Comic Review: Rick and Morty #44

At long last, we finally get to see the adventure that is Vindicators #1!

Overview:

In a prequel of sorts, we rewind the clocks to see the first time that Rick and Morty meet the galactic superhero team that is The Vindicators.  With an evil force known as Worldender set to destroy the universe one planet at a time, The Vindicators reach out to the one species that is super good at destroying things, Earthlings.

The Vindicators reach out to Rick Sanchez in hopes that he will help him destroy Worldender once and for all.  While Morty is super jazzed up about the superhero team-up, Rick doesn’t play well with others.  Without Rick, The Vindicators have a tough go at facing the evil monster.  Finally, Rick decides to play along so that he doesn’t miss his favourite TV show.  Of course, Rick cleans up the mess pretty easily and saves the day.  But, not without pissing off every member of The Vindicators in the process.

Our Take:

You have to love The Vindicators, the Rick and Morty version of every overblown superhero team in comics and movies.  However, nobody could have expected that this issue would be so important to the ongoing story between the team and Rick Sanchez.  This comic is the tale of Vindicators 1.  Y’know how in the show they call it Vindicators 3 and mention how Vindicators 2 happened without Rick and Morty present.  Well, this is the rewind to that first ever team-up.  And, for that to happen in a Rick and Morty comic book, just proves how wonderful these books are each month.

It is awesome to see the first time Rick and Morty meet these superheroes.  Rick has some of the quippiest things to say about each and every one of them, and it is panel after panel of hilarity.  Rick may be a super genius, but he also makes for the best super jerk.  One by one, he tears there costumes and origins apart, making them all feel stupid in one way or another.  Morty is obviously as enthralled with these heroes as he is in the TV show, but it’s still fun to see them all meet for the first time.

I am surprised that this is a single issue story.  Playing out a storyline that has mention in the TV series should carry more weight than that.  The plot and premise of them uniting is simplified in place of the interactions that these characters have.  I would have much rather seen a three-issue arch where all of the Vindicators come together to overcome evil.  Heck, they could have stretched it out even further and introduced the characters one at a time.  It could have built up over multiple issues, much like the Rick and Morty comics did when they faced the Rick Revenge Squad that culminated in issue #42.  Unfortunately, that is not what we got here, and the story is small and could have used more depth.

This issue also continues the side story of Rick and Morty: Adventures in Public Domain, that has been occurring over the last four issues and will conclude next month.  I have had trouble following the story, as Rick and Morty seem to jump from one fictional world to the next to collect as many public domain characters as they can.  This was one of the more entertaining quests of that story, as our heroes adventure to a world of magic and fairies.  Their target is none other than the magical wizard Merlin, but who he really is may shock you.

This is a pretty epic comic book!  Sure, I complained that it lacked depth, but that is only because I want more.  I want to draw that shit out.  I mean this is The Vindicators, and it connects directly to the show.  If you are somebody that claims to be a Rick and Morty superfan then you know this is not an event that you can miss out on reading.  I just love that this comic title is not afraid to take on any story or mess around with the series’ continuity.  As far as a comic based off a show goes, this is as good as it gets.  Again, who could have expected we would get Vindicators 1?

Score
8/10