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For the 2016 series' versions of the characters, click here.
Main characters
The Tick
Appears In: All Versions
Portrayed by: Townsend Coleman (animated series), Patrick Warburton (2001 live-action series), Peter Serafinowicz (2016 live-action series)
The boisterous big blue defender of The City no matter the version. Nigh-Invulnerable, Super strong, and a really cool set of head... thingies, he fights for justice, for The City, and for clean underwear. He is... The Tick.
- All-Loving Hero: He cares greatly for all people alike.
- Animal Motifs: As his superhero name implies, he dresses like a superpowered tick.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Evident in all adaptations, and explicitly described by Arthur in the comic "The Tick's Back".Tick's Brain: Sorry I haven't been around much lately, but I'm easily distracted by shiny objects.
- Ax-Crazy: When The Tick is pushed to his absolute limit, he becomes a remorseless destructive force against whatever angered him. The only thing that snapped him out of this state when he first entered it was the revelation that Oedipus (whose critical injury pushed him there in the first place) was saved and in stable condition.
- Blood Knight: The Tick relishes the chance for a decent fight and will respond to possible worthy opponents with absolute glee.
- Boisterous Bruiser: A hammy nigh-invulnerable bruiser.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's an idiot, a manchild, and a lunatic he may be, but regardless of the adaptation, he's the city's best hero (though this speaks more to the competence level of the other heroes). Not only that but in the animated series he is capable of being serious if the situation calls for it, capable of many things up to and including bending the laws of physics itself.
- The Cape: In attitude. In appearance he's closer to The Cowl.
- Captain Oblivious: In the comics, he is rather slow to recognize ninjas with swords pointed at him.
- Character Catchphrase: "You face... THE TICK!"
- Chaste Hero: Due to not really understanding relationships. His inability to understand love as well as conceive a child ultimately destroyed his marriage and left Cloris a broken mess.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He originally escaped from a mental institution. Whether this was caused by receiving a Tap on the Head all too often or if he's clinically insane is unknown.Tick: Isn't sanity a one-trick pony anyway? I mean, all you get is one trick: rational thinking. But when you're good and crazy, the sky's the limit.
- Decoy Protagonist: While the comics and cartoon are chiefly concerned with his gonzo antics, the live-action adaptations have Arthur as the actual protagonist who goes through character development and story arcs with the Tick acting as his comic relief or Hypercompetent Sidekick.
- Destructive Savior: Downplayed, but the Tick's Super-Strength in the cartoon means he sometimes causes more damage than he intends to. In particular, he has a tendency to break things when Roof Hopping.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- He might be loony, but even he found a scientist trying to invent "room temperature fire" to be boring and pointless.
- He also doesn't consider Brainchild to be his arch-nemesis, no matter how much the latter wants him to be; he correctly realizes Brainchild's just a Spoiled Brat, though that doesn't mean The Tick will go easy on him.
- He also believes the Fin's "fish magnet" to be crazy...until it actually starts to cause fish to fall from the sky.
- While in the psychological care of Captain Sanity, even the Tick, who has one foot out of reality at the best of times, finds Sanity's therapy methods (namely, having his assistant Taft wrestle the Tick while wearing a variety of costumes) to be totally ludicrous.Tick: Sanity, you're a madman!
- Fluffy Tamer: In the cartoon, after being launched into deep space by an explosion, the Tick befriends Omnipotus, a gargantuan planet-devouring alien monster (and a parody of Galactus), and is even able to talk him out of eating Earth by appealing to their friendship.
- For Great Justice: Talks about justice constantly, especially in the cartoon.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Tick was initially jealous of Arthur's relationship with Carmelita. He eventually gets over it, and even becomes a Shipper on Deck.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: In the comics, he has an inexhaustible supply of two-dollar bills in his pockets, which he uses for expenses.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Arthur. For all their many, many differences, the two are inseparable, to the point that the Tick seems to actually consider them to be brothers (when he found out Arthur was Jewish, Tick assumed that this meant he was also Jewish).
- Heroism Motive Speech: He has a tendency to launch into these kind of speeches with little-to-no provocation, but he also quickly forgets where he was going with them.
- Idiot Hero: Luckily for him, Too Dumb to Live is combined with Nigh-Invulnerability!
- Large Ham: A very hammy superhero. He often talks like he's in a big stage production.
- Loon with a Heart of Gold: He often says bizarre and nonsensical things all the time, and has a VERY strange way of thinking, yet he's a chivalrous and kind-hearted hero.
- Manchild: Has no understanding of romance and tends to be extremely naive.
- Metaphorgotten: Has a tendency to launch into these.
- Monochromatic Eyes: In the Comics and Cartoon.
- Mistaken for Gay: In the live action series, due to mistaking some gay guys for superheroes. Discussed in the comics, where he specifically wants to avoid this with Arthur and anyone who sees them together.
- My Greatest Failure: He deeply regrets how much he hurt his ex-wife Cloris, regardless of how unintentional it was.
- Mysterious Past: In the cartoon and live action series, especially in the latter where a thorough police search found nothing about his past. The comics have only filled in some of his past; up until The Tick: Luny Bin, all that was known was that he was an escapee of the Evanston Asylum and that he's married, but separated. Even now, much of his past is spotty.
- Nice Guy: Unless he knows you're evil, he'll treat you with the utmost kindness.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Although someone sufficiently strong can hurt him, he can withstand lasers, gunfire and, most notably, a point-blank bomb blast going by the cartoon alone. Blows to the head seem to affect him particularly. Confusingly, in a different episode of the same cartoon, he survived going past the event horizon of a black hole.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the comics, when his friend Oedipus is stabbed (the result put her in critical condition at the hospital), The Tick stops being a mere Cloudcuckoolander and instead shows just how dangerous an escaped mental patient with Super-Strength and Nigh-Invulnerability can be (he single-handedly levels his foes' Amusement Park base).
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Arthur's Blue
- Strong as They Need to Be: In the cartoon, he seems to always be strong enough to overcome whatever he's dealing with while also always weak enough that he still has to struggle and exert himself. Likewise, he's always durable enough to survive anything that happens to him without real injury, but also just sensitive enough to suffer pain from it.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The antenna on his head aren't just for decoration. Remove them and he loses his balance and becomes disoriented.
Arthur
Appears In: All Versions
Portrayed by: Mickey Dolenz (animated series, season 1), Rob Paulsen (animated series, seasons 2-3), David Burke (2001 live-action), Griffin Newman (2016 live-action)
A former accountant, and current moth-themed (though everyone tends to assume he's a rabbit due to his wings usually being retracted) superhero, he's The Tick's roommate and sidekick. A little neurotic and far more reserved than his partner, Arthur provides a grounded perspective the Tick desperately needs.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Arthur occasionally makes references to how people in his pre-hero life have started treating him condescendingly since he acquired the costume. In the comics, his break from his old accounting job, for example, isn't totally his own decision; he was put on medical leave to seek psychiatric treatment.
- Ambiguously Jewish: In the comics his Judaism is spelled out: it doesn't come up much in the live-action series, aside from him wearing a yarmulche a few times, while in the cartoon, it features fairly prominently in the episode about his sister's wedding.
- Animal Motifs: He wears a moth costume. 90% of people confuse it with a bunny costume, though.
- Art Evolution: While he's still a bit heavyset, Arthur was extremely portly in his first appearance - he's much slimmer than he used to be. Also, the antennae of his costume were serrated at the edges, making them appear much more like a moth's combed or feathery antennae in silhouette. The smooth edges of the antennae in later appearances make the "bunny suit" comments make more sense. Remarkably, this art evolution seems to have continued into live action. His first portrayer, David Burke, was of average body type, and his second, Griffin Newman, is downright scrawny.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Subverted. Plenty of people take him for a near-literal case of this, but a) they're moth antennae, not bunny ears and b) he's an accountant who left his chosen profession to fly and save lives.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Arthur's just an ordinary accountant that bought a moth costume at an auction. All of his super abilities come from said costume.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: This varies upon both writer and adaptation, but Arthur isn't looking at reality like anyone else. Seemingly with one foot in the mundane world and one in the superheroic world, Arthur manages to come off this way to both sides, even as he acts like the Only Sane Man to both. Some of his statements, particularly in the original run, suggest that he's actually not quite all there in the head himself, even if he's clearly more normal than The Tick.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: The more sane sidekick to the loony Tick.
- Cowardly Lion: Is usually terrified by whoever they're fighting, but will always do his best to assist Tick anyway.
- The Goggles Do Nothing: Averted. He has goggles as part of his costume in the live action series, which are used to help him with wind resistance during flight. It's suggested in one comic that the blank white eyes in that version are also goggles to help with eye protection and wind resistance in flight.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With the Tick. While the Tick's eccentricities can wear on Arthur's patience, their loyalty to each other is totally unbreakable, and Arthur would never truly abandon the Tick.
- I Am Not Weasel: He's not a rabbit no matter how many people mistake him for one.
- Jumped at the Call: Is a better accountant than a superhero, but accountancy doesn't save lives.
- Not in the Face!: His catchphrase.
- Official Couple: With Carmelita in the cartoon. They hit it off immediately, but Arthur is reluctant to pursue a relationship at first due to his insecurities. After a while, though, they become a happy couple.
- Only Sane Man: Zigzagged, and arguably Deconstructed. Arthur believes that both the "normal world" and the "supers world" have importance, and tries to live between them as best he can. This makes him a lot more aware of real world issues, like the need for money to pay for living expenses in between superhero stuff, and also makes him much more aware of the importance of what superheroes do than many "normals". However, those more fully immersed in one world tend to think of him as "the crazy one". Supers often look down on Arthur for not fully and unquestioningly embracing the madness of their world, whilst average people often call him a fool for getting involved in "superhero nonsense".
- A secondary way in which Arthur's sanity is showcased is the costume. On the one hand, he is known to have worn it to work on several occasions prior to either quitting or being fired, which is kind of crazy. On the other hand, the suit lets him fly, so not wearing it as often as he can would also be pretty nuts.
- Opaque Lenses: In all of the non-live action incarnations, Arthur's eyes are always obscured by his goggles/glasses. It's a subtle indication that nobody else really gets what's going through his mind.
- Shout-Out: When Arthur first meets The Tick in the comics, he calls The Tick "a wampeter for a world-spanning karass"
- Took a Level in Jerkass:
- When Arthur took a villain's belt that gave him super-strength, he became a bigger and bigger jerk until Tick knocked him off a roof while fighting him, forcing him to turn the belt off. It's implied that the belt had some sort of mental effect as well, as the villain he took it from was immediately reduced to a cowering wuss without it.
- The comic version has this when, in a parody of the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur licks a black monolith and starts becoming a nascent Mad Scientist.
Speak
Appears In: animated series
During a trip to the Amazon, the Tick was flung headfirst into the jungle by a catapult. Momentarily concussed, he encountered a 'wise spirit guide' in the form of a talking dog. When he came out of it, the 'spirit guide' turned out to be a passing capybara, whom he instantly adopted as a comrade-in-arms in his fight against evil. In reality (or what passes for 'reality' in the Tick's world), Speak is not an all-wise crime-fighting dog: he's a species of large native rat. Speak ends up living with the Tick and Arthur back in The City for the remainder of the series.
- Informed Species: He looks nothing like a real capybara; his design looks more like a really ugly dog.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Looks like he could've wandered out of a Klasky-Csupo show.
- The Voiceless: Being an animal, he can't talk, he usually just communicates through grunts.
- Suddenly Voiced: In Tick's fantasies where Speak is a superpowered animal sidekick.
American Maid
Appears In: animated series
Portrayed By: Kay Lenz
The City's most competent hero. While frustrated with the Tick's antics, she respects his ability and drive to legitimately help the City.
- Action Girl: If being the city's most competent heroine wasn't evidence enough.
- Badass Normal: The single most competent hero in the animated series (and, apart from The Tick and Arthur, the only one who actually manages to get anything heroic done on-camera on a remotely reliable basis).
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Die Fledermaus. A romantic past is hinted at, though largely unexplored.
- Canon Foreigner: She debuted in the cartoon.
- Captain Patriotic: "The Most Patriotic Domestic".
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially when talking to Die Fledermaus, she has a very dry wit and she's not afraid to use it.
- Most Common Superpower: Averted, she's rather flat-chested for a superheroine.
- Noodle Incident: As the cartoon makes it quite obvious that The City is the National Super Institute's dumping ground for washouts, failures and incompetents, and American Maid is the most overtly competent superhero in the City, one wonders what she did to get assigned there. (Of course, it's also possible they assigned her there to ensure the City had at least one halfway-competent hero.)
- Only Sane Man: Shares the position with Arthur, but she's much more no-nonsense and action-oriented.
- Punny Name: Her alias is a pun on "American-made".
- Wonder Woman Wannabe: A pastiche of both Wonder Woman and Captain America (the latter mostly in personality), she is an Amazonian warrior who dresses in a maid outfit patterned after the American flag. Instead of a tiara, she uses her high-heeled shoes as throwing weapons. Though, unlike most examples of this trope, she has no powers.
Die Fledermaus
Appears In: animated series
Portrayed By: Cam Clarke
A bat-themed superhero with a penchant for trying to hit on his fellow crimefighters (and failing at it) and for running away the second things get dangerous.
- Batman Parody: He's basically Batman if he were a massive coward.
- Bat Signal: He has one, but the mayor notices that every time he lights it in an attempt to summon him, he instead takes his phone off the hook and leaves town for a week.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With American Maid. It's hinted they were involved in a relationship at some point in the past.
- Bilingual Bonus: His name means, literally, "the bat" in German. Loosely, it can mean batman.
- Canon Foreigner: He debuted in the cartoon.
- Casanova Wannabe: Hits on almost any woman in sight. Strikes out a lot.
- The Cowl: Parodied; he has the standard trappings... but he's a bumbling, incompetent coward.
- Dating Catwoman: Had a brief romance with a supervillainess who shared his stylish sensibilities, The Ottoman. Surprisingly, he does not indulge in this otherwise, despite him otherwise hitting on anything that moves.
- Dirty Coward: Played for laughs, as he ping pongs between the two. Interestingly, in the first episode, he was among the many superheroes heading to stop the Idea Men until he got distracted by American Maid.
- Handsome Lech: He's implied to be fairly handsome, and he knows it, hitting on women constantly.
- Hero of Another Story: Subverted. Unlike American Maid, who is obviously doing her own adventuring off-screen, and Sewer Urchin, who turns out to be an incredibly competent and brave adventurer in his native environment, Die Fledermaus is never shown to be anything but a cowardly, narcissistic poser.
- Jerkass Ball: During Sewer Urchin's limelight episode, "The Tick vs. Filth", Die Fledermaus, who usually gets along reasonably well with Sewer Urchin, has no problems with bullying him, mostly to emphasize the contrast between Urchin's uselessness on the surface and his talent in the sewers.
- Miles Gloriosus: He considers himself the City's greatest superhero, but rarely does anything truly heroic. A brief period where Arthur served as his sidekick reveals that Die Fledermaus mostly hangs out at the local diner, reads fashion magazines, and practices his heroic poses.
- Shout-Out: To Die Fledermaus, a German comedy play. Fledermaus means bat in German.
Sewer Urchin
Appears In: animated series
Portrayed By: Jess Harnell
Basically what you get when you combine Aquaman and Rain Man. One of the Tick and Arthur's closest friends, Sewer Urchin is a sewer-dwelling man who dresses in a prickly costume and aqualung. Mocked for his social awkwardness and clinging odor, it turns out he's actually a very skilled adventurer in the sewers, who just is out of his element in the surface world (and any ally who enters his domain finds out they're just as out of their element in his).
- A Day in the Limelight: For the first two seasons, Sewer Urchin is just a gimmicky side-character. In season 3's "The Tick vs. Filth", we get to see Sewer Urchin in one of his own adventures, with the Tick and Arthur in the role of his sidekicks.
- Canon Foreigner: He debuted in the cartoon.
- Character Catchphrase: "[Something]. Definitely [something]."
- Cloudcuckoolander: Like all the characters in the series, he's kind of quirky.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Him doing a complete 180 from an incompetent socially awkward dolt with a stutter, to a hypercompetent and knowledegable hero when he fights crime in the sewers is similar to the special interests and fixations that autistic people have.
- Expy: Of Aquaman and Rain Man.
- Graceful in Their Element: Sewer Urchin is an easily defeated, socially awkward dork on the surface world, but "the apotheosis of cool" in the sewers.
- Hero of Another Story: The Tick vs. Filth shows that he's had many successful adventures in the sewers unbeknownst to the rest of the city, aside from the city maintenance workers, who regard him as a great legend.
- In-Series Nickname: For obvious reasons, both The Tick and Die Fledermaus occasionally call Sewer Urchin "Stinky".
- Nice Guy: He's always willing to help out The Tick and Arthur on a case and doesn't seem to have a single mean bone in his body.
- The Pig-Pen: He has a constant stench about him. In "The Tick vs. Filth", we also learn he scavenges most of his food from dumpsters and the like.
- Secretly Wealthy: It turns out that Sewer Urchin is actually very wealthy; he's turned the Absurdly Spacious Sewer to his advantage by establishing a luxurious penthouse-style home down there, and he scavenges huge amounts of money from the sewers due to people losing wallets and cash. He just doesn't flaunt it because he's a Nice Guy.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: He's very skilled in his home turf. Once he's up on street level he devolves to a babbling dolt.
- Those Two Guys: With Die Fledermaus. Despite the bat-clad hero's constant bullying of Sewer Urchin, he seems to be Sewer Urchin's closest "friend" outside of the Tick and Arthur.
Batmanuel
Appears In: 2001 live-action series
Portrayed By: Nestor Carbonell
A Dashing Hispanic version of Batman. A lecherous, cowardly, moron who hits on Captain Liberty constantly.
- Casanova Wannabe: He's actually reasonably successful with women a lot of the time, but strikes out whenever it would be funny. Note the first episode, where he seduces Captain Liberty easily and is implied to have gotten her pregnant, but then spends the rest of the series being shot down by her grumpily.
- Dashing Hispanic: Most of the humor surrounding Batmanuel involves his hyperactive libido and tendency towards making bad choices thanks to his penis.
- Expy: Of Die Fledermaus (and therefore, indirectly, Batman) due to licensing issues.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite hitting on her every chance he gets, he does genuinely care for Janet, as well as The Tick and Arthur. He actually manages to salvage Captain Liberty's career at a hearing by spinning her naked posing as representing America's openness to other countries.
- Lovable Coward: Though unlike Die Fledermaus he does actually try to fight crime.
Captain Liberty
Appears in: 2001 live-action series
Portrayed By: Liz Vassey
A patriotic superhero working for the government who is, essentially Statue of Liberty-themed. Has a complicated relationship with Batmanuel after a one-night stand at the beginning of the series. Her real name is Janet.
- Cleavage Window: A star-shaped one. After the first episode, the cleavage inside it is visibly felt rather than natural.
- Expy: Of American Maid (and, through her, of Captain America and Wonder Woman) due to licensing issues.
- Ms. Fanservice: She and other characters complain about her sexualized costume from time to time, and one episode's B-plot actually revolved around her being photographed naked for a magazine without her knowledge.
- Not So Above It All: Despite seeing herself as the sane one in her circle, she has her own pack of neuroses and problems to deal with.
- Stocking Filler: She wears fishnets.
Other heroes
Big Shot
Appears in: comics, animated series
Portrayed by: Kevin Schon
A gun-toting psychopathic superhero with issues.
- Abusive Parents: Heavily Implied. When he breaks down crying he cries about how he wishes his mother loved him, meaning she could've either been outright abusive or simply a neglectful moron.
- Adaptation Expansion: Appears in the comic only as a one-off gag about the '90s Anti-Hero.
- Berserker Tears: Whenever he starts firing guns, he sheds tears. It eventually culminates in him breaking down about his mother.
- Bottomless Magazines: Subverted. In the first episode he runs out of ammo before he actually gets to fight the Idea Men.
- Captain Ersatz: Though a parody of Nineties Anti Heroes in general, he's a specific parody of The Punisher.
- Character Development: Takes the Tick's advice to seek some help in the cartoon to heart, and is much more friendly and mellow in his second appearance.
- Clean Dub Name: He was called Hollowpoint in the comics, but that probably wouldn't fly on Saturday mornings.
- Deconstructive Parody: Of '90s Anti-Heroes. Instead of his traumatic backstory turning him into a ruthless killing machine, it realistically just gave him genuine mental and emotional issues, making him dysfunctional.
- Didn't Think This Through: He ends up running out of ammo right before a fight because he wasted most of it turning things into his skull insignia.
- Superhero Packing Heat: A parody of such. His use of them makes him ineffectual and only underlies his serious mental issues, though mostly because he wastes all his ammo by stopping to shoot his logo on every wall he finds.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: His traumatic past didn't make him into an ultra-lethal and unstoppable killing machine but gave him some deep-seated issues and emotional baggage.
Carmelita Vatos
Appears in: animated series
Portrayed by: Jennifer Hale
The daughter of the man who designed Arthur's flying suit.
- Adaptation Expansion and Left Hanging: The comic does feature the silent appearance of a woman in a moth suit near the end of the original run that was never elaborated upon; some of Ben Edlund's notes were used in developing Carmelita for the cartoon.
- Disappeared Dad: It turns out he was a Gepetto case — stuck inside a whale.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Her Latina accent seems to dip in and out.
Oedipus
Appears in: comics
The daughter of a wealthy man who took ninja lessons instead of ballet.
- Abusive Parents: Her step mother berates her, cares nothing for how she feels and proceeds to chastise Oedipus for getting injured keeping ninjas at bay, ninjas who planned to wipe out every last person present at said step-mom's party. Thankfully said stepmother leaves when Oedpius' father stands up to the woman.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: Downplayed. Her yellow outfit won't do her any favors stealthwise but she's leagues ahead of her incompetent competition.
- Punny Name: Oedipus is the opposite of an Elektra complex. Ironically, she shows hints of having an Elektra complex (at the very least, she seems inordinately protective of her father and pleased at the idea that her stepmother might be killed).
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Oedipus outright admits that her name is pretty awful when The Tick reacts in surprise to it.
- Wicked Step Mother: She has one. Oedipus is ecstatic at the thought of her possibly dying due to the ninja swarming her house.
Agrippa, Roman God of the Aqueduct
Appears in: comics and animated series
An obscure member of the Roman pantheon of gods who has turned to crimefighting.
- Demoted to Extra: He didn't have a huge role in the comics, but he was reduced entirely to cameos in the cartoon.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: He's able to instantly transport water from one location to another, which turns out to be a surprisingly useful power given that he's essentially manipulating water itself due to his control over it.
- Making a Splash: Appropriate for a god of aqueducts, he can instantly transport water from one location to another. He has enough control to weaponize it, dumping vast quantities at once onto foes.
- Missed the Call: An odd example, he was apparently the last member of the Roman pantheon to be created, and was told to report for duty the next day, only to find the gates to Olympus locked, with a note saying the other gods left to "try and start something on Jupiter". He still retains all his godly powers despite this.
- Parody: Of Thor and Hercules from Marvel, being a literal god who has turned to super-heroics like the former, but having the Greco-roman theme of the latter.
- Super Power Lottery: Being a minor god, he has super strength, invulnerability, super speed, and as part of his original role, control over water.
The Human Bullet
Appears in: animated series
A bullet-themed hero who lives in the suburbs with his wife and son. His real name is Mitch.- Action Dad: He has a family, lives in the suburbs, and fights crime. Self-explanatory, really.
- Battle Cry: (To his son) "Fire me, boy!" Even when his son isn't available, he never alters his battle cry, once telling his wife to "fire me, boy!".
- Human Cannonball: His entire schtick, along with being a family man, is being fired out of a cannon.
- Logical Weakness: His sole tactic is being fired out of a cannon at the current problem; since, like an actual bullet, he can't maneuver in mid-air, he usually ends up either contributing nothing or just making matters worse.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: More than once he's made a situation worse; when he was fired against Dinosaur Neil he hit him in the gut, causing him to vomit the aspirin that the Tick made him take to turn him back into a human.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Often seen having a barbeque with his family any time he's not engaged in super-heroism.
The Caped Chameleon
Appears in: animated series
A chameleon-themed superhero who doesn't do much.- Accidental Misnaming: Arthur seems to think his name is "The Crusading Chameleon".
- Butt-Monkey: He fails to blend into a plaid surface in his first appearance, and is instantly humiliatingly beaten by a brainwashed Tick in his second.
- Weaksauce Weakness: He can't do plaid; when he tries, his powers short-circuit and disorient him.
Civic-Minded Five
Appears in: Comics, animated series
Portrayed by: Roger Rose (Four-Legged Man), Rob Paulsen (Captain Mucilage), Pat Fraley (Carpeted Man), Susan Silo (Jungle Janet)
A quintet of bizarre heroes who do good as their civic duty.- Adapted Out: Feral Boy is the only member of the team in both the comics and the animated series; otherwise the lineups are completely different (the comics lineup had Oddman, Radio King, Mr. Envelope, and Fernslinger).
- Adaptational Location Change: Defended the town of Mankato, MN in the comics; in the animated series, they defend The City.
- Battle Cry: "Let's make a difference!"
- Expy: Aside from being a super-team (and thus inviting comparisons to the Fantastic Four, the Justice League of America, etc.), each member is basically multiple characters mashed together. Four-Legged Man acts and looks akin to Silver Age Superman (complete with his eyes always being closed, but having four legs might come from the period where Spider-Man had six arms. Captain Mucilage is basically a heroic spin on a B-list Marvel villain, the Trapster (better known by his Atrocious Alias Paste-Pot Pete). Jungle Janet is a mix of Giganta (a DC villain who often wears animal skin, though she can grow; Janet can't) and Animal Man (given that she can communicate with animals). Feral Boy might be a clone of Kamandi, though he's noticeably less intelligent and more rabid than Kamandi ever was.
- Logical Weakness: Carpeted Man's biggest obstacle is the fact that, as he's constantly covered in thick, shag carpet, he's always overheating.
- Shock and Awe: Carpeted Man's power...if his suit wasn't constantly causing him to overheat.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: One of Jungle Janet's powers.
- Statuesque Stunner: Jungle Janet notably towers over her teammates.
- Sticky Situation: Captain Mucilage's specialty.
- Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: Four-Legged Man has, well, four legs.
- Wild Child: Feral Boy.
Supervillains
Chairface Chippendale
Appears in: comics and the animated series
Portrayed by: Tony Jay
A crime boss who has a chair for a head, also a sword fighting expert.
- All of the Other Reindeer: According to Chairface himself, he was shunned by society due to having a chair for a head.
- Arch-Enemy: He declares himself this to The Tick in the comics. Supplementary materials reveal that The Tick would be thrilled; it's the one element of the superhero lifestyle that The Tick fears he lacks.
- Attention Whore: He tries to write his name on the moon just to show off. In the comics, just to tweak him over this trait, the attempt is blamed on Charo.
- Body Horror: When he briefly switches bodies with Chrome Dome, who was occupying The Tick's body at the time, Chrome Dome points out how bizarre and horrifying Chairface's physical state really is and can't even figure out how he's talking. Chrome Dome wants a different body even though Chairface's is half his original age and very fit. His entire desire for the Body Swapper is how unhappy he is with his own body.
- The Don: In the cartoon, he basically runs organized crime in The City.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In the comics, when The Tick was trapped in an asylum Chairface attempted to strike up a deal with Barry Hubris where his gang would acknowledge him as the "real" Tick in exchange for him ignoring their crimes. Unfortunately for him, Barry was so insane that he completely ignored this deal, leading to Chairface deciding to bust Tick out of the Asylum because he's at least predictable.
- Homage: He is based on the various disfigured Dick Tracy villains, such as Flattop or Pruneface. Same with his henchmen. In fact, in Li'l Abner, the Dick Tracy parody "Fearless Fosdick" once encountered a murderous villain known as The Chippendale Chair, whose entire body took the form of... a chair.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Or at least noticed. Apparently having a chair for a head isn't enough.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Always seen in a sharp vest, tie and white gloves.
- Named After Somebody Famous: He's named for Thomas Chippendale
, a famous furniture designer. - Non-Human Head: He's got a wooden chair in place of a head; it's right there in his name!
- Wicked Cultured: Dresses sharply, eats fine food and is prone to sophisticated dialogue.
The Terror
Appears in: all versions
Portrayed by: Rob Paulsen (animated series), Armin Shimerman (live-action, 2001), Jackie Earle Haley (live-action, 2016)
"The greatest villain of the 20th century... and maybe some of the 19th."
- Evil Old Folks: When he first appears, he's already nearly 100. Previously assaulted Theodore Roosevelt and was friends with Josef Stalin.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Averted, he is incredibly disappointed that his son didn't become a supervillain himself, and instead became a regular white-collar worker.
- Humongous Mecha: Travels in a mobile, spider-legged base, which is armed with a giant spring-loaded boxing glove he once used to try to punch the Roosevelt memorial on Mount Rushmore.
- Legion of Doom: Put one together which consisted of The Human Ton and Handy, Tuun-La Not of This World, The Man Eating Cow and his old compatriot Joseph Stalin, though this was later revealed to be a former graduate student in Russian studies named Stalingrad, who based his supervillain identity on the original Stalin.
- Ur-Example: In-universe, he was one of the first supervillains.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: His son, who is in his 60's himself, tries to bond with his father in "Grandpa Wore Tights" by joining his supervillain group.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: His son Charlie calls him out at one point for never spending any time with him when he was a kid. Terror says that he had to work, but also because Charlie was such an annoying little dweeb.
Red Scare
Appears in: comics, 2001 live-action series
Portrayed by: Carrick O'Quinn
- Adapted Out: Didn't appear in the animated series.
- Adaptation Species Change: He's a robot in the live-action series.
- Killer Robot: Originally built to assassinate then-president Jimmy Carter. In the present, the Russians decide to destroy the U.S. Postal Service instead, but they accidentally activated it before they could begin reprogramming.
- Punch-Clock Villain: In the comics, he was hired by The Running Guy to cause some chaos and take a dive for him.
- Red Scare: Played straight in the live-action pilot, where he was a robot created in the later days of the USSR. Invoked and subverted in the comics; he's merely an actor who intentionally takes the fall for would-be heroes so that they have a "villain" to defeat and can gain street cred. As the comic appearance was in the late 80's, it was just the then-popular convenient villain choice.
- Starter Villain: In the live-action pilot. In the comics, he's one as an attempted Invoked Trope - The Running Guy hires him to take a fall to be the stepping stone for what Running Guy hopes is a prosperous heroing career.
The Evil Midnight Bomber (What Bombs at Midnight)
Portrayed by: Maurice Lamarche
- Animal Motifs: Bugs. He has a vague resemblance to a cockroach, and he drives a Volkswagen Beetle.
- Ax-Crazy: If there's anything he's interested besides blowing things up, we never see it.
- Beneath Notice: Apparently everyone but Arthur is buying his Paper-Thin Disguise as a "part-time electrician".
- Blatant Lies: He can't even get through a full sentence without launching back into another rant:The Evil Midnight Bomber (What Bombs at Midnight): You'll never prove a thing copper, I'm just a part time electrician. I... I... I... BAD IS GOOD, BABY! DOWN WITH GOVERNMENT!
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Played utterly straight — he wants to blow up superheroes and the government for no readily apparent reason other than because he's evil.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He's not just any Midnight Bomber, he's the Evil Midnight Bomber:The Evil Midnight Bomber: ...So he says to me, "You wanna be a baaaaad guy?" And I say yeah, baby! I wanna be bad! I SAYS, SURF'S UP SPACE PONIES! I'M MAKING GRAVY WITHOUT THE LUMPS! Ah ha ha ha ha haaaaa!
- Captain Ersatz: Upgrade Crazy Harry from wild-eyed prankster to actual supervillain and this is what you have.
- Department of Redundancy Department: A Verbal Tic of his in general, including his villain name.
- Evil Counterpart: Despite being a one time villain, he can be considered a villainous version of the Tick himself, as they're both completely out of their minds and have insect motifs, and even having antannae as a part of their outfit. The main difference is that despite being a lunatic, the Tick is an incredibly friendly and benevolent guy who isn't held back at all by his insanity, while the Evil Midnight Bomber is dangerously insane, not to mention self-centered, as he wants to blow up as many superheroes as possible just for the Villain Cred.
- Evil Laugh: Punctuates almost every line with cackling Laughing Mad villainous laughter.
- The Ghost: Whoever it was that "says to him" he needs to blow up the Comet Club. (Probably just a voice in his head.)
- Ice-Cream Koan: Botches a number of common aphorisms to the point where they they become this instead.The Evil Midnight Bomber: AN OBJECT AT REST, CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!
- Incredibly Obvious Bomb: Gas grenades and stick-on metal cylinders with blinking lights... carried in a huge black leather bag marked "BOMBS".
- Large Ham: Even for this show, he stands out. Ranting, shrieking, and laughing like a lunatic are basically the whole of his character.
- Laughably Evil: Even though every villain is some shade of this, he stands out in particular for being a gigantic loony who uses very unusual phrases and never stops rambling incoherently to himself.
- Laughing Mad: Seems to find the thought of blowing stuff just hilarious.
- Mad Bomber: Self-declared and right in the name, in case you missed that. He's planning to blow up the Comet Club and all the superheroes in it.
- Motive Rant: Played With — he's not delivering it to anyone in particular, just muttering to himself:The Evil Midnight Bomber: So he says to me, "You gotta do something smart, baby. Something BIG!" He says, "You wanna be a super villain, right?" And I go yeah, baby, YEAH! YEAH! WHAT DO I GOTTA DO? He says, "You got bombs, blow up the comet club, it's packed with super heroes, you'll go down in SUPERVILLAIN HISTORY!" And I go yeah, baby, 'cause I'm the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight! Aaahhh-hahahahaha!
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Maurice Lamarche has said in interviews that the character's off-the-wall speech patterns were meant to be a take on Sam Kinison, a friend of his.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: All things considered, he comes closer to killing the heroes than anyone.
- One-Shot Character: Despite becoming one of the animated series' best-known and most memetic characters, his only actual appearance is in "The Tick Vs. The Tick". After that, the only times we see him are when he's being removed by a bouncer at a supervillain awards show and a cameo in the episode "Heroes", where he is shown being arrested by Agrippa in the intro of the COPS-parody HEROES.
- Pin-Pulling Teeth: Uses his teeth to pull the pin of a smoke grenade.
- Talkative Loon: Is not, in fact, capable of holding in his insane ranting for more than a few seconds at a time. Sample dialogue:The Evil Midnight Bomber: I-I-I just, uh, I just uh, wanted to use the uh, heh, ah-AND SO HE SAYS, EVIL'S OKAY IN MY BOOK, WHAT ABOUT YOURS? AND I GO YEAH, BABY, YEAH! YEAH! I... I... uh, just wanted to, uh, wash my hands.
- Talking to Themself: Seemingly incapable of not muttering and ranting to himself.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: The Evil Midnight Bomber isn't exactly pithy by itself, but he always adds "What Bombs At Midnight!" to the end.
- Verbal Tic: A whole bunch of them. "And I go yeah, baby! Yeah!" "So I says to him, I says to him, I says..." He also repeats himself a lot in general.The Evil Midnight Bomber: And I go YEAH, BABY, YEAH! I'M THE EVIL MIDNIGHT BOMBER WHAT BOMBS AT MIDNIGHT! AAAAAHH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA!
The Breadmaster
Portrayed by: Roddy McDowall (1st voice), Jess Harnell (2nd voice), Martin Jarvis (3rd voice)
Just what a says, a terrorist bomber who makes expanding and explosive breads, Aided by a person named Buttery Pat, a man literally made of butter.
- Evil Chef: He makes bread-bombs and targets any business he's insulted by.
- Evil Is Petty: Went into villainy because the breadmaking school he went to kicked him out for making explosive bread (and other perverse baking experiment such as sentient pastries).
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Despite how ridiculous his skills sound, he's actually one of the most competent and dangerous villains, not just for the somewhat lackluster heroes of The City, but against far more powerful ones such as Flying Brick Eclair from "The Tick Vs. Europe".
- Honor Before Reason: His baked goods do not contain any artificial preservatives, even if it means that his gingerbread henchmen will go stale and no longer move. Though he is willing to cut corners on his soufflé when pressed for time and materials.
- Mad Bomber: Somewhat, his bread is less explosive and more expanding. Still has the same effect though. His bread rolls fits this trope better, as they're essentially edible hand grenades.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Wrote out his Evil Laugh in a letter to the heroes.
- Supreme Chef: The few times anyone has a chance to try his creations, they're stated to be very tasty, despite their evil purpose.
- Weaksauce Weakness: His Gingerbread Tank in "The Tick Vs Europe". It's a very powerful weapon, capable of shooting explosive pastries and an extremely tough frosting spray that disables the super-strong Eclair. However, Arthur destroys one of it's treads with a box of milk and ruins it's ability to move, since, you know, it's still made of gingerbread, meaning that liquid turns it soft and mushy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: In his first appearance anyway; the Breadmaster despises the food industry, especially the mass production of bread and other baked goods, since so much of it is cheaply made with inferior ingredients and soaked in chemicals to ensure a long shelf life. While this does keep the cost low for the consumer, it also results in a bland, flavorless product with terrible texture.
El Seed
Portrayed by: Ed Gilbert
A humanoid flower bent on spreading a floral revolution.
- Artistic License – History: Claims that before most animals evolved, plants lived in harmony with the bees. Plants and animals both originated on the cellular level.
- Fantastic Racism: Despises all mammals, especially humans, for their consumption of plant life.
- Girl Posse: Followed around by two women who speak in Creepy Monotone dressed in bee costumes.
- Green Thumb: A lot of his plans are plant based.
- Hypocrite: He hates the entire animal kingdom for eating plants, yet he has no problem employing the Bee Twins, a pair of Animal Themed Superbeings, as his henchmen.
- Mook Maker: Uses chemicals to make plant-based mooks to fight for him.
- Plant People: He's a walking, mobile sunflower with a face in a suit. And he's planning to make more...
- Villains Out Shopping: He rented the crop-duster he uses to spread his plant-sentience-giving chemicals around, and took an agricultural course in night school.
The Bee Twins
Portrayed by: Pat Musick
Two bee-costumed women who work for El Seed.- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Which is odd considering they work for a plant with a known hatred of the entire animal kingdom.
- Creepy Monotone: For added creepy factor, they do it in unison.
- Creepy Twins: It doesn't get much creepier than bee-themed supervillains speaking and acting in unison.
- Single-Minded Twins: They say and do everything in unison.
- Undying Loyalty: When El Seed is feeling down on himself, the Bee Twins take the time to give his self-esteem a boost.
Brainchild
Portrayed by: Rob Paulsen (1st voice), Stuart Stone (2nd voice)
A young evil genius who has an exposed brain inside a dome and schemes to make a name for himself for villainy. His real name is Charles.
- Big Bad Wannabe: He aspires to be a major threat and his second (and last) appearance had him trying to prove himself to villain community by showcasing a transformation weapon and selling it to the highest bidder.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Since he's still a child, most non-evil adults assume he's just misguided, but as he'll tell you repeatedly, he really is a bad guy. The Tick realizes this during his first appearance, and his parents in the second.
- Child Prodigy: Has a very high level intellect, though likewise is still pretty childish.
- Colony Drop: His premiere episode had him trying to crash the moon into the Earth - for no reason beyond the fact that he wanted to do something evil and this was the first thing he thought of.
- Didn't Think This Through: After capturing the Tick, Brainchild invites all of The City's biggest villains to bid for the chance to have the hero for themselves. It nearly fails because, while tormenting the Tick for thwarting his previous plans, Brainchild turned him into a two-headed pigeon, forgetting to change him back before presenting him to the other villains; they assume that the bird is just a bird, and Brainchild has to briefly revert the Tick to his usual form to get them to stay.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He was grossed out when the Tick tasted the yolk from his own egg.
- My Brain Is Big: His brain is so massive it's contained in a glass dome on his head.
- Pet the Dog: Despite claiming his dog, Skippy, as just another minion. He was the one who gave him a robot body when he had gotten run over by a car, frantically saved him when his body was crushed in the collapse of his treehouse lair, and likewise built him a new body in his next encounter with the Tick.
- Revenge: His second episode had him specifically targeting the Tick for stopping his plans the first time... and getting him grounded in the process.
The Idea Men
Portrayed by: Ed Gilbert
A group of thieves who wear iconic metal masks and tuxedos on their heists, and travel around in a huge blimp with their Idea symbol on it.
- And Then What?: Unlike most of the other villains who usually have some cartoonish master plan, all the Idea Men want is money.Idea Man: [mask pops open] Well, we thought we’d steal a lot of money, and then we’d be rich, and we wouldn’t have to work anymore!
- Boring, but Practical: Armed with standard machine guns rather than superpowers or super tech.
- Cool Air Ship: Their blimp, which they use in their heists to literally airlift their ill-gotten gains away. Even the Tick is impressed.
- I Lied: They hold the City Dam hostage with a bomb, which they intend to detonate even after they get paid, presumably to cause chaos while they make their escape.
- Greed: Matching suits, custom masks, a getaway blimp and an elaborate scheme to hold the city hostage and then flood it anyway, and what's their ultimate motive? ...Ten million dollars. It's not trivial, but still, there had to be easier ways to get it.
- Parody: Probably to Marvel's criminal organization A.I.M., the Advanced Idea Mechanics, who all wear similarly silly headgear that one expects would muffle their voices. But, where the A.I.M. guys are all mad scientists, the Idea Men are just crooks.
- Starter Villain: The villains of the very first episode of the animated series, with their generic villainy and the ease with which they're taken down being the joke — like all "idea men", they want to get paid just for having one big idea without having to put the work in.
- Talking with Signs: They resort to this when making their demands.
- The Unintelligible: They all speak muffled gibberish because their metal masks cover their mouths.
Proto-Clown
Portrayed by: Kevin Schon
A creature who happened to resemble a clown, but with superhuman strength who went on a rampage.
- Berserk Button: Despite having the features of a circus clown, he hates being laughed at.
- The Brute: Big, strong, not too bright and very angry.
- HULK MASH!-Up: He’s The Incredible Hulk as a clown.His creator, Bud Frontier, intended for him to be a a funny clown but ended being a literal Monster Clown.
- Irony: Despite being a clown, his Berserk Button is being laughed at.
- The Juggernaut: His physical might far surpassing most other characters in the series. Not even having BOTH of American Maid's shoes thrown at him! It takes the Tick hitting him from orbit to take Proto-Clown down for the count.
- Last of His Kind: Bud Frontier had created several proto clowns but only one managed to thrive . . . you guessed it.
- Tragic Monster: Proto-Clown only wanted to have his feelings respected. Unfortunately being a clown, he's always laughed at.
The Sewer Czar
Portrayed by: John Mariano
Lou Salazar was the most corrupt sanitation commissioner The City has ever known. He tried to take over with an army of filth — a species of Blob Monster created from the garbage and grunge that accumulates in the sewers, but was thwarted by Sewer Urchin at some point prior to the series' start. His first in-series appearance is in "The Tick vs Filth", where he tries to take over again, this time with an army of smart filth.
- Bad Boss: Insults and denigrates his Smart Filth, who question his goals and immediately desert him the moment he's captured.
- Corrupt Politician: Tried to take over The City with an army of Filth while serving as its sanitation commissioner.
- Didn't Think This Through: Attempts to wipe out the surface-dwellers with his army of Filth...only they proceed to point out that without said surface people, there won't be anything to make Filth from. He doesn't listen.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Probably the most serious of any villain (at least in the animated series), though admittedly that's not much going by the standards of the other villains.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: His civilian name was Lou Salazar, which shares a lot in common with "Sewer Czar".
- Villain of Another Story: His battles with Sewer Urchin.
Smart Filth
Portrayed by: David Landers, Chuck McCanin
When the Sewer Czar's first foray in taking over the city failed, he decided that it was due to his minions' incompetence. So he whipped up a new batch of smarter filth. While they are able to follow his directives more effectively, they are also able to question why they should attack the surface world in the first place.
- Battle Cry: "We're Filth! We're Filth! We come from filth, we're going to filth!". They don't actually understand what it's supposed to mean, it's something Lou came up with.
- Blob Monster: They're basically quasi-humanoid masses of chemical sludge.
- Heel–Face Turn: They're not that evil to begin with, but Sewer Urchin is able to convince them pretty easily into deserting en masse.
- Minion with an F in Evil: They're fairly chill and friendly, following The Sewer Czar's orders more out of inexperience than anything.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Lou treats his Smart Filth like crap, and because they are smart enough to question his authority as well as the long term repercussions of destroying the surface world with whom they form a symbiotic relationship with, revolt en masse the moment Lou is put in a disadvantageous position by the heroes.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Soap can drive them off.
