Review: RICK AND MORTY: SUPER SPECIAL HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA #1

Overview

Featuring three jolly, tantalizing tales from Alex Firer (Rick and Morty: Rick’s New Hat, Rick and Morty: The Space Shake Saga) brimming with holiday cheer, confusion, and . . . creeps? With art from Dean Rankine (Rick and Morty: Super Spring Break Special), Fred C. Stresing (Rick and Morty: Meeseeks, P.I.), and Warren Wucinich (Kriss: The Gift of Wrath), follow Rick and Morty as they accidentally summon a bevy of Christmas cretins, take over Santa’s unenviable one-night job, and reenact A Christmas Carol as only they know how!

Our Take

Ahh yes, the holiday anthology. Usually this time of year is rife with all kinds of holiday anthologies be it via TV, comics, you name it, the holiday anthology is probably somewhere close. Fortunately, Alex Firer knows this and has put together a rather satirical take on the trope by mixing the world of Rick and Morty into three stories all inspired by various X-mas classics. Fans of The Santa Clause, Gremlins, and A Christmas Carol will think it’s cute as the dickens that Rick and Morty-verse pantomimes some of the most well-known X-mas properties all for the not-bad price of just under $10 for 64 pages.

The dialogue across all three stories is snarky, rife with crass humor, though slowly being infused with Tiktok mannerisms that I’m not sure belongs here. Also, I’ll never understand Oni Press bleeping out curse words in the year 2024. Like, you really think the target audience of Rick and Morty aren’t regular users of the seven dirty words so, what, we bleep out curse words for whatever reason? I will say the artwork for everything was very well done with bold character design choices, funny send-ups to the aforementioned X-mas classics, and solid lettering.

Overall, Oni Press delivers a solid holiday release, but I gotta see Oni Press be a bit more lenient on some freedom of speech issues this special is exhibiting.