Comic Review: Rick and Morty: Corporate Assets #4

Overview:

GlomCon is milking the Rick and Morty brand for all its worth. Subscription boxes, prequels, and memes, nothing is off the table as Glootie’s company squeezes every dollar it can get from the franchise. Thankfully, the real Rick has uncovered a master plan to return to his homeworld. Unfortunately, the return of the interdimensional duo does not necessarily mean that they will have the rights back to their likenesses. To set things right, they are going to have to be creative.

Our Take:

The adventure that has been Rick and Morty: Corporate Assets has been unlike the comic book adaptations that have come before. This very meta-story is a direct dialogue about the overexploitation that has happened in the real world of this very same franchise. Oversaturation of junk merchandise and talks about big-budget films are the exact same things happening to Rick and Morty in our world.

This fourth and final issue to the miniseries brings everything to a conclusive head. In the premiere, much of the conversation was about the lack of creativity put into media like comic books, phone apps, and movies. Morty and his grandfather maintained the argument through the series, with the latter set on proving that there are still original ideas to be had. The other side of that debate involved Morty exclaiming the comfort of recycled content. And with this finale, both sides learn their lesson with the solution involving ingenuity and a couple of old tricks.

Unfortunately, this miniseries had to wrap up so abruptly. The bookends to this four-part collection did not withhold the same charm as the middle two comics. The most fun was had in this adventure when Glootie was exploiting the Rick and Morty brand for everything it was. We got to see the Rick and Morty Cinematic Universe come to light. There were merchandise ideas that plenty of fans would pay a liver for in the real world. And it indeed was all fun and games for issues two and three.

This conclusion rushes everything becoming a large dump of exposition and unsatisfying endings. The showdown between Rick and Glootie that this series should have led to was avoided by running out of panels and time. In place of Rick outmanoeuvring his foe, Glootie simply leaves his post, having exploited the franchise for everything it was. A disappointing end for such a solid little run.

Thankfully, there are a lot of meta jokes that make this book stand out. At times it feels like the characters are referencing the reader, and at times they are. This is exclaimed in the editor notes at the end of the comic that essentially calls you a sucker for paying for the book. Or worse, a scumbag for reading the book without paying for it.

Truthfully, unsatisfying is the right word for this miniseries finale. It would have been almost better to allow Glootie to win. And provocatively explain that everything we know in the real world about Rick and Morty is the same franchise owned and operated by GlomCon. By wrapping things up in such a cliché manner as this book did, it became everything that they were complaining about throughout the entire series.