Comic Review: Rick and Morty Vs. The Universe #2

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Rick tries to get the family to flee, but that makes it hard when they’re living inside the thing that that’s out to kill him: THE UNIVERSE

OUR TAKE

The biggest Rick and Morty comic event continues as Rick pretty immediately faces the consequences of making his old universe drink itself to death. Or maybe he was possibly poisoned? What happens to the people in the universe when an embodiment of a universe dies? Regardless, Dimension C-137 is dead and Parmesan is understandably pissed. Rick’s immediate impulse is to try to escape, but Parmesan messes with the portal fluid frequency to keep them trapped. But as usual, Rick has a back up plan: finding a now disabled Mr. Poopybutthole, who is currently in Captain Pike Beep Chair and can only say “oowee”. If you’ve been keeping up with the show, Mr. Poopybutthole has definitely been through the ringer for the past few seasons, some of which being self-inflicted but mostly Rick’s fault. Still, I don’t think we ever saw him go through something this bad, which makes me wonder if this is actually meant to be the canon universe. I mean, this is a comic spin-off, something that is usually lower in priority in terms of canon from the main show, but this series in particular kinda hinges on it being set in the main show’s universe as opposed to another universe made specifically for that spin-off.

So, that kind of puts a damper on the stakes that are supposedly this big, but so far that hasn’t kept me from at least enjoying the story so far. The concept of Rick having some back up emergency portal fluid is definitely in character for him, but oddly enough, it being red kinda makes it look cooler, almost like some sort of glowing blood. Although it’s also possible that this was all just meant to be a fake out and it doesn’t end up being a big part of anything later on, which would be a bit disappointing for me. That leads us into the final part of this issue, with Parmesan deciding to reach inside herself in order to remove Rick and Morty from her and into some sort of Loki Void type area called the Realm of the Non-Canonicals, where a bunch of kooky looking Ricks reside. Also worth noting that the Summer tie-in from last week did kind of give us a bit of extra perspective on the explosion she saw at the end of that, and this issue provides context for the Beth (and Jerry) tie-in coming next month with the third main issue. This continues to be a pretty alright event so I’m looking forward to seeing how it ups the ante.