Bill & Ted Are Doomed

One of the positive highlights of the lockdown caused by the pandemic of 2020 was getting to watch the film Bill & Ted Face the Music. My bride and I got to watch it On Demand and for a couple of brief hours, we got to forget about the world outside that was supposedly going all to heck 

2020's Bill & Ted Are Doomed is a prequel series to Bill & Ted Face the Music. Set about 8-10 years before the events of the threequel, Bill & Ted are in a rut. Stymied by the pressure of writing the song that will usher in an era of world peace, the guys have allowed their music career to slump. Wyld Stallyns are considered Mild Stallions by the music loving community and it's putting a strain on the lives of Bill and Ted.

Along with relationship woes with their princess brides, bass playing Grim Reaper is ready to quit the band and the guys are completely broke. This stagnant period of the boys' career is having drastic effects on the time stream. Without the song, not only is the future promise of international peace threatened, but so is the fabric of the entire multiverse! Hopefully, the guys can put things right with a World Tour!

Original Marvel Comics series writer Evan Dorkin returns to craft this 4-issue miniseries that gets readers and potential movie goers up to date on what's happened to Bill and Ted since we last saw them in in 1991's Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Unfortunately, life got in the way with this plan. 

Bill & Ted Face the Music debuted in August, 2020. That's exactly when issue #1 hit store shelves. That's actually about 6 months later than Dark Horse Comics originally planned to release these books. It was late March to early April when the comic book industry as a collective whole shut down new releases. Remember, a lockdown was in place and a lot of non-essential stores were forced to close. Even though I consider them essential, local, state and federal government branches didn't consider comic book stores to be all that necessary. Hence the delay.

I enjoyed this book. It captured the franchise very well. Okay, maybe too well. The ridiculously verbose talk of Bill and Ted got a little bit annoying at the end. But I loved the silliness of the whole thing and Death's banter and annoyance at everybody was just perfect. And all those Easter eggs of things to come in Face the Music! So fun!

 If you are familiar with Evan Dorkin's original Bill and Ted run or his magnum opus Milk and Cheese, then you know that he's a master of madcap mayhem. However, I feel like Dorkin was trying to stuff 5 pounds of story into a 4 pound container. 

Characters that aren't even in the threequel are given a lot of unneeded extra attention. Plus there's one scene in which the symbiotic duo Station are looking sadly at the night sky that just doesn't go anywhere. I felt sad for Station, figuring that they miss their home world. Yet, they don't return there. I probably would have blown this minor scene off had Evan Dorkin not included a sketch of it in the artist notes in the back of the book. But with it's conclusion, I sure did feel bummed that Station doesn't get a happy ending. 

While it was great to get more insight into the progression of Bill and Ted from their bogus journey to their third adventure, this miniseries was a tad uneven and at times over the top to a point of discomfort.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.