Comic Review: Rick and Morty #46

These violent delights have violent ends.  What more could Rick ask for?

Overview:

After Morty messes up their latest adventure, Rick is furious with him to the point he feels his butthole puckering.  In an attempt to calm himself down Rick goes to the one place where he can allow his inhibitions to fly, Rickworld, a Westworld style theme park built by Ricks for Ricks.  Abandoning Morty to Mortyland, which is nothing more than a child’s play place, Rick enjoys his relaxation.  That is until the Mortys start an uprising and try to murder him.

In the second part, Rick’s narcotics dealer Cthonnely has struck a deal with the Penps.  In their revenge after Rick brought their species to near extinction, the Pinps have discovered that Rick carries a powerful narcotic inside of him.  However, Rick convinces the creatures that he can produce more of the narcotic if they work together.  And, Rick’s farts become the best drug in the universe.

Our Take:

One of the things we love most about Rick and Morty is how they take our favourite pop culture references and turn them on their head.  That is why it is kind of surprising that they have never touched on the popular Westworld series that has been the talk of television the last couple of years.  And, in a Rick and Morty universe, what else could it be but a Rick World where he can take his pent up aggression out on robotic Jerrys and Mortys.  I mean, just as a concept, we are talking gold of a comic book.

I am not going to lie, I am kind of jealous of Rick Sanchez in this book.  Imagine a theme park designed by yourself to fulfill all of your wildest desires.  Even Morty comments that every woman in the park has red hair.  It’s those finite details that only you could come up with for yourself.  Considering Rick is one of the most genius and most egotistical people in fiction, it would make sense that he does this for himself.  But, why would he ever want to leave?

Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a Westworld spoof without a good uprising.  However, robotic Morty’s seem to be just as incapable as real Morty’s.  Watching Rick take his aggression out and slaughtering a whole slew of Morty’s brings us our own little violent delights.  There are also some excellent new Mortys in this book, including what may be my new favourite, 40-year-old Morty, which looks remarkably similar to Jerry.

The second story in this book was just a fast and fun piece.  Though, again they are bringing back old characters from earlier issues of the comic book.  I love that these books don’t just rely on the television show to carry their canon, but will utilize its own original characters.  Not many comics based on adult animated sitcoms make that move.  It’s one more reason why this series is way better than anyone would expect it to be, and every Rick and Morty fan and comic book nerd should be reading.

Overall, this was probably my favourite issue from Rick and Morty in some time.  For a stand-alone issue, it has everything that you could want.  Classic R&M humour, pop culture references, and of course, violent delights.  And, as I said, conceptually, they started with a home run.  Thankfully they were able to transform those ideas into a grand slam of a read.  My only complaint would be that I would love to see more of Rickworld.  I’m certain there are plenty of strange and awesome things to see around the theme park.

Score

9/10