Team Venture
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On The Venture Bros., Team Venture is an adventuring organization, in currently two incarnations. Its base is Venture Industries, this article will deal with them both as the two are closely intertwined.
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[edit] The original Team Venture
The original team was assembled by the renaissance man Dr. Jonas Venture to help him on his travels. They made exciting scientific discoveries, had fantastic adventures, and fought supervillains on a regular basis, presumably becoming well-renowned and beloved in the process. Their time frame was from the 1960s (sometime before Thaddeus Venture was born) to the early 1980s, when Jonas Venture died and the remaining team members went their separate ways. The members were:
- Dr. Jonas Venture: Scientist, adventurer, and intrepid leader. Deceased.
- Col. Horace Gentleman: Dashing diplomat, "RAF, MI5, et cetera... retired." Apparently somewhat wealthy and eccentric. Deceased.
- The Action Man: Gun-toting super-soldier. Real name Rodney, married Major Tom's wife (see below). Presumed deceased via stroke.
- Kano: Master of martial arts and origami.
- Otto Aquarius: exiled son of Atlantis.
- Major Tom: Test pilot that speaks with a British accent, killed when an experimental spaceship crashed and sunk into the ocean, one of the original Team Venture's few failures.
- Jonas had several associates not a part of the team. Thaddeus Venture, as a young child known as Rusty, frequently accompanied the team and was also frequently captured by enemies. Jonas had an ex-middleweight champion boxer named Swifty as a personal bodyguard, and a Hispanic boy named Hector was a good friend of Rusty's and accompanied him on many adventures. Jonas Venture, Jr., Rusty's twin brother whom he absorbed in the uterus, was also present, imprisoned inside Rusty's abdomen.
The surviving members re-united a couple decades later to rescue Dr. Venture one last time, but were beaten up accidentally by an enraged Brock Samson.
Colonel Gentleman died in his bed of (currently) unknown causes, where Hank and Dean found him.
[edit] The current Team Venture
Not officially a team like their previous incarnation, but rather a group of individuals revolving around Dr. Thaddeus Venture. Much more incompetent and pathetic than the originals (to the extent that the Phantom Limb considers Dr. Venture a level-one threat to The Guild of Calamitous Intent, presumably the lowest tier possible), and frequently only inadvertently stumbling onto adventures, it is only through the frighteningly capable and dangerous bodyguard Brock Samson and necromancer Dr. Orpheus do they achieve any kind of results. The members are:
- Doctor Thaddeus Venture: Unworthy successor to his father.
- Hank Venture: Bumbling son of Thaddeus, eager to live up to the team legacy.
- Dean Venture: Another naïve son, also excited to adventure.
- Brock Samson: Muscular bodyguard of Dr. Venture.
- H.E.L.P.eR.: Neurotic robotic nanny.
And, by extension:
- Jonas Venture, Jr.: Dr. Venture's brother
- The Pirate Captain: Hired by Jonas Jr. to be the captain of the X-2
- Master Billy Quizboy and Pete White: While not precisely Team Venture 'members', this pair frequently finds itself aiding Dr. Venture and Company and might thus be considered peripheral or honorary members.
Formerly included:
- Doctor Byron Orpheus: While never quite an actual 'member', the necromancer frequently gets involved in their activities anyway. He has since assembled his own team, the Order of the Triad, and gained an official arch-villain.
[edit] Team Venture symbols
The hand symbol is simply a V sign placed against the fingers of another member doing the same. Hank and Dean will frequently do this after the end of any successful incident, and shout the team motto 'Go Team Venture!' in imitation of the former team (who do it far more impressively). Brock and Dr. Venture have each expressed discomfort with the boys doing this (endings of "Ghosts of the Sargasso" and "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!" respectively).
The symbol of the team and Venture Industries is a globe with latitude and longitude lines, with a red banner containing a 'V' covering the sphere's bottom. This is seen in Swifty's championship belt in a flashback and also in the employee uniforms Hector and Swifty wear.
[edit] Venture Industries
Venture Industries is the home base and headquarters of the team. It was seemingly built as a large research and manufacturing campus by Jonas himself with his many scientific inventions' profits, large government contracts and business acumen. It evolved to become an enormous set of buildings, with a large fountain and a giant stone statue of Jonas holding a young Rusty on his shoulder up front, the two shadowing a beautifully-designed white compound. The compound would seem at one time to have had a large workforce, but is now practically empty. The compound's location is so far undisclosed, but Hank and Dean have used their hover-bikes to drive to a nearby large city in less than a day. It is large enough that Dr. Orpheus and his daughter Triana can actually rent out a portion as their own home. Currently, it is being run rather into the ground by Thaddeus Venture, who fulfills mainly government contracts rather than make any major new discoveries. Venture Industries at one point had its corporate business headquarters in New York City. At some point, the building was sold and became '1 Impossible Plaza', headquarters of Impossible Industries. A private compound belonging to Venture Industries also exists on Spider Skull Island.
After the death of his father, Thaddeus Venture - then a college student - was put in charge of the company. Presumably the company went into a gradual decline after as there were few new inventions of value. The death of Jonas also probably meant an end to the large manufacturing/engineering contracts with the government. Assets (like the New York Headquarters) were sold for cash and all of the employees were eventually let go until only the Ventures were left living in the compound.
The Venture Industries compound contains the various following rooms:
- A large lab where Jonas Jr. and Thaddeus Venture work on their various experiments and inventions.
- Jonas's private den, now converted to a guest bedroom.
- A large hangar for holding the X-1.
- A 'public room' where Jonas once negotiated with The Guild of Calamitous Intent and would show off various new inventions.
- A large guard room, with 8" tempered steel walls, where one can hide from danger. When activated, the beds of both Dr. Thaddeus Venture and those of his sons transform into slides, instantly transporting them to this room. Dr. Venture refers to it as "The Panic Room", and has used it on multiple occasions throughout the series. Its current use is a dusty storage room full of Christmas decorations.
Among that inventions that appear to originate at Venture Industries are:
- The orbital space station Gargantua-1.
- The supersonic airplane X-1 and the yacht-like X-2. (The X-2 now owned by Jonas Venture Jr)
- Hover bikes and hover shoes.
- Subliminal audio-learning aides one uses while asleep, used for both Thaddeus Venture and currently his sons. They can also record brainwaves and memories.
- A successful way to clone people (so far not public, used only to replace Hank and Dean when they die)
- Various ray guns, such as the melt-anything 'Ooo-Ray' and a death ray of sorts.
- The robotic nanny H.E.L.P.eR.
- The robotic bodyguard G.U.A.R.D.O.
- A supposedly functioning shrink-ray, purchased by Master Billy Quizboy. Later intentionally broken by Pete White as he was "looking for a treasure map".
- A machine capable of reproducing the innermost fantasies of anyone who enters. Powered by the heart of an abducted orphan, much to the disgust of Dr. Orpheus, who disposed of the machine shortly after learning this.
- A replica of a lightsaber, purchased by one of The Monarch's henchmen, Number 21, at a yard sale. Although it looks very realistic, the "weapon" does not inflict any damage.
- A sound that kills (built by Jonas Jr.)
- A teleporter (malfunctioning and unfinished)
- A flying saucer style craft that crashed during testing.
- A large "walking eye", that actually did nothing but was advanced enough to cause supervillains to want to attack it.
- A force-field that actually seemed to keep all matter and sound from escaping, but can be washed away with club soda.
[edit] Trivia
- The original Team Venture with leader Jonas is a homage to Doc Savage and the Fabulous Five.
- The name "Venture" is likely a reference to adventurers with improbably exciting last names such as Doc Savage and Jonny Quest, as well as being a less-invogorated synonym of the word "quest".
- Dr. Horace Gentleman bears a strong resemblance to Sean Connery's portrayal of Alan Quatermain in the film version of Alan Moore's comic miniseries League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Otto Aquarius resembles the character of Abe Sapien from Mike Mignola's comic series Hellboy. Team Venture itself could also be a parody/homage to Moore's comic series, which assembled various heroes from classic Victorian pulp/adventure fiction together as a team.
- "Major Tom" and "the Action Man" are both characters from David Bowie songs; the opening scene of the "Ghosts Of The Sargasso" episode is a convoluted joke based upon lyrics from Bowie's "Space Oddity" and "Ashes To Ashes", both of which feature these characters.
| The Venture Bros. | |
|---|---|
| PRESENTED IN GLORIOUS EXTRA COLOR | |
| Characters Main | Secondary |
Hank Venture | Dean Venture | Dr. Thaddeus Venture | Brock Samson | H.E.L.P.eR. | Jonas Venture Junior Dr. Orpheus | Triana Orpheus | Pete White | Master Billy Quizboy | Molotov Cocktease | Myra Brandish The Monarch | Doctor Girlfriend | #21 | #24 | Baron Werner Ünderbheit | Phantom Limb |
| Organizations Prominent | Minor |
Team Venture/Venture Industries | Order of the Triad | Monarch Henchmen | Guild of Calamitous Intent |
| Cast and crew | Lisa Hammer | James Urbaniak | Patrick Warburton | Michael Sinterniklaas | Steven Rattazzi | Paul Boocock Jackson Publick | Doc Hammer | J. G. Thirlwell | World Leaders Entertainment |
| Episodes | Pilot | Season 1 | Season 2 | Specials | Phone Calls |
