The Amazing World of Gumball Vol. 3: Recipe for Disaster is the third graphic novel of The Amazing World of Gumball comics. It was released on May 9th, 2017.[1]
Synopsis
When Darwin and Richard threaten to defeat Bobert in the Annual Elmore Bake-Off, it will take everything Gumball, Anais, and Nicole have to stop them – or risk an apocalyptic cyber-future where food is outlawed!
Darwin and Richard love the Annual Elmore Bake-Off, and this year, they finally remembered to sign up. But when Gumball from the future travels back in time to warn Anais and present-day Gumball of the repercussions of beating current champion Bobert, they're faced with a choice: let Darwin and Mr. Dad follow their dreams... or save the world.
Plot
SPOILER AHEAD! Important details about the plot or story are up ahead |
As the sun rises on a fresh Saturday morning, Gumball is unexpectedly awoken by his alarm clock. Before he even has a chance to shut it off Darwin leaps out of his bowl, excitedly getting ready for the day. Annoyed at being woken up, Gumball asks his brother why he's awake so early on a Saturday morning. Darwin explains that today is an important day, before a tired and annoyed looking Anais walks in and asks him with dread if it's the sign-ups for the Annual Elmore Bake-Off have begun. Waiving off her and Gumball's distate for the event, he hurries downstairs and wakes up his father, and the two hurriedly eat breakfast, The two are excited to finally sign up for the baking event, as they've missed the chance to do so years prior. Joining the rest of the family, an annoyed Nicole asks what the two are waiting for and to go and sign up before it's too late. They obey, hurying into town. Meanwhile, Nicole sits on the sofa with Gumball and Anais, the three complaining about the event and how annoying it is that the town pretty much shuts down for it.
In the middle of town Darwin and Richard succesfully sign up for the event, much to their delight. As they discuss what desert to bake they bump into a crowd, who are watching Bobert peforming a live muffin baking demonstration. Explaining how important it is to follow the recipe and measurements very accurately and precisely, he bakes the perfect muffins. Once the demonstration finishes Darwin asks if Bobert has entered the competion. He has, and according to his calculations he believes that he is almost certain to win. Richard, having eaten one of Bobert's muffins, is blown away and insists Darwin try one as well. He does, and agrees they are delcious. Bobert admits that, though they have recieved a lot of praise he is unable to taste them himself due to being a robot, though he doesn't care as he enjoys baking and is determined to win this years competition. Packing up his stuff he walks away, leaving Darwin doubting if he and his father can beat him. Though Richard tries to reassure him, Mr Robinson and Miss Simian inform them that Bobert has won three years in a row and that they stand absolutely no chance. Terrified, they decide to practice.
Back home the two prepare to make a practice desert. Wanting to try some of it once it's done, Gumball asks if he can help them as assisstant chef. Darwin is reluctant at the idea as Gumball doesn't seem to be taking the bake off that seriously, but his father decides to give him a chance and akss him to clean the utensils for them. He excitedly agrees, determined to prove his skills. Richard, meanwhile, finds the recipe they intend to use for the bake. Granny Jojo's Famous Family Recipe for Rhubarb Pie. Excited to see the recipe, Gumball attempts to jump down from the stool that he is stood on, only to slip and cause an avalanche of utensils and ingredients to fall to the floor. Frustrated, Darwin and Richard decide to kick him out of the kitchen. Though disapppointed, he agrees on the condition that he can try all of their practice deserts. Now prepared to begin baking, Darwin puts an apron on.
Meanwhile, Gumball heads over to the sofa where Anais is sat working on a laptop. After complaining about being kicked out, Gumball looks over at her computer screen with interest and asks what she's doing. She explains that she's coding an artificail intelligence program for fun to be used as the brain for a robot. Gumball asks if she instead wants to play cards or watch TV, but she rejects both ideas. She feels bad when she sees how bored he is without Darwin, however, so closes the lid of her laptop and offers to go to the park with him. He agrees, hoping to take his mind off the bake off.
Reaching the park the two are annoyed to find that it is just as full as the town with people preparing for and promoting the bake off, The two sit on a bench, frustrated at the lack of stuff to do at the moment. They are confused, however, when they hear zapping and clanking behind them. Curious, they go to investigate, and are terrified when they discover a shadowy figure stood in a purple smog being emitted from a rectangular machine. The smog soon clears, revealing a taller, cyborg looking version of Gumball wearing a metallic looking backward baseball cap. He explains that the device before him is a time machine, and that he is Gumball's future self. Anais doesn't believe him and asks him to prove it, which he does by revealing that his past self ate a potato chip off the ground earlier when he thought no one was looking. Present Gumball admits this to be true, confirming this future Gumball to be genuine. Present Gumball asks his future self why he's come back in time to Elmore Park, and he explains that he's here to change the future. In his timeline Bobert lost the bake off to Darwin and Richard and, unable to understand how his perfectly made food could have possibly lost, reprogrammed himself and became a ruthless dictator. Banning all delicous food in Elmore, he forced the citzens of Elmore to follow a diet of his own bland tasting synthesised person fuel. In order to fix this Gumball helped Darwin and Anais build a time machine so he could go back in time and ensure Bobert wins the bake off. If he succeeds, this horrible timeline should cease to exist. Future Gumball can't stay too long without risking a time paradox, however, so tasks present Gumball and Anais with saving the future for him, to which they agree.
Hearing his time machine ding and announce it's readiness to depart, he waves his past self and Anais goodbye and goes to return to the future. Though due to not looking where he's going, he trips and falls backward through the time portal. In doing so he drops and damages the time machine, causing the portal to the future to become stuck wide open. As present Gumball and Anais are took weak to move the time machine, they quickly cover the portal up with a bunch of tree branches and hope that it'll be okay.
Back home, Darwin and Richard finish a meringue together and confess how much they're enjoying bonding together as Gumball and Anais stand and watch, guiltridden at what they're going have to do. As the two decide to finally move on to pies Anais offers to help her dad with the ingredients list, only to secretely throw away ingredients and utensils. Gumball meanwhile tries and fails to convince Darwin to drop out of the bake off. Richard, reading over the list, realises that he doesn't know what the secret ingredient is, as Granny Jojo refuses to tell him it until he's ready to complete his baking. Darwin encourages his father to go to Granny Jojo's now to prove that he is now finally worthy, and offers to go along with him. He agrees, and the two leave. Gumball and Anais sit on the sofa and attempt to brainstorm ideas, only to be interrupted by their mother returning home. They attempt to act as if nothing is wrong. but she's knows they are lying because of all the 'weirdos downtown'. Asking what she means, she decides to shown them whilst they explain the situation to her on the way.
Arriving at the park, the siblings are shocked to find future versions of various Elmore citizens walking around due to the time portal that was left open. They realize that if they don't do something soon Elmore will be completely invaded and clogged up by all of these alternate versions of the citizens of the town. Luckily for them, Nicole has a plan. Meanwhile, Richard and Darwin arrive at Granny Jojo's house. They greet her, though she already knows why they have come. In order to prove themselves she makes them do various chores such as finding the TV remote in the sofa, giving her a kiss on the cheek, finishing her scrapbooks and making her tea. After Darwin explains how much this means to Richard, she finally relents and whispers the secret ingredient to him. After excitedly informing his Dad of the news, the two head to the store for ingredients.
Back at the park Nicole tries to convince Mr Small and Rocky to not allow the alternate citizens to sign up for the bake off. Mr Small explains, however, that as they still citzens of Elmore they are completely eligible to sign up just like everyone else. Nicole tries to refute this, only for her, Gumball and Anais to be trampled by the crowd of alternate citizens and carried out of the par. As they clean themselves off, Anais notices Richard and Darwin heading to the supermarket. Gumball, Anais and Nicole follow, determined to stop them. Darwin bumps into Bobert, who again insists that he has a 99.99% chance of winning. Dariwn tries to convince him otherwise, but he refuses to listen and walks away. Even more determined to win, Darwin and RIchard head to gather more ingredients. Meanwhile Gumball, Anais and Nicole enter the store to find it full of alternate dimenion/timeline citizens. Searching around Nicole finally spots Richard and Darwin heading into the snack aisle. As they head toward the aisle, however, their two targets split up. Gumball quickly devises a plan; he and Anais will go and reason with Darwin whilst Nicole goes after Richard.
Tracking down Darwin, Gumball and Anais attempt to talk with Darwin. They are unable to hear each other, however, due to the loudness of the instrument citizens walking and talking around them. Gumball steals a shopping cart from Felicty and usea it to ram through the citizens and get to Darwin. They try to explain the situation, only to be interrupted by Betty reporting Gumball's actions to Donut Cop. He and Anais escape, deciding to go and find Nicole to ee if she managed to get to their Dad. She has, and is driving him out of the store in a forklift. Donut Cop catches up to the three of them, however, and kicks them all out of the store,
Back home Richard and Darwin begin a baking montage, baking their first rhubarb pies. Gumball, Anais and Nicole arrive home, but are too late to stop them as the two pies are already complete. Gumball tries to destroy the pies but is restrained by Richard. He asks Anais to do it, but she cannot bring herself to do so. Richard demands to know what is going on, and so Gumball, Anais and Nicole finally explain the situation to him and Darwin. They initially deny anyyhing is wrong, only accepting the three are telling the truth when they look out of the window and see alternate versions of themselves outside. Disappointed, the family sit down and discuss the situation. After trying Richard and Darwin's pie the rest of the family are awestruck by how delicous it is, and thus refuse to allow Darwin and Richard to forfeit the bake off. They instead try to come up with a plan that will allow them to both win the bake off and stop Bobert at the same time. It is then that Anais remembers the robot AI program she was working on earlier...
The next the day the family arrive at the bake off with a plan. As Darwin and Richard enter the competion and begin baking their pie, Anais takes out her laptop and begins work on a robot taste bud program, as Gumball sits next to and waits impatiently for her to finish. Once she finishes she transfers the program onto a USB drive which she gives to Gumball to plug into Bobert. Over at the judging tables Richard and Darwin bring their pie over and place it next to Bobert's cake. Bobert is unimpressed, and boasts about the visual arrangement of his cake, before an alternate version of Tony brushes past and ruins one of the cake's decorations. Furious, Bobert begins to transform and reprogram himself, just like in Future Gumball's timeline.
Gumball enters the judging area, only to rush over horrified when he sees Bobert. The latter begins to destroy the other contestants entries, though as he goes to destroy Darwin and Richard's pie Gumball runs in front of it and begs him to spare it. In the process he acidentally drops the USB containing Anais' program. He almost manages to convince Bobert to back down, until he asks him to try the pie. As he cannot do this, Bobert ignores Gumball's pleas and goes to destroy the pie. He stops, however, when he feels something get plugged into him. It is Darwin, hurriedly picking up and plugging in the USB. As Bobert downloads the new program, Darwin explains that it will alow him to scan any food and find out exactly how it tastes. He asks to try Richard and Darwin's pie, to which they agree. He is completely awestruck by how delicous the pie is and asks what the secret ingredient is. Though it's meant to be a family secret, they agree to tell him as these are very special circumstances. It turns out that the secret ingredient...is love.
Bobert is confused, but admits defeat and declares that their pie should be the winner. The judges agree, due to it being one of the only surviving deserts and stopping Bobert, and declare it the winner of the bake off. The entire family celebrates, before Future Gumball interrupts them with his sudden reappearance. He explains that he messed up and was stuck between dimensions for a few hours, and only just managed to escape again due to the time portal being left open. Present Gumball points out that he let a whole bunch of alternate citizens out as well, but his future self explains that if they all go back through the portal again they should end up back where they all belong. The only issue is that the time machine is still broken, and thus the portal still cannot be closed. Darwin assures him that Anais should be able to fix it but she doubts she can do it on her own as, even though it was created by her future self, the device's technology is beyond her current understanding. She would need someone who is really good with technology to help her with it. Everyone looks up toward Bobert, who greets them confused.
Darwin suggests that to pay everyone back for ruining the bake off, Bobert could look over Anais' notes and help her fix the time machine. He agrees as he is experiencing what he understands to be guilt and thus wishes to make things right again. Once the time machine is fixed, Future Gumball gathers all of the alternate citizens and they head to the park to return home. Meanwhile present Gumball asks Darwin and Richard to not enter the bake off again next year as he doesn't think he could handle another event like this. They assure him they have no intention of doing so as they have already won and thus are happy. Richard, however, suggests other things they could try such as the county fair, the Elmore Craft fair or a beauty peagent.
Hours later, over in the park, the time portal finaly zips shut as everyone has now returned back home. Everyone that is, except for a confused half-crystalline looking Idaho who wonders where everyone has gone. Shrugging it off, he happily takes a bite of his cupcake.
A Pie for a Pie
In a flashback story of Richard's childhood, a young Joanna takes him down to the market early in the morning to buy the ingredients she needs to teach him her famous Rhubarb Pie recipe before the annual bake-off. She is shocked, however, to find that nearly off the rhubarb stalls are completely empty. One of the stall owners, Nancy, explains that a disease swept through and ruined most of the rhubard crops this spring. All of them except for Frank Faulk's, who just so happens to be Joanna's arch-nemesis in the yearly bake offs. He unsurprisingly refuses to sell any of his rhubarb to her, though offers to trade her some in exchange for a bushel of Holden's strawberries from his prized private patch. Without saying a word Joanna grabs Richard and heads over to Holden's stall.
After having a conversation with Holden she learns that a bunch of rabbits have gotten into, and are feasting on, his strawberries. In exchange for getting rid of them he agrees to give her two bushels of strawberries, to which she agrees. As she arrives at the strawberry field, however, she finds that the rabbits in quesiton are in fact her cousins Clancy Joe, Regina Jill and Matilda Jane. She asks them to leave, but they cannot as their R.V has a flat tyre. The entire group heads over to an automobile part yard where Joanna asks the owner, Louie, if he has any tyres laying about for sale. He does, but they're attatched to an old, rusty, broken down car and thus will require a wrench to remove. Something no one in the group has. He offers to lend her his own from his toolbox but, after complaints from his brothers about giving it away for free, asks for a roll of tin foil in exchange.
As the group arrives in an apartment complex, Richard asks why they're here and not at a tin foil store. Joanna explains that they're heading to the apartment of an old friend of hers from middle school. She knocks on the door and is answered by a furry blue creature whom she recognises as her friend Steve. She asks if she can borrow some tin foli from him, but he refuses as he doesn't have much to spare at the moment. He will, however, part with some if she gives him a new pair of binoculars. She agrees, and the group yet again sets off.This cycle of requiring one object for another continues, as the group visit multiple people and find that they need a camop chair for the binoculars, a bullhorn for the camp chair, whistle polish for the bullhorn, wax for the whistle polish, and to help the owner of the wax arrange a date with their crush on Saturday for the whistle polish.
The crush in question is busy on Saturday, however, as she is auditioning bands for her parents' anniversary. Luckily, Richard's friend's older sister happens to be in a band and thus the group sets off to visit them. Joanna asks the band if they do gigs for anniversary parties. They do, but they'd need a vehicle to transport all of their stuff. Richard offers them the keys to his cousins' R.V, explaining that it just needs a new tyre. Clany Joe is furious, and berates Richard for stealing their keys, though calms down when Joanna reminds him that he, Regina and Matilda are all doing the exact same with Holden's strawberries. Feeling guilty, the three apologise to her before asking for the keys to their R.V back. Joanna refuses, demanding they get a bus out of town and never return instead.
Back at the market Frank is packing away his rhubarb and preparing to go home when Joanna and Richard finally return with the strawberries he requested. He frowns, annoyed to have been bested by her, only to have an idea. Grinning wickedly, he informs her that if she wants the rhubarb she'll have to pay the 'rhubarb tax' by teling him the secret ingredient to her pie. She hesitates ffor a moment, checking to see if Richard is listening. He is not, as he is distracted by a chocolate bar he's just found on the ground. Satisfied that he won't overhear her, Joanna leans forward and reveals to Frank that the secret ingredient is love. This revelation stuns him, leaving Joanna to take her rhubarb and leaves the market as the sun begins to set.
As her and Richard head back home the latter rambles about how much he enjoyed the day, and, more importantly, how grateful he is to have spent it with such an amazing and wonderful mother like Joanna. She smiles, agreeing that today turned out to be a very good one.
| End spoilers |
Characters
Main
Supporting
- Future Gumball
- Granny Jojo
Minor
- Daisy the Donkey
- Sarah
- Quattro
- Alan
- Masami
- Jeff
- Susan
- Principal Brown
- Rocky
- Mr. Robinson
- Mrs. Robinson
- Tobias
- Billy
- Donut Cop
- Rob
A Pie for A Pie
Main
- Granny Jojo
- Richard
Supporting
- Nancy
- Frank Faulk
- Mr Holden
- Clancy Joe
- Regina Jill
- Matilda Jane
- Louie
- Steve
Minor
- Betsy O'Neil
- Roger Throppe
- Alilister Herschel
- Donut Cop
- Eliza
Preview pages
Trivia
- In the background of one panel, Rob's original design can be seen walking in the background of the supermarket. Additionally, Carlton's early design appears in an angry crowd of Elmore citizens.
- The bonus story in this novel reveals that Granny Jojo has an aunt and three cousins, the latter of which making their only appearances in the series
Goofs/errors
- Whilst talking to Future Gumball, Anais' socks randomly disappear for a single panel.
References
| v • e The Amazing World of Gumball Comics |
|---|
| ISSUES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| Issue 1 | Issue 2 | Issue 3 | Issue 4 | |
|
|
|
|
|
| Issue 5 | Issue 6 | Issue 7 | Issue 8 | |
| SCRAPPED ISSUES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||
| Issue 9 | Issue 10 | ||