While it is no secret that Rick from Rick and Morty is a morally-ambiguous character, he has proven that there is a limit to what he will do in the name of science and has made sure to never cross the line into full-on villainy. However, one comic exposes Rick’s darkest lie and proves that while Rick won’t technically commit acts of atrocities himself, he is willing to use free will to justify his own ‘necessary’ evils.
In Rick and Morty season 1 episode 10 “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind,” Rick is accused by the Council of Ricks of killing other Ricks across the multiverse. After Rick and Morty work to prove their innocence, Rick uncovers a hidden lair where Evil Morty and his slave Rick operate out of. In order to stay hidden, Evil Morty kidnapped hundreds of other Mortys from other universes and pinned them to the outside of the structure while causing them great amounts of pain as the brain waves of a Morty in pain effectively hides those of a Rick from other Ricks. When the main Rick and Morty see this, Rick comments that using that many Mortys to stay hidden is overkill and that the same thing could be achieved with just a few Mortys and a car battery. When Morty looks at his grandpa with angry disbelief, Rick backtracks and says he’s only explored that possibility on paper and that he would never kidnap and torture Mortys just to stay hidden.
In the Oni Press comic Rick and Morty #23 by Kyle Starks and CJ Cannon, the multiverses smartest and most ruthless Jerry has taken over the Citadel of Ricks and is hunting the Rickest Rick to ensure his victory, with the Rickest Rick being the one fans have been following throughout the Adult Swim show and the spin-off comics. However, Jerry and the Ricks who are under his control can’t find the Rick they’re after, and the reason they can’t is because Rick had kidnapped a handful of Mortys from other universes and stuck shock collars on them, ones that go off anytime they get close to an adult magazine.
As Rick points out in this issue, he technically isn’t zapping the Mortys with electrical shocks because all they have to do is not get close to the magazine to keep from being hurt. Rick comments that it isn’t his fault those Mortys have no self-control, thereby washing his hands of their pain. This entire situation is the justification of an evil act since Rick kidnapped those Mortys and orchestrated the entire situation they are in for his own benefit. He did this despite knowing that they will hurt themselves and even counted on that fact to ensure his own safety, which is something he said he’d never do. But since he isn’t the one actually pulling the trigger on every painful zap they experience, he cannot technically be held responsible for those Mortys’ torturous conditions.
This method of giving people free will but aiming them towards doing what he wants is fairly consistent with Rick as he basically did the same thing in the Rick and Morty episode “The Ricks Must Be Crazy.” In that episode, Rick creates an entire micro-civilization within his space ship’s battery and teaches them how to generate their own power in order to exist in a modern society all the while siphoning that energy just to power his car. This was described as ‘slavery with extra steps’ and that sentiment was proven true throughout the episode. In this Rick and Morty comic, Rick does the exact same thing with these Mortys, giving them free will while orchestrating a situation in which they will choose to do something that is bad for them but good for him–showing explicitly how Rick uses free will to justify evil.
