Oh man, oh jeez! We’re doing the D&D thing again, Rick!
Creative Staff:
Story: Jim Zub
Art: Troy Little
Colors: Leonardo Ito
Letters: Crank! & Troy Little
Designs: Hilary Thompson & Angie Knowles
What They Say:
Back on Earth, the Smith family are the only thing standing between their fragile world and D&D-fueled demonic destruction. Can they find the hero within their hearts, or is that more of a final issue kind of question?
Fan favorite RPG-ist Jim Zub (Samurai Jack, Savage Sword of Conan) re-teams up with Eisner-nominated art mage Troy Little (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Powerpuff Girls) to magic-up Adult Swim’s pop culture mega-hit and smash it into the best-selling role-playing game that recently became cool again.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Jerry has a flashback of playing D&D at his friend’s house. He excitedly reads through the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix. He’s particularly interested in the Blood War that is fought between the Baatezu and the Tanar’ri. I bet he never imagined in his wildest dreams that he’d be caught in that very same Blood War. Well, that’s what happens when your father-in-law is Rick Sanchez. Jumping to the present, Jerry and his family are in deep sh!t thanks to Rick. All the demonic D&D beasts are trying to kill them. Jerry is trying to analyze the situation while the rest of his family fights for their motherf#%king lives. It’s a good thing their rolls have been good! Luck is on their side, for now. I just want to mention that I love that they actually have to roll dice whenever they want to attack. It’s fantastic.
Eventually, they all retreat to a nearby store to stock up on supplies – swords, armor, arrows, you name it. They ignore the yelling store clerk because dangit, this is a life or death situation. They can’t be worrying about paying for sh!t right now! Also, they’re being attacked! Jerry tries to think of the best tactics before he attacks. On the other hand, Beth, Morty, and Summer are content with just hitting monsters repeatedly until they die. I will admit that is not a bad strategy. Jerry gathers all the townspeople together and makes an impassionate speech on how they will fix this problem themselves. They can’t count on the Ricks of the world to fix it for them, those a$$holes. Some guy in the crowd hilariously asks Jerry what his qualifications are. Why does he think he can organize and mount a successful defensive operation against these beasts? Jerry’s answer is simple – he memorized every single page of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix. That makes him the expert here! Damn straight. You tell ’em, Jerry. Show everyone that you’re not the laughingstock of this entire series. Although, I have to mention that they’re currently playing under the 5th Edition’s rules. His information is outdated and that may pose several problems later. Everyone starts preparing for the battle. May the luck of the dice be on their side!
Meanwhile, Rick is exploring the unfinished D&D town he made in his younger days. He’s cranky and extremely annoyed at everything. Some poor kid asks him a question and gets electrocuted for his troubles. Calm the f#%k down, Rick! He finally cools down when Dungeon Dave provides him with an adventure. He’s handed a map for his masterpiece dungeon, the Caves of Klang. Unfortunately, he never finished the map when he was younger. Young Rick was a lazy douche. Regardless, Rick is very excited to traverse his dungeon as a first-level wizard with that “new adventurer smell.” That excitement doesn’t last very long because he realizes that he liked to screw players over when he was younger just because he could as the dungeon master. After avoiding several annoying traps, he starts coming across a whole bunch of Ricks such as Paladick, Burglarick, Clerick, and Warriorick. They all suck and Rick annihilates them with ease. He regrets creating such lame Ricks. On the bright side, he gained a whole bunch of EXP and reached level 3. Easy peasy! It’s time to tackle some tougher opponents. Rick is up for the challenge. Sh!t is about to get real in the next issue.
In Summary:
Who knew that combining Rick & Morty with Dungeons & Dragons would be this much fun? I love how the D&D mechanics are incorporated into the story. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous. There’s so much attention to detail. Rick, the lovable dick, is always an entertaining character. Who doesn’t look forward to his crazy antics? I thought it was pretty rad that Jerry took charge and showed leadership. He’s usually the butt of many jokes but his D&D knowledge is nothing to laugh about. Show ’em all, Jerry! I just hope he doesn’t mess this up. He probably will though. Anyway, this was a fun issue. To all you Rick & Morty and D&D fans out there who haven’t checked out this series yet, I definitely think you’d enjoy it.
Grade: B
Age Rating: T+
Released By: Oni Press
Release Date: November 27th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99