The newest Rick and Morty anthology event from Oni Press is ‘Finals Week’. It seems the series will tell five tales, by five teams, all about a boy just trying to get an education and the super-scientist grandfather that keeps on getting in the way. The first issue just hit the shelves, and things are off to a cracking good start! Daniel Kibblesmith’s ‘Sherick and Mortson,’ concerns itself with Morty’s English finals, ostensibly.
When we all got super jazzed about Sherlock Holmes entering the public domain last year, it was so we could have fun things like this Rick and Morty mystery from Oni Press! The conceit is a simple one – a somewhat inebriated Rick sees a Sherlock Holmes movie on tv, and decides that he and Morty should get in on the action by solving a space murder. A reticent Morty chooses to go to school instead, only to be reminded that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is required reading for Finals Week!
A quick Octo-Robot kidnapping later, Rick and a forcibly cosplayed-up Morty are on their way to some cube planet to get their murder-solve on. Morty looks super adorable in his little ‘Doctor Mortson’ suit and derby hat, while Rick is totally channeling literature’s most loveable jerk, fully pulling off Holmes’ iconic deerstalker hat and Calabash pipe. (Of course, we all know that neither of these items ever appeared in the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the former being the invention of illustrator Sydney Paget, and the latter being the affectation of stage actor William Gillette, who favoured the large bowl of the Calabash pipe for its theatrical qualities.)
This crime comic’s got moxy! Rick just assumes every single part of the murder investigation is going to line up to be exactly like a Sherlock Holmes story, and he’s kind of right. This creates a lot of friction with the lead detective that’s been rightfully put in charge of the case by Spaceland Yard. A safe house planet inhabited by ‘functionally immortal’ beings (they can still be killed, they just don’t die naturally) is such an excellent setting for a Sherlock Holmes story – it’s basically a locked room mystery, but on a planetary scale! Dude would have loved it, if he weren’t dead/fictional. Or, as Morty puts it, “Damb, that’s Sherlock Holmes as hell.”
Ricklock’s initial theory, that time travel must have played a factor, is sneered at by the Space Constable Lestrade, so he sets out to gather clues and solve the case. What started out as just another one of Rick’s drunken diversions on the road to the grave now has the additional motivation of proving this random jerk wrong. If he happens to solve the murder of some billion year old, tricloptic stool pigeon along the way, then that’s cool too. It’s also nice to see Rick leaning into the character’s dark side, by way of using his pipe to smoke Kalaxian Crystals – the space version of the 12% solution.
Another solution worth mentioning is the way Rick gets around the Mr. Nimbus problem – they may not be allowed to touch the ocean, but that doesn’t mean a transparent orb encasing the entire car can’t touch the ocean! Hopefully this detail becomes canon. It’s always nice to see Mr. Nimbus, and artist Priscilla Tramontano really captures his unique physicality. There’s a particularly enjoyable scene where he just takes a sip of wine that has so many different silly poses going on! And his TMNT inspired Street Urchins should absolutely have their own Saturday morning cartoon – their favourite food being Irish nachos is very funny. However, I don’t trust Nimbus’ new, Flounder-esque sidekick, Red Herring!
Rick tries out both the nicknames ‘Ricklock Holmes’ and ‘Sherick Holmes,’ and he ends up hating them. I think they’re both great! And it’s not like there’s really any other decent options. Not everything can be as perfect as ‘Rickmurai Jack’ – when dealing with premium IP, you’ve got to port the manteau you’re dealt. As to the eventual solution to the mystery, I think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself would be satisfied! Tune in next time for ‘BrawlHer,’ by Christof Bogacs and Beck Kubrick – seems like it’s going to be a Summer story!