Rick & Morty: Science that's more art than science

Science that's more art than science! How today's tall tales are told with Rick and Morty! by C Lue t's fun to think Rick's interdimensional career kicked off about the same time as Reed Richards did as a fictional character in 1961. If Rick's 80 and 54 years have passed, then a breakthrough like the prototypical portal gun by the time he's 26 sounds credible. Super geniuses, particularly in more abstract mathematical fields, physics, etc, that is to say, IQ's over 180 that manifest in anything but the self-destruction of the person in question, tend to have their signature breakthroughs fairly early in life. Many of our most accomplished minds complete their most difficult concentration to a breakthrough of sorts before 35. For skills where supply overwhelms and washes away one's contribution until the right attachment arises, like writing, it's all bullshit, anyway; objectively speaking, critical reflections of your work are possible, and might play part of further creative reflections of it by other artists, but it boils down to how people feel about it and how many people feel it's part of their life for any amount of time, and that will always be more a matter of opinion than science is ideally meant to be. Don't have a heart attack, writers, I do have the conviction that there is a truth to people reading what you write and engaging it with their imaginations, and that is no bs to me. But scientifically speaking, the best you can hope for to judge quality of writing might be the reach of its influence, so...inconclusive, as it needs be. One thing I love about this show: you're reminded there may well be an infinite number of realities and possibilities, some reconfigured into a life you might recognize somewhat as your own, many times over. This also means that the fictional worlds, however well we may execute our description of them, have an existence apart from our own, too. The fun the show has with the most startling and wonderful of theories and experiments done in the real world today has that pitch-perfect level of communication, of simply opening the possibilities to a general audience, in the least didactic of guises. Crude and hip enough to get away with how brilliant it actual is: that's been my opinion of Rick and Morty since the glee of Season One. I'm going to borrow a little behind-the-scenes speak I picked up from an interview with Dan and Justin. The retro-scripted dialogue resembles the “Marvel Method” of Stan Lee's Bullpen era, in that suggestions are given by the incidents in the plot, but the actors choose what to say, how to put it, and only then do artists storyboard and from that blueprint, create the director's vision of the individual cartoon episode. (Lee would offer a plotline suggestion without resolving the method, more like posing the problem for the heroes, and then his artists, heroes in their own right, would figure out how in the alloted number of pages would they solve said problem. Only then would Lee dialogue their depicted solution to his proposed problems of the month, responding, sometimes clashing, but always with as much energy as could be mustered from the inspiration at the core each time would he then give words to the drawn characters. My point is, the made-in-the-moment quality keeps up with the low boredom of threshold in everyone involved. It also sheds the brainy concepts and intelligent character depictions of wordiness, an indulgence always tempting when one discusses a subject that rewards invested intelligence. You've got to be able to appeal to idiots too, Morty. Everyone wants to be entertained. As for the idea of Rick as peer to the other fictional super-minds, I can't resist touting him as the Superman of the *uuuhht century, which urks me because I have my OWN idea for a new Superman of the 21st century, but mine's a triad of characters as one hero and Rick shows up with vomit on his mouth regularly. Dangernauts are at least supposed to live up to the highest moral code possible, but I'll let you see how that works out for yourself in Danger Bot's comics appearances-like the debut in Integr8d Soul Comics Number One, on the drawing board now! With a cat on it, occasionally. There's a devilish glee thinking of writing about Marvel's Tony Stark on a bender with Rick Sanchez, and maybe a Boy Scout Duty follow up where Tony makes a case for giving up the sauce. “Easy for you to say, Mr. I Live in Cliffside California Mansions!” Rick scoffs. More than likely, if it's Cinema Marvelverse Tony, he's probably really screwed up something when Rick and Morty meet him, maybe just maybe before he flips the switch. Mistakes can be a magnificent way to convey and glean information. Dr. Who.He messes around in time AND space. Space has so much to offer: why take chances with time travel? How can you expect the first instance of THAT to go very well? If that rules out Mr. Spock, remember that Mr. Spock's been known to travel to our present day! Who's to say all of Spock's journeys are told? You know those space warps and all. We've seen Rick enjoys sign language greetings, so they will get on fine.You could always do a tribute character (Bird Person via Hawk was actually close to that persona, the alien friend warrior) like our buddy David Anthony Kraft did with Micro Adventures #6, which also carried an homage to my favorite all-time Dynamic Defender, as I like to remember her at her sunny best. Now Patsy Walker is the kind of help Rick would probably take, and around here, we can't help but welcome a Hellcat! We have at least two, heh heh...according to Pops, anyway. Hey, at one point, Hellcat had Devil Slayer's confiscated Shadow Cloak and was going to try using it as a super hero. That cloak sounds like a fertile place for a Rick and Morty intersection of misadventures. Cool, this panel is from Defenders #61, which Mom and Dad got me for Christmas for cover price at the D & L Supply. In other words, I met her at the same time Spider-Man did! Hmm, Spider-Man... Reed Richards---y'know, before I get into Reed, I'm bored! I mean, distracted, and I'm going to give the disruption rein: I'm positing my own super genius character, Dr. Bonnie DeLighte. She's much earlier in her career. We meet her, in fact, accomplishing her first ever feat that is almost certainly beyond the scope of present human capability. At least, no one on Earth's really completed the loop she travels on purpose, and you'll find out what I mean in Integr8d Soul Comics Number One! But look, she's got many natural blessings, heart, and moves going for her and is lots more fun than stuff Professor Richards. She cares about making people smile. That's the struggle my almost autistic hero Reed has: just being a nice normal guy, remembering anything else matters, coming down to Earth...being a family.This super genius knows a thing or two about dropping strange veils that blows apart her polar stereotypes at once, believe you me. This woman, you do not have pegged. It just might be a fun exercise to team the two up Rick Sanchez and Bonnie De Lighte. And why oh why would I not try to get it to Dan and Justin somehow, if I'm going to dream, right? Well, enough of my enthusiasm, my fingers might write a check my fingers can't cash. Braniac-5

Braniac-5

I am busted: I know he's a formidable exemplum of genius in science fiction DC, but I've read a fraction as much about him as the other folks I mention, save for Inspe---you'll see. But what I know about Legion of Super Heroes means it's always at least in the 30th century. Rick doesn't do time travel. There's your loop hole. So, that's it for that. On the other hand, in the pilot, Rick DID go to "a future dimension" to get Morty some broken leg serum, though maybe he avoids that so he doesn't have too much fun and lose his portal gun charge. Parallel dimensions, hanging out with the Flash...there's ways, but, you know, good thing Rick and Morty isn't a story engine concerned with making a plan match up like so, because time travel, once it is out of the bag, is either a broken mess or a considerable part of your storyline as you keep your details all moving along in this strange order. He's more likely to be eluding Green Lantern than working with him. Fighting evil alongside the Flash and his friends? Yeah, give me a break. He doesn't have enough black in his union suit, which is much more in the Albert Einstein “I could care” or Bruce Banner “I am going to rip it to shreds probably anyway” mode, lab coat short hand and brown pants handy for handling accidental loads when you meet things you didn't expect and they seem hungry. Let's face it, if he'd showed up in a Lee/Kirby joint around 1967, Rick Sanchez would've turned out to be the super-villain! To give the story heart, Morty would win the FF over, probably with help from Sue Richards, and I could even see the duo and the quartet parting on good terms, albeit mixed reactions.

The trick would be to give the creative side of the story over to the numerous gadgets belonging to Reed and Rick. The Council of Ricks does indeedie sound like a riff on the Council of Reeds from Johnathon Hickman's Marvel Comics run.

Hey, what if Rick found the guy who disappears to die nobly in the Negative Zone in “This Man, This Monster!” from FF#51? Yes, we geekazoids love our shorthand. And no, let's leave at least somebody at Marvel Comics dead.

The way you'd play it these days, it would be one of Reed's cock-ups that Rick happens along to help fix. Only afterwards do they begin to appreciate his skill as an intergalactic crackpot. They also aren't the police of anybody, which is something I really still like about the Fantastic Four and am glad at least in the Civil War Cap movie, there will be no chintzy Reed Richards holding people prisoner in the Negative Zone. Heh, now that would be a hilarious place for him to meet Rick Sanchez: in the middle of the worst Reed storyline you could ask for. I did say, it would be during one of Reed's mistakes, and that would fit the bill. This is what I get for thinking about it! There's also no way Rick didn't meet up with someone from Grant Morrison's Invisibles, either. And how about Heinlein's Lazarus Long? Maybe LL gave Rick the idea behind how to pull off Project: Phoenix, but Rick was younger and less interested in longevity. Then Rick found himself 80 years old in his daughter's garage and got thoughtful about notions of living on.

Finally, let's see Rick and Morty meet Inspector Gadget!

I remember when that was honestly the very best super hero cartoon on TV. How about it, Uncle Gadget? “I'm always on duty!” Penny and Summer could carry an episode thread ably between them. Imagine: lines by female characters that aren't about the male characters. I mean, really unusual, creative stuff!

OK! See, screw a format, I can't even patiently stick with a list of characters, because I don't want to! But we CAN get back to that topic; I've already started a document with observations about Unity, and Beth again, despite the fact that I didn't even list her in my ten favorite characters list. So, I'm more interested in the organic evolution of my thoughts about this funny little show of ours.