Myra Brandish
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Myra Brandish is a supporting character on the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros. First appearing in the late season 2 episode "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills", she is revealed as the possible mother of the titular Venture brothers, Hank and Dean. The identity of Hank and Dean's mother has been a mystery on the show since it began, with only occasional hints about the boys' mother dropped. Myra is clinically insane, and obsessed with killing and/or reuniting with Dr. Thaddeus Venture, and reclaiming Hank and Dean, in a misguided attempt at family. She seems willing and even eager to kill anyone who might get in the way, particularly Brock Samson.
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[edit] Character description
Myra is a crazed-looking, leather-clad, buxom and well-built woman in her 40s or 50s. She is prone to muttering insanely to herself, and dotes/obsesses on the Venture brothers when they're in her possession. She claims to have been Dr. Thaddeus Venture's bodyguard (before Brock Samson), and that she was given the assignment immediately after graduating from the Office of Secret Intelligence academy. Over time, she began aggressively flirting with Thaddeus, culminating in a "night of passion" 20 years ago in the back of his car. According to her that night got her pregnant, and nine months later she gave birth to the twin boys Hank and Dean.
Although unspecified when or how it happened, Myra went clinically insane sometime after supposedly having the boys. According to her story, Dr. Venture "wanted the boys all to himself" and had her locked away.
Myra was an American Gladiator, going by the name "PowerKat".[1][2] According to Dr. Venture and Brock, when the show got canceled, she checked herself into an insane asylum. Every few years she breaks out, and (depending on what medication she's coming off of) she alternatively tries to kill Dr. Venture, kidnap the boys, or burn down the Venture compound (which she succeeded in doing once).[2]
Myra acts like something of a cross between Annie Wilkes, the deranged middle-aged serial killer in the Stephen King novel, Misery, and Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman from Batman Returns. Like Annie Wilkes, she is clinically insane, has a penchant for kidnapping people, and doesn't use normal curse words but instead often segues into childish babble-words like "oogey" instead of "disgusting". Her costume resembles the sewn-together vinyl Catwoman costume in Batman Returns, and she has a warped connection with her many cats, which she refers to as her children and Hank and Dean's "brothers and sisters".
[edit] Hank and Dean's real mother?
It is not confirmed if Myra is the real mother of Hank and Dean, or just an insane woman who convinced herself she is. Dr. Venture admitted that he once had sex with Myra, but did not confirm if this resulted in Hank and Dean's conception, or that she had been his bodyguard. Also, it is possible that Dr. Venture was just lying (or volunteering a half-truth) to get Hank and Dean to stop asking questions after Brock almost told them they are clones. It is possible that she could have been Dr. Venture's bodyguard, had the boys, then broke up with Dr. Venture and either previously or subsequently was an American Gladiator, before finally going insane. The episode Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny confirms that Myra was Venture's bodyguard, with The Monarch having memory of her beating him up during an "assault" on the Venture Compounds.
Myra seems to think that Hank and Dean are supposed to be 19 years old. However, because so much time has been spent cloning them back to life time and again, they are biologically only 16 years old and the twins believe that to be their real age (although Hank notices in "Hate Floats" that there is a discrepancy between the birthdate on his ID card and his stated age). Hank and Dean have no memory of Myra: presumably Dr. Venture removed whatever memories of her they might have had when re-cloning them.
Other evidence which would seem to suggest that Myra really is Hank and Dean's mother is that she actually looks and acts like them to a degree: Dean has brown hair, but Hank has blonde hair, like Myra. Hank and Dean also have slightly upturned noses, like Myra (which neither Dr. Venture nor the boys' grandfather had). As Dean seems to take after his father Dr. Venture (dark hair, greater aptitude for science than any sports, more "sane"), it would seem that Hank takes after Myra's leanings towards insanity, blonde hair, and greater physical aptitude. Also, when Dean drives a car, he chants, "10 and 2, 10 and 2," nervously to himself; Myra does the same thing when she drives, as does Hank when he is made to drive by Dr. Girlfriend. There is also the fact that the car seen in the flashback between Myra and Dr. Venture was the same vehicle Hank and Dean were learning to drive in, this is also accented by the fact that the Oni sent by Dr. Killinger to "reunite them" lured Dr. Venture and Orpheus to the same car and then later to the motel where Myra was keeping the boys. However, while he spoke of reuniting "them," Hank and Dean were referred to as "his boys," not "theirs" as would be fitting if she was their mother.
As stated in "Past Tense" and "Powerless in the Face of Death" Dr. Venture lost his virginity when he was 24[3][4] and he takes a dismal view of the affair. Given Myra's claims that the boys are actually 19 and that Venture was 44 in "Twenty Years to Midnight",[5] the timing may fit.
[edit] Notes
- Dr. Venture has vaguely referred to the boys having an actual mother on a few occasions:
- In "Careers in Science", Dr. Venture says that he created the boys in a moment of passion.[6]
- In "Mid-Life Chrysalis", the boys directly asked Dr. Venture about their mother. He realizes that he's never really told them about their mother, and begins to tell them about her, but is cut off before he could go into more detail.[7]
- Also, in "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!", the image of Dr. Venture makes a reference to their mother while Hank is in the fantasy world of Dr. Venture's "joy can", with Hank hearing her voice off screen. However, this was the idealized fantasy world of Hank's in which he had a mother (with Dean's absence implied), and likely had no basis in real events at all.[8]
- In "Powerless in the Face of Death", Dr. Venture implies that the boys' mother was ugly. When he mentions losing his virginity at 24, Dr Orpheus says "That is awful!" (Referring to his continued cloning of the boys). Dr. Venture scoffs, and replies "You didn't even see her, it was..." but is interrupted by Orpheus before he can continue.[4] Despite this, Dr. Venture appeared sad when he was getting ready to describe the boys' mother in "Mid-Life Chrysalis".[7]
[edit] References
- ^ Season 2 DVD commentary for "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills"
- ^ a b Episode "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills"
- ^ Episode "Past Tense"
- ^ a b Episode "Powerless in the Face of Death"
- ^ Episode "Twenty Years to Midnight"
- ^ Episode "Careers in Science"
- ^ a b Episode "Mid-Life Chrysalis"
- ^ Episode "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!"
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