Review: Rick and Morty #8 (2013)

Overview

The smash-hit ongoing series doth battle the gods themselves!

After Goldenfold’s niece Noelle fooled the gods from Anti Hala, stole Nunzumel’s powers, and flew away with Morty, Nunzumel has called upon the Chosen One to destroy Rick. He is the one chosen by the prophets to bring an end to the Man-of-Science’s reign against God-kind. He is . . . Jerry? Meanwhile! The gods plan to resurrect someone with a can of dog food. Who can it be, you ask?! Guess you gotta read it!

Our Take

Sometimes Alex Firer-written issues of Rick and Morty can be a bit back-and-forth on a per issue basis and in this instance, the whole issue is a lot like Alex’s breadth of work. At first, we get a pretty hilariously crass diatribe from all of the main characters and then we get a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gag, which I probably wouldn’t bring up for the fact that this issue then does it’s best to kind of remind me of early IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, mostly due to the denseness of the dialogue. Like, I was more exhausted reading this entire issue than I was of the recent Summer special, and the Summer special was listed as being the one with the bonus pages of a normal issue.

Fred C. Stresing enacts some pretty jaw-dropping visuals throughout the issue, especially one HUGE set-piece that features artistic intensity matched only by the intensity of the dialogue. This Chosen One character is a real wordsmith and admittedly a lot of his rhetoric leans a bit loquacious for my taste, but if you’re going to set a tone for a supervillain, I guess you need shit like that. It’s working for me and keeping me engaged all-the-while the Morty/Noelle plot movement seems to take a back seat this go-round.