There’s an old saying among the comic book community: “Nobody stays dead in comics.” It’s a fair assessment – most of the major characters in comics have briefly shuffled off the mortal coil before coming back. Even Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, whose death was the catalyst for his transformation into Spider-Man, is alive and kicking in Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s Ultimate Spider-Man. Rick and Morty vs. The Universe: Last Mort Standing #1, in true Rick and Morty fashion, takes the piss out of this trope.
Last Mort Standing #1 throws Morty (or “Morty-Prime”, as I’ll refer to him to keep things simple) out of continuity and into “Marginworld”, a world populated by 99 different Mortys. As the title suggests, all of the Mortys are fighting to the death to get a key that’ll help them get off of Marginworld. But how exactly do you muster up the confidence to kill multiple versions of yourself?
The answer is simple: you tap into a deep well of self-loathing. Last Mort Standing #1 is a reminder that Morty has self-loathing to spare, with writers Daniel Kibblesmith and Alex Frier, alongside artist Fred C. Stresing, taking a deep dive into his state of mind. At first, Morty’s only too happy to slaughter his alternate selves, but as time goes on, he eventually comes to terms with who he is. “I’m me. And that’s really nice,” Morty says in one of the final pages. It’s this mix of humor and philosophical musings that fuels Rick and Morty‘s best stories, and I love that it’s extended to comics like these.
Of course, we can’t talk about a comic called Last Mort Standing #1 without pointing out all the different Mortys that appear in said comic’s pages. Stresing draws a Morty who’s a muscular hulk, a Morty who’s a caricature of Mad‘s Alfred E. Neumann, and even a Morty who has a cheeseburger for a head. He also doesn’t skimp on the gore; Mortys get their heads crushed, limbs lopped off, and Cheeseburger Morty meets a particularly gruesome fate. It gets to the point where letterer Crank! starts scattering notes around the carnage, urging readers not to let this comic around children.
Two images in Rick and Morty vs. the Universe: Last Mort Standing #1 stick out, highlighting Morty’s underlying issues. The first is a montage of embarrassing memories, which provide a few laughs but also show just how much Morty hates himself. The second is the door out of Marginworld, which features a giant caricature of Rick with his face frozen in a monstrous grin, arms outstretched over the entire planet. If there’s a bigger visual example of how Rick is pulling on Morty’s proverbial puppet strings, I’ve yet to see it.
Rick and Morty vs. the Universe: Last Mort Standing #1 isn’t just a savage satire of continuity and comic book death, but a deeper look into the self-loathing that drives Morty Smith’s entire life. With Rick and Morty vs The Universe hurtling to its end, it’s still great that we can get character-focused one-shots like this. I hope Oni Press continues to explore the weird, wild world of Rick and Morty by digging deeper into the titular duo and everyone surrounding them.
