Throughout the multiversal adventures of Rick and Morty, the titular characters have encountered a number of dangerous threats, including that of Rick himself, but surprisingly, none have been so great as the smartest Jerry. Jerry is Morty’s father and Rick’s son-in-law, but most fans know him as the constant screw up whose idiocy and cowardice consistently puts the Smith family in danger. In an alternate universe, however, one Jerry stands above the rest as the smartest of them all, and while that doesn’t mean too much on the surface when compared to Rick, the smartest Jerry’s actions made him Rick and Morty’s greatest threat.
In Rick and Morty Presents: The Council of Ricks #1 by Jake Goldman, Marc Ellerby and Phil Murphy, fans are given the full story behind the Council of Ricks and how it formed. Their story began with a call to action, with each Rick who would become members of the Council of Ricks being recruited to thwart an evil plan created by a mysterious threat. Clones of influential Ricks across the Citadel were being made to replace the original Ricks, with the person creating them lurking in the shadows, ready to take over once his plan was complete. That evil mastermind is none other than the smartest Jerry.
While initially threatening, Jerry proves to be pretty easy to defeat once he is exposed. However, by the time the Ricks found out about what he was up to, the damage was already done, though not in the way fans might expect. The Ricks track down and kill every single one of the Rick clones, including and especially the Prime Minister of the Citadel who ruled with complete autonomy at the time. When he was killed, the Ricks responsible for taking down the clones took power for themselves, creating the Council of Ricks and thus becoming Rick C-137’s greatest enemies.
While the smartest Jerry was responsible for creating Rick’s greatest enemies, the threat he created was fairly short-lived in terms of canonical appearances. The Council of Ricks only appeared a couple of times throughout the series before being murdered by the Rickest Rick in Rick and Morty season 3 episode 1. However, all the time before that episode and after this comic storyline was filled with conflict between Rick and the Council, conflict that wouldn’t have existed without Jerry.
If it wasn’t for Jerry, the members of the Council of Ricks would have never come together to form the evil governmental system that the Rickest Rick fought so hard to destroy. Since that has been revealed to be the case, Rick and Morty proves that the titular characters’ greatest threat was never a Rick, but the smartest Jerry.
