Vindicators 2

Did You Know?

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

Background

The Vindicators originated from a 1996 television pilot script by Matt Selman for Comedy Central, which was produced in 1998 but shelved due to poor quality. In November 2015, during development of Rick and Morty's third season, Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe re-pitched the concept as a spec script inspired by the superhero genre and the Saw franchise. Their episode, "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender," premiered on August 13, 2017, as the fourth episode of the season. The main Vindicators team includes Vance Maximus, Supernova, Alan Rails, Crocubot, and Million Ants, with former members Lady Katana, Calypso, and Diablo Verde, and interns Noob Noob, Rick Sanchez, and Morty Smith. The team parodies Marvel's Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Vance Maximus, voiced by Christian Slater, is a cowardly leader parodying Iron Man and Star-Lord. Supernova, voiced by Gillian Jacobs, is a star-themed heroine parodying Starfire with a design inspired by Singularity.

Television series

Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doom depicts the second adventure of the Vindicators, a slice-of-life series following the team—including a pregnant Supernova—as they protect the galaxy and prepare to stop the planet-devourer Doom-Nomitron from destroying Earth. Adult Swim announced the short spin-off series on May 20, 2021, alongside other spin-offs. The ten-episode series premiered on Adult Swim's YouTube channel on July 23, 2022, with episodes lasting two to three minutes each. Showrunner Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe stated that the short format allowed non-standard plots and slice-of-life depictions of superheroes. Production occurred over Zoom, with main voice actors from the original Rick and Morty episode reprising their roles. The series includes original members Diablo Verde, Lady Katana, and Calypso, first mentioned in "Vindicators 1: Origin of the Vindicators." After the July 2022 premiere, Carbiener expressed interest in further seasons. In January 2023, following Justin Roiland's firing, his voice role as Noob Noob was announced to be recast for any future seasons.

Comic books

The Vindicators appear in the Oni Press comic book series Rick and Morty Presents, with the first issue titled The Vindicators: Hero Mix Vol. 1, written by J. Torres. It features Rick and Morty encountering an "All-New All-Different" Vindicators team revived by Supernova, who now has a cyborg arm, to save the multiverse from a corrupted Noob Noob called Boon. In November 2018, the ninth volume of the Rick and Morty comic series, written by Kyle Starks, adapted Vindicators 1: The Origin of the Vindicators as issue forty-five. Characters from that comic were later adapted into the Vindicators 2 miniseries. The Vindicators are major characters in Rick and Morty: Crisis on C-137, where Rick and Morty form a new team led by Master Meeseeks after Supernova crashes to Earth. The New Vindicators appear in Rick and Morty: The End, led by Morty's ex-girlfriend Planetina, tracking down Rick Sanchez; Supernova appears as a juror at Rick's trial.

Reception

He ultimately found the series as a whole to be a "fun and harmless" way to revisit the characters, make fun superhero stories, and expand on the implications of the heroes' wild powers.