Prime Video’s 2-Part Superhero Thriller Is a Better Watch Than ‘The Boys’ or ‘Invincible’

Published Nov 2, 2026, 10:59 AM EST

Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with extensive experience. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy, and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. With his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's tackled a wide variety of articles.

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Prime Video has become one of the most versatile streaming services in the television world, thanks to its wide variety of original shows. Two of its biggest shows are Invincible and The Boys, which often skewer superhero conventions. In the case of The Boys, it uses the superhero genre to offer commentary on current events — even if that commentary often veers into extremely crude territory. Invincible, on the other hand, explores how being a superhero can take a toll on you mentally and physically (especially physically). With The Boys having concluded its five-season run in May 2026 and Invincible continuing its story, both were beaten to the punch by another series that satirized superheroes.

That series is The Tick, created by Ben Edlund. Based on Edlund's original comics, The Tick follows Arthur Everest (Griffin Newman) and his encounters with The Tick (Peter Serafinowicz), a boisterous, blue-clad superhero who wants Arthur to be his sidekick. Arthur and Tick begin investigating a mysterious conspiracy involving the criminal mastermind known as The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley). While it lasted only two seasons, The Tick was a near-perfect satire series that got lost in a sea of superhero adaptations, but it still deserves its due.

'The Tick' Expertly Balances Comedy and Drama

A large part of what makes The Tick work is its willingness to spoof every form of superhero media​​​​. The Tick and Arthur live in a world populated by superheroes that include the mighty Superian (Brendan Hines) and the trigger-happy Overkill (Scott Speiser). Overkill is obviously a dig at more lethal vigilantes in comic books like the Punisher or Ghost Rider, while Superian's eventual fall from grace predates the darker turns on Superman's legacy that Invincible and The Boys brought to the table with Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) and Homelander (Antony Starr). Unlike those shows, The Tick mostly plays its parodies for laughs, and more often than not, it earns those laughs.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Superhero Team Should You Join? Avengers · X-Men · Teen Titans · The Boys

Every team is a personality test with a uniform. One saves the world and argues about it the whole way home. One has been fighting for the right to exist since the day it formed. One is still working out who it is while the fighting happens. And one has no powers at all, plus no intention of playing fair. Eight questions decide where you actually belong.

🛡️Avengers(Marvel Studios)

🧬X-Men(Marvel)

🐦Teen Titans(DC)

💊The Boys(Prime Video)

FIND YOUR TEAM →

01

What kind of power would you actually want? The power matters less than what you would be willing to do with it.

ASomething enormous and obvious. I would not hide it. BSomething I was born with, whether I wanted it or not. CSomething still growing that I cannot quite control. DNone at all. I would rather nobody sees me coming.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

Why join a team at all? Nobody puts on the suit for the reason they say out loud.

ABecause some threats are too big for anyone alone. BBecause people like me are safer together than apart. CBecause I did not want to do any of this alone. DBecause somebody has to hold these people accountable.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

How do you feel about the people in charge? Every team has a chain of command. Very few of them survive contact.

AI will follow a good leader and argue with a bad one. BThey have never protected people like me. I expect nothing. CI am still learning who to trust, and getting it wrong. DThey are the problem. That is the entire point.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

What is your role inside a group? Every roster needs the same handful of people to function.

AThe big personality. I take up room and I earn it. BThe one who protects whoever arrived most recently. CThe heart. I keep everybody talking to each other. DThe one who says the uncomfortable thing out loud.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

How do you win a fight you should lose? This is the scene the entire film gets built around.

AOverwhelming force, and a very good landing. BWorking together in a way nobody saw coming. CRefusing to give up long after I should have. DPreparation, leverage, and one extremely dirty trick.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

What is this work costing you? Nobody does this for free. The bill just arrives differently for everyone.

AMy private life. Everybody knows my face now. BMy safety. The world is frightened of me. CMy childhood. I grew up faster than I should have. DMy peace. I cannot stop now that I know.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

How should the world see your team? Half of this job is public relations, and everybody knows it.

AAs icons. The team everyone is relieved to see arrive. BAs people. Just people, which is all we ever asked. CAs proof the next generation is going to be fine. DThey should not see us at all until it is done.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

The offer arrives. What makes you say yes? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your team.

AThe scale. If the world is ending, I want to be there. BThe promise that I would not have to hide anymore. CThe people. I would be joining friends, not an employer. DThe chance to take down somebody who deserves it.

REVEAL MY TEAM →

Recruitment Is Complete Your Team Is…

Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it would cost you to stay.

The Avengers

You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.

• The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process.
• You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the real entry requirement here.
• The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement, usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building.
• When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.

The X-Men

You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.

• This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being wanted gone by the same people they keep saving.
• You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable.
• The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else to go and are never once asked to explain themselves.
• You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.

The Teen Titans

You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an inconvenient side effect.

• Every Titan is somebody's sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the villain of the week, is what the team is actually about.
• You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you, which is far less lonely than being the only one.
• The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more honest model of growing up than any other team here manages.
• The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.

The Boys

You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.

• The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage, patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences.
• You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed not to mention.
• This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean.
• You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

What helps The Tick stand out from other superhero parodies is its earnest approach to Arthur's mental health. It turns out that Arthur's mild-mannered personality is the result of a deep-seated trauma, as he watched his father die in the middle of a battle that involved the Terror. Despite his sister, Dot (Valorie Curry), wanting him to live a normal life, Arthur eventually comes to embrace his role as the Tick's sidekick and faces off against the Terror. The Tick beat Invincible and The Boys to the punch in exploring the balance between superheroism and mental health, and it didn't have to shed any blood in the process.

'The Tick' Was Overshadowed by Other Major Superhero Movies and TV Shows

While The Tick might have been Prime Video's first foray into superhero satire, it had to contend with a plethora of superhero shows and movies in the marketplace​​​​​. Its pilot premiered in 2016, before the rest of Season 1 began arriving in 2017, during which pop culture debates were sparked over Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad.

Future episodes would have to contend with the release of other big blockbusters like Wonder Woman and Avengers: Infinity War, and Season 2 would be overshadowed by the premieres of Avengers: Endgame and The Boys. Despite this uphill battle, The Tick still managed to cultivate a loyal following, even when Ben Edlund revealed that the series wouldn't receive a third season.

"I’m sorry we could not reward your glorious support with better news. I am so proud of the show, of the cast and crew and writers, and so warmed by the fans."

The cancellation couldn't have been worse, as The Tick ends with a collection of unresolved subplots. One of its cast members would go on to star in another Prime Video superhero satire, as Valorie Curry went on to play the ultra-patriotic superheroine Firecracker in Seasons 4 and 5 of The Boys​​​​​​.

Her appearance serves as a bittersweet reminder that Prime Video had true gold on its hands with The Tick, and that the seriesstill deserves to be watched. Invincible and The Boys might be popular picks now, but The Tick offered its own take on superhero satire years earlier.