Commentary: How Rick And Morty’s Multiverse Differs From Spider-Man
by Frank Martin
When it comes to multiverse characters, it’s hard to think of one that has a wider breath of variants than Spider-Man. Not only does the character’s ever expanding multiverse have a place in the comics, it’s also transitioned to film, where Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse has become a blockbuster hit. But when it comes to Peter Parker and the multiverse, he’s always held up as the prime hero. The 616 universe is designated as the main Marvel universe that fans are used to. So Peter Parker, the Spider-Man from that universe, is usually the center of a lot of stories. Every other Spider-Man is essentially a variant of him. So it’s interesting to see Rick and Morty take a different approach in that the main Rick isn’t the Prime Rick the same way that Peter Parker is the Prime Spider-Man.
The Rick (Ian Cardoni) the show follows was a scientist who was perfectly happy with his life until a version of himself came to his universe and killed his family. This sets Rick on a nihilistic path of destruction. Eventually, Rick completely focuses all of his attention on killing the version of Rick who killed his parents and is known as “Rick Prime.” He is not alone as other versions of Rick are also out for revenge. Eventually, the main Rick from the show tracks down Rick Prime and, well, spoilers.
A story like this is very hard to craft. This is mainly because stories tend to center around a character writers want to be pivotal in the universe. Because of this, these characters tend to be the prime version in the multiverse as well. It’ll be hard for a variant of Spider-Man to track down and kill Spider-Man Prime for revenge. Then fans won’t have the original Spider-Man that they know and love. So the fact that the Rick the show follows is simply a version of Rick Prime allows him to kill what should otherwise be a main character. It just goes to show that even a variant, someone who is an offshoot of a main character, can still be a pivotal main character.
Rick and Morty is now streaming on Max.
