The Pull List – Rick and Morty #44
The superhero team known as the Vindicators have tracked their nemesis Worldender to Earth, and they seek Rick Sanchez for help. Star-Lord, Supernova, Crocubot, Alan Rails, Million Ants, along with their other allies try to convince Rick to fight Worldender. Morty is excited to discover that superheroes exist and eagerly wants to be part of the team. However, a group of galactic heroes appearing doesn’t impress Rick and can’t be bothered by the extra work involved with saving the planet. Little does Rick know that this would begin the event that would be recorded as Vindicators 1. Included in this issue is part four of a mini multi-chapter story of Rick and Morty exploring a reality that is based on near copyright infringing creations in Public Domain!. In the latest chapter, Morty stumbles in a magical fairy town, and quickly realizes not everything is so magical about it. But his luck changes when he finds out he might be a prophesies person, one that will help a wizard Rick save the world.
Issue forty-four reveals the origins of how the Vindicators first met Rick, leading to the team up event, Vindicators 1. This was mentioned in the TV show episodes Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender, and never was explained how Rick and Morty came to know these heroes. True to Rick’s nature, he does not care about every Vindicators background, even openly mocking them. This is opposite to Morty who is enjoying meeting these people, and quickly idolizing them. Kyle Starks presents the Vindicators as the same do good-ers from the TV iteration, with some hints at what they would later devolve into. In this flashback story, the Vindicators have their whole team assembled with Lady Katana, Calypso and Diable Verde, three obscure members that never seem to get enough development time. The humor is on point, with Rick picking apart the team’s obvious flaws and making fun of the superhero genre. Marc Ellerby, Sarah Stern, and Crank! provide excellent artwork that helps deliver the comedy and action. Marc Ellerby really lets Rick know he does not take the Vindicators serious at all with an array of silly faces.
Rick is not a great team player but manages to push make a difference in the end, much to the frustrations of his supposed team members. This story takes a break from the misadventures of mad drunk scientist and his navie grandson, and shifts gear to superhero mishaps. The Vindicators find plenty of reasons to avoid Rick in their second team-up event, Vindicators 2 but this does not bother Rick what so ever. To the Vindicators, this was a glorious victory, and to Rick, it was something to do between TV watching. Rick and Morty fans should not miss out in this never before seen adventure when this comic gets released this week.