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Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons II: Painscape by Leonardo Ito, Crank!, Troy Little, Jim Zub
leeakolb's review
3.0
Just ok. Not as good as the first
The first book had plenty of references and was enjoyable even if you aren't a Rick and Morty fan. This book... Is only for the fans of Rick and Morty, which I am not. If you like them and the first book you may enjoy this.
The first book had plenty of references and was enjoyable even if you aren't a Rick and Morty fan. This book... Is only for the fans of Rick and Morty, which I am not. If you like them and the first book you may enjoy this.
shannonleighd's review
3.0
emjeanmougin's review
3.0
When everyone on Earth suddenly becomes completely obsessed with D&D, it's up to Rick to find the responsible party. While this story follows a more traditional Rick and Morty format and tone, continuity errors paired with the absence of Rothfuss seem to make it weaker overall.
~~SPOILERS~~
"Painscape" is a sequel to "Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons" and it does its job effectively enough.
Upon realizing that people are abnormally obsessed with D&D, Rick tracks down the culprit only to discover it's his discarded Bard, Bardrick. Somehow, Bardrick exists in the remains of one of Rick's old, unfinished campaigns and has gradually come into sentience, along with numerous other discarded characters, from Clerick to Barbarick. The D&D obsession stems from their reality leaking into Rick's reality.
Why is this happening?
No idea. It's never really explained.
The original Rick and Morty Vs. D&D had Rick systematically hunting down a dimension which bore so a complete resemblance to D&D that it effectively became a real-life version of it. And the DM was a supernatural God-creature which inhabited said dimension. There's none of that here. Instead, the DM is Rick and so are all the adventurers. Why his adventure has decided to come to life is never really touched on.
Which brings us to the antagonist of the piece, Bardrick.
Bardrick was mentioned in the first D&D story, with Rick telling Morty that he originally played a Bard and then burned the character sheet because he had a terrible time. My first character was also a Bard; we started at level 1 and I also decided immediately never to play a Bard again, so the joke hits. And it even makes sense that Bardrick would be the antagonist. But in this version, it clearly shows Rick rolling far too low for the Charisma stat then immediately throwing the character away. So his hatred of Bards doesn't really make sense. He never even had to actually play one.
Like the TV show, Painscape uses an A-Plot/B-Plot format. While Rick dicks around in his campaign, the Smith family attempts to hold off the onslaught of D&D nonsense as it becomes more and more prominent in their world. The action scenes are pretty cool and there's some good jokes about Expectation Vs. Reality, but this ends up basically being filler. The Smith family (along with everyone else) is killed by a demon horde. Bardrick becomes king of reality.
Rick also becomes king of the game world by min-maxing the shit out of himself, spreading his stats across 4 classes, and collecting every piece of loot available in his unfinished campaign. When he's bored of the world, he uses a magic wishing ring he got as loot to return to reality. Then uses his second wish to hit the reset button and return the world to sanity.
Rick learns the lesson he learned in the first story, but in a bigger way. When the Smith family settles down to play Morty's new campaign, Rick wants to make a fun nonsense character like all the other members of the family, rather than making some OP juggernaut.
The deconstructive elements of this story combined with the prominence of Rick's nihilism and indifference to his family's suffering make for a comic that bears a much stronger resemblance to the TV show than its predecessor, but the storytelling itself is much weaker with continuity errors and loose threads left dangling all over the place.
I still liked this comic and I'd definitely read a 3rd one (which is teased in the last panel).
~~SPOILERS~~
"Painscape" is a sequel to "Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons" and it does its job effectively enough.
Upon realizing that people are abnormally obsessed with D&D, Rick tracks down the culprit only to discover it's his discarded Bard, Bardrick. Somehow, Bardrick exists in the remains of one of Rick's old, unfinished campaigns and has gradually come into sentience, along with numerous other discarded characters, from Clerick to Barbarick. The D&D obsession stems from their reality leaking into Rick's reality.
Why is this happening?
No idea. It's never really explained.
The original Rick and Morty Vs. D&D had Rick systematically hunting down a dimension which bore so a complete resemblance to D&D that it effectively became a real-life version of it. And the DM was a supernatural God-creature which inhabited said dimension. There's none of that here. Instead, the DM is Rick and so are all the adventurers. Why his adventure has decided to come to life is never really touched on.
Which brings us to the antagonist of the piece, Bardrick.
Bardrick was mentioned in the first D&D story, with Rick telling Morty that he originally played a Bard and then burned the character sheet because he had a terrible time. My first character was also a Bard; we started at level 1 and I also decided immediately never to play a Bard again, so the joke hits. And it even makes sense that Bardrick would be the antagonist. But in this version, it clearly shows Rick rolling far too low for the Charisma stat then immediately throwing the character away. So his hatred of Bards doesn't really make sense. He never even had to actually play one.
Like the TV show, Painscape uses an A-Plot/B-Plot format. While Rick dicks around in his campaign, the Smith family attempts to hold off the onslaught of D&D nonsense as it becomes more and more prominent in their world. The action scenes are pretty cool and there's some good jokes about Expectation Vs. Reality, but this ends up basically being filler. The Smith family (along with everyone else) is killed by a demon horde. Bardrick becomes king of reality.
Rick also becomes king of the game world by min-maxing the shit out of himself, spreading his stats across 4 classes, and collecting every piece of loot available in his unfinished campaign. When he's bored of the world, he uses a magic wishing ring he got as loot to return to reality. Then uses his second wish to hit the reset button and return the world to sanity.
Rick learns the lesson he learned in the first story, but in a bigger way. When the Smith family settles down to play Morty's new campaign, Rick wants to make a fun nonsense character like all the other members of the family, rather than making some OP juggernaut.
The deconstructive elements of this story combined with the prominence of Rick's nihilism and indifference to his family's suffering make for a comic that bears a much stronger resemblance to the TV show than its predecessor, but the storytelling itself is much weaker with continuity errors and loose threads left dangling all over the place.
I still liked this comic and I'd definitely read a 3rd one (which is teased in the last panel).
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