The Time Bender Trilogy: Part 3

"The Time Bender Trilogy: Part 3" is the nineteenth comic issue and the third and last of The Time Bender Trilogy, which was released 29 September, 2004 in the US and 12 January, 2006 in the UK.

Act I
In 1917 Fry wins an award for saving the world and tells his story of how he did it: Fry is lost on his way to the Empire and asks for directions, but he ends up asking the leader and is sent to P.O.W. camp. He helps with a breakout but accidentally enters the leader’s bedroom and has tests which prove he’s an idiot. So he doesn’t dumb the place down, Fry and the prisoners are released and the war is over. The award ceremony is empty and Fry knocks over an ice statue which happened to have Leela inside who tells her story: Leela doesn’t have any money to pay for her trip to the underworld and kicks the ferryman into the river. The other dead people say that all the gods are robots. Leela discovers that they were never really dead and she escapes. Leela is taken by a god who she beats up and asks Bucky, the person who takes him everywhere, to take her to Mount Olympus where she reprograms the gods to compliment each other. Hermes, the messenger comes to deliver a rocket that will melt the North Pole, but as it heads off Leela grabs on and falls into the water, freezing her.

Act II
At the award ceremony Bender approaches telling his story of what he has done for the past 400 years: When Bender was tied to the stake he didn’t need to escape because robots don’t burn. Then he bummed around Europe, took a pottery class and led all robots in a revolt against the race, but got bored and sold humanity back the world for $100 and now he’s a shoe shine boy. The time machine pieces attach themselves to each other and lead the crew to a museum where the body of the Professor is with the other time machine piece. The crew are taken to the time of the dinosaurs and Fry is eaten by a t-rex and so is the Professor but the t-rex forgot to chew and the Professor takes the population back to the present. Everything is back to normal except Fry and the Professor are still in the t-rex.

Trivia

 * The Omicronian leader has a strong resemblance to Lrrr, leading many readers to believe it was actually him.

Allusions

 * The P.O.W. camp is a reference to Hogan's Heroes, as is Colonel Hoggan.
 * A -like (Star Trek) character is also in the camp.

Goofs

 * Why is Dawn Wells, known as a sitcom star/dictator in this version of history, present prior to the year 1917?
 * Had the Professor successfully travelled through time to the 3000s to prevent himself from inventing the time machine, Leela would have no memory of it, and there'd be two Professors and Frys. However to actually change time back, all persons from the 31st century would need to travel with him to not disrupt the timeline, otherwise he'd end up in the alternate future, thus leaving the world with two of everyone except Cubert. Technically it would be impossible to match the exact timeline unless they were supposed to be in the past. A frame on the last page of the comic has Cubert holding up a multiple page list of reasons the story made no sense, these are presumably some of the reasons listed.
 * The time machine may be paradox correcting, like the time sphere.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Cubert
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Leela
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Zoidberg

Comic Credits

 * Script
 * Ian Boothby
 * Pencils
 * John Delaney
 * Inks
 * Phyllis Novin
 * Colors
 * Joey Mason
 * Letters
 * Karen Bates
 * Editor
 * Bill Morrison