13 Years Later, Rick And Morty Has Made An Art Of Ripping Off Marvel
After 13 years and nine seasons, it’s clear that Rick and Morty has made an art out of ripping off Marvel. One of the biggest hallmarks of Rick and Morty’s comedy is its penchant for stellar parody; some of its most iconic episodes involve characters and stories that make fun of popular movies and TV shows, and even the eponymous duo themselves were created as a riff on Marty McFly and Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
Rick and Morty has always been defined by its parody stylings, but what most people probably don’t realize is that its best parody work comes from its parodies of Marvel. For over a decade now, Rick and Morty has constantly referenced and made fun of Marvel through pastiches of Marvel heroes and villains and occasional namedrops of movies, but above all else, the series has always loved to dig into Fantastic Four, and it’s to an extent that the entire show would be unrecognizable without it.
How Fantastic Four Helped Shape Rick And Morty’s Story
The Council of Ricks from Rick and Morty.
From the very start, Dan Harmon’s Rick and Morty has shown incredible love for the Fantastic Four franchise; not only does Rick and Morty revolve heavily around sci-fi adventures and the multiverse, but season 1 also introduced the iconic Council of Ricks, a multiversal gathering of Ricks and a clear parody of Marvel’s Council of Reeds, although the Council of Ricks never even attempted to be heroic. Going off of that, Rick Prime and Evil Morty, evil versions of the heroes who were causing chaos in the multiverse, might be referencing various evil versions of Mister Fantastic, most notably the Maker. Naturally, the Fantastic Four references extend to Rick himself. In addition to always fighting enemies, even literal gods, with gadgets and his genius intellect, Rick even turned himself into a cyborg with extendable body parts, something that could be a reference to Mister Fantastic’s stretching powers. Add in Rick’s struggles with depression and alcoholism and how he’s constantly pushing away his loved ones with his selfish behavior, and Rick can be seen as a dark parody of Mister Fantastic, all of which solidifies the show’s references to Fantastic Four and Marvel as a whole.
Rick And Morty’s Love Of Marvel Shows Why It’s So Great
Rick and Morty season 9
Marvel and Fantastic Four are thoroughly baked into Rick and Morty’s DNA, and that’s a big part of why the show is still great after over a decade. It’s one thing for them to clearly be a major source for Rick and Morty’s sci-fi themes, but the underlying depth those stories have when tackling the universe and the meaning of existence have also played a major part in Rick and Morty’s storytelling; if nothing else, it says a lot that when Rick and Morty parodies Marvel, it’s always clear that it’s out of love, not contempt.
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There have been a lot of reasons behind Rick and Morty’s success over the years, and while most people might not even notice it, a big part of that has always been its success at ripping off Marvel and Fantastic Four better than any other show could hope for. The way Rick and Morty incorporates Marvel and Fantastic Four is nothing but art at this point, and hopefully, it will only get better at it with age.
Release Date
December 2, 2013
Network
Adult Swim
Directors
Bryan Newton, Dominic Polcino, Anthony Chun, John Rice, Stephen Sandoval, Jeff Myers
Writers
Tom Kauffman, Wade Randolph, Eric Acosta, David Phillips, Erica Rosbe, Sarah Carbiener, Matt Roller, Michael Waldron, Caitie Delaney
Justin Roiland
Rick Sanchez / Morty Smith
Diterbitkan : 2026-07-10 19:14:00
sumber : screenrant.com
