Offbeat take makes this superhero series ‘Tick’

Another superhero series, you sigh, but Amazon’s “The Tick” takes its own droll, strange journey to make it stand out.

First, it is more about the sidekick than the blue-outfitted crime fighter named after a small pesky arachnid. Arthur Everest (Griffin Newman) was a young boy when he saw his father crushed by a superhero ship shot out of the sky by The Terror (Jackie Earle Hayley) and his henchmen.

Traumatized, he has been plagued by the notion that The Terror, who was supposedly killed by the reigning superhero of the time, Superian (Brendan Hines), is still alive. Since then, Superian has gone on the talk-show circuit, while Arthur usually takes medications to tamp down his paranoia.

When he doesn’t, though, he tracks down leads on The Terror, one of which leads to the docks where he runs into The Tick (wonderfully played by Peter Serafinowitz). The superhero has this slightly unhinged bravado, a puffed out chest willing to wade into any melee without a blink, and he quickly dubs Arthur his sidekick.

Arthur is horrified. His only thought is to run and take his meds, but The Tick — who has the strength of “10, perhaps 20 men … a crowded bus stop of men” — keeps showing up and brings him a special suit with superhero powers.

For a while, the nebbishy techie is convinced that it’s all his imagination until he meets his sister Dot (Valorie Curry), who confirms big blue guy next to him is real, which doesn’t make Arthur any less freaked.

Eventually, “The Tick” gains its own delightfully eccentric rhythm and humor. The series is from Ben Edlund, who also created the character and its two previous TV versions (both on Fox, one animated and one live action).

As the series unfolds, we discover that The Tick doesn’t know who he is. His memory is shortterm and not always logical. The superhero with the moving antennae spouts all sorts of profound stuff.

“Destiny gave you the suit,” he

confidently tells Arthur but admits his own memory only goes back a few days. So he has no idea where he is pulling such stuff from.

When The Tick crashes the birthday of Arthur’s stepfather, he’s asked about his suit and ponders the philosophical question, “Am I never naked or am I never not naked?”

Arthur’s investigation into The Terror has brought out a number of other strange figures with superpowers, including

the one-eyed and neurotic Ms. Lint (Yara Martinez), who can control static electricity, which explains her name.

Then there’s Overkill (Scott Speiser), who The Tick considers “murdery” Even Overkill’s artificial intelligence at his lab draws a comparison between him and Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver.”

Actually, all the characters with superpowers are mentally damaged in some way. So, too, are Arthur and his sister, though in less obvious ways. (A clue might be all the blood on her EMT outfit when we first meet her.) Everyone, including The Tick, is processing their own trauma in a world where people find it normal to have weirdos with extraordinary abilities zipping around.

The series enjoys deconstructing superhero tropes but in its own offbeat way. You will probably need a few episodes to get into “The Tick, but the first part of the first season builds up nicely. By Episode 6, the series is all powered up.

Six more episodes arrive early in 2018.

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMAZON STUDIOS Arthur (Griffin Newman), left, and his sister Dot (Valorie Curry) in the new Amazon series “The Tick.”