As fans of Rick and Morty are aware, Rick C-137 (or the Rick viewers follow throughout the series) is the Rickest Rick of all the Ricks in the multiverse which should mean that he is the smartest out of all of his multiversal counterparts. However, one Rick and Morty comic reveals an ultimate weapon designed by one of those other Ricks, proves C-137’s genius has a huge exception.
Upon his Rick and Morty debut, Rick made it clear that he values science above all else. He's proves he is smart enough to use science to answer some of the deepest questions of the cosmos, including those that lie within the mystic arts. In Rick and Morty season 1 episode 9 “Something Ricked This Way Comes,” Rick faces off against a man named Mr. Needful who turns out to actually be the devil. Needful opened up a shop in town and was giving people cursed items, so for no other reason than to prove himself superior to the devil, Rick uses science to combat Mr. Needful’s magic and gets rid of the curses Mr. Needful placed on those objects.
In Rick and Morty #56 by Kyle Starks and Marc Ellerby, Rick and Morty venture to a specialty store run by two of their variants who sell the greatest technology across the multiverse. When they arrive, Rick and Morty are shown a suit of armor that was created by Cold War Arms Race Wizard Rick–one that combined advanced technology with mythic enchantment. A few issues later in Rick and Morty #59, that suit, known as the Hollaluog, is put into action when the villainous Peacock Jones brainwashes Morty into using the Hollaluog to kill Rick. During the fight, it becomes clear that Rick can’t defeat the suit and has to un-hypnotize Morty in order to win.
It is rare to see a piece of tech that Rick C-137 can’t get the better of given his standing as the Rickest Rick in the multiverse, though it isn’t surprising in this case due to his sole reliance on science in a universe where magic is also an option. Cold War Arms Race Wizard Rick uses both magic and science in his gadgets; this is why he's considered the greatest inventor of any Rick in the multiverse despite the fact that he isn’t the Rickest Rick. Since he doesn’t use magic, Rick is actually holding himself back from his true potential and the events in issue #59 prove that he needs to embrace both disciplines of science and magic if he hopes to be the truly unstoppable force in the multiverse that he claims to be.
The closest Rick has come to embracing magic was in the Rick and Morty season 4 episode 4 titled “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty'' where he finds himself in a magical realm of dragons and wizards. To survive, Rick harnesses the mystical energy around him and creates deadly weapons through the magic of that world, though he only did so out of necessity and never delved into the mystic arts again. However, as fans learned in these Rick and Morty comic book issues, Rick’s refusal to utilize magic in his inventions is a huge exception in his genius.
