Bill & Ted's Most Triumphant Return is a six-issue sequel comic to Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Written by Brian Lynch for Boom! Studios.
Each issue ended with a standalone side-story by a different artist.
Tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Rufus' resistance movement lives in one in the Bad Future.
- Air Guitar:
- The duo have to tell the good robots not to do this while holding the babies.
- Future San Dimas High School teaches a class on the subject.
- Attack Drone: A load of them shoot and Bill and Ted in the Bad Future for doing an Air Guitar.
- Bad Future: De Nomolos rules Earth and most of the galaxy thousands of years in the future where nobody can die due to Death taking a holiday.
- Bar Brawl: Billy The Kid starts one because a man cussed in front of a woman.
- Bed Sheet Ghost: The duo disguise themselves as these when visiting their past selves before they meet Rufus in the first movie.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: A giant beetle attaches itself to De Nomolos' back in prehistoric times. Bill takes it off and mimes playing it like a guitar.
- Bigger on the Inside: As a nod to Doctor Who, it's mentioned that some aliens have time travelling phone booths that are bigger inside.
- Brick Joke: One of the reasons for all of it happening is that they need inspiration for their next big song. One song Bill composes in the interim is based very obviously on De Nomolos attacking them. Several pages later, a tour guide mentions that they composed several songs outside their apartment, including their one flop... "Girl (Why'd You Build Those Robots)", that exact song.
- Brought Down to Normal: Death has lost his abilities to bring people to the afterlife and resurrecting the dead since losing his job to Richie. He gets better.
- Casual Time Travel:
- Bill and Ted consulted musicians from all over history, including Jimi Hendrix when researching their song for the Battle Of The Bands.
- The gang are visited by a class of students from the future taking a field trip to meet Bill and Ted.
- Albert Einstein comes to the future to teach classes.
- Chekhov's Skill:
- At the end of Bogus Journey, Rufus mentions that De Nomolos is the 27th Century sit-up champion. Here he uses it instead of Chess with Death.
- Early on, Station is shown to be able to build a time machine. Guess how the duo escape the Bad Future.
- Like in Bogus Journey, Bill and Ted defeat De Nomolos by getting Station to build more robots.
- Chess with Death: De Nomolos does a sit-up contest with Death to get his brother, Richie the job of Death.
- Cool Teacher:
- Danitra Armijo holds her classes on the beach and takes her students on field trips to the past.
- Einstein threatens to stop teaching the class if they don't stop shunning De Nomolos, due to knowing exactly how that can turn out.
- Cover Version: A Wyld Stallyns cover band called "Wild Stallions" immediately pops up.
- Crisis Makes Perfect: Confronting De Nomolos and his army in the Bad Future finally let's Bill and Ted sing their new song they couldn't think of before.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: De Nomolos shoots Bill and Ted but they get resurrected in the next page.
- Death Takes a Holiday: Richie De Nomolos ends up Relieving the Reaper but forgets to do the Reaper's job half the time and the people he forgets about end up immortal, notably including Rufus.
- Distant Finale: Ends in the future with the Wyld Stallyns visiting De Nomolos at the Herman the Kid Rehabilitation Center and Spa.
- Dreadful Musician: De Nomolos is dreadful on the cowbell when he joins Wyld Stallyns. The comic ends with Bill and Ted mirroring Rufus in the first movie by saying he does get better.
- Egopolis: Thousands of years into the Bad Future, San Dimas has been renamed San De Nomolos. It has streets like "De Nomolos Is Stronger Than You Avenue" and "De Nomolos Set The Standard For Beauty Terrace".
- Fight Off the Kryptonite: Death gets his relinquished powers seemingly by believing he still has them.
- Friendless Background: De Nomolos had none due to his schoolmates knowing he was going to grow up and try to kill Bill and Ted.
- Future Badass:
- Ted goes to military school in the Bad Future and is now built like a tank.
- Thousands of years later Rufus (now immortal because the new Death forgot to claim him) and the old Death run a resistance movement, hiding people from De Nomolos.
- Future Loser: In the Bad Future Would Stallyns never won the contest and Rufus was fired.
- Galactic Conqueror: De Nomolos' power is said to extend far beyond Earth in the Bad Future. Might even be a Dimension Lord because his public address is called the "De Nomolos State of The Universe' Address".
- Goofy Print Underwear?
- The "Weird Underwear Guy" student steals a pair of heart-covered boxers from Bill and Ted's apartment.
- Future Loser Bill is later seen wearing similar boxers
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Billy The Kid hits a guy with one in a bar fight, luckily it doesn't break. Another man is swinging one behind Billy.
- HA HA HA—No: Teenage De Nomolos laughs happily upon meeting Bill and Ted and starting a "Wyld Stallyns Rules!" lightshow before admitting it's a distraction and trying to shoot them.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Colonel Oats asks Future Badass Ted why he giggles every time he addresses him and Ted says it's the use of the word "Private".
- Humongous Mecha: Bill and Ted have Station build two giant Bill and Ted robots called Mobile Suit Bill S. Preston Esquire and Giganto-Ted Theodore Logan.
- Immediate Sequel: It starts five seconds after The Battle Of The Bands where the movie ended.
- It Tastes Like Feet: When complaining about the bootleg taco in the Bad Future, Bill says that tacos shouldn't taste like toxic foot.
- Laser Blade: A man in the future is using laser hedge clippers.
- Laser Sight: Ted's chest having an "E.T." moment is the first sign De Nomolos is trying to kill them.
- LOL, 69: The duo take De Nomolos to Woodstock to educate him and badger him to guess the year until he reluctantly says it's 1969.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: De Nomolos steals a time machine and goes back and wins The Battle Of The Bands instead of Wyld Stallyns.
- Mugged for Disguise: The duo swipe some jackets and a hat from a stall in the future in order to blend in.
- Never Found the Body: The fact that all De Nomolos' father's victim's bodies weren't found is part of the reason he was let out of jail early.
- Next Sunday A.D.: Red complains that 2645 looks exactly the same as 1991 but then realizes their apartment has been preserved as a museum.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Bill and Ted's stories about wiping their sons from existence actually cheers Station up.
- No Body Left Behind: De Nomolos' Ray Gun leaves its victims as piles of ashes apart from the odd hat or badge.
- Noodle Incident: Richie De Nomolos is proud of the scar he has from the last time he tried to feed himself with a spoon.
- Omnibus: Got released in the Bill & Ted Omnibus trade paperback alongside Bill & Ted Go To Hell and Bill & Ted Save The Universe
- Parental Incest: Missy marries her ex-stepson, Bill in the new timeline.
- The Power of Rock: Bill and Ted finally play their new song and make the people of the future Rebel against De Nomolos.
- Relieving the Reaper: Richie De Nomos gets Death's job.
- Ret-Gone: In the Bad Future, Rufus' bosses made him take the princesses back to medieval England to marry the royal ugly dudes so Little Bill and Ted were never born.
- Retroactive Preparation: The duo decide to get Station to build them a time machine and its first use will be to go back to the aftermath of the concert so they can tell Station to start building the time machine so it'll be ready now.
- Ridiculously Successful Future Self: A future teacher says the good robot Bill and Ted are better k own as the 65th and 66th presidents of the United States.
- Sadistic Teacher: Danitra Armijo picks on teenage De Nomolos like the rest of her students.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: The bowls in De Nomolos house have "ZIGGY PIGGY" printed on them as a nod to the ice cream place from the first movie. Though there it was spelled "Zyggie piggy".
- Sand In My Eyes: The Power of Rock gets De Nomolos depressed about his ex-girlfriend, Claudia. When he's asked why he's crying, he says it's allergies.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: The gang mistake Death's scream for a woman when the apartment is invaded by future students.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: It's implied that De Nomolos being blamed as a child for his future self killing Bill and Ted is what caused him to hate them in the first place.
- Shout-Out: Claudia mentions that Rufus' idea to convert phonebooths into time machines was copied by aliens who did the same with British phone boxes and made them Bigger on the Inside.
- Stupid Future People: Under Bill and Ted's teachings, De Nomolos' mentally disabled brother Richie gets diagnosed as a genius for being nice and able to use a waterslide while genius Jerkass De Nomolos fails school.
- Super Prototype: Teenage De Nomolos made a two-headed Bill and Ted robot called Billted 1.0.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Bill and Ted end up feeling sorry for teenage De Nomolos for having no friends and teach him how to play guitar to become popular.
- Thanatos Gambit: De Nomolos kills himself so he can play Chess with Death.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: When trying to work out why Station has been in the bathroom for 12 hours, Ted guesses that it's some martian thing that man isn't meant to understand. Turns out they're working on a time machine at the request of Bill and Ted's future selves.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Time actually gets changed here when the movies were strictly Stable Time Loop.
- Tricked Out Time: Billy the Kid's going to fake his death in 1881 and travel to Las Vegas in the year 2000 where he'll change his name to Herman and run a wild west-themed wedding chapel, with it being implied that he ended up either founding or named after the Herman The Kid Rehabilitation Center and Spa.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After the duo feel sorry for De Nomolos and teach him to play guitar so he can make friends, he goes back in time and wins the Battle Of The Bands instead of them.
- Waxing Lyrical: Ted sings the Sesame Street theme to rally people against De Nomolos in the future.
- We Will All Fly in the Future: 2645 San Dumas is full of Flying Cars and jetpacks.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: This comic assumes the two movies were set in the years they were released (1989 and 1991) even though Excellent Adventure was set in 1988 and Ted's comment about the princesses celebrating their fifth year in the 20th century imply Bogus Journey to be set in 1993.
- Your Costume Needs Work:
- A kid in the future Bill and Ted museum comments on how real the Bill animatronic is.
- Another man compliments Bill and Ted's "Holo-faces".
- Later when recognised, the duo claim to be holograms, members of the Bill and Ted Reinactment Society and figments of imagination.
The ''Wyld Stallyns B-Sides" side story has examples of:
- 419 Scam: The virused email from the future mentions that a robot uncle in Nigeria has left them cool guitars.
- Air Guitar: The duo do them to celebrate their robots getting an upgrade. The now virused robots reply with an Air-filling-out-tax-return and an Air-quietly-folding-laundry-at-11pm-on-a-Friday-night.
- Art Shift: Each issue was noticibly drawn by a different artist.
- Basement-Dweller: Starts with Bill and Ted living in Missy's (I mean Mom's) basement with their robots.
- Big Red Devil: Dante sees a family of them through a window in Hell.
- Chess with Death: The duo invoke this when they decide to play chess with the robots because they think it's the only game that humans always beat computers at.
- Computer Virus: The robots get infected with one from an email from the future.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: A 14th century Italian man keeps killing himself, coming back to life after winning Chess with Death and writing about his experiences in Hell. His name turns out to be Dante.
- Demonic Possession: Einstein possesses Missy so he can drive her to school faster.
- Drives Like Crazy: Einstein drives like a madman when possessing Missy.
- Electronic Telepathy: The robots can receive emails inside their heads.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: When explaining how they got together, Captain Logan finishes with "And the rest as they say is—" and Missy finishes off with the word "History".
- Fog Feet: Einstein's ghost has the standard ghost tail.
- Funny Background Event: Two old men can be seen in the background of the 2015 computer store, one of whom is dressed the same as Bill implying they're the duo's future selves.
- The Future: The sent date on the virus email literally said "THE FUTURE".
- Glam Rock: The duo disguise themselves with this look when visiting their junior high selves so their Limited Wardrobe won't get them recognised.
- Improvised Weapon User: The princesses beat Meghan and Syd unconscious with various instruments and speakers.
- Instant Sedation: Meghan Deth and Sydney Ro use "Hypno-shreds" that put people to sleep to steal Rufus' phonebooth and start trying to hypnotize Bill and Ted into thinking they were always in Wyld Stallyns.
- It Runs on Nonsensoleum: The robots' software runs on Bill's and Ted's instead of zeros and ones.
- Kill and Replace: Meghan Deth and Sydney Ro come to kill the princesses and take their places in Wyld Stallyns.
- Limited Wardrobe: When travelling back to their junior high days, a Bully recognises the future Bill and Ted because they're wearing the same clothes as their younger selves.
- LOL, 69: When the virused robot look at Bill and Ted they see a message saying "ERROR 69: MEGADWEEBS DETECTED".
- My Brain Is Big: People in the distant future have huge, bald heads.
- No Such Thing as Space Jesus: The "Gods of Rock" that blessed Bill and Ted before their junior high battle of the bands turn out to be modern Bill and Ted from the future.
- NOT!: The book that Missy uses to summon Einstein is called GONE, NOT!.
- P.O.V. Sequel: We again see the engagement party from Bogus Journey but focusing on Missey and Captain Logan telling Colonel Oats how they met.
- Punny Name: One of the usurpers from the future is called Megan Deth, a nod to the band Megadeth.
- Religion of Evil: It's implied that demons have one as an upside down cross can be seen on a demon family's wall in Hell.
- Robo Cam: The robots see everything through a red filter with descriptive text boxes appearing beside peoples' heads and possible responses to whatever is being said to them at the bottom.
- Schizo Tech: Demon's had televisions in the 14th century.
- Sky Surfing: The people from the "shiny future" all float on thought-controlled discs.
- Spell Book: Missy's Gone, NOT! Summoners Guide. It sits in top of anot book with a pentagram on it.
- Summon Magic: Missy summons Albert Einstein's ghost while studying for her psychic exam.
- Uncertain Doom: The Evil Robot Usses appear as the sender's of the virus email. Whether they somehow survived Bogus Journey, got repaired or replaced or are sending it from a point in time before they came back to kill Bill and Ted is unknown.
- Unusual User Interface: The flying discs in the future are thought controlled.
- What Does She See in Him?: Colonel Oats is amazed that Bill and Ted managed to land women as normal as the princesses.
- Wrong Turn at Albuquerque: The boys end up in prehistoric times when Ted accidentally presses the booth's BC button instead of AD.
