AlthoughRick and Morty’s first spinoff didn’t work, the show’s struggles weren’t caused by its similarity to the popular Adult Swim series. As viewers wait forRick and Mortyseason 8to arrive, the popular sci-fi comedy franchise appeared to offer a fun spinoff to tide fans over in August 2024.Rick and Morty: The Animepromised to bring the world of the series to life in a new medium, showcasing the same characters in a new setting and with a bold new visual style. Unfortunately, this experiment proved a profound failure uponRick and Morty: The Anime’s release.
New Rick & Morty Disappointment Raises The Stakes For Season 8
The pressure on Rick and Morty season 8’s success is even greater now that Rick and Morty: The Anime has proven a disappointing replacement.
Rick and Morty: The Animeearned a mere 2.7IMDbrating, a far cry fromRick and Morty’s 9.6 rating. The spinoff’s largely negative reviews complained that its premise was too familiar, but its style was too different, resulting in a show that felt tonally different fromRick and Mortydespite featuring the same main characters. AfterRick and Morty’s season 7 endingwowed critics and fans alike, this was a disappointing surprise. However,Rick and Morty’s largely forgotten earlier spinoff could have warned viewers what they were in for. Released in 2022, this superhero spoof also flopped.
Rick and Morty’s First Spinoff Was A YouTube Vindicators Series
Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doom Brought Back The Superhero Team
2022’sVindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and DoomwasRick and Morty’s first spinoff, although fans of the series could be forgiven for not remebering this. TheVindicatorsspinoff was an animated web series that delved into the daily lives of the dysfunctional superhero squad first seen in season 3, episode 4, “Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender.” As implied by its title,Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doomwas set shortly before that episode’s events. The web series obliquely explained how the superheroes incurred the wrath of Rick, though it mostly focused on their daily lives.
Developed by writers Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe, the ten episodes ofVindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doomwere directed by Maite Garcia. UnlikeRick and Morty’s disappointing 2024 spinoff, theVindicatorsseries featured few appearances from familiar characters and settings. Instead, the web series fleshed out the world of the Vindicators by illustrating the quiet moments between their big dramatic superheroics. The show revealed a team who were troubled, morally ambiguous, and complex, but not particularly funny or engaging. Tonally, the web series had an odd feel that was undeniably an acquired taste.
The Superhero Satire Was A Brief Slice-of-Life Web Series
With each episode being only a minute or two long,Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doomwas a slice-of-life web series that centered on the titular team’s lives outside the limelight. This premise had potential, although earlier efforts like 2000’sThe Specialshad played with the conceit before. What madeRick and Morty’s later spinoff disappointingwas its inability to expand the world of the series beyond the original show’s premise, whereas theVindicatorsweb series had the opposite problem. The world of the show felt distinctly disconnected fromRick and Morty’s reality.
It was never entirely clear whether theVindicatorsshow was trying to parody the portentous tone of works likeWatchmenor simply emulate it.
Although its heroes had appeared in an earlierRick and Mortyepisode,Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doomshared little creative DNA with the original show.TheVindicatorsweb series was darker and more self-serious thanRick and Morty, and it was never entirely clear whether the show was trying to parody the portentous tone of works likeWatchmenor simply emulate it. Episodes like “Pro-Nouns” and “First Love” were explicitly comedic and goofy, while outings like “Kintsugi” and “The Dance” were barely played for laughs at all. This uncertainty made the show’s tone tough to pin down.
Rick and Morty’s Vindicators Spinoff Was Poorly Timed
The Series Premiered At The Height Of Superhero Fatigue
Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doomcould have been a huge hitconsidering the show’s status as a dark, cynical deconstruction of sunny, fun superhero adventures. The original appearance of The Vindicators arrived in 2017 when the earliest hits of a backlash against the Marvel Cinematic Universe were beginning. By 2022, this backlash was in full swing and viewers were primed for parodies that ruthlessly took apart the tropes of superhero movies. This could have been good news for a satirical takedown of the superhero genre, but theVindicatorsweb series arrived after a slew of similar competitors.
TheVindicatorsseries had little to offer that viewers hadn’t already seen.
By the timeVindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doomarrived,Deadpool,Deadpool 2,Jupiter’s Legacy,Invincible,The Suicide Squad,The Boysseasons 1-3,The Boys Presents: Diabolical, andHarley Quinnhad all already satirized the superhero genre’s overly familiar tropes. Between them, these earlier works ran the tonal gamut from dirty jokes to downbeat deconstructions of the genre’s simplistic morality. TheVindicatorsseries had little to offer that viewers hadn’t already seen.Rick and Mortystill hasn’t explored every storythat the show could cover, but its web series spinoff was hard-pressed to come up with fresh perspectives.
Rick and Morty’s Vindicators Spinoff Proved The Franchise Needs Its Titular Duo
Rick and Morty’s World Isn’t As Engaging Without Rick and Morty
Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doomwasn’t helped by the influx of superhero parodies in the years between the team’s first on-screen appearance and the debut of their web series. However, this wasn’t what killed interest in the spinoff. Ultimately, the biggest issue with the spinoff was thattheVindicatorsspinoff didn’t feel like an extension of theRick and Mortyuniverse. The show had moments of profundity and tasteless gags side by side but, unlikeRick and Morty, the superhero satire could never quite work out how to get the right balance between these divergent elements.
Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doomhas an IMDb rating of 6.8, whileRick and Morty’s IMDb rating is 9.1.
AlthoughRick and Morty: The Animebroke the originalshow’s rules with its time travel storyline, this isn’t the reason that the show faced negative reviews. It was the failure to recapture the anarchic, dark, playful tone ofRick and Mortythat sank the anime, and the same can be said forVindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doom. The web series was fine when judged on its own merits, if a little thin. However, as a spinoff ofRick and Morty, theVindicatorsshow only highlighted how hard it is to recreate the Adult Swim show’s tone and style.
