Rick and Morty has been running for six seasons spread over ten years. The time traveling, universe bending series began in 2013, four years after Iron Man, the film that started the superhero movement as we know it. With such a long shadow, it’s no surprise that Rick and Morty lampoons the popular genre. Even Marvel is in on the joke, with Rick and Morty being a TV show that is actively airing within the Marvel Universe. With such good will between the two creative teams, surely these shoutouts have been approached with class, charm and mutual respect.
Just kidding, this is Rick and Morty, after all. Without further ado, here are ten Rick and Morty references to the Marvel universe from shortest mention to longest dive.
“Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate”
This one is just a brief mention. There is a character named Octopus-Man, a literal hybrid between an octopus and a man, who was a marine biologist who was bitten by an octopus. Octopus-Man gleefully causes chaos, all while operating under the guise of “helping people”. His brief stint on the show depicts him shanking random passersby because ‘troublemites’ are coming. Octopus-Man, and his misguided ideas of help could be a combination of two classic Spider-Man villains, Doc Ock and Lizardman.
“The Vat of Acid”
After giving Morty a time crystal that will theoretically allow him to ‘do over’ any moments he may have failed in and leaving him to his own devices, Rick reveals that there are no such things as do overs. He tells Morty that he “doesn’t respect time travel” and that “if Ant-Man and The Wasp can do it, I’m not interested”. Jeff Loveness, a writer for this episode, also wrote for Ant-Man and the Wasp back in 2015 and was probably in the midst of writing the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania when this episode released.
“Total Rickall”
This episode’s Marvel shout-out comes right at the beginning. The Smith family is plagued by space parasites that create false memories to make their host families believe they are lifelong friends. One such dubious memory, brought up by Mr. Poopybutthole, recalls a trip to the theater to see Hulk! The Musical, during which the Smith family is trapped in an elevator. While trapped, Jerry uses his giant foam hands to attack the elevator’s buttons and is reminded that, “it’s friends that make you strong”. Truly the most Marvel sentiment of them all. This two-for-one isn’t just directed at The Hulk, but more than likely, also references the disastrous Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark musical from 2011.
“Solarricks”
The first episode of season six does a lot of leg work to establish a new storyline for the series and has several references scattered throughout.
After being stranded in space by Evil Morty, Rick demands Morty take notes since he doesn’t “have a helmet like that one Avengers guy did”.
Morty calls out his grandpa’s bullshit (“Hey, remember, like a second ago, when you pretended to not know who Iron Man was? Who was that for?”) moments before the duo are rescued by Space Beth in a style reminiscent of Captain Marvel saving Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame.
Later in the episode Summer reveals that Rick made her a vending machine filled with off-brand Marvel style weapons and gadgets including X-23’s claws, Magneto’s helmet, Thor’s hammer, and Cyclops’ visor.
“Night Family”
Using a device called a sonombulator, Rick creates a ‘night family’ that continues to do tasks while the ‘day family’ is sleeping. This split naturally leads to chaos after the night family’s request for the day family to rinse their dishes is ignored. In retaliation the night family smashes every plate in the house.
In true Rick fashion, rather than replacing the dishes with something from Crate and Barrel, he instead makes a trip to a planet much like Nidavelir, the forge planet Thor visits to fix Mjolnir, to get unbreakable dishes. Rick also references the “Racoon man from the one movie” during an ad for boxers on he and Morty’s podcast, but Morty recognizes this description as ‘Chewbacca’ instead.
“Jurasick Mort”
Dinosaurs, the former rulers of Earth, return after a long hiatus. The highly intelligent creatures usher in a utopia where nobody has to work. The new dino overlords tell humans to follow their passions like making Marvel movies, (“See you love doing that”). To which the president responds, “If you’ve seen Endgame, you know invasion is not something Earth takes lying down”. They wrap up the conversation by telling humanity to “finish rounding out this Ant-Man character”. Since Jeffery Loveness is working on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania, we have to guess this was meant for the former writer.
“Pickle Rick”
Who hasn’t seen this now classic episode of Rick and Morty? Rick turns himself into a pickle to avoid going to a family therapy session. When his family takes away his only method for transforming back before leaving for therapy without him, Pickle Rick ends up in the sewers where he builds a very Iron Man-like suit. Despite being made of cockroach and rat bits, the advanced machine mimics the way Tony Stark dons his suit in Iron Man 2. Rick then uses the drill hands embedded in the suit to decimate a large rat population in a Wolverine-style fight.
“Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind”
Rick is taken before the council or Ricks when he is accused of murdering Ricks from other dimensions. The Council is a group of, well, Ricks, the smartest man/men alive. This concept closely mirrors the Interdimensional Council of Reeds found in the Marvel Multiverse. Just like the Council of Ricks, the Council of Reeds is run by multiple versions of the same man across many universes. While the Interdimensional Council of Reeds eventually has its majority destroyed by Celestials, The Council of Ricks is murdered by Rick, who kills his counterparts after their failed assassination attempt.
“Full Meta Jackrick”
This episode’s villains are a group of meta meta-humans. The Self Referential Six is an obvious play on the classic Spider-Man villains The Sinister Six. Comprised of five members (there is no sixth, that’s the twist), all of whom have the ability to control various aspects of narrative devices, the Self referential Six are, in Rick Sanchez’s words, “Meta nerds that found out they could be less bearable as a team.”
The team is headed by Miss Lead, who has the ability to mislead people, slap super hard, and is protected by plot armor. Protago Nick, a flying metahuman, has the ability to make anyone the main character. Mr. Twist can add a twist to anything and has literary devices like smash-cut grenades. Connie Tinuityerror has the ability to use Deus Ex Machina-like abilities and spawn things that make little sense in context but give her team an edge. The last member of the team is Flash Back, who can flash back to any moment to make sure his team has the best odds.
The overpowered team has a prisoner, Brett Cann (who renames himself Rhett Cann after a suggestion from Morty). Rhett Cann can shift reality to, well, retcon things. With powers that rival Wanda Maximoff or Thanos with the reality stone, even Rick Sanchez doesn’t trust this one, and with good reason. By the end of the episode Cann is the scientific duo’s enemy.
“Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender“
When it comes to lampooning the marvel characters, the Vindicator episodes have so much packed into them. The team itself is a clear dig at the classic superhero team set up. Though not every character is a reference to a Marvel character, many of them are. Even the web series’ villain, Doomnomitron, is a clear nod to Dr. Doom and Ultron. The Vindicators 2 (a web series that fills in the missing second part to the installment) has a villain, Worldender, with a name so incredibly on the nose that even Marvel might pause before using it.
The Vindicators team is led by Vance Maximus, an amalgamation of Ironman and Starlord. Vance is the charismatic defacto team leader who enjoys “cool, sexy drinking”. Supernova, an incredibly powerful alien female, has the full gambit of mental powers possessed by many popular female superheroes, but her power base most closely resembles Jean Grey of the X-Men and Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four.
Crocubot is a robot and a crocodile combined into one of the lamest superheroes. Crocubot is a reference to both sides of the comic book aisle. On one hand he is clearly a nod to cyborg but it’s his animal base that lands him on this list. Just like Rocket Racoon, Crocubot is a hapless Earth animal subjected to science and made more human for it. The final Marvelesque character on the team is Million-Ants. Million-Ants is an obvious dig at Ant-man in name, but his visual style more closely resembles The Thing, and his profile matches other structurally diverse humanoids like Groot.
An honorable mention goes to the final main Vindicator, Alan Rails. Though his power profile more closely resembles DC character Green Lantern, his back story and name link him to the Marvel character Ghost Rider.
Published: Jan 31, 2023 07:10 pm