“All the strangers came today / And it looks as though they’re here to stay.”
Maybe it’s a bit obvious to open an article about The Venture Bros. with a Bowie lyric, but how could you discuss this show without diving headfirst into the influences it draws from and parodies so lovingly? Mid-century concepts of super science and supervillainy define much of the world we see in The Venture Bros., but its cast of heroes, henchmen, and evildoers embody the same human, un-super foibles that spur us to badly sing Bowie songs in the car with gusto. Like nearly all of the characters on the show, we may at times feel sad, confused, and seemingly surrounded by enemies, but for better or worse, we are never alone.
Created by Chris McCulloch (a.k.a. Jackson Publick) and Doc Hammer, The Venture Bros. and the strangers it introduced us to sadly aren’t here to stay much longer. This month will see the release of Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, a film set to conclude the series that first had its pilot air on Adult Swim over 20 years ago. That we’re getting this finale at all seems like a small miracle; the show was canceled after seven seasons in late 2020. Though then-head of HBO Max Andy Forssell quickly promised they were working to revive Venture in some form and the film was later green-lit in 2021, it’s been hard to keep the faith during David Zaslav’s disastrous reign over parent company Warner-Discovery.
You can’t keep the Venture family down, though: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart hits Blu-ray and digital purchase on July 21 (with Max streaming promised 90 days later). In celebration of the show’s resilience — and in acknowledgement of its impressively dense storylines — here’s a list of the 15 best, most essential installments of The Venture Bros., presented here in chronological order.
“Ghosts of the Sargasso” (Season One, Episode 6)
Season one’s “Ghosts of the Sargasso” is classic early Venture, a profane riff on a plot that’d be right at home in Jonny Quest or Scooby-Doo. Here, brother adventurers Hank and Dean are in fine bumbling form, their pompous dad Doc “Rusty” Venture hopes to profit off of an invention his father Jonas Sr. made that got a man killed, and family bodyguard Brock Samson beats up “ghost” pirates during a cavity search by clenching down and whipping around the guy who has his hand stuck up where the sun don’t shine. It’s not highbrow Venture Bros., but it’s funny as hell.
But even as a monster-of-the-week episode, “Ghosts of the Sargasso” punches above its weight. For one, the opening “Space Oddity” flashback foregrounds McCulloch and Hammer’s Bowie obsession and foreshadows the Thin White Duke’s canonical role in the show. The introduction of the episode’s hapless pirate crew also helps flesh out Venture’s villain hierarchy, as these rubber-mask marauders clearly don’t rank alongside the archenemies introduced in earlier episodes like The Monarch and Baron Ünderbheit. The still-unnamed Sea Captain played by McCulloch even goes on to become one of Venture’s enduring side characters, eventually becoming the Jobsian face of a renewed VenTech Industries in the later seasons.
“Tag-Sale — You’re It” (Season One, Episode 9)
A 22-minute joke cannon loaded with just about every early-Venture character, “Tag-Sale – You’re It” luxuriates in the particulars of the show’s world. There aren’t just norms to costumed villainy, there’s a capital-G Guild. That means Doc Venture can indeed invite a bunch of bad guys over to his compound to make a quick buck off of his dad’s old inventions without being too worried about possible kidnapping, injury, or death.
Or at least he would, if this episode didn’t establish that the Monarch hates Venture so much that he’ll gladly bend or break the rules of the Guild of Calamitous Intent to get at him. Mixed in with the Monarch’s yard-sale-spoiling maneuvers, the episode also serves up excellent side stories. The opening of HankCo’s lemonade and grinder stand is a great diversion, and viewers learn more about Sheila a.k.a. Dr. Girlfriend, the Monarch’s partner and second in command, when she has a run-in with fellow villain and snooty ex, Phantom Limb. Loyal Monarch henchmen 21 and 24 are also terrific in “Tag-Sale,” though a Star Wars Kid nod definitely dates what’s otherwise a fun plot about the duo finding a hidden gem amongst Doc’s crap.
“Return to Spider-Skull Island” (Season One, Episode 13)
At its premiere, the final episode of Venture’s first season set a high bar for finales that the show managed to top several times since. The introduction of Doc’s younger brother, Jonas Venture Jr. (with James Urbaniak playing both roles brilliantly), pays off a handful of mysteries established earlier in the season and cements The Venture Bros. as a series willing to shake up its status quo in surprising ways. Turns out there are two pairs of Venture Bros.!
But McCulloch and Hammer, not content to end just with the possibilities opened up by Jonas Jr. ahead of them, throw another wrench in the works. In an excellent parody of Easy Rider, Hank and Dean end up dead at the hands of 21 — setting up a seasons-long arc about the boys being clones that gives Venture both some of its most earnest moments of character development and a launching point for a few sublimely silly cloning shenanigan episodes.
“20 Years to Midnight” (Season Two, Episode 5)
Season two of Venture has great moments, but between a reluctance to push Hank and Dean forward after the cloning reset and thanks to some jokes that haven’t aged well — particularly the gender normative barbs at Brock’s mentor Hunter Gathers and Sheila — the season flirts with a sophomore slump.
“20 Years to Midnight” is gold, however, with a high-stakes plot packed with callbacks and side characters, like Stephen Colbert’s Professor Impossible. But the standout of “Midnight” has to be the Grand Galactic Inquisitor, a one-and-done character that’s hilarious from the first moment McCulloch’s shouty voice comes through the towering alien’s crappy little speaker. The Inquisitor’s refrain of “IGNORE ME” is deservedly a popular quote, but McCulloch’s stilted delivery of “SOMEONE LEFT A BABY” also hits hard.
“The Invisible Hand of Fate” (Season 3, Episode 3)
Master Billy Quizboy and Pete White, another pair like 21 and 24 voiced by Hammer and McCulloch, respectively, start out the show seeming merely like Doc’s weird hangers-on. Yes, White was Doc’s college roomie and Billy’s a skilled surgeon, but their shared trailer home/office and willingness to take any work tossed their way initially suggests that these two were basically nobodies orbiting Doc’s super-science mediocrity.
“The Invisible Hand of Fate,” one of the few Venture episodes told almost entirely in flashback, instead reveals that Billy once played a part in an operation that shaped the modern-day struggles between The Guild of Calamitous Intent and Brock’s government spook bosses at the O.S.I.. Between that reveal, a detour through the seedy world of back-alley quiz shows, and the memorable introduction of the Nozzle, this episode handily wins a spot on this list.
“The Family That Slays Together” Pts. 1 & 2 (Season 3, Episodes 12-13)
The third Venture season ends by pulling several plotlines into a supremely satisfying two-part climax. What begins with a wild series of assassination attempts on Brock builds to a shockingly disastrous showdown on the Venture Compound.
It’s not the assembled forces of the O.S.I. or Monarch henchmen who suffer the greatest losses. In a face-turn, Doc’s ineffectual new nemesis Sgt. Hatred leads all the unused clones of Hank and Dean into battle to aid Brock. The Venture boys don’t yet know they’re clones, so when the Monarch’s blundering leads to all the slimy pink Hanks and Deans getting pulped, the brothers are blissfully unaware that they’re down to one life left to live. Just as the implications of that begin to sink in for viewers, two more shockers change The Venture Bros. heading into season four: Brock quits his post and henchman 24 dies in a fiery explosion. It’s arguably the biggest turning point in the show’s run, priming Hank, Dean, and henchman 21 for seasons-long arcs of soul searching and growth.
“The Better Man” (Season 4, Episode 7)
Dr. Byron Orpheus, necromancer, divorcee, and rental tenant on the Compound, might be Venture’s best side character. Played with theatrical flair by Steven Rattazzi, Dr. Orpheus gave viewers a ridiculously funny send-up of Doctor Strange years before Marvel and Benedict Cumberbatch dulled the character down for the movies as “Tony Stark, but magic.” Although delightful, Dr. Orpheus rarely feels as essential to the world of the show as some of the other supporting players do, but “The Better Man” is one of few times he gets a much-deserved spotlight, as he confronts the man his wife left him for. Meanwhile, though, Orpheus’s daughter Triana learns of her own mystical potential. With an assist from guest star H. Jon Benjamin, this episode elegantly gives both Dr. Orpheus and Triana room to grow while also nudging Dean to get over the crush he’s harbored on Triana since season one.
“Everybody Comes to Hank’s” (Season 4, Episode 12)
With Hank and Dean freshly graduated from super-science homeschool, Venture splits the boys up for a pair of solo stories. While Dean’s off interning in New York City, Hank’s irrepressible imagination turns a fake summer job at HankCo into a full-on black-and-white noir mystery starring him as lead detective. “Everybody Comes to Hank’s” finally reveals who fathered Dermott Fictel, Hank’s deadbeat pal who initially suspects Brock is his dad. The truth is that Dermott and Hank are half-brothers by way of Doc being … well, an even more nauseating sad sack than previously thought.
This revelation also spoils an, er, personal milestone for Hank — but in a fantastic and oddly heartwarming twist, Hank cleverly finds a way to preserve a shred of his summer while still erasing the ick from his mind with the help of Brock’s old O.S.I. buddies in SPHINX.
“SPHINX Rising” (Season 5, Episode 3)
Deep into the fifth season, henchman 21 — a.k.a. Gary Fischer — has changed from the hyper-competent villain sidekick he became after 24’s death into a struggling loner trying to be a good guy. Left with all the military-grade SPHINX toys after Brock and company rejoin the O.S.I., 21’s attempt to form a new team of good guys goes off the rails in spectacular fashion.
While 21 deals with the return of the original SPHINX, a team of COBRA-parody baddies who fought the O.S.I. in the eighties, the Monarch and Sheila (now Dr. Mrs. The Monarch) infiltrate the Venture Compound to do some classic arching. In the middle of a straightforward plan to wreck Doc’s home, the Monarch makes a discovery at the Compound. Somehow, Doc’s in possession of a photo that shows him and the Monarch playing together as young children, the first major hint at a plotline that the Venture movie seems poised to tie up once and for all.
“Spanakopita!” (Season 5, Episode 4)
Out of all the episodes on this list, “Spanakopita!” has the least bearing on the overarching Venture story. It’s simply an incredible episode that sees Doc Venture living it up on a Greek island while he’s unknowingly (and justifiably) being fleeced by the locals. Here we get to see Doc truly happy, but it comes at the price of others keeping Doc from the truth; he’s never more sympathetic than when the show reveals that even Doc’s blissful Greek retreat is yet another consequence of his father’s neglect. “Spanakopita!” also features Augustus St. Cloud, the rich and repugnantly geeky collector assigned to Billy Quizboy and Pete White as their archenemy. Less out of any obligation to their friend Doc, Billy and White get drawn into the farce of the Spanakopita festival’s games to score a triumph over St. Cloud. It’s a perfect fit for their low-level arching relationship.
“All This and Gargantua-2” (Special Episode Between Seasons 5 and 6)
An hourlong special placed between seasons five and six, “All This and Gargantua-2” would be almost completely impenetrable to a Venture Bros. newcomer. Seriously, only a show as dense and ambitious as this could have the Monarch at long last destroying the Venture Compound — the main setting of the first five seasons — feel like a relative footnote.
Crucially, this riveting episode does away with the Sovereign, the head of the Guild of Calamitous Intent and (as Sheila learns) a shapeshifter who merely pretended to be David Bowie. It’s also the end for Jonas Jr., who’s revealed to be dying from cancer before sacrificing himself in order to thwart the Sovereign’s plan to sabotage Jr.’s Gargantua-2 space station. At the same time, Dr. Henry Killinger, an eerie figure who offers villains guidance, kills the Investors, his equally manipulative but seemingly more malevolent trio of brothers who put the Sovereign in power in the first place. The Sovereign meets an undignified end, Killinger appoints Sheila to the reformed Guild Council, and the Venture family returns to their home in ruins just before discovering that Jonas Jr. left VenTech Industries to Doc.
“It Happening One Night” (Season 6, Episode 6)
With Doc now filthy rich and predictably relishing his move to New York City’s VenTech headquarters, much of season six is devoted to exploring the effects this abrupt change has on the boys and the Monarch. Doc, with Brock at his side again, is out of the Monarch’s arching league per-Guild rules — so, while Dean is off to college uptown and Hank finds work at a pizza parlor, the Monarch is supposed to be building up his villainy level. Of course, being the Monarch, he instead goes behind the Guild’s back and hides a startling new discovery from Sheila: His father was secretly a vigilante known as the Blue Morpho.
Disguising themselves as the Morpho and his sidekick, the Monarch and 21 decide to eliminate all the villains allowed to arch Doc. This includes The Doom Factory, a genius hybrid of DC’s Legion of Doom crossed with Andy Warhol’s pop-art clique. While “It Happening One Night” has other highlights, like glimpses of the star-crossed romance between Hank and supervillain’s daughter Sirena Ong, it’s The Doom Factory and their eventual destruction at the hands of the Monarch/Morpho that make this episode so unforgettable. When faction leader Wes Warhammer actually goes after Doc in this episode, it’s at once the most confounding and perhaps effective act of archvillainy seen in the entire show.
“Red Means Stop” (Season 6, Episode 8)
Any show, even a show the caliber of The Venture Bros., can always be elevated by the late-series addition of the right talent. The sixth season ends with the masterpiece debut of Clancy Brown’s Red Death, a veteran Guild villain that belongs high on a ranking of Brown’s best roles. The Monarch and 21, it happens, pick precisely the wrong guy to go after when they try to run the Blue Morpho playbook on Red Death. Lucky for them, Red is immediately established as both the most brutal of the Guild’s top villains and its most understanding. A valuable lesson Red imparts about balancing the work of arching and a life of hate helps the Monarch get out of his self-made Morpho mess later on. For his troubles, Red also gets to indulge in a little recreational violence thanks to a messed up Saw situation 21 created in the Morpho hideout.
“Arrears in Science” (Season 7, Episode 3)
Venture’s seventh and final season opens with a three-part extravaganza of callbacks, reunions, and massive revelations. All three episodes are great, but the payoffs delivered in “Arrears in Science” put it above the others. If you’re not too hazy on the show’s story, this might be the top episode to watch as a refresher before the Venture movie.
The episode all but confirms that the Monarch and Doc are related, implied here to be half brothers. Both Jonas Sr. and the original Blue Morpho, Don Fitzcarraldo, are clinging to life; the former as a severed head on life support, the latter as Jonas Sr.’s cybernetic handiwork. For all of Doc’s many faults, he doesn’t hold a candle to how much of a prick his dad is. On top of blackmailing Fitzcarraldo for years, Jonas Sr. hints that he “helped” Fitzcarraldo’s wife conceive the boy who became the Monarch. Leaving the exact circumstances of Jonas Sr.’s near death decades ago aboard Gargantua-1 unclear, their present-day showdown ends with both presumed truly dead at long last — but not before Don has the chance to see the Monarch and call out his real name, Malcolm.
“The Forecast Manufacturer” (Season 7, Episode 9)
A blizzard burying the city in snow, chalked up to the work of an “old-school weather machine” by Doc, serves as an unassuming setup for a bombshell dropped in Hank’s lap. Ever the rebel, Hank refuses to accompany his father and Billy on a mission to disable the weather machine and instead sets off to Sirena’s.
The Guild, meanwhile, dispatches the Monarch and 21 on their own mission to stop the weather machine, but from the moment Hank collapses outside his story takes priority. Hank gets carried through the blizzard by a silent figure wearing a terrifying bear suit (identity still unknown) before being dropped outside Dean’s dorm room. Dean, it turns out, has been sleeping with Sirena. The season seven finale is still great, publicly dropping the whopper that Doc and the Monarch are blood relatives right after the Monarch regains his arching rights, but the opening of this rift between Hank and Dean feels like the real gut punch to set up for the Venture movie.
