Plot: What Is It Good For? "Rick & Morty #11" vs. "Black Widow #1"

Regardless of my hot take, this is a great cover.

It's my own fault for reading a Rick & Morty comic and expecting it to live up to what Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon created, really.

The ongoing Rick & Morty book, by Oni Press, has fitfully created engaging stories around the Sanchez-Smith clan and their interdimensional, psychosexual adventures. One issue, focusing on the in-universe show titled Ball Fondlers, was especially hilarious. Most, however, have read as an approximation of the voice of the original creators, but never coming as close as the best issues of Simpsons Comics.

Issue #11, by Pamela Ribon, Marc Ellerby and Ryan Hill, is so busy that I wonder if Rick Sanchez worked on it in a split-screen setting. Rick puts Morty through HSS, a simulator of high school experiences intended to wise up his grandson to common experiences, like sex or bullying. A blatant critique of online school systems, HSS fails to engage a student like Morty Smith...or a reader like Joshua Conner. This in itself is a simulacrum of when Rick mastered Roy: A Life Well Lived on the mothership show itself.

One great choice made by Ribon is the B-plot with Summer and Jerry, wherein they switch bodies and help each other through basic problems. Unlike the main story, this felt like something that would be in the show, not like something simulating it.

Two stories is a lot for a comic that doesn't necessarily slam-dunk either one, and nearly every panel of Rick & Morty is packed with dialogue (again, in an attempt to capture the firecracker rapport that Justin Roiland established with...himself) that tries to pass with jokes. They never quite land the way the book wants them to hit, and it drags toward the end. The book is absolutely brimming with what you could call plot but, for the life of me, I can't tell you what happened. Rick & Morty is existing in several dimensions, but not in my pull list any longer.

SAMNEE BACK

There might be fewer word bubbles in the entirety of Black Widow #1, by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, than one page of Rick & Morty. The issue, reuniting the former Daredevil team on Marvel's premier Avenger-Assassin, focuses on Natasha escaping from a S.H.I.E.L.D. establishment for...reasons. In a deft trick of art imitating the central character, little is revealed in the way of information, only what readers absolutely need to know. For instance, the beginning of the book shows Natasha escaping from a building...but it's really a Helicarrier, only revealed when it's absolutely necessary to the story.

Thanks to the MCU and Scarlett's character-defining performance, the sharper edges around Nathasha Romanoff have been sanded off...for the most part. The Widow spends the entirety of the issue inspiring a hot pursuit from other agents, and then she finds herself forced to break her own new code in order to survive. Waid and Samnee do a great job of putting readers in Natasha's stilettos, as we are only just learning the details of her mission as she works through it. This first issue is just a riveting piece of spy fiction, wrapped up in a propulsive action sequence.

I think a lot about the difference between Rick & Morty and Black Widow when I try to figure out the place of plot in a single issue of comics. The former definitely attempts to have it's storytelling not only match up with the self-contained nature of the mothership show, but also to hearken back to a past time of comics, when any issue was someone's first issue. To the book's credit, you could pick it up immediately and get the gist. The Nick Fury-types heading up Marvel Entertainment, however, know that the first issue of Black Widow is destined to be the first issue of a collected volume that'll fly off of shelves when people talk about how much people like me loved it. I highly recommend getting on it before then!

Rick & Morty #11 - BUY IT, SKIP IT, WAIT FOR A TRADE: SKIP IT

Black Widow #1 - BUY IT, WAIT FOR UNLIMITED, SKIP IT: BUY IT