Here at Techland, only one television program manages to tie into so many of our geeky obsessions all at once. Superheroes, mythical creatures, action figures and barely believeable sci-fi all flop onto each other on the glorious cavalcade that is The Venture Bros. Cartoon Network’s just started airing the series from the start and Techland’s Hive Mind is taking the occasion to re-watch the exploits of Hank, Dean, Brock and Dr. Thaddeus Venture. Join us as we witness how Venture Bros. evolved over its four stellar seasons.
[Programming note: Anyone who’s been actually watching the Venture Bros. re-runs has noticed by now that they’re not showing the series in order. Rather than jump around the continuity, the Joint Venture feature’s going to keep going on in series order. This is because we love you, dear reader.]
This week, Michelle Castillo, Evan Narcisse and Graeme McMillan talk about Season 1/Episode 11: “Past Tense“
GRAEME: Oh, man, this episode is like the motherlode of Venture Bros backstory: Young Rusty, Pete, Baron Underbheit and Brock, and with a Happy Days-style scene transition and laughtrack, to boot (I love that Hank calls out the unlikelihood of all of them having gone to school together pretty much from the start: “Where’d you guys go? Supercrazynoways school?”). I love everything about the past versions of the characters, whether it’s the Jack Kirby-esque hair and eyebrows on Underbheit (which makes sense, considering he’s pretty much Doctor Doom in terms of character – In fact, now that I think about it, Doctor Doom was in college with Mister Fantastic and the Thing from the Fantastic Four… Hmm), Pete’s radio show being called “The White Room” or Rusty already being dated and uncool (He’s hanging Yes and Dark Side of the Moon posters while Mike Sorayama’s talking about Blade Runner). Plus, of course, Brock’s moustache, which never fails to be funny.
MICHELLE: No wonder Brock got all the ladies, that moustache was mighty impressive.
I loved this episode, especially the decision to make it a sitcom about college days. It’s always good to find out the backstory of your favorite characters and how they metRusty and Brock Samson as roommates sounds exactly like a comedy tv show, and I love how Baron Ünderbheit is the foreign exchange student. We’ve all had roommates who wronged us in college, so even those of you who might not know that much about the comic book world can enjoy it. Plus the episode brings up the eternal question: Is it a ghost robot or just a robot?
EVAN: I think that, in all of the evil revenge-after-I’ve-died plots in all of nerddom, a coffin gimmicked into a death trap is amongst the best ever. The retro laugh track for this episode was just another one of the ways that the show manages to speak to a myriad of cultural moments but in a really specific way. The rhythm of the gags, the flashbacks and racist jokes call back to a time when things were looser and less PC.
I’m pretty sure those fembot designs are riffing on something pre-existing, too. A Heavy Metal magazine cover, maybe? [Note: Yup!] Doctor Orpheus’ “clouding the minds of men” is a quick reference to the Shadow.
GRAEME: And as if that wasn’t enough, the original Team Venture, led by Racist Sean Connery – Wait, I mean Colonel Gentleman (But seriously, “despite his racial handicap”?). I love that the original team is pretty much a collection of pulp cliches, right down to Otto Aquarius being the exiled son of Atlantis (of COURSE he is), and also that they’re still more capable than Rusty deserves – and also capable of the most impressive Go Team Venture we’ve seen so far.
MICHELLE: What a dream team! James Bond, Captain America/Nick Fury, Aquaman/Sub Mariner and Kato – well even though they are lame, older versions of the real characters. The fact that Brock Samson can beat all of them in a fit of berserker rage makes me think he’s the only character that more often than not doesn’t manage to mess everything up each time – well, besides the fact that he killed the star quarterback on the football field.
GRAEME: In the middle of all of this, a plot that replaces cliche (He faked his own death!) with something weirder (No he didn’t!), unrequited love with fembots, has a nice piece of reverse-chronology revelation (Rusty’s tooth found under the bed, and then we find out how it got there ten minutes later), and ends with Young Rusty finding out about the death of his father in the worst way possible. It may be meant as a joke, but Brock being the one to tell him seems oddly important, as if it explains why Rusty’s become so attached to him – and so resentful of him – years later. Or am I reading too much into that?
EVAN: If this episode stopped at the State University for Super-Dudes motif, it still would’ve been great. But the retro Team Venture stuff takes it way over the top. I’d kill for a show of their exploits back in the day. Just the name of the villains alone–The Invisible Fist (which, y’know, ouch), The Mesmerist, Troublemakers, Inc.–makes me salivate at the prospects of the action/comedy stew. And who wouldn’t want to witness the origins of the Jehovah’s Witness sneak attack?
But, to Graeme’s observation about Brock and Rusty, there’s such a rich complicated relationship between those two. They both have things the other envies–family and roots on one side, sex appeal and brute strength on the other–but they still stick by each other.
GRAEME: Favorite line of the episode: “Why is it everytime I try to go somewhere, I get waylaid by half-assery?”
MICHELLE: Mine is (referring back to Evan’s point): “Aren’t my robots beautiful? Notice anything familiar about them?” “Yeah I had that issue of Heavy Metal too. What’s this about Mike?”
EVAN: “As usual your detetctive skills are impeccable, Samson. You’ve succeeded in exposing my sinister plan to lock myself in dungeon chained to an albino.”
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