“IGNORE ME!!!!!”
– Grand Galactic Inquisitor
“Make way for the Homo Superior!!”
– David Bowie
I am – Hercules!!
The Venture Bros.: The Complete Second Season “streets,” as the kids like to say, April 17.
The series is easily the funniest thing ever produced for The Cartoon Network. It often rivals even "South Park" and early "Simpsons" in its genius.
Christopher McCulloch (a.k.a Jackson Publick), whose writing credits include stints on both the animated and live-action versions of "The Tick," took the characters of "Jonny Quest" and "realed them up” just enough to maximize their comedy potential. Where kid adventurers Jonny and Hadji were quick-witted and well-spoken, Venture preteens Hank and Dean are tirelessly puerile. Where Dr. Benton Quest was heroic and good-natured, Dr. Thaddeus Venture is impatient, short-tempered and prone to fits of despair. Where Race Bannon demonstrated a penchant for overpowering evil spies with well-placed uppercuts, Venture bodyguard Brock Samson (voice of Patrick Warburton) demonstrates a handy knack for bloodshed, torture, and dismemberment.
Alarmingly entertaining supporting players include deformed sibling Jonas Venture Jr., necromancer-neighbor Dr. Byron Orpheus, Orpheus’ hot goth daughter Triana, the Humanoid Electric Lab Partner Robot (HELPR), easily frustrated butterfly-supervillain The Monarch, The Monarch’s stunning yet fiendishly man-voiced Dr. Girlfriend, college rival and tyrant dictator Baron Werner Underbheit, aging hydrocephalitic "boy genius" Master Billy Quizboy, effeminate albino genius Mr. White, superhero/scientist Richard Impossible and the Impossible Four, astronaut Bud Manstrong and the conjoined Tiny Attorney.
Season two revisited all these characters and added many a well-conceived new one: the difficult-to-ignore alien Grand Galactic Inquisitor, the Russian superspy Molotov Cocktease, the strung-out middle-aged Jonny Quest, Triana’s girlfriend and fledgling supervillain Kim, the imprisoned Manic Eightball, Blacula-slaying superhero Jefferson Twilight, and magic-murder-bag-toting Dr. Henry Killinger.
In “¡Viva los Muertos!” “Tick” creator Ben Edlund introduces the aging “Groovy Gang,” which paid homage not only to the Scooby Gang, but also serial killers Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz (still talking to dogs), kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst and lesbian would-be Warhol assassin Valerie Solonas.
We learned in season two that Dean and Hank are no strangers to the choir invisible. We found out what Monarch henchmen 21 and 24 look like outside their butterfly suits. We were made privy to three conflicting secret origins of supervillain Phantom Limb. We discovered that Venture Enterprises has its own spider-like Walking Eye. And we came to know that musical cohorts David Bowie and Iggy Pop are possessed of an unlikely array of superpowers.
Only $20.99 for 13 episodes. How cool is that box??
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