Comics Review: Rick and Morty – Issue #4

Spoilers Below:

In the middle of the night, Rick whisked Morty to a strange, far away land – as usual. They arrived at a farm staffed by weird aliens, and Morty was informed that he was to spy on them in response to some suspicions of Rick. Those fears were confirmed when one of the female aliens confided in Morty that the workers were indeed planning to attack Rick – because he’s a dictator that once lead the peaceful native tribes to battle against each other.

Morty became angry at his grandfather, and started to leave just as the revolt began. Rick was shot, and Morty came to his dying side as the workers departed.

Turns out the Rick in that situation was just a clone, and the real one returned Morty home safely.

Best Bits:

1) Breakfast a la Rick: “I hope you like eggs with a little floor on them.”

2) Oh, Bug-Butler. You are so wise in the ways of women.

3) Rick to Morty: “Honestly, though… What’s a kid your age doing with a suitcase anyway? Doesn’t that seem weirdly anachronistic?” and his apology later about grown men not wearing backpacks.

4) Rick’s retort when Morty said he doesn’t have wienerbrain: “That’s essentially the club motto of people with wienerbrain!”

5) “I didn’t create the concept of supply and demand, okay? I merely abused it with very little regard for basic human decency!”

One major thing that the Rick and Morty comics have in common with the TV series is the creativity of the plotlines. Although the show seemed to begin with a premise revolving around a different invention of Rick’s each week, this wasn’t quite the case. Yes, there are always inventions, but that’s not the main focus and the main conflict for each installment. Instead, there’s a deeper story and a deeper theme that emerges each time and shows both the creativity and complexity of the writing staff’s ideas.

Issue #3 began with a scene set on a rural farm, but there was almost instantly a conflict that was introduced (Rick and Morty often presents the problem immediately) and despite the small about of pages, had numerous layers – each more complicated than the last.

This one, like many others, had a seemingly noble cause, that turned into a suspicious he-said-she-said, leading to a shake-up or climax, culminating with another twist, and finally a return to normalcy.

The formula may be similar each time, but the details are always so intricate and interesting that no one seems to notice – nor would they care even if they did.

Couple this with the classic Rick and Morty banter (with Morty playing the righteous card and Rick playing the bad guy that usually ends up correct), add some funny non-sequiturs (see Best Bit #3), and you’ll almost always end up with a winner. In this issue, I also enjoyed the asterisked referenced to the last one.

You may notice I didn’t mention the last segment of the comic in the summary portion of this review. This is mainly because there wasn’t much to summarize. It was a short bit that was very light on the dialogue and starred Jerry. I was skeptical of its quality throughout, but in the end it oddly brought a smile to my face. Would I have preferred the usual Summer-starring story instead? Probably. But this was nice too, and it was enough to give the issue an extra boost at the end.

This wasn’t the best Rick and Morty comic we’ve seen (all hail Issue #2!) but it was a pleasant improvement over the last release.