Soldier Boys

"Soldier Boys" is the forty-first comic issue, which was released 4 February, 2009 in the US.

Act I
The Planet Express staff head to Mars act as councillors at Kappa Kappa Wong's annual summer camp in exchange for Cubert and Dwight's free admission. They soon find out that Zapp is also there running a DOOP cadet training simulation, which the boys imediately sign up for. Strangely, Zapp and Kif act like they don't recognise Leela and Amy, which results in Leela obsessing about it and keeping Fry up all night. Bender has learned that his fraternity brothers have been doing good deeds and heads off to re-educate them on the true meaning of fraternity life. The kids have a tough day of training, and after a quick chat with his commander, Zapp joins the cadets for a drink. By dinner time, Leela is still obsessing and the children are also under his spell.

Act II
The next night Bender leads the bots on a failed night of pranks, which ends with the discovery that, due to low military recruitments, Nixon is planning to send the children, brainwashed with his drink, into battle. After Bender tells her, Leela rushes off in her nightgown to stop Zapp, but is captured by Nixon who has her tied up in Zapp's cabin. With out anyone to stop it from happening, the children begin boarding the Nimbus. Zapp heads back to find his lucky girdle and sees the "stalker lady" tied to a chair, after being untied she decides to shock Zapp back to normal. A short time later, they get dressed and run off to attempt to stop Nixon. Unfortunately they are forced to board the ship as well. Luckily, the engine fails to start because Oily and Fatbot have stuck one of Guenter's genetically engineered mega-bananas in the tail pipe. Kif arrives with Amy to arrest Nixon for treason. Nixon is impressed by the battle 'bots he has with him and Nixon strikes up a deal with Mom to use them to solve his recruitment problems.

Trivia

 * During Leela's ranting about Zapp, she notes that their one night stand was 2879 days ago, with "Love's Labours Lost in Space" ending on the 13th of April 3000, this comic occurs around the first of March 3008.
 * Gearshift has been replaced in Epsilon Rho Rho by several other robots.

Goofs

 * Promotional material for this issue refers to Dwight as "Dean".
 * While correct on the cover, Nixon's robot body is incorrectly coloured orange throughout the issue.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Cubert Farnsworth
 * Dwight Conrad
 * Fatbot
 * Fry
 * Guenter
 * Hermes
 * Kif
 * Debut: Kim Jong-il's head
 * Leela
 * Mom
 * Nixon
 * Oily
 * Debut: Pickler
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Zapp
 * Zoidberg

Comic Credits

 * Script
 * Eric Rogers
 * Pencils
 * John Delaney
 * Inks
 * Dan Davis
 * Colors
 * Nathan Kane
 * Letters
 * Karen Bates
 * Editor
 * Bill Morrison