Comic Review: Rick and Morty #45

Will the cabal of evil Ricks awaken the most menacing Ricks of them all?

Overview:

Jerry, Beth, and Summer are the only survivors left in a world overrun by mutants called Cronenbergs.  Their situation may seem terrible, but to them, it’s better than Rick and Morty continually putting them in danger.  That is until Summer comes across a Cronenberg Morty.  The mutant Morty needs his sister’s help in destroying his Rick and a cabal of the most evil Ricks in the multiverse.  But, Jerry does not want her risking her life and will do what it takes to stop her.  Can she stop the Ricks before they wake the most monstrous Rick of them all?

The conclusion of the 5-part “Adventures in Public Domain” sees Rick and Morty return home after their trip around classic fiction worlds.  Time is running out for them to combine the DNA of their collected public domain figures.  They need their super monster to protect them from morphed public domain imitations of themselves.

Our Take:

It is kind of hard to believe that in an Earth overtaken by hideous flesh-eating monsters the only survivors are Beth, Jerry, and Summer.  And, not Rick and Morty?  But, for the sake of the story, it is what it needs to be.  To be fair, we are in a comic book where there are infinite worlds, so everything is a possibility I suppose.  Added to that is the fact that this Jerry and Summer are Bonafede badasses.  This post-apocalyptic world has made these characters into hardened survivors ready to kill anything that moves.

I have to say I like the reference of the Cronenbergs.  They are of course of the episode “Rick Potion No. 9”, but the name has some history.  It is a call-out to David Cronenberg who is a Canadian film director of movies such as The Fly, A History of Violence, and the crazy good Canadian film I highly recommend Last Night.  Cronenberg was a pioneer in making horror films that included graphic body modification.  He basically likes to gross people out.  So, Cronenbergs is a solid name for all of these creepy beasts that inhabit this comic book.

The story that drives this book is pretty solid, and a nice little read.  There is a lot to take in from a destroyed Earth to an Illuminati of Ricks.  But, there is a sweet little story about a family in there as well.  Jerry only wants to protect his daughter, even if that means that he has to pretend to hate his own son.  While, Summer, is dealing with the fact that everyone she knows is dead, and maybe being one of the last survivors isn’t worth it – especially if the last people left are your parents.  In the end, it is touching how a Jerry reconnects with Morty, even if he is a monstrous beast.  The tone of the plot is about how much the Sanchez’s really love each other through the most perilous of situations.

As for the conclusion of “Adventures in Public Domain”, I am kind of glad it is over.  Every part of this multi-comic spanning story just confused me more and more.  Finally, reaching the conclusion, we understand what it was all for.  Was it worth it?  Not really.  The idea of sending our heroes through public domain stories works really well as an idea.  Unfortunately, I do not think it was executed very well here.  It is nice to have a few pages at the end of each comic to take us on another adventure.  However, this space should be utilized for short jokes, and possibly feature one of the many other lovable characters in this universe.  The ‘public domain’ story could have easily been told in one issue that I could have torn apart in one review instead of several.

In all, this was a decent comic.  The Cronenbergs story line had a lot of depth and action.  There was a significant lack of humour missing throughout the whole book, and I wish we could have gotten more of the evil collection of Ricks.  But, I am still impressed with how much they managed to squeeze in these pages.  It may not have been the best Rick and Morty comic we have gotten, yet it’s not the worst.  Considering how much love and respect I have for this title, that is not bad.  There is plenty to be excited about with the next year of this comic – especially now that we are done with “Adventures in Public Domain.”