5. The Tick
Also screening in the early nineties, The Tick is a superhero with an infectious naïve enthusiasm and penchant for disregarding solid obstacles he knows won't slow him down. Aided by his sidekick Arthur, an accountant who desires a life of superheroic adventure, Tick gleefully ruins scenery in an unceasing war on the forces of wrongdoing. In the context of the otherwise entirely mundane setting, it's a hilarious dadaist romp that knows not one whit of metaphor, with sight gags unrelenting; the Breadmaster causes overleavened destruction with ridiculously expanding bread loaves that act as bombs, while aided in his patisserie peevishness by his literally oleaginous henchman, Buttery Pat. The photosynthetic profligate El Seed is a Spanish sunflower; Chairface Chippendale has a stylised piece of furniture for a head. Which brings us to another great feature of this series; the constant comedic subversion of expectations of the superhero archetype. As well as the villains, the other heroes all have word play on their monikers as a first step, but from there it's all downhill. You'd be hard pressed to find a larger bunch of malcontents at more widely varied stages of disaffectation; as a result, assistance from their costumed brethren is often thin on the ground, leaving Tick and Arthur to muddle on as saviours of the day. This all perhaps unexpectedly combines to form an amazing synthesis a superhero cartoon about unsuperheroic behaviour that works really well as a superhero comedy. There's even an episode about the nature of existentialism, and how the Tick manages to put all that icky thinking stuff to one side. It really is a must see, and a strong contender for revival.