The Vindicators

Did You Know?

• A short film titled Vindicators, animated in the style of a 16-bit video game by animator Paul Robertson, aired on Adult Swim in May 2020.
• A 17-minute pixel art-animated short film, Rick + Morty in the Eternal Nightmare Machine, featuring characters from The Vindicators in supporting roles, aired on April 30, 2021.

Background

Matt Selman originally drafted a pilot script for a series called The Vindicators in 1996, pitching it to Comedy Central as a show about superheroes dealing with everyday problems. The network greenlit a pilot based on that script in 1998, but once it was finished, executives deemed it too poor to air and shelved it permanently. The concept resurfaced in November 2015, during early work on the third season of Rick and Morty, when writers Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe reworked it into a spec script drawing from superhero tropes and the Saw film franchise. Carbiener later explained that the show’s fast pace meant a plot that would fill a full episode elsewhere became just the opening minutes, forcing the team to pack a huge amount of story into a short runtime. The resulting episode, titled “Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender,” aired on August 13, 2017, as the fourth installment of that season. The spin-off centers on a superhero team called the Vindicators, who unite against world-ending threats. The roster includes Vance Maximus, Supernova, Alan Rails, Crocubot, and Million Ants, alongside former members Lady Katana, Calypso, and Diablo Verde, plus interns Noob Noob, Rick Sanchez, and Morty Smith. The group takes inspiration from Marvel’s Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Vance Maximus, voiced by Christian Slater, acts as the team’s leader, putting on a charming, easygoing front while secretly being a coward who insults Morty as “the learning-disabled kid we do photo ops with.” He parodies both Iron Man and Star-Lord. Supernova, voiced by Gillian Jacobs, is a star-themed heroine who was once married to Alan Rails and is having an affair with Million Ants; she is a parody of Starfire with a design based on Singularity.

Television series

The episode "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender" depicts the third adventure of the Vindicators, following Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith as they join the team to defeat a returned Worldender. A blackout drunk Rick defeats Worldender alone the night before and sets up Saw-inspired challenges for the Vindicators and his sober self, turning the team against one another. Written by Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe and directed by Bryan Newton, it premiered on August 13, 2017, as the fourth episode of the third season of Rick and Morty. On May 20, 2021, Adult Swim announced a short spin-off series in development alongside other Adult Swim shows. The ten-episode series, titled Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doom, premiered on Adult Swim's YouTube channel on July 23, 2022, with each episode between two and three minutes, and Carbiener serving as showrunner. The series centers on the Vindicators before the events of "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", including original members Diablo Verde, Lady Katana, and Calypso. Carbiener and Rosbe stated that the short format allowed non-standard plots and slice of life depictions of superheroes. Production took place over Zoom, with main voice actors from the original episode reprising their roles. In January 2023, following Justin Roiland's firing from the franchise, it was announced that his voice roles, including Noob Noob, would be recast.

Comic books

The first issue of the spin-off anthology series Rick and Morty Presents, titled The Vindicators: Hero Mix Vol. 1, written by J. Torres, features Rick and Morty encountering the "All-New All-Different" Vindicators revived by Supernova, who now has a cyborg arm. They recruit Rick and Morty to save the multiverse against Boon, a corrupted version of Noob Noob, recruiting Scary Terry and an alternate reality Pickle Rick. In November 2018, the ninth volume of the Oni Press comic series Rick and Morty, written by Kyle Starks, featured Vindicators 1: The Origin of the Vindicators as the forty-fifth issue. Characters from the comic were later adapted to the animated miniseries Vindicators 2. The Vindicators appear as major characters in the Oni Press series Rick and Morty: Crisis on C-137, where Rick and Morty form a new team led by Master Meeseeks after Supernova crashes back onto Earth. The New Vindicators are featured in Rick and Morty: The End, continuing from Rick and Morty vs. the Universe, where a new team led by Planetina teams up with Morty to track down Rick Sanchez. Supernova appears as a juror on Rick's trial.

Reception

Jesse Schedeen of IGN complimented the "fun twists" and "bleaker tone" of the titular team in the episode "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender". Greene of IndieWire praised the vocal performance of the Vindicators, approving of the "nice bit of misdirection" in their characterization. Jack Shepherd of The Independent praised the episode as "one of their funniest, most deranged adventures [of Rick and Morty] yet", highlighting its use of superhero tropes. Rafael Motamayor of /Film described the miniseries Vindicators 2 as "far from groundbreaking or even that surprising", initially criticizing the short episode length, but ultimately finding it a "fun and harmless" way to revisit the characters and expand on their powers.