-needed pause in 2024, it may be just what the genre needs. The Tick is perfectly well-established, is beloved by the fanbase, and has a permanently funny supporting cast ready to back him up. Newer fans who come to superheroes via the movies will be well-versed in its targets, and the participation of a creator like Edlund is now far more common practice than it once was. With comics’ two big superpowers set by travails, The Tick can remind longtime fans why they love the medium so much while helping everyone have a good laugh after a disastrous year for the medium.

Like X-Men ’97 it can conceivably pick up the threads of the first animated Tick without skipping a beat. It could easily introduce new characters patterned on modern-day favorites like Iron Man and possible targets for send-ups like Black Adam. Edlund’s unique ethos could ensure that they feel like old favorites like Sewer Urchin. It could even lure Coleman back as the actor is still active, with a pair of cameos in the 2016 Amazon Prime version of The Tick. If X-Men ’97 does well, it could make for a surprisingly easy sell, and bring a genre in desperate need of some levity the mighty blue savior it deserves.