It’s the most summery party of summer now, and while we pause to marvel that Microsoft Word has “summery” in its dictionary, there’s still this issue of heat to contend with. It’s hot outside, and frankly, I don’t care for it. Sweating is unpleasant and makes you smell weird. Didn’t we spend thousands of years conquering nature so that we could avoid it? See these things? They’re called opposable thumbs! They’re good for pushing buttons and getting DVDs out of their cases.
And what DVD will we use our nature-conquering thumbs to insert into the DVD player? Why, it’s The Venture Bros.: Season One!
The Venture Bros., currently airing its third season, is Adult Swim’s only original half-hour program. Created by former Tick writer Christopher McCulloch (under the pseudonym “Jackson Publick”), it seems at first to be a deranged parody of Jonny Quest and other Hanna-Barbera adventure shows, but it almost immediately becomes something much more than that.
The titular Brothers are Hank and Dean Venture, 15 years old, and born into a legacy of adventuring. Their father, Doctor Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture, used to be the coolest kid in the world when he went on adventures with his father, Dr. Jonas Venture. He had his own cartoon and fan club of Boy Adventurers, but unable to live up to his father’s legend, he became a bitter failure, cannibalizing Jonas’ inventions in a desperate attempt at legitimacy.
Their bodyguard is one Brock Samson, a beefy, mulleted Alpha Male. Hilariously voiced by Patrick “David Puddy” Warburton, Brock is hypercompetent and all-around awesome. He’s sort of the Wolverine of the Venture universe, if Wolverine had fatherly instincts and a love for Led Zeppelin.
The earliest episodes have sort of an “adventure-of-the-week” setup, where Brock and the Ventures go off on super-scientific expeditions and face odd challenges. That changes quickly, as Publick and creative partner Doc Hammer start designing a whole world for the characters. Doc Venture’s archenemy, a butterfly-themed villain named The Monarch, rapidly comes to dominate the season. And yes, they are aware that butterflies aren’t really all that threatening. Between his largely useless henchmen, and his beautiful, though man-voiced girlfriend (named, brilliantly, Dr. Girlfriend), The Monarch is an inexhaustible supply of comedic potential.
Frankly, they could have stopped there. They have heroes, they have a villain, that could have been the show. But they developed elaborate backstories and a strong attention to continuity that enriches their goofy tales. The Monarch, for example, works for an organization called the Guild of Calamitous Intent. The Guild assigns villains to the various adventurers and governs villainous behavior, to the extent that a Guild loophole forces the Monarch to release Doc Venture and Dean from a deathtrap when Dead suffers a testicular torsion. (And that’s the beginning of the episode!) And the story of the Guild deepens as the season progresses with the introduction of the Monarch’s villainous rival, Phantom Limb. (He’s a guy with invisible limbs.)
Even in the first episodes, Doc has flashbacks to being a fetus and Brock suffers traumatic memories of a deaf teammate on his college football team. Both of those scenarios pay off throughout the season, leading to some great moments. In fact, their younger days prove to be important, as the histories of the supporting characters start to intertwine. It’s the sort of myth-building that Stan Lee did back in the early days of Marvel Comics. Only funny. Really funny.
The Stan Lee comparison is apt, as several of the recurring characters have their roots in his creations. Dr. Richard Impossible (voiced by Stephen Colbert!) and his family are ineffective versions of the Fantastic Four. Dr. Orpheus, the necromancer who rents living space from Venture, is a dead-on parody of Dr. Strange. But those aren’t their only influences. One episode begins as a dramatic performance of the David Bowie song “Space Oddity”, another details the romance between The Six Million Dollar Man and Bigfoot, and another savagely satirizes the Disney Corporation. And then there are the regular nods to Star Wars, and almost every conversation between the Monarch’s henchmen is so laden with pop-culture references that you’ll have to hit Wikipedia to follow along.
At its heart, The Venture Bros. is all about failure. The pill-popping Doc Venture can’t possibly live up to his legendary father which pushes him further into depression and self-destruction. The Monarch is, once again, a butterfly-themed villain who can’t possibly compete when Phantom Limb moves in on his territory and seduces Dr. Girlfriend. Orpheus can literally travel to Hell and back, but he can’t relate to his teenage daughter. Mr. White and Master Billy Quizboy (An albino and a hydrocephalic dwarf with a robot hand) are struggling inventors who live in a trailer, and well, are an albino and a hydrocephalic dwarf with a robot hand. With the exception of Brock, the adult characters are defined by their continuing, crushing failures.
The actual Venture Brothers, on the other hand, are bright and sunny. Sure, they’re not particularly smart, and they’re not really good at anything, but their enthusiasm is boundless. Whether it’s Dean’s crush on Orpheus’ daughter or Hank’s attempts to be more like Brock, they hardly take notice of their own failures. They just keep looking for adventure. They’re very positive characters. Dopey but positive.
You can’t go wrong with the DVD’s, but it’s better to start with Season One, and get in on the ground floor. The later episodes are greatly improved by a familiarity with the characters and their world. The Season One set includes the original pilot “The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay”, the Christmas special (which introduces the most specialized villain of all time, Tiny Joseph), a funny feature on the set of the live-action movie (which is really the voice cast with character outfits superimposed over them), and several episode commentaries. Publick and Hammer are witty and engaging, and even when they don’t have any particular insights into the episodes, they have something funny to say on an unrelated topic. Some of the voice cast, including James Urbaniak (Doc Venture) also take part, and they’re interesting as well. These are some of my favorite commentaries, actually. Well worth listening to.
It’s everything I like about TV – it’s funny, it’s character-driven, and it’s got complex continuity. And also a superintelligent homosexual gorilla. I didn’t actually know that was something that I was looking for in my televised entertainment, but you learn something every day.
