Review: Rick and Morty (2023) #4

Overview
So Rick averted a Goldenfold invasion and sent Morty’s girlfriend into another dimension. Big deal. Well, now Morty’s mad for some reason and has gone to save Noelle. In his absence, hyper tech-bro and Rick fanboy Glug Vronsky swoops in to…impress Rick or something? Is this the end of Rick AND Morty? Rick and Glug? Doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Our Take

It is so fascinating to see how Twitter humor derived from bubbles influences TV and print media. Oni Press earlier this year released the four-part mini-series inspired by HP Lovecraft, but very clearly Jim Zub was unable to fully separate the artist’s work from the artist and as such gave us an effort that took shots at claims of HP Lovecraft’s potentially racist viewpoints that were largely earmarked for the author’s early life all-the-while ignoring the fact that HP would eventually soften those viewpoints, an extreme Liberalist-inspired idea that people can’t learn from their mistakes and grow up.

Likewise, writer Alex Firer presents to us a new issue of Rick and Morty’s rebooted ongoing series that features a new potential protagonist in the form of Glug Vronsky who, like Rick is a big fan of tech, but is more of a reflection of those championing the rise of web3 technological advances in the areas of finance, AI, and the like. The ideas for the jokes aren’t THAT original, certainly when not compared to the earlier Goldenfold invasion, but not a complete loss nonetheless. Yes, the jokes are largely inspired by those seen all over Twitter as it pertains to this arena, but the concept is pretty funny and I am continuing to be enamored where this effort could potentially lead to.