Comic Book

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is a comic book that Stuart discovers on his journey through different universes. The first comic appears to have been planted by Stuart Prime. It recounts Stuart’s involvement in the multiverse catastrophe, offers instructions for continuing his mission and includes a mail-order advertisement for a quantum device. Stuart Prime later supplies another copy when Stuart needs a replacement machine.

A comic titled Stuart Fails to Save the Universe TRAPPED! subsequently appears with Stuart and his companions imprisoned in its pages. A mysterious entity known as the Adversary instructs Kyle and Trevor to keep the group captive by refusing to sell the comic.

104 “Spoiler: Stuart Makes a Wallet”

In a seemingly idyllic suburban reality, Stuart has been discharged from a psychiatric hospital after accepting that his memories of other universes were delusions. Although he is a celebrated artist in this world, he is drawn to the Comic Center of Pasadena while out walking.

Inside, Stuart instinctively settles a comic book debate between Kyle and Trevor before discovering Stuart Fails to Save the Universe on a shelf. Its cover depicts him holding the quantum device, surrounded by Denise, Bert and Kripke. As Stuart takes the comic to the counter, Stuart Prime emerges from the back of the store, watches him and disappears through a wormhole without being seen.

Back home, Stuart retreats to the bathroom to read the comic in private. With Stuart Prime narrating, it explains that Leonard, Sheldon and Howard constructed the quantum device at Caltech. Stuart visited to share the news of his clean colonoscopy and accidentally knocked the machine from a table, entangling himself with the fate of the universe.

The comic revisits messages that Stuart missed in earlier realities, calling him a “big dope” for failing to notice them. It promises further instructions once he escapes his current prison. On the back cover, Stuart discovers a mail-order advertisement for a vari-state quantum entanglement device that promises to transport its owner to an alternate reality.

Stuart orders the machine and activates it after it arrives. He and his companions awaken in pods in a scene from The Matrix, discovering that their suburban lives were just an illusion. Realizing that this new setting is also manufactured, Stuart tears through its fabric, reaching a vast white space where the group finds the original quantum device and uses it to escape.

106 “Spoiler: Corn is Delicious”

In the reality where humans evolved from cows, Stuart and Denise decide to put down roots and give their quantum device to Bert and Kripke. Stuart Prime confronts them at the comic book store, insisting that Stuart’s connection to the multiverse catastrophe makes him the only person capable of resolving it.

When Stuart points out that he no longer has the machine, Stuart Prime offers him a copy of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe and tells him to order another. Stuart questions how another device can exist, prompting Stuart Prime to question how their own conversation can even be happening. Unpersuaded, Stuart declares that he is finished with the mission and storms away.

After a change of heart, Stuart commits to the mission and orders the replacement. Its instruction manual describes it as a quantum echo that will merge with the original machine when activated. Stuart and Denise use it to reach Bert and Kripke, who are stranded between universes. The replacement merges with the original device, allowing Stuart and his companions to continue their journey.

108 “Spoiler: We’re as Confused as You Are”

After taking an improved quantum device from their lab-coated doubles, Stuart and his companions use it to escape the war-torn reality. In another version of the comic book store, Kyle and Trevor receive instructions from the Adversary, a swirling entity of black tendrils with a glowing orange center.

The Adversary announces that the group’s forward progress has been stopped and orders Kyle and Trevor to keep them there. On a nearby display, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe TRAPPED! depicts Stuart and his companions on its cover, now imprisoned in ink. When Kyle asks what to do if someone wants to buy the comic, the Adversary tells them not to sell it. Trevor asks what they should say, prompting the instruction: “You tell them it’s not for sale.”

On the cover, the cartoon version of Kripke moves his mouth as he asks where they are. Stuart’s mouth then moves as he replies, ‘I’m gonna guess wherever we are, we’re trapped.’ All four of them then look up at the comic book’s title.

This page has been updated up to episode 108 Spoiler: We're as Confused as You Are