Rick And Morty Verses Dungeons & Dragons II: Painscape #4 - IDW Publishing

RICK AND MORTY VERSES DUNGEONS & DRAGONS II: PAINSCAPE No. 4, December 2019

Depicting “the final battle between demons, gods, and the most min-maxed Rick imaginable”, Jim Zub’s narrative for Issue Four of “Rick And Morty Verses Dungeons & Dragons II: Painscape” surely must have had any players of Gary Gygax’s co-creation appreciatively frothing at the mouth with all its excellent nods to the rule-set’s celebrated lore. Indeed, considering that this comic contains such notable weapons as “the legendary Dragonlance (enhanced with Boo, miniature giant space-hamster)” and “The unholy Wand of Orcus” it’s arguably easy to see why the mini-series’ final instalment managed to maintain a 11,226-strong readership in January 2020.

Furthermore, these intermittent dips into “an ancient conflict that raged between the fiends of the Lower planes” and the Caves of Klang genuinely provide the twenty-two-page publication with both some ludicrous laugh-out-loud jiffies, as well as some surprisingly dark moments; most notably when the Canadian writer pens the Smith Family individually meeting a truly unheroic demise before the overwhelming demonic hordes of Bardrick. Such contrasting emotional journeys really help to keep the audience engaged with the decapitation-laden action at hand, even when it consists of some seriously silly skirmishes during “the real Blood War at the Hobby Mall -- Now.”

Quite possibly this periodical’s finest moment though, comes with the coverage of Rick Sanchez following the Level Five Wizard’s decision “to shakety-shake things up a bit” and delve into multi-classing. The elderly scientist’s short-lived battles against a Manticore, Medusa and Frost Giant are a lot of fun to follow, as is the subsequent Rogue’s friendship with a Beholder which ultimately ends in the floating head’s unexpectedly sad death, and a significantly older-looking adventurer grasping the “Ring of Three Ultra-Wishes – A bulls**t item younger Rick came up with as the ultimate treasure in his ultimate dungeon.”

Also plying his trade most prodigiously is Troy Little, whose well-pencilled panels are absolutely packed full of all sorts of eye-candy. The cartoonist’s depiction of the Blood War is particularly gruesome, courtesy of numerous severed limbs and cleaved heads being visible during the intense fighting. And let us not forget the incredibly insensitive demise of poor Boo, loyal companion of the Rashemi ranger Minsc, who is explicitly fried alive by Sanchez’s evil musical counterpart following a tragic blow from the demon lord Orcus’s obsidian rod.

Written by: Jim Zub, Illustrated by: Troy Little, and Colored by: Leonardo Ito