Profile: The Tick

Additional Information

Boophilus annulatus, Araneae, Scorpionida. 

• True Invulnerability: Unearthly. Can be stunned and slammed but not damaged.
• Hyper-Leaping: Incredible
• Reality Denial:
• Drama-Power: Basically a tendency for The Tick's powers to increase as the situation becomes more dramatic. He can also survive in space without a suit, and under water without oxygen for at least a long time.

• Stupidity: The Tick is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

None

A square-jawed, muscular, bright blue-costumed figure with antennae sticking up from his head.

Blue body suit, with blue antennae sticking up from his head.

Little is known about The Tick's past and even less about his origins. He claims to suffer from amnesia; his memory begins with his escape from the Evanston Clinic, a state mental institution two hundred miles north of The City. The Tick does in fact claim that he is a large specimen of blood-sicking arachnid. He has made threats that suggest he believes he does suck blood. No documentation on this parasitic propensity exists, however. 

The Tick could very well be insane. It is highly unlikely that he is an actual tick. He's too big. He's blue. He occasionally forms completed sentences. He has a face, and he has pockets. None of these traits are particularly tick-like. But the fact remains that he is in possession of some highly unusual abilities and physiological "quirks". 

The sum total of these abilities and quirks are referred to clinically as "Super-hero-ness." The Tick has Super-hero-ness in spades. He is extremely powerful; no known limit has been established for his physical strength. He has lifted cars, toppled giant Ninga effigies, destroyed theme parks, hurled monoliths way up into the air -- all very impressive! In addition, he appears to possess a condition known as Nigh-Invulnerability. We don't exactly known what the term means, but it sounds right. He has proven himself very resistant to conventional harms. He seems impervious to bullets, mortar shells, hammers, farm equipment, tomahawks, clever insults, erosion, explosive decompression and most of the kicks and stings of the material world. 

The Tick is basically a big kid, with the innocence, the naivete and the flat candor of a child. His life's ambition is to become a true Super-hero. Protecting the weak and helpless is part of that, but he is most interested in the super-gadgets, the secret underground headquarters and all the cool trappings that surround and constitute the classic Super-hero lifestyle. The Tick has acquired some of these trappings: he has a sidekick, although Arthur is a little older and heavier than the stereotypic teen super-wonder. The Tick has a small arsenal of super-gadgets; the Secret CrimeViewfinder, the Mighty Diner Straw, the Pez Dispenser of Graveness, his Hypnotic Secret Identity Tie, etc. Apparently, most of these gadgets function on a purely aesthetic level and do not aid The Tick in his ongoing battle against crime.

• Distracted by shiny objects, very stupid, easily manipulated by others, can't keep balance if his antennae are removed, prone to random hallucinations.

• Spyglasses:
• Crime-finder: Excellent Tracking.
• Hypnotic tie:
• Blood-sucking straw: 

Arthur; All heroes in The City.

• The Tick's battle-cry is said to baffle, or stun, his opponents. Before battle, he yells out, "SPOON!"
• Tick possesses something referred to as "drama power", or basically a tendency for The Tick's powers to increase as the situation becomes more dramatic.

The Tick seems to have no memory of his life before being The Tick, and indeed not much memory of anything; more than likely due to frequent head injuries.