I have been in this multiversal writing for a long time, at least for a decade since I started. It has also been 10 years still I wrote my swan song initally before going back two more times.

Last year, I began to write a new phase storyline for my series overall. However I intended to make this different from my other times I wrote and did storylines. I changed up my main team of characters and removed nearly every character from the storyline I worked with my associates from the spotlight or down played them.
However it is worth noting, that three of my cast members did stay on in the new phase storyline and have stayed prevelant in the ongoing plots.
Who are the 3 characters[]
Bender Rodriguez: The Second in Command to the M.O.D.A.B Team and the leader of the B Team. Bender's from Futurama and is the show's breakout character/deuteragonist. A Lot of the storylines before this point had him play an active role in them.
Slade Wilson: The leader of Slade's Ensemble/Empire and the first main villain in the series before becoming a semi ally over strange bedfellows and then becoming a full fledged friend albeit still machivvilain and aloof. Slade comes from Teen Titans and is the show's main antagonist.
Anti-Cosmo Cosma: Slade's right hand man and the face of Slade's Empire, Also the leader of the Anti Fairys. He followed the same path as his boss and become a full fledged friend though more open and active then his boss. Anti Cosmo hails from The Fairly Odd Parents and is one of the main villains of Seasons 4-6 of the show.
Why are They still in the storyline[]
When planning Return of the Weirdamgedon Cult, I had the intent to have Anti Cosmo, Slade and Bender guess star in one or two chapters to go against Toffee and his cult. Though I included them in all the chapters from the 2nd half running their own storyline working with Marcy Wu after her and friends meet with Team Free Will. Bringing both inital teams together.
I feel that they are the 3 characters who have the most potential to be active in a new multiverse and a new era. On top of that, When I wanted to bring this back and eventually go for a new central cast in a team. I felt some characters should return as well and being familar faces, I also decided that 3 characters is the right number and I wanted them to be characters from the very start of the series I wrote.
Bender was a obvious choice due to many people here thinking he was my central character and unlike the rest wasn't tied down to anything. So I had him stay around, but I wanted to go with a twist from the formula. Have him be on his own without M.O.D.A.B, His B Team teammates or any of the teams like the P Team and Scorpion Squad, start him with a new slate in this new world. But also have him not being infallable and have him deal with unusual situations and see how he does and acts against situations without everyone else around him. He is also the solo member of M.O.D.A.B to have a leading role in the storyline too and make it a plot point.
Slade and Anti Cosmo on the other hand were surprisingly choices to go for. I didn't want it to be Skipper, Heloise, Lizbeth, The Soul Eater Kids or other characters people would expect. Since Anti Cosmo and Slade were so promient in Legends of Light and Darkness onwards it made sense but they were in the shadows of some of the other cast. When I saw the The Miracle Dark Elite and the Apokolips War Endgame storyline and how BridalShotcon gave these two a leading role as the ones in charge of saving the team, I decided to give them the main protagonist role with Bender for his side of the storyline and make it the storyline they offically reformed.
But another reason came from one of my favorite shows Better Call Saul. This show is prequel and spinoff to Breaking Bad. It's about what happened in Albeqrue before Walter White became Heisenburg. This show focuses on Saul, not also Mike and Gus as well as prequel exclusive characters. It recontexualizes Breaking Bad from Gus, Saul and Mike's perspectives and some things that happened in Breaking Bad have new context in them that makes certain things harsher, funnier, more touching or even make more sense. The 3 characters all take cues off the 3 respectively with Slade being The Gus and Anti Cosmo and Bender going back and forth on who is Saul and Mike. The difference is that it's the future as opposed to the past and all 3 characters are aware of and intereact regularity. Unlike Saul and Gus who barely interreact but have Mike as their middle man.
What is the storyline for them here?[]
Bender, Anti Cosmo and Slade all have their plotline that goes against the main storyline. More on that later but the fact is they share their plot together mostly.
Bender's stint as the solo member of M.O.D.A.B in this again is a plot point as those he runs into question this. He also has taken up a role as P.I but also does work for President Deathstroke and Slade respectively. The former being his legal work and his work for Slade is more of a side gig he does for his friends and to make money not for himself.
He is distant from the team, because of his guilt of not being able to save his daughter or Boomer's brothers. The latter two, he buried himself under Slade's manor after the events of The Miracle Dark Elite and the Apokolips War Endgame and feels that he in some sense betrayed his friends and feels bad for it. Anglesmith Origins establishs this in more context and he is targeted by Death over all of this. When Lizbeth goes missing, he is still distant from them, not as much as previously and leads his own investigation which causes an indirect mistake that would get the better on him. In this case he lets his grief and failure which he rarely goes through control his decisions
He overtime does open more overtime and becomes less secretive with his new friends and associates. Thanks to therapy, he is more open with M.O.D.A.B and he will tell them what they want to here if they ask. Therapy does a number for him, making him realize that there are some mistakes he can't correct and that wanting revenge isn't justice. He takes a more activaclly heroic angle to things while still being himself and takes his roles more seriously. Finding Lizbeth becomes a pirority for him as he works with Marcy to find her through the Calamity Box
Anti Cosmo interestly has a understated plot compared to Bender or Slade. He has been tied down to merely Slade's right hand man but finds his own individually in the storyline and works with Bender a lot as well. He and Slade are building their new empire and trying to keep control of it from threats, but he is also advises and helps Bender frequently. Serving as the intermedittary between Slade and Bender he negotaites the deals and trades off the info to them. He is a work alcholoic since it's a way to distract him from losing The V Team.
Depending on which storyline he appears in that decides who he intereacts more with. Through a competent character, he isn't above goofing off or joining in on the fun which he does as he hangs around more of the characters. As Phase 4 goes on, he learns more about sympathizing and empathizing with others. He is more prominent than even Slade in this storyline.
Slade here is running his empire and continent, which he uses to help the multiverse and others while establishing himself as a power everyone wants to go. He also finds himself defending this power and empire from villains who have designs for his empire, which are a fair few. He actually has more archfoes than the other two do. Slade is the most aware of the state of the end of an era and beginning of a new one. He mentions how they're the only ones left to remember the good old days before everything changed and eventually settles for wanting to establish a legacy and into sure the new multiverse knows about the old one.
Though he isn't tamed from how he used to be, he is more protective of his allies and considers Bender, Luan and the others "his people" like the others. This protectiveness comes from what he considers a personal failure to get them to safety in The Miracle Dark Elite and the Apokolips War Endgame though they safriced themselves. Slade in turn had to learn to trust his other allies outside of Harry Wells, Anti Cosmo, Celes and Jessie Wells with missions again not willing to lose his affilates. This is what goes on before the event of Countdown and Slade's Empire is back to have more allies helping out and act part of his calavary when he needs them.
Relationships[]
With a new storyline comes new relationships for them respectively. The three do have their own share of new realtionships
Anti Cosmo doesn't have as much as the other two, but he does get closer to Luan, respects Marcy works openly with his new associates and becomes more friendly with Bender, Lisa Loud and Libby in partiuclar as he works with them the most directly. He does also have rivarlies with The Miller Family, Zib, Grime Odalia Blight and Frank Underwood
Slade's main established relationships are with his adversaries which he has plenty of. Slade's main advesary is Odalia Blight someone out to ruin his empire and kill him over Slade exposing her corruption and showcasing her intent of what she has in mind with The Hexside Students. This leads to 2 more encounters where Odalia works with Prankster and Belos to kill Slade and take his empire. She even tries to use her own daughter and later Luz to kill Slade and this is a dark reflection of Slade's actual actions in Teen Titans, He eventually kills her with the others considering she threatened his empire, his best friend, his wife, his long time assocaite and more this was deserved. Martian General Z9 was a v Team foe, but has come back to settle for him as Eddy is gone and Slade takes him on plenty. As for Kontas Becker, he is the foe for Anglesmith Origins that Slade opposed and is dead set on taking his empire from him. Slade's relationship with Marcy is an oppsoite of his canon ones where he grows to respect her and wants to follow in his foot steps as his sucessor to honor the lefacy he has left. Though he does respect her wishes and does act as a semi mentor especially in Countdown. This shows how far he came admittingly. Slade is more aloof with Bender, but does respect him and keeps his eye on him more than ususal and helps him with his endeavors whenever needed. He also has an enmity with Frank Underwood as well
Anti Cosmo and Slade despite being best friends do have their own clash with another over The Multiversal Noir events due to the former disobeying him directly and being somewhat opposing on different aspects. Considers the undying loyalty the former has for the latter, it makes things a bit more interesting,
Bender though does have his own fair share of closer relationships with his father figure relationships with Luan, Libby and Marcy. The former being something of a uncle figure and the person he is the kindest to and closest, he is working for both Deathstroke and Slade to provide for her future due to her huge family and taking up work for a better future for her and guiding her with anything she needs help with. Bender's relationship with Luan gets more focus and is very much on focus in Anglesmith Origins. Libby is the one he acts most like a father too and she gets more involved in his investigations the most, she looks up to him and he comes around eventally to this. This is in part to Libby's dead beat father. Marcy in his partner and they work as equals in the storylines they are in and when they intereact, she and him spefically work together in regards to finding Lizbeth and working with Andiras. She like Luan has had a great effect on him as well. Again Bender has a closer friendship with Anti Cosmo here as well and develops his good friendships with Captain Hero, Wile E Coyote and Bean.
As for his major foes, he has a rivarly with Sasha , The Prankster (A villain who proved his equal and held up an even face off with him), Odalia Blight ( for including him in her vendetta for Slade), Zib (An Evil Alternate Dib who feels people can't change and sees Bender as traitor for working with Anti Cosmo and Slade, for it's the opposite) and Big Jack Horner (For going after Luan and the Louds and trying to blackmail them.
Why they are not in the main plot[]
Despite them being back they only run the secondary plot and this is meant to give them their own screen time separate from the main plot. While the 3 main protagonists they are merely a duteragonist and two triagonists to The Main Protagonists of Phase 4 who are Lydia Lopez and Lincoln Loud.
Team Free Will was meant to be the main team with Slade's Empire and Bender's associates taking the secondary teams role. Again I wanted not to make them the overall main characters with the most importance or screen time.
This was done to compare and contrast Lincoln and Lydia's story to Bender, Anti Cosmo and Slade's story in many ways.
Bender, Slade and Anti Cosmo are experienced, three characters, anti heroes, adults, friends as well as aqquaintces, have a lot of returning cast members, capable of fighting though are pretty sharp, cynical, are noticably different archtypes with Slade being a trained skilled fighter who uses bow staffs with some use of fire arms and fights close combat, Bender being a sneaky thief who uses long range weapons and Anti Cosmo being a magic user.
Lydia and Lincoln by contrast are newcomers in comparison, two characters, true heroes, best friends and also eventually in a romantic relationship with each other, much of the new cast appears in their storyline, optimistic, Are more intellectual though can fight when needed, and are similar archtypes
Conclusion[]
Hopefully this should explain why the three are still relevant even after 13 years and explain their roles in the ongoing storyline I am doing.