Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons II: Painscape

Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #2

by Jim Zub, Troy Little (Illustrations), Leonardo Ito (Illustrations)

In Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons, the pop culture juggernaut and the best-selling role-playing game team up once again in an all-new companion story!

Once upon a game, Rick, Morty and the Smith family went on magical D&D adventures…now, magical D&D adventures are coming to Earth, and no one will survive the Painscape! The world’s greatest role-playing game returns to plague the world’s most dysfunctional animated family! Fan-favorite dice dependent Jim Zub (Samurai Jack, Savage Sword of Conan) re-teams up with Eisner-nominated cartoonist +5 Troy Little (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Powerpuff Girls) to destroy Adult Swim’s pop culture juggernaut and the best-selling role-playing game that once used the term “THAC0.”

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Humor, Dungeons and Dragons, Media Tie In

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2020

About the author

Jim Zub is a writer, artist and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. Over the past fifteen years he’s worked for a diverse array of publishing, movie and video game clients including Disney, Warner Bros., Capcom, Hasbro, Bandai-Namco and Mattel.

He juggles his time between being a freelance comic writer and Program Coordinator for Seneca College‘s award-winning Animation program.

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

La Panini fortunatamente stavolta ha compiuto un lavoro eccellente per quanto riguarda adattamento e traduzioni, dopo l'ignobile scempio avvenuto nel volume precedente.



Zub conosce bene Dungeons & Dragons e sa dare voce come si deve alla famiglia disfunzionale di Rick e Morty, al punto che anche questa volta leggevo i balloon dei personaggi con la voce dei loro doppiatori italiani nella testa.



Ho praticamente adorato la storia e tutte le sue infinite citazioni: dalle comparsate di moduli avventura classici come la Tomba degli Orrori ed Il Castello degli Amber fino a quelle di oggetti magici iconici quali la Dragonlance, il martello Aegis-fang, la Bacchetta di Orcus e tanti altri.



Per non parlare di quando fanno capolino Dave Arneson, cameo d'obbligo dopo quello da parte di Gary Gygax nel volume precedente (ed è stato veramente bello intravedere i due creatori del primo gioco di ruolo riuniti nella doppia splash page verso la fine), e Boo, l'indimenticato criceto spaziale delle saghe videoludiche e fumettistiche di Baldur's Gate.





Se vi aggiungiamo la gag in cui Rick fa fuori Strahd von Zarovich, scimmiottando affettuosamente la copertina del classico modulo di Advanced Dungeons & Dragons scritto da Tracy e Laura Hickman nel 1983, in cui comparvero per la prima volta il vampiro e Castle Ravenloft, questo volume meriterebbe decisamente cinque stelle.



Purtroppo l'assenza di Rothfuss ai testi si sente, la storia del primo volume mi aveva fatto ridere di più e perfino commuovere alla fine, e l'effetto novità dell'incontro-scontro tra i due mondi è un po' venuto a mancare qui a mio parere, con una trama meno corale in cui Rick Sanchez è l'indiscusso protagonista a scapito del resto dei personaggi, relegati a ruoli fin troppo secondari ad eccezione di qualche sporadico ed esilarante guizzo.



Cinque stelle mancate di nuovo per un soffio.

[Tiag⊗ the Mutant · Rating 4 out of 5]

That's right, you motherfuggers, this second Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons is just as good as the last Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons, and I can't wait to get my hands on the third Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons, which hopefully will be as good as these last two Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons books, that's right, I want more Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons until it's Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons always and forever, until we're old and we're still reading Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons with our grey hairs and wrinkly smiles, forever and ever Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons.

Sorry, that will never get old for me. Big thumbs up for Patrick Rothfuss and Jim Zub, they totally get Rick and Morty, they capture the voices of these characters so very well, this is just like watching an episode, lot of fun, including the artwork, highly recommended, even if you're not a fan of Dungeons & Dragons.

[Nathan Haines · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a mixed issue. It started off so badly I was really uncertain about it but by the end I was captivated. Interested to see how Rick solves this one.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine continuation, but even with a teased third installment, I'm not sure where the story would go. That uncertainty is actually cool, since telegraphed sequels generally suck.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book that pokes at all the tropes of D&D. The well-balanced character is crazy. It would also be challenging to play with a PC whose key class attribute is low.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick and Morty mixed with D&D is comedy gold!
This time, in the sequel, Rick notices that the entire world has suddenly began following D&D stuff practically overnight. In order to find out why, he takes Morty to a D&D themed world, which happens to actually be Borden, a campaign world that Rick made when he was younger. In Borden, Bardrick and Sorcerick are working together, and they outsmart Rick, returning to the main world, and sticking Rick in the Tomb of Horrors. While Rick levels up immensely, the rest of the family must fight off the D&D Ricks and their army of orcs and demons, until Rick returns and sets things right.
I'm leaving out so much of the comedy and the action, but I'll leave it to you to read it and experience for yourself. If you are a part of either fandom, you should definitely be reading this comic.
Strong recommend. Must for fans.

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have never played D&D...anything I know about it I learned from episodes of Community and the first volume of this series, Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons.

Rick was separate from the family for most of the story, which I do not particularly enjoy. This didn't feel quite as Rick and Morty-ish meaning there wasn't a whole lot to laugh at.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

While much better than vol 1, with the coherent mostly linear story line it was hard to not be better. We learn more about Ricks early foray into D&D and the current family situation. It was a little sad to see Rick get a solo adventure while the rest of the family fights for their lives without his help. The resolution to the whole problem was uninspired though the plea for another D&D tie in was fun.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Christl Bücher NewsWelt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es ist einfach jedes mal ein absolutes vergnügen in die Welt von Rick and Morty zu tauchen und die DnD Ausgaben sind einfach genial. Wie schon bereits der erste Band konnte mich auch Band 2 überzeugen. Man muss die zwei und den Humor halt mögen, aber ich liebe ihn.

Für mich war es definitiv wieder ein Erlebnis!

Für alle DnD und Morty & Rick Fans ein MUSS!!!

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I was hoping this would be a more direct continuation of volume 1. It isn't. From the cover, I gathered Rick would be an evil dungeon master. He isn't.

It's still good though. A different kind of story from the last one that looks at the existential nature of forgotten characters that a player might make during their years of play. In Rick's case, well, of course there would be dangerous consequences. The explanation is a bit 'wha', but compared to some of the things that can and have happened in Rick and Morty proper.

I wish Morty's plot from the first one about trying to charm a girl with his D&D chops (or lack thereof), and she does appear, but only as a minor character during the climax of the real world plot. Summer, Beth and Jerry don't have much to do in this story eithery, which is weird becauase their plot comprises at least half the story's runtime, though it does lead to some laughs.

Definitely worth the time if you read the first one and love D&D

[Yunie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a sequel it was good. The art was fantastic! I enjoyed the extra bit of artwork that was included, as well as the character sheets for the Ricks that appeared in the story. Speaking of the story it was alright. It was a bit slow to get into and a bit overly fluffed. It was a fun read, however; the first one is still my favorite of the two. I did like how the ending wrapped things up. I will say that while I enjoyed this series, I don't think I a third volume would be viable.
Overall, it was a great series and this was a nice read and a good way to wrap it all up.

[Natalie S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waayyyy better than the first, really enjoyed it. Instead of being sent to a world of dnd, a virus of dnd comes to them (along with Rick's garbage characters). I just found the world being addicted to dnd to be amazingly fun, especially the merchandising of it! Haha

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only for nerds, but gloriously for nerds!

[Kaitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why this crossover is so good, but it is.

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silly and a joy to read!

[E.M. Jeanmougin · Rating 3 out of 5]

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).

[Kerstin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nachdem ich den ersten Band von »Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons« ziemlich gefeiert hatte, musste die Fortsetzung natürlich auch auf jeden Fall hier einziehen und in Ruhe gelesen werden.
Dass es auch in »Painscape« chaotisch zugehen würde, war ja von Anfang an klar, aber ich habe mich gleich köstlich amüsiert, weil die ganze Familie auf einmal in einer Welt lebt, in der D&D einfach überall ist – im Fernsehen, auf den Klamotten, den Frühstücksflocken …
Als dann auch noch mehrere von Ricks alten, nie gespielten Charakteren zum Leben erwachen (und so herrliche Namen wie BardRick, HexeRIck und KleRICKer haben), sprudelt die Fantasie der Macher nur so über.
Vermutlich werden vor allem Rollenspieler über die Idee, abgelegte Charaktere zu neuem Leben erwachen zu lassen und den Helden in seine eigenen einstigen Karten und Abenteuer zu schicken, schmunzeln, und vor allem jene, die sich mit Dungeons und Dragons auskennen, die vielen kleinen Seitenhiebe verstehen, aber auch sonst wird jeder, der mit dem abgedrehten Humor von »Rick und Morty« etwas anfangen kann, seine Freude an diesem Band haben.
Schön finde ich auch, dass wieder einmal Charakterbögen am Ende inmitten der Covergalerie abgedruckt sind, dann kann man diese Ricks auch gleich mal austesten.
Ich hatte jedenfalls wieder sehr viel Spaß mit diesem Band und kann ihm jedem, der Teil eins mochte, nur wärmstens ans Herz legen! Hoffentlich geht die Reihe noch weiter …

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

RATING: 4/5
If you like Low Ability Scores, Unfinished Campaigns, and NPCs you may like Rick and Morty Vs. Dungeons & Dragons II

QUICK REVIEW
A great comic for those that are playing Baldurs Gate 3, already fans of Rick and Morty or just fans of DND you will laugh with this silly adventure. I will say I wish there was more DND like in the first book, this feels more like DND-lite but there are still enough references that will amuse DND players and especially DMs.

REVIEW
I read the First Rick and Morty VS DND comic a couple of years ago and after playing Baldurs Gate 3 I was craving some more DND content and for the most part this book scratches that itch. I haven't read many Rick and Morty comics but I am familiar with the TV show and this sold me on the series and will begin with Vol 1 soon. If you look the humour of the show you will like the writing here its nearly identical and for long time fans of Rick and Morty you will not be dissapointed. The only critique I have here is that this book feels more like a Rick and Morty adventure with elements of DND where the first book felt more like Rick and Morty AND DND. This is still a great read for fans of DND and Rick and Morty.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Rick and Morty Dungeons & Dragons adventure and it was pretty much just as fun as the first time around. Things start with everyone (in the world) except Rick being crazily obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. This eventually gets Rick suspicious and he eventually figures out the truth - a bunch of his old characters somehow had agency in some alternate dimension and were trying to invade in order to get revenge.

Thus Rick is forced to once again try to deal with them in D&D terms while the rest of the family fights off a literal demon invasion from an alternate D&D plane. I appreciated how there was a lot more self-awareness of what could and could not be done in the game versus the story - something that funnily was driven by Jerry, of all characters.

A lot of good stuff for long-time fans of the D&D franchise and still an enjoyable Rick and Morty story as well.

[Ty Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was flat out in awe of how the first collection managed to be a full fledged episode of Rick and Morty and a D&D adventure without losing anything from either. This second one left me less than starstruck, however. Part II nails the nihilism of the show better than the previous volume (which inexplicably had a happy ending where Rick learned a lesson somehow), but that's really the only thing done better. There's far fewer jokes here, and some of the dialog doesn't feel as spot-on for the characters as before. The D&D trappings feel more tacked on and less well worked into the story. Overall, Painscape was just less funny and less engaging, even though it has some great art and a few standout moments where Rick being Rick is as appallingly humorous as you'd expect.

[Alex Sarll]

Entirely unnecessary but not unamusing crossover sequel which opens with the current popularity of D&D in our own world taken just that little bit further, much to Rick's suspicion, for all that he recognises RPGs are "a perfect way to stave off the crushing reality that no one is a hero and nothing we do actually matters". Inevitably, it turns out the problem is all his fault, reality having been invaded by an alliance of all his abandoned characters. Much like the half-realised home-brew setting in which he spends much of the series trapped, this will be poignant reading for anyone who hasn't played in a while, though maybe not as traumatic as realising I grew up with the same edition as Jerry.

[Matthew Gilliland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't read this without comparing it to R&M vs D&D I.

This one instead of teaching you about D&D is a story about what happens to all of the characters that you never played or abandoned.

The story partially takes place in a setting that Rick started creating when he was younger and the villains are his abandoned characters.

Honestly, the main disappointment for me was that Jerry doesn't continue to be his cool half-elf Wizard that he was in at the end of Part I. And Rick is the Hero which countered the lesson from Part I.

[Josh Rhodes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rick makes a Wizard 5/Fighter 5/Rogue 5/Cleric 5, which is so suboptimal I'm kind of in awe. I hate to be all nitpicky, but Rick (whatever dimensional version he is) in the first D&D adventure was established to be a powergamer, and him making such ridiculously bad characters (besides the head-desk-y 5th edition one, there's a running joke of him having once made a bunch of AD&D characters with low rolls in their primary attribute) actually kinda broke the immersion. Who knew. It was fun enough though.

[Vail Chester · Rating 3 out of 5]

D&D obsession has taken over the world and the only culprit is...Rick.
And Rick.
And Rick.
And Rick.
And Rick.
Yeah that's soooo original, but as it turns out, it's NOT multiversal shenanigans, and instead manifestations of abandoned D&D player characters escaped from prime Rick's imagination.
Chaos ensues.
Go figure.
Again, this would be much more cool if I was in on the D&D references, but the few I were able to pick up sure were fun when mixed with the wackiness of the Rick and Morty type of humor. (And thankfully Jerry is back to being a total loser unlike last book)

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beware the unwanted / unused character you cast aside..

You watch them on Twitch. You ask your friends, "Is it Thursday yet?" You even Patreon at least 3 different real play podcasts. DnD is everywhere! Has the world always been like this? Feels like it.

Rick calls bull$h!t , but is forced to interact with past DnD characters he gave up on and stuck in his "Nope" book. The world will never be the same.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Individual issue reviews: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4

Total review score: 3.25

[Vince · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great, I liked it more than the first volume. I loved the idea of the world becoming obsessed with DnD, all the jokes about shops and such being DnD themed got a good chuckle out of me. The way that DnD rules were incorporated into the story was pretty great too, just a solid mini-series with some good jokes.

[Jericho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this as much as I did the first comic that starts with a story different from how the first ended. There is plenty of themes from both the Rick and Morty and Dungeons and Dragons universes. It does end on a cliffhanger but it just makes me want to read more.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.