With the Bill and Ted Face the Music movie still in pre-production, let’s make time now for a look at the Boom! studios comic from 2017, “Bill & Ted Save the Universe”. Previous columns have looked at “Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Return” (from 2015), along with the side stories in each issue. (I will not look at “Bill & Ted Go To Hell” from 2016 here, because there’s almost no time travel. The plot involves Napoleon trying to take over the afterlife. The only relevant piece is that Charles “Chuck” De Nomolos is now living in the present and married to Missy.) Moving onwards, what happens in this five issue set?
STALLYNS IN SPACE
After one page captioned “The Planet Bolgrev”, where we see Wyld Stallyns music being played, we cut to our heroes. They’re running through a castle from Vlad the Impaler, accompanied by Bram Stoker (“Stroker-Dude”). Apparently Dracula did not approve of Bram’s manuscript. Stuck in a dead end, Bill tells Ted they’ll need to come back later and loosen the chandelier; sure enough, it then falls on Vlad, and they escape.
They find Rufus next to their phone booth. He says they’ll go to 1896 (incidentally just before Dracula is published), but Vlad is still chasing them, and when he hitches a ride, it throws off the trajectory. They end up in San Dimas, 1994. Bill and Ted charge into their house after Vlad – and it was all a ruse. Everyone they’ve met through time is there (in a two page spread), to celebrate the five year anniversary of them passing the history exam (from the movies).
Also present are their fathers, and Deacon, Ted’s little brother. Deacon grudgingly congratulates them on their successful band, and introduces them to his girlfriend Sheena. Death is also there, introducing them to his girlfriend Fate. It’s as Rufus is leaving, saying he figured they’d want a big final adventure (the Dracula stuff) before what’s to come, that Rufus, Bill and Ted are beamed up into space. Along with Sheena. Who is an alien.
Their absence is remarked on after the party wraps up, but only Death considers this unusual for the two. He takes the phone booth ahead in time to try and learn the outcome. Meanwhile, IN SPACE, head enforcement officer Glurm, of the metagalactic fleet, says that he abducted Bill and Ted out of concern that Wyld Stallyns music is interfering with natural evolution on other planets. Rufus counters angrily that he’s from the future, and things aren’t supposed to be happening this way.
Issue one culminates with Bill and Ted pressing a big red button to escape, Sheena saying that she’s actually the escort for their Galactic Decade Tour (which Rufus knew about), and Bill and Ted’s biological mothers arriving in their own space ship.
TIME TRIAL
Issue two shows us Brenda Preston meeting Tamalyn Logan, before a flash forward to Bill and Ted. They thought their real moms were elsewhere on Earth. After escaping Glurm by playing music that Bill and Ted haven’t written yet (over Rufus’ objection), the mothers explain. In 1986, a guy showed up and took Brenda and Tammy into the future, revealing the destiny of their sons. He told them to spread Wyld Stallyns music, in advance of their Galactic Tour.
The fact that Rufus knew the tour was coming makes Bill and Ted feel like they’ve been melvined – they don’t want to leave their wives and sons for ten years. As Bill and Ted try to reason with their moms, Rufus goes behind everyone’s backs to talk to the Head of The Council – the Wyld Stallyns Tour is supposed to be sanctioned, not a cloak-and-dagger rebellion, and Rufus wants history to be on its proper course. Meanwhile, Glurm grabs Bill’s and Ted’s fathers, along with Deacon, for assistance.
Bill and Ted are put through a trial that Rufus thinks they’ll ace, given their ability to see temporal opportunities (like the chandelier with Vlad). Except the station they’re on is powered by a quantum singularity, which prevents any time travel hijinks. Fortunately, heading into issue three, Bill and Ted use music to win the day. The “space toaster” of The Council thus rules in their favour, to the annoyance of Glurm when he arrives.
The big family reunion is not a happy one though. Deacon in particular learns he lost his mother (and his girlfriend) on account of the Wyld Stallyns band. When the mothers don’t want to return to Earth either, Deacon storms off – later to be recruited by Glurm. Worse, after a preliminary concert, Bill considers doing the tour (bringing their loved ones along), while Ted thinks that’s no way to start a family. Creating a rift in the band.
Issue four becomes a blowout between all the main characters, Rufus at one point declaring “I’m only on one side… history’s”. What brings them together is realizing that Deacon is missing, last seen with Glurm. They fight their way in to see the “space toaster” again, who discovers Glurm’s ship is off course, headed for Earth.
FINAL REVEAL
On said ship, Deacon comes across Glurm going over dossiers of everyone who’s still on Earth. Deacon tries to warn Ted, but is prevented. When Deacon arrives at Bill and Ted’s house, having been possessed by Glurm, he takes over everyone else too – except Missy, who’s escaped with little Bill and Ted. In issue five, Bill’s dad (along with Rufus) then locate Missy, thanks to her psychic abilities spiking.
Elsewhere, issue five has Bill and Ted with their moms charging into a trap, as Ted’s dad coordinates an intergalactic fleet. Deacon/Glurm monologues after springing the trap, explaining why he doesn’t trust them, and Bill and Ted decide to surrender to ensure the safety of everyone else. Deacon’s role having been served, Glurm backhands him away – right into the phone booth, as Death has finally arrived from the past.
Deacon and the booth go back to 1986. Fate meets him there, telling Deacon that he is now the most important person in the universe. He can fulfil universal peace, by becoming the person who reveals Bill and Ted’s destiny to their mothers, setting everything in motion… or do nothing, and have a different childhood. Deacon elects to keep history on course, much like Rufus before.
Moreover, we now see an older Deacon working behind the scenes with Glurm’s authorization codes, as well as telling Brenda and Tammy they’ll one day need to counteract a particle transmission scrambler. Which returns us to the present, as Bill and Ted are rescued from the scrambler by their mothers. Glurm’s subsequent attempt to open fire on San Dimas is thwarted by the arrival of Captain Logan’s fleet, and Glurm is captured thanks to Bill’s dad and Missy’s psychic abilities.
In the end, the Galactic Tour will be accomplished by holographic transmission, largely thanks to what Deacon had the mothers working on for five years, and Rufus congratulations Ted’s brother on “some fine paradoxing”. Rufus also learns from the future Supreme Beings that his role had been deliberately hidden from him, so everything is as it should be.
IN SUMMARY
The story was by Brian Joines, with the books illustrated by Bachan and coloured by Alex Guimaraes, all three names appearing on the cover. That said, the cover art itself was done by Derek Charm (and the banner above was from the second issue). Personally, I have a preference for those covers, but then, some of the interior panels were great too; almost every issue ended with a full page scene before the “To Be Totally Continued”.
As far as the characterizations go, it felt accurate to the characters we know – Bill thinking more with his head, and Ted with his heart. Many of the Earth characters (the princesses, the robots, De Nomolos) were relegated to the background, with the secondary focus being on Rufus and the parents of Bill & Ted. (I noticed Bill’s mom seemed the more proactive of the two mothers.) I saw no problem with this, and it was nice that Glurm’s motivations made sense in context too. The plotting was also clever, having the early throwaway line about “the guy in 1986” becoming relevant at the end.
Speaking of, while there wasn’t a lot of actual time travel in the comic, it dealt with the theme in a couple different ways. First, there was the issue of Rufus being from the future, trying to “preserve [his] history”. One might wonder why he thought things were changing, since (aside from the first comic series) predestination seems to be how things work in the Bill and Ted universe. Perhaps De Nomolos offing Bill and Ted in the second movie provides a precedent? At any rate, from Rufus’ arc, we see how it may be necessary to feed someone misinformation (or omit information) about their role in history. Related, Death could only observe the future outcome by becoming part of it.
The second way the comic handled the theme was obviously the role of Deacon. He wasn’t lied to, like Rufus – but in the end, did he really have a choice? His decision was framed as “the good of the many over the good of the one”, which is hard to go against. I find it can also be looked at as “a known quantity versus the unknown”; after all, if Deacon hadn’t said anything, might his childhood have been unpleasant regardless, merely in a different way? I suppose we’ll never know, because of the predestination.
Perhaps you have some thoughts on the matter? In particular, was Deacon’s work really a “paradox”, as Rufus implied in the end? Is predestination by itself a paradox? And just when will they go back to handle the chandelier? There’s some food for thought, as we “party on”. Thanks for reading, and please do let me know your opinion, if you have the time.
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