Rick And Morty Verses Cthulhu #4 - Oni Press

RICK AND MORTY VERSES CTHULHU No. 4, March 2023

Rather neatly tying this mini-series in with one of the animated science-fiction sitcom’s most beloved opening title sequences, which depicts Rick Sanchez desperately fleeing the wrath of Cthulhu whilst harbouring a baby cosmic entity aboard his flying saucer, this twenty-two page periodical’s epilogue certainly must have pleased many a viewer of Adult Swim’s show. However, as to whether the rest of Jim Zub’s narrative proved entertaining is arguably another question entirely, with much of what precedes this comic’s conclusion proving to be something of a disorientating, expletive-laden exploration of H.P. Lovecraft’s less tangible eldritch horrors; “It doesn’t matter how many apostrophes and f**ked-up sounds you use. No one is impressed, okay?!”

For starters though, the Canadian author pens a surprisingly endearing look at what would happen to young Morty should he become the adopted son of Dagon and “look like a f**king fish.” Composed in the form of a letter the fourteen-year old plans to send his biological parents from his underwater grotto, this lengthy sequence seemingly strikes an engaging balance between the sentimentally of parenthood and obligatory gratuitous violence whenever the Fish-God rises from the depths to savagely slaughter any vessel’s crew foolish enough not to offer the deity a human sacrifice or two.

In addition, there’s plenty of short-lived fun to be found when “the Smartest Man in the Universe” returns home to rescue Jerry Smith from a supernaturally-powerful possessed Beth, and inadvertently drags his gibbering son-in-law straight into the sharp-toothed maws of the Hounds of Tindalos, who were hiding inside his space vessel. Indeed, despite the brevity of Troy Little’s dynamically-drawn chase and frenzied laser-gun shoot-out, there’s some genuine belly laughs to be found as Sanchez honestly appears determined to save the drug-addled “stay-at-home dad”.

Disappointingly however, the rest of this book almost appears to be a case of Zub writing himself into a corner as Rick somehow kills Cthulhu with a rocket launcher, and then begrudgingly acquiesces to the “original existential terror pulled from mankind’s deepest subconscious” so his now dead family will be miraculously returned to their normal lives. This ‘hard reset’ is rather disheartening after all the trials and tribulations the titular characters have endured beforehand, and despite the aforementioned association to the cartoon’s credits, it might have been better if the storyline had simply continued in its exploration of the Mythos tales as it did in its first issue, rather than have Sanchez lose a debate with a cognisant philosophical dilemma.

Written by: Jim Zub, Illustrated by: Troy Little, and Coloured by: Nick Filardi

Rick And Morty Verses Cthulhu #3 - Oni Press

RICK AND MORTY VERSES CTHULHU No. 3, February 2023

For those readers unacquainted with Lovecraftian lore or at least the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos’ 1936 novella “The Shadow Out Of Time”, Jim Zub’s plot for this twenty-two page periodical possibly didn’t land all that well, considering it’s predominantly set inside “the glittering, triumphant city of the Yith.” In fact, Rick Sanchez’s sedentary sojourn at Pnakotus and subsequent slow-time exploration of the metropolis’ Great Archives, communal Nutrition Service Area and Privilege-Deprivation Cell may strike many a bibliophile as a strange way to build-up the anticipation for this mini-series’ upcoming final instalment; “Day Nineteen, I think. Time has no meaning in this f**king place. There’s sunrise and sunset, but most of the time these bobble-headed f**kwits just want to spend all day underground talking philosophy 101…”   

Mercifully though, things do finally start to heat up once one of the “twenty-foot tall, cone-shaped, alien plant-crustacean-librarians” falls in love with the Smartest Man in the Universe and helps him outwit the “Sacred Guards of The Bad-Bad Door!” Sure, the scene is pretty gruesome as Sanchez utilises one of the Buff Yiths’ box-shaped weapons to blow their insectoid heads clean off in a gratuitous display of gore and blood. But the subsequent release of a deadly Flying Polyp from beneath the castle-like conurbation leads to some much-needed adrenalin-fuelled antics for this comic’s finale.

In fact, the sheer chaos caused by the floating extra-terrestrial is arguably as riveting as it is utterly insane, and simultaneously leads into a genuinely touching moment when Rick loses his multi-eyed lover to the grotesque alien despite his best efforts to drag Huey’s mutilated body to safety. The poor love-struck pawn of the deranged scientist’s desire to escape is sympathetically shown to be highly dubious as to his partner’s anarchic actions. So it comes as something of a shock to see the timid bookworm’s fears fully realised as its quite literally torn apart within the polyp’s frighteningly-fanged maw.

Undeniably capturing the flavour of Lovecraft’s imaginary "intellectual utopia" with his proficiently pencilled panels is Troy Little, whose ability to imbue Sanchez’s strange-looking, multi-limbed Yith physique with all the insane inventor’s recognisable mannerisms, is one of the highlights of the publication. Furthermore, the artist does a splendid job in making Huey an incredibly sympathetic character, so when the long-necked curator does die, Rick’s evident remorse is actually made all the more impactful.

The regular cover art of "RICK AND MORTY VERSES CTHULHU" #3 by Troy Little

Rick And Morty Verses Cthulhu #2 - Oni Press

RICK AND MORTY VERSES CTHULHU No. 2, January 2023

Despite this comic’s narrative tying into arguably one of H. P. Lovecraft’s most popular horror novellas - “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, Jim Zub’s subsequent decision to then make his twenty-two-page plot ‘Rick Sanchez free’ must surely have struck many fans of this Cartoon Network/Cthulhu Mythos crossover as a big mistake. For whilst both Morty and Summer Smith initially make an impressive duo as they bravely batter the fish-faced denizens who caused their grandfather’s apparent death. By the time the pair have been separated from one another by their eventual captors and commence vastly contrasting ‘escape plans’, the book’s pace has somewhat slowed to something of an expletive-laden crawl; “I have seen enough s**t in this a**hole dimension to give me nightmares for the rest of my life.” 

True, Sum-Sum’s mind trip to the Dreamlands definitely gees things up a little when Zadok Allen is shockingly speared through the chest by a roving pack of savage Moon Beasts, and the terrified teenager is forced to flee for her life before she suffers a similar lethal fate. But this action-sequence is somewhat short-lived, and debatably feels like it was simply ‘crowbarred’ into the adventure just to help fill a void prior to the gore-splattered girl meeting Nyarlathotep and the Egyptian deity’s army of murderously savage cats.

Disappointingly, Morty’s thread is even more sedentary, at least to start with, courtesy of the Canadian author focusing upon the boy’s virginity whilst he is interrogated in a dingy cell. This supposedly embarrassing state of affairs is explored for over a dozen panels and does not actually end until near the book’s conclusion when it becomes clear it matters neither one way nor another to the sea-dwelling Dagon. Indeed, considering the puzzled reaction of Innsmouth’s chief cultist when the boy mentions 'unflowering himself' with a female co-captive, there is a strong suggestion that Rick’s grandson actually imagined his entire intimate moment with Cathy anyway.

Perhaps also capable of causing this publication’s audience some consternation is Troy Little’s rough-looking artwork, which was purposely pencilled to appear somewhat less clean-lined than normal so as to add an extra level of grubbiness to those scenes set within the decrepit seaport. Unfortunately, this 'filter' debatably starts to ‘spoil the senses’ after a while, especially when the cartoonist returns to his usual style in order to illustrate Summer’s aforementioned exploits having “move[d] above tha Earthly coil”.

The regular cover art of "RICK AND MORTY VERSES CTHULHU" #2 by Troy Little

Rick And Morty Verses Cthulhu #1 - Oni Press

RICK AND MORTY VERSES CTHULHU No. 1, December 2022

“Re-uniting the Eisner-nominated creative team from Rick and Morty Verses Dungeons And Dragons”, this opening instalment of a four-part mini-series should easily please fans of both Cartoon Network's animated sitcom and the Lovecraft-inspired universe - the Cthulhu Mythos. Indeed, Jim Zub’s twenty-two-page plot makes repeated nods to all the numerous storytelling elements which have made the “sociopathic mad scientist” and Great Old One so indelibly etched into modern-day nerd culture, such as frantic battles with exotic-looking extra-terrestrials, and superstitious American hillbillies fending off a mass of eldritch horrors which have pooled together at the bottom of their farmstead’s well.

Foremost of this comic’s many accomplishments though, has to be how quickly the Canadian author simply plonks the entire Smith family down into late Nineteenth Century Massachusetts and pens the initially well-armed quartet participating in some of H. P. Lovecraft’s most memorable written works. Sure, the fact that Sanchez simply takes them through one of his infamous portals following the discovery that “the air here is already polluted with mythos molecules” is arguably a little clunky and contrived. But such a no-nonsense approach immediately reaps dividends by smacking the central antagonists straight into the middle of “The Colour Out Of Space” and depicting Morty’s grandfather having an absolute blast defeating a certain “monstrous constellation of unnatural light”.

Similarly as successful is how Jerry is rapidly overcome by the terror of what he is witnessing, and has to retire home before his sanity is completely eradicated. This sub-thread taps directly into the “stay-at-home” father’s vulnerable psyche and cowardice, as well as one of the central themes repeatedly depicted in Lovecraft’s tales – where peoples' mental stability is repeatedly called into question as a result of the psychological trauma they’ve incurred; “Humanity is less than a mole on the splayed skin of the Universe…”

Also adding an element of tongue-in-cheek humour into this publication’s proceedings is Troy Little, whose opening scene showing Morty inadvertently ruining an intergalactic sugar deal between Rick and the insectoid gangster, Globier, will surely cause many a bibliophile to laugh out loud at the utter contempt for his grandson pencilled upon Sanchez’s face. Furthermore, the Prince Edward Island-born cartoonist, alongside colorist Leonardo Ito, does a stand-out job of illustrating just how markedly different the Cthulhu Mythos universe is from Dimension C-137, by noticeably altering this book’s art-style with much darker overtones and less clean-looking line work.

The regular cover art of "RICK AND MORTY VERSES CTHULHU" #1 by Troy Little

Rick And Morty: Crisis On C-137 #1 - Oni Press

RICK AND MORTY: CRISIS ON C-137 No. 1, August 2022

Somewhat misleading with the solicitation pitch that its just “up to Rick, Morty and Noob Noob to defend the galaxy against a threat beyond time”, Stephanie Phillips’ storyline for this twenty-two-page periodical probably pleased many within its audience who were long-term fans of Dan Harmon’s “animated science-fiction sitcom”. But whilst the comic rather enjoyably depicts the galaxy-spanning exploits of Supernova, the Vindicator’s short-lived janitor and even the universe-travelling small white dog known as Snuffles, a few of this book’s plot threads arguably seem to have been thrown into the mix simply to help pad the story out until it reached the required publication length.

Foremost of these sequences is debatably the sudden and completely unconnected resurrection of Rick and Morty’s long-dead alternative selves, which up until this yarn were harmlessly rotting in a pair of shallow graves out in the Smith family’s back garden. The gruesome-looking zombies’ sudden emergence to attack Sanchez whilst the scientist is busy throwing a temper tantrum occurs completely out of the blue and once succinctly resolved, courtesy of a conveniently placed laser gun, is unconvincingly written off as simply being the result of “some ambient space energy that galaxy chick brought to earth with her.”

However, Rick’s decision to create a deadly tournament to identify those heroes capable of joining “the first-ever League of Really Cool Intellectual Properties” is also somewhat suspect, due to the entire scene being glossed over by a handful of splash pages depicting numerous competitors getting eaten, lasered, fried, chopped and mutilated in a variety of different manners. Admittedly, some of these deaths are rather horrifyingly humorous in their execution, as is poor Morty’s reaction to the extraordinarily high kill count when he’s tasked with buying more garbage bags for all the severed body parts. But apart from one extended sketch showing the event’s entire arena, it’s never actually explained what is going on, and whether the participants are meant to be solely tackling the horrendously lethal hurdles before them or battling it out with one another as well.?

Possibly just as off-kilter as some of this comic’s penmanship though is the artwork of Ryan Lee, which debatably depicts the narrative with a little more detailed pencilling than is necessary. Admirably, the illustrator has clearly gone to some considerable lengths in adapting their style so as to mimic that of the cartoon show. Yet by then adding extra lines here and there to the most recognisable cast members, he has caused them to always look slightly different from how a reader might mentally picture them.

Written by: Stephanie Phillips, Illustrated by: Ryan Lee, and Colored by: Doug Garbark