Comic Review: Rick and Morty: Crisis on C-137 #1

Overview:

The Vindicators have intercepted a terrible villain coming for Earth, a dangerous canine known as Snowball. Barely making it out of the battle alive, Supernova, the last survivor of The Vindicators, has come to warn Rick and his grandson about the impending doom heading their way. Unfortunately, with all the heroes dead, no one is left to stand in Snowball’s way. That is why Supernova, Morty, and his mentor are holding a tryout for a new-and-improved superhero team, The League of Really Cool Intellectual Properties.

Our Take:

With the arrival of Rick and Morty: Crisis on C-137, there is hope that the adaptation comic collection will finally be going all-out in this brand-new parody. However, this time around, instead of mocking classic movies and science-fiction plots, the animated series will be attacking comic books as a medium.

As illuminated to the masses by big-budget superhero films like Avengers and Justice League, a significant part of comic books is the all-important crossover. Major events like Civil War or Crisis on Infinite Earths give big publishers a chance to bring all their best characters together for a significant experience. With the chance of having reverberating effects on all their most popular brands, they are a cannot-miss for any comic book nerd.

Well, it is about time something like that happened for Rick and Morty. While it would be great to see an event bring back past characters on the animated sitcom, we will happily take a comic book version.

While this first issue is all about laying the groundwork for the bigger battle ahead, it already offers a major crossover and the event’s first death. The opening panels of this premiere issue feature Supernova, of The Vindicators, in a direct conflict with Snowball, the nut-less dog set on seeking revenge. These are two characters from very different episodes that no one would have ever expected to cross each other’s paths. Unfortunately, the unexpected battle resulted in the death of one of the last known survivors of The Vindicators after Rick Sanchez killed them all.

Although the story is big and bombastic, the dialogue is tripe and not up to par with what is expected from Rick and Morty content. The titular characters behave like the writer only understands the animated beings on a surface level, with Morty not adding much to the plot and Rick playing to his typical reluctance, but for no reason.

Thankfully, the artwork in this book is like nothing we have seen before in a Rick and Morty comic book. Artist Ryan Lee has offered his own spin on the beloved characters and gave this book dimensions thicker than the multiverse. It is so pretty to look at, with enough hype and detail that the subpar writing can be ignored as all you want to do is flip pages and see more art.

There is reason to be hopeful that this is the Rick and Morty comic book to blow all other adaptations out of the water. While we may not see old friends return, as we would hope, the arrival of a new superhero team in the Rick and Morty multiverse is enough to get us excited. All there is left to do is hope that this miniseries can live up to the hype delivered in the first issue.