The Time Bender Trilogy: Part 1

"The Time Bender Trilogy: Part 1" is the seventeenth comic issue and the first of The Time Bender Trilogy, which was released 26 May, 2004 in the US and 22 September, 2005 in the UK.

Act I
Fry, Leela, Bender and Cubert have returned to Earth to find it is deserted but all Fry and Bender want to do is loot, until Lrrr and Ndnd appear claiming the planet since it is legally uninhabited and would only be inhabited if there were at least 100 people living there. Fry makes up a story that there are 100 people at ; but if they aren’t sent over in an hour Fry and Bender will be slaves. At Planet Express Cubert finds some pieces of a device that was recently used and have chroniton readings. Cubert is suddenly taken off by a pterosaur that came out of a vortex which lands where the Omicronians are. Cubert is used as a slave.

Act II
Bender ties the time vortex in a knot before the crew find Cubert and they bring Zoidberg’s shells and some mannequins with them to disguise them as the needed population, they also dress up as other people. The Omicronians leave and Leela finds a video attached to the pterosaur’s foot, which shows all of Earth's citizens in the time of the dinosaurs and Prof. Farnsworth recording it. He explains that his experiment opened a time vortex and that the crew must bring three pieces of the machine. Fry realises that if the Earth isn’t saved he will cease to exist but there is still time to save it. The time vortex is in three parts after Bender tied it in a knot and each crewmember is sucked in with a piece of the time machine into different years…

Trivia

 * This is the second time Bender has attached ears to his head. The first time was in "Godfellas".
 * The art in this issue is different from "Kickin' It Old School" which is before this issue, this is due to a different person inking the previous issue. All other staff is consistent for the trilogy.

Goofs

 * Bender mentions he hates the taste of attached files but Bender can't taste.
 * He has been known to taste liquids, so maybe he can taste only certain things.
 * The cover art, which in this case does refer to the comic's content, mistakenly lists the population as 3, it should be 4.
 * Bender didn't count one of them.
 * Farnsworth is somehow able to hold up the video on which he is currently recording.
 * It may have been a different tape he used for example.
 * Omicron Persei 8 is mispelled Omicrom Persei 8.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * LaBarbara Conrad
 * Leela
 * Lrrr
 * Mom
 * Morbo
 * Ndnd
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Scruffy
 * Zoidberg
 * Scruffy
 * Zoidberg

Comic Credits

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