Comic Review: Rick and Morty vs The Universe #1

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Morty has an existential crisis, but there’s no time for that since Rick has to hang out with his best friend, THE EMBODIMENT OF THE ORIGINAL UNIVERSE.

OUR TAKE

We got another Rick and Morty comic miniseries on our hands here, right smack dab in the middle of the show’s currently ongoing eighth season, which I personally think is going pretty well so far! As mentioned in some of those reviews, I actually fell off of keeping up with the show as it was airing for a couple seasons, so I definitely haven’t been keeping up with the many, MANY comic spin-offs that have come out over the show’s eleven year history in the cultural zeitgeist. But I was told to cover this one, so I guess I will! And it seems like this is a pretty big one, even in the context of the other comics, as it involves Rick and Morty on the run from literal embodiments of universes, and that’s after they accidentally get the embodiment of their original universe (or at least Rick’s, since I think Morty is from a different one if I remember correctly) killed somehow. What does it mean to have the person version of a universe die? I guess it depends on how important they are to the show’s usual canon. The point is that these two have to clear their names while they fight off the ire of several other universes! They should probably rename this “Rick and Morty vs the MULTIverse” but I suppose they’re up against that every other episode already.

So, first off, this is a pretty creative idea on paper! It opens up a lot of opportunities for throwbacks to all the universes the two have dealt with across the show’s run, which it seems is the plan for what is being called “The FIRST RICK AND MORTY COMICS EVENT” (but not a “Crisis”, they want to make that very clear). There’s even some planned tie-ins coming up in the next couple months about Summer and Beth, so you KNOW this is serious. But it won’t just be references, as this story starts with Morty feeling a big sense of mental disconnect from all the trauma of previous adventures, so that will likely build up over the course of the next six main issues to make this story have some character development and personal weight while you’re pointing at all the deep cuts. Also, I really hope there’s more that these universe people can do than just be a regular silhouette but with swirly galaxies in them. It’d be really rude if that’s all they do. But I guess I’ll find out next month for the second issue!