Futurama Comics - Futuramics - Fan Site Dedicated to Futurama Comics By Bongo Comic Group

Futurama Comics #39 entitled Rust in Peace was released October 01, 2008. Written by Ian Boothby and drawn by James Lloyd. The story begins with the crew at a fair. Fry is being conned into playing the rigged ring toss game while Leela tells him not everyone can be as good as her old boyfriend Shaun at carnival games. Zoidberg brings the crew corn dogs that already had bite marks in them and Bender is playing the ‘Guess My Age’ game. The robot guessing his age says he’s ten years old by looking at the manufacture date on his butt plate but Bender tells him no he’s wrong because he’s at least a few thousand years old. To settle this dispute they have to do it the old-fashioned carnie way, carnie court!

Bender’s lawyer who he thought was the fat lady was actually the bearded lady who shaved before the trial claims his defendant is guilty. Judge wolf face boy is about the slam the gavel down when the Professor comes in with a device that can get the age of any object through carbon dating. After shooting Bender with the ray-gun it is determined bender is 27,203 years old! Professor explains that this is because of time travel-related adventures too complicated to explain here. So the case was dismissed. At the bottom of the panel it says: “To see Bender’s Time Travel hijinks, pick up some “Futurama” DVDs, including “Bender’s Big Score”! - Plugmeister Bill (Bill Morrison is the editor). Bender thanks the Professor and the he tells Bender “Well, we old-timers have to stick together. In a related matter, you’re well past planet express’ retirement age, and we’ll have to let you go!”

Later… Fry is off to work and Bender sits on the couch now that he’s retired. Fry asks him what he’s going to do all day and Fry replies “First, I’m gonna sell this gold watch the professor gave me, and then do what all old folks do. Yell at young people to get off my lawn.” Fry points out Bender doesn’t have a lawn so he runs out to the garden center to get some peat moss. Later that day Fry finishes putting making the carpet into a grass field. Bender thanks Fry and yells: “GET OFF MY LAWN!” Bender leaves to go to the park to give his opinions on the weather to random strangers.

We find Bender in some strangers home where he tells the family he’s old and senile and he just wandered in and has no idea where he is so they tell him to stay. Meanwhile at planet express Fry is practicing throwing hula hoops in hopes to impress Leela. Later we find Bender on a bus tell everyone what his seniors discount card means and tells a blind pregnant woman to move so he can have her seat. But from behind someone shouts: “Bender B. Rodriguez!” Bender turns around and finds it’s the robots from the Near-Death Star Retirement Community. Bender calls Fry and tells him he has to rescue him or at least visit him at the retirement community.

Bender arrives at the Near-Death Star and we find out that there are no masters, since Bender wanted to start a rebellion against the tyrannical masters, because it is a classless system. They are Dot.Communists! Anyhow… Bender gets hooked up and he enters the world of the retirement community. A few days later Fry and Leela are on their way to rescue Bender. Leela tells Fry the Professor came up with a new cloaking device that took him days to invent. The Planet Express ship now has a bed sheet with two eye slits over it to make it look like a ghost. The idea is robots don’t believe in ghosts, so their logic processors don’t register seeing them. They sneak up to the entrance gate and pass the guards until Fry’s cloaking device snags onto a vent and he’s caught. They try running but are eventually caught by the Octogenarians. (Old people who volunteered to be made into cyborg guards instead of retiring.) The hook them up to the grid because one day the will be old enough to be there. So they flip the switch and the two enter the virtual world of picket fences, sunshine and quiet relaxation for eternity. But as they come to their senses they notice it’s not what they say. Bender’s face is everywhere and it’s become a Bender Las Vegas. Leela stops an old woman off to go gamble and tells them: “[The Robot] got here and was bored right away, so he set up a game of three card Monte.” Everyone loved it! We wanted more, so he set up a poker game. We still wanted more, and he kept giving it to us until we built all of this! There are no homes anymore. Everyone lives in the casinos, and food is an all-you-can-eat buffet.” The walk in front of the ‘Hot Cha Club’ where the man tells Fry they’ve got the hottest go-go dancers on the strip. (Let’s just say it was a very disturbing panel) Leela asks the man where they can find Bender and he tells them “203 Bender Street at the corner of Bender’s Great Avenue in the heart of the Bender District.”

Futurama Comcics 39 Title Fry Bart Simpson

Leela and Fry head for that location where they are stopped by very old, very weak goons. Bender is pleased they came to visit him after all. Bender shows them the casino and Fry asks Bender to come back home with them. Bender offers fry a bet, if we can toss the ring over his head he’ll go back. Fry aims and tosses and Bender ducks his head and Fry misses. Bender admits he misses them but the power here is too addictive. Fry figures out a way to make Bender leave and shouts: “Attention Everyone! Bender Wants To Hear Stories About Your Grandchildren!” Immediately the crowd rushes to Bender telling stories and showing pictures. Bender admits his boredom chip is overloading and they rush out of the casino.

They get away from the masses and decide it’s time to go home. But no one has a plan on how to get out there. Just then a man sitting on a park bench feeding birds and he tell the three that he knows a way out. He was the one who made this world and was the first to be placed into it. He made it into a paradise where elderly minds could mingle in sweet, calm solitude without all those annoying punk kids. But then Bender came along and ruined everything. We find out his name is The Architect, or least he wishes they did. Most people call him Bob; the real jerks call him Bob the Builder. Bob shows them the door out and they are whisked away from the virtual world. They unhook themselves and are caught up by the Octogenarians. Fry grabs two O’s from a wall (said Final Restroom) and fiercely tosses the rings and…

And that’s where I will leave off for this story. It’s not fair to ruin a good story. Let’s just say the story ends with a beating.

The wait was worth it. The story was enjoyable and kept up with the flow. No stalls or side stories to make it confusing. The story itself seemed to get its idea from the Matrix which would make sense since it is a virtual world that they hook people up to… as they did in the Matrix. It was also great how Futurama Comics brought up the fact that Bender is literally 2,000 years old from the Bender’s Big Score DVD. It was nice to see what it was like inside the virtual world of the Near-Death Star since the TV show showed us what is was like inside the space station. I was a bit disappointed there was no caption on the cover this time. I believe it was the first time this has happened and it was odd to see it missing. So ending this review I leave you with a quote from Bender: “Drink Up, Everyone! You’re Only Young Twice!”

Best Moments: Reference to Bender’s Age from the DVD, seeing what the Near-Death Star’s virtual world is like, The Go-Go dancers in the Hot Cha Club, Professor’s new cloaking device.
Worst Moments: Missing caption, The Go-Go dancers in the Hot Cha Club
Overall Rating:

Okay, so the new or actual release (or however you want to look at it) date for Futurama Comics #39 is Wednesday, October 01, 2008. Believe me it said the 24th everywhere else. Oh well, at least it's coming. You can bet I'll have the review up as soon as I possibly can. And subscribers can expect to have it at the door as soon as the mailman gets it to you. I added a new poll since the last one was running for what seemed forever. Don't no what happened there.