Comic Review: Rick and Morty: Infinity Hour #1

Overview:

In the throes of an all-out space battle, an unsuspecting rebel spy, Wubbo, has made his way off an enemy ship with their nefarious plans for the ultimate space weapon. Now, Wubbo has made his way to Earth in search of a mighty warrior named Birdperson in hopes of defeating the evil empire for good.

However, unable to locate Birdperson, Wubbo has enlisted the help of a local, Rick Sanchez. With the Galactic Federation hot on their heels, Wubbo and Rick must face down the powerful Doctor Infinity, escape with the plans for the Doom Boob, and find Birdperson before all hope is lost.

Our Take:

It is every nerd’s wet dream. I trifecta of geekiness. The crossover to end all crossovers. Finally, the day has come: Rick and Morty meets Star Wars!

To add further wetness to the nerdgasm, the whole thing is delivered in a dork’s favourite medium, the comic book.

What else could you want?

How about if this unbelievable crossover takes place in the relatively unexplored timeline of Rick Sanchez’s early years? A chance to nail down some of Rick and Birdperson’s early adventures while facing insurmountable odds.

It all sounds too good to be true. But it is happening, and it all starts here with the first issue of Rick and Morty: Infinity Hour.

This unlikely Star Wars parody comes to us after Oni Press promised to deliver a collection of new Rick and Morty comic books, each spoofing a different science-fiction franchise. The first two instalments of that venture disappointed, keeping the subversive Rick and Morty storytelling too close to the source material.

Thankfully, it is much more difficult to mess up a Star Wars parody. It is the timeless tale of a farm boy turned saviour of the universe, which fans can seemingly rewatch in a thousand different ways. No matter who it is performed by, including from Family Guy and Lego mini-figures.

Infinity Hour also adverted disaster by not becoming a direct parody of the classic franchise. Instead, many of the ideas conceptualized in the animated series are being utilized in this new miniseries, including the Galactic Federation and Rick and Birdperson’s longstanding relationship.

In fact, taking this story back to the younger days of Rick Sanchez makes it even more desirable. Sure, the animated series explored much of Birdperson and Rick’s background in the show’s latest season. However, it never seems to be enough. We all want to witness how Rick became the disgruntled mad genius locked up in his daughter’s garage.

This first issue is a solid introduction to this miniseries that hopefully takes us to some significant Star Wars plot points. Already the story is doing some fun things by putting Rick in the Luke Skywalker role and introducing a Vader-esque villain in Doctor Infinity. It always makes for a fun Rick and Morty comic book when you can imagine the events taking place in the series. And now it is time to sit back and enjoy the ride. Hopefully, the delivery setbacks won’t prevent us from reading this series as quickly as possible.