The sophomore season's sophomore episode was... sophomoric! I mean, all that goop and slop? Ben and Max hanging ten on those hoverboards as if they were bastich sons of the Beach Boys? Max and Gwen leaping from one crumbling foothold to the next and then--huh?--actually taking flight?
But the unkindest cut was that cheater "all's well that ends well" ending! Yellowstone National Park is utterly destroyed over the course of the episode, reduced to a desert. And then even the planet's surface is fragmented leaving bottomless canyons. Old Faithful had a cameo and it's doubtful the iconic geyser and tourist attraction survived the Tick's terrible onslaught.
But once Cannonblast goes all pinball wizard inside the Big Tick and the alien sucker explodes, everything suddenly reverts to normal. Huh? How does that happen? And why is there still a mountain of slimy goop on the RV for Ben to clean off if all signs of the Tick's presence conveniently vanished?
In "Secrets" a face was blown off Mount Rushmore! The producers obviously weren't afraid to literally deface national monuments, so why couldn't they allow a mile-wide section of Yellowstone to remain devastated? It could have served as incontrovertible proof and a sobering warning to naysayers that aliens exist, they are coming to earth, and they're not all friendly E. T.'s who just want to phone home.
All that said, I enjoyed the show for its non-stop action and for the novelty of a new alien, even if Cannonblast didn't exactly bowl me over. The shots of Cannonblast rolling along at high speed were very cool. I always wonder when Ben wants a specific alien but gets a different one, if the Omnitrix knows what Ben is actually going to need, as if the watch has an innate intelligence and even prescience.
I also wonder about Grandpa, munching on grubworms. He was eating strange stuff in early episodes as well and I suspect there's more to him than just a retired alien-exterminating Plumber in an aloha shirt. I mean, how does one know how to effectively fight aliens unless one is himself... not of this earth?
Speaking of aliens, did the Tick remind anyone else of Galactus, the original planet-eating extraterrestrial? And those heralds on hoverboards of the Silver Surfer? I enjoy these nods and allusions, real or imagined, to classic comic books, a steady diet of which I am sure was devoured in stackfuls by series creator Man of Action as well as by this old fan new to the show.
But the unkindest cut was that cheater "all's well that ends well" ending! Yellowstone National Park is utterly destroyed over the course of the episode, reduced to a desert. And then even the planet's surface is fragmented leaving bottomless canyons. Old Faithful had a cameo and it's doubtful the iconic geyser and tourist attraction survived the Tick's terrible onslaught.
But once Cannonblast goes all pinball wizard inside the Big Tick and the alien sucker explodes, everything suddenly reverts to normal. Huh? How does that happen? And why is there still a mountain of slimy goop on the RV for Ben to clean off if all signs of the Tick's presence conveniently vanished?
In "Secrets" a face was blown off Mount Rushmore! The producers obviously weren't afraid to literally deface national monuments, so why couldn't they allow a mile-wide section of Yellowstone to remain devastated? It could have served as incontrovertible proof and a sobering warning to naysayers that aliens exist, they are coming to earth, and they're not all friendly E. T.'s who just want to phone home.
All that said, I enjoyed the show for its non-stop action and for the novelty of a new alien, even if Cannonblast didn't exactly bowl me over. The shots of Cannonblast rolling along at high speed were very cool. I always wonder when Ben wants a specific alien but gets a different one, if the Omnitrix knows what Ben is actually going to need, as if the watch has an innate intelligence and even prescience.
I also wonder about Grandpa, munching on grubworms. He was eating strange stuff in early episodes as well and I suspect there's more to him than just a retired alien-exterminating Plumber in an aloha shirt. I mean, how does one know how to effectively fight aliens unless one is himself... not of this earth?
Speaking of aliens, did the Tick remind anyone else of Galactus, the original planet-eating extraterrestrial? And those heralds on hoverboards of the Silver Surfer? I enjoy these nods and allusions, real or imagined, to classic comic books, a steady diet of which I am sure was devoured in stackfuls by series creator Man of Action as well as by this old fan new to the show.
