'The Venture Bros.' Debuts Its Own Suicide Squad

Last night, Venture Bros departed from this season’s barreling plot to deliver some of its signature irreverent humor. In one corner, Hank took Sirena on a heartfelt date, a satirical jab at every cinematic date set in New York. They drive through Central Park, run into fake homeless people, buskers and muggers (played by Dean, Billy and Pete) and ditch their dinner bill to go skinny dipping. Brock and one of Wide Whale’s henchmen chase Hank and Sirena until they disappear under the water, kissing.

The episode’s central plot is the successful arching of the Venture Compound by “The Doom Factory,” an avant-garde group of villains mocking Andy Warhol and his drugged-out friends, Edie Sedgwick among them. After choosing to nonchalantly attack Dr. Venture over the weekend, the Factory sends a black-and- white video of the Tower, alerting Brock to their plan. Later, they stage a trippy party in Dr. Venture’s living room and cast him in a Warhol-style close-up film. Naturally, Dr. Venture distracted by all this, so they steal all of his inventions.

If you had asked me earlier whether I wanted to see Dr. Venture in a reboot of Andy Warhol’s “Blowjob”, I would have said no. But the whole sequence was so funny, that I trusted The Venture Bros. to finish it. That kind of multimedia experiment is what makes The Venture Bros –– and most of Adult Swim, really –– one of the most interesting events on television.

Although the show was largely satirical this week, the funniest scene was between 21 and the Blue Morpho — yelling “dude!” at each other once their plan to attack The Doom Factory collapsed. It’s a testament to the voice acting talents of both Christopher McCulloch and Doc Hammer that their chemistry can make a simple exchange so memorable.

It’s so much fun to watch The Monarch and 21 develop into Blue Morpho and Kano. The show really thrives once its audience can root for opposing forces: The Monarch and Dr. Venture. In the rare case when one party actually succeeds, neither character can truly process it. Reinventing himself as a new villain has allowed The Monarch to do what he does best on The Venture Bros.: betraying a wife he doesn’t deserve and trying, in vain, to find relevance the lives of Dr. Venture and Brock. We love to see him fail as much as we love to watch Brock implausibly succeed.