Characters / The Venture Bros. — Venture Allies

Main Character Index | Team Venture | The OSI | Venture Allies | The Monarch And Cohorts | The Guild of Calamitous Intent | Others

Characters from The Venture Bros.. This page is for the "allies" of Team Venture.

Due to the sheer number of Walking and Late Arrival Spoilers (including some characters' placement and, in a few cases, their very name), Spoilers Are Off for these pages. You have been warned.

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Conjectural Technologies

Conjectural Technologies in General

The original "headquarters".

"How can we make your tomorrow better?"

A tech start-up by Dr. Venture's college friend Pete White and former child prodigy Billy Quizboy. The two are Venture's closest friends and he frequently calls on them for scientific aid. They get bought out in season six and sold to VenTech Industries, moving along with the family family to New York City.

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• Ascended Extra: They grow from bit characters in the pilot who don't even get real names (referred to as "Albino Scientist" and "Hydrocephalic Child Scientist" in the credits) to recurring characters in the first few seasons to trailing only the Venture family and the Monarch in terms of how frequently they appear by the late seasons.
• A Day in the Limelight: They seem to have one at least Once a Season starting in Season Three.
  • Season three's "The Invisible Hand of Fate" is a Whole Episode Flashback that focuses on the history between the two.
  • Season four's "The Silent Partners" sees Billy is kidnapped by The Investors and the relationship between him and White is put into question.
  • Season five's "Spanakopita!" has them accompany Rusty on his vacation in Spanakos.
  • Season six's "Maybe No Go" gives a peek into the duo's lives as "heroes".
  • Season seven's "The Bellicose Proxy" has the two are trained for their next arching against St. Cloud.
• Closest Thing We Got: Need a doctor but you don't have medical insurance? Need a software engineer cum hacker but you don't have the money to pay for a real one? Need a duo of ambiguous scientific competence for whatever poorly thought out laboratory hokum you're trying to spoof? Then Conjectural Technologies is the tech start-up for you!
• Deal with the Devil: Their insurance payout "seed money" came from such a deal with The Investors. They force Billy to perform a heart transplant on Monstroso in order to pay them back.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In very early material, such as the pilot and season one's "Ice Station Impossible", they're treated as scientific peers to people like Rusty and Richard Impossible, getting invited to big events like the UN summit and the secret government "think tank". By the second season, this idea largely vanishes, and their science skills are downplayed in favor of focusing on surgery (for Billy) and computer work (which, one supposes, are still forms of science, but rather distinct from the typical brand of it in the series, for Pete), with Billy not even being accredited.
• End of an Era: Billy and Pete are coerced by Augustus St. Cloud into giving up their company and all their associated assets early in season six. It turns out St. Cloud sells the assets to VenTech Industries, giving them an excuse to follow the Venture family to New York and work on Rusty's "super-science" R&D projects.
• Fake Relationship: Billy's mom assumed they were in a relationship, and for some reason, he didn't feel like denying it, so now at this point they're committed to it. The fact that she sent them a sideboard and other gifts to celebrate their apparent domestic-partnership is a bonus. Apparently, it doesn't take much more to keep the ruse going than just not denying it when, for instance, Col. Gentleman refers to White as Billy's "pigmentally-challenged better half".
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Naturally. They live together, apparently have for nearly as long as the Venture boys have been alive, fight Like an Old Married Couple, and are fully Mistaken for Gay but find it easier to just pretend they are in a relationship around certain people (like Billy's mom).
• Ink-Suit Actor: Zig-zagged on a couple of levels. First, Pete and Billy look a lot like creators Doc Hammer and Chris McCulloch (AKA Jackson Publick) respectively, with added deformities (Pete being an albino while Billy is a hydrocephalic). The "Zig" comes in because each character is voiced by the other creator. The "Zag" come from the series' official artbook, in which the creators say that it's purely coincidental.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Pete isn't quite old enough to be Billy's father, but there is at least a decade age gap in their friendship.
• Like an Old Married Couple: They've lived together for almost twenty years and would do just about anything for each other, but they start bickering at the drop of a hat. Or... as seen in "Any Which Way But Zeus", when a scarf is dropped to cue the start of the tragic friend-versus-friend gladiator match they're supposed to have, they instead resume the argument they'd been having earlier about whether one of them is the other's sidekick until the announcer has to yell at them to "stop fighting and fight!" It's usually the sort of extremely married bickering where they're both yelling at once so it's practically unintelligible to listen to, but they understand each other well enough to retort to something the other hasn't finished saying yet.
• Manchild: Both of them, in different ways. At one point Billy scolds White for wanting to keep H.E.L.P.eR. after they win him off St. Cloud, because "you never even play with Robo-Bo anymore", exactly like a parent telling off a kid who wants more toys. But despite being fairly sensible and responsible, Billy gets really into make-believe and playing dress-up. And they both trick-or-treat at the Venture compound on Halloween, although it seems like they're mostly just trying to be sociable. Occasionally they act like One of the Kids with Hank and Dean.
• No Hero to His Valet: Billy and White are Doc's only real friends, and they understand most of his best and all of his worst qualities, and thus respond to his various hi-jinks appropriately. They later come to work for his directly, making this trope near literal.
• The Peter Principle: Once they and Augustus St. Cloud are officially recognized as arches by both the O.S.I. and the Guild of Calamitous Intent, their clashes (which previously had everything from giant robots and attempted murder) wind up becoming even lamer due to the constraints placed upon both parties by their new "level one" status. Even worse, they're not allowed to use their old homemade costumes and have to make do with cruddy rental ones while their new proper (and approved) attire is being made (which apparently takes months).
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A few episodes have pointed out that Conjectural Technologies rarely seems to... you know, do anything as a company. They're apparently a tech startup, but the kind of technology they work with, their products, and who's buying and selling their stuff is a complete mystery. Unless you count helping out the Ventures as their business model, which it may very well be.
• Ship Tease: Their Heterosexual Life-Partners relationship that is often Mistaken for Gay has been milked for a good number of jokes in the fandom. In "The Silent Partners", Shoreleve even sarcastically quips "Oh yeah, friend. Friend." in reference to their relationship.
• Super Zeroes: They become level one "protagonists" in season six. It's a lot like LARPing (with extra-embarrassing costumes), although Billy does genuinely believe they once saved all of pop culture since the '80s from a tragic Duran Duran deficiency.
• Those Two Guys: They are rarely seen apart. When they are, it's usually because Billy is kidnapped to perform back-alley medical procedures or Pete is needed for his basic computer science knowledge. In these cases, the absence of the other is usually commented on.
• True Companions: The two have stuck together for most of their adult lives and have shown to care about each other. Though, Pete vehemently denies this. Hatred calls him out on this later on.
  Pete: He's not my best friend. I just work with him.
  Sgt. Hatred: ..And live with him and do everything with him. That's best friends.
  Pete: I always thought of Rusty as my best friend.
  Sgt. Hatred: What? You know what White? You are a star-fucker!

Pete White

Pete White/The Pink Pilgrim

Voiced by: Jackson Publick

"Oh, FYI, I issued some shares back when we needed cash for the Nintendo Wii."

The "ever-popular" Pete White is an unlikely friend of Dr. Venture who attended State University with him in the 1980s (where he was also the roommate of Baron Ünderbheit). Originally a radio DJ and host of the gameshow "Quizboys", where he met Billy, his life fell apart after a cheating scandal and he moved into a trailer with Billy, starting Conjectural Technologies. He is a competent computer scientist, an albino, and patterns his trademark new wave look after Phil Oakey of The Human League.

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• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: He can't hang onto money (or anything he could sell to get more money) for any length of time. When he was younger, he blew all his savings on cocaine. These days he's apparently more interested in dumb toys and video games, almost to the point of compulsivity. Billy tends to let him have it (especially since it's usually, really Billy's money), but even he admits the ConjectureCycle is "the best ten million bucks we ever spent." He also blew all their money made on the "underground Quizboy circuit" on a bad bet back when they were younger. Suffice it to say, he's really bad with money.
• Albinos Are Freaks: Self-describes as a "freak" in "The Invisible Hand of Fate". He gets a few demeaning comments from other characters related to his albinism, such as Monstroso describing Billy's home as "infested with albinos scurrying from Xbox to PlayStation" like he's a giant white rat. And characters tend not to use his name when "the albino" works just as well. St. Cloud, for his part, regards him like some sort of exotic pet that belongs to Billy, until it's too much even for White's usually apathetic personality.
  White: I'm not his albino. People don't own albinos!
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Gets easily distracted by St Cloud's pop-culture memorabilia... or hair mousse. When this happens, Billy usually tells him off, which gets him back on task for all of ten seconds or so. Then he gets distracted again.
• Boring, but Practical: One of his suggested inventions for Rusty's new super science research division in season six is a "silent washing machine" which, in spite of how lame it sounds, apparently actually works (unlike the rest of the more interesting inventions). Rusty, being something of a subdued Mad Scientist, is quick to wave it aside in favor of Billy's "God Gas".
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Heavy on the "Lazy" part. When he applies himself, he is the cast's defacto computer expert, and is able to pitch-in with Billy's surgeries and VenTech R&D later in the series. Most of his hobbies (video games, radio DJ, internet) further reflect this.
• Buffy Speak: When things start getting especially "super-science-y", well out of Pete's areas of expertise, he starts to use this to describe what is going on.
  Pete: I'm an albino, I can't even go to the beach without exploding. There is no way I'm standing in front of an anything ray.
• Camp Straight: Despite his appearance and nature, he is straight. Lampshaded by Shore Leave, who states White has no right to call him a sissy.
• Dirty Coward: He is absolutely useless in a fight. At one point, he outright admits to "cowering in a corner" until he heard the fighting stop.
• The '80s: Heavily influenced by the culture. He even patterns his look after Phil Oakey of The Human League.
• Hollywood New England: Speaks with a New England accent. The New England stereotype of being strangely obsessive about route optimization shows up in "ORB", where he gets sidetracked by noticing a shortcut on a mysterious secret map.
  Pete: Look at that, I could save 1.3 miles if I take Ridge Street!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Particularly towards Billy, becoming his caretaker after Billy's mind was wiped by the O.S.I. and offering his last bit of money to anyone who would help him get Billy back when he was kidnapped by the Investors.
• Karma Houdini: He basically destroyed Billy's life, first ruining his reputation as a Quizboy by cheating for him, then losing both the money that Billy had been saving for college and the boy's hand/eye by accidentally entering him in a dogfighting ring. After Billy's failed mission with the O.S.I., Brock brings him, memory wiped, into Pete's care. Over the years since, Billy has been the only competent member of their duo and, whenever Billy regains his memory, Pete takes him to have it wiped once again. Pete has basically avoided all consequences for his actions, aside from, well, being Pete White. It's really no wonder that Zero introduced Billy as "under the villain Pete White" in "Any Which Way But Zeus".
• Last-Name Basis: Almost everyone just calls him "White", probably because it fits him so well. Billy and Rusty have been his closest friends for twenty years — Billy's even shared a bedroom with him for close to that — and they both still address him with his surname.
• Lost Him In A Cardgame: In "What Colour Is Your Cleansuit?", St. Cloud makes Billy wager Pete as a prize in a trivia game. Fortunately, Billy won.
• The Millstone: While he is occasionally useful, most often when the other characters need someone with basic computer knowledge, the series heavily implies that he's mostly holding the actually-surprisingly-competent Billy back.
• Mistaken for Gay: Several times, even by his best friend Billy. It gets more common when Billy's mother assumes they are a couple in season six. Season seven confirms the old folks on the show still think this, with the two having a Fake Relationship so they don't have to give back the gifts Billy's mom got them.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His attempt to save Rusty and the rest of the people in VenTech Tower during the season seven premiere results in him destroying Jonas Sr.'s life support system. In all fairness, he was likely suffering a concussion as Jonas arranged for him to be knocked out by a heavy wrench so he couldn't interfere with his hack of the tower. Of course, Jonas Sr. really had it coming.
• Not Worth Killing: Downplayed in that it's memory wiping, but still in the same vein. The O.S.I/SPHINX don't bother wiping his memory whenever they wipe Billy's, due to him being, as Hunter Gathers put it, "a lazy bastard". (It actually works out, since White can bring Billy to them whenever he does regain his memory.)
• Older Than They Look: He's roughly the same age as Rusty, Brock, Baron Ünderbheit, and the Monarch, but time's been rather kind to him. This has elements of Truth in Television, as Pete's albinism means he needs to take extra care of his skin and stay out of the sun, which has likely slowed the aging process.
• Parasol of Prettiness: Carries one when outdoors in the daylight to protect himself from the sun as an albino, but it also fits in with his general Camp Straight demeanor.
• Prone to Sunburn: Exaggerated. He can catch on fire in sufficiently intense direct sun. It seems depending on Rule of Funny, however — another scene shows him after sitting out in the desert sun for who-knows-how-long and just realistically getting the sort of sunburn people go to the ER for. He sometimes carries a Parasol of Prettiness to avoid this.
• Punny Name: An albino with the last name of "White".
• The Slacker: Obviously he's better off sticking with indoor activities to begin with, but he usually spends his time playing video games rather than making himself useful as co-founder of Conjectural Technologies. It's repeatedly implied that he is holding the much-more-competent Billy back.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: He has some basic computer skills, having managed to keep up with the times despite the squalor he lives in, but most of the sci-fi technology in the show is old-school analogue, limiting his usefulness.
• Weaksauce Weakness: White helpfully reminds people at every opportunity that he can't take much sunlight. He's even been shown to burst into flames when directly exposed to strong sunlight.

Billy Quizboy

William "Billy" Whalen/Master Billy Quizboy

Voiced by: Doc Hammer

"It's industrial espionage, you've come to steal our great ideas. You've been foiled; we have none!"

A hydrocephalic neurogeneticist, he made his name as a child prodigy (earning his nickname) from his reign as champion on the TV quiz show "Quizboys" in his youth, where he Pete was the host. Following a cheating scandal, Billy entered the employ of the O.S.I. to spy on Guild activity at State University while posing as a student. After the mission failed, he was mind-wiped and placed into the care of Pete, where they have lived, platonically, in a trailer that doubles as the headquarters of their startup tech business, Conjectural Technologies.

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• Arch-Enemy: Billy has a longstanding rivalry with the exceptionally rich collector/fanboy Augustus St. Cloud, who becomes his official arch-enemy at the beginning of season five (Augustus joined the Guild solely for this reason).
• Ascended Fanboy: Billy is Rusty's biggest fan. He has "ascended" as far as being able to help his idol.
• Back-Alley Doctor: Even without a license Billy is as good, if not better, than any 'real' doctor, performing next to impossible surgeries in less than ideal conditions, including reattaching severed limbs, transplanting a gorilla's heart into a giant, and attaching Dragoon's head to Red Mantle's body without killing either of them. Any time someone in the series needs an (in Billy's words) "illegal surgery", you can bet they'll call/kidnap Billy to perform it.
• Better Living Through Evil: Because Monstroso lavishes him with gifts, amusements, a medical degree, and prostitutes during "The Silent Partners" as payment for him performing an unorthodox heart transplant, Billy seriously considers joining the Guild of Calamitous Intent but reconsiders it when Brock points out that as nice as Monstroso was treating him (especially in comparison to how Team Venture and the O.S.I. does), he's ultimately a remorseless criminal who isn't going to stop hurting people if the operation is successful.
• Beware the Nice Ones: After being pushed too far in the "Invisble Hand of Fate" Flashback to his work for the O.S.I., he manages to punch Brock in the balls and escape from him and Col. Gathers.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Though downplayed on the "Lazy" part, especially in comparison to Pete. Billy actually does seem to be highly skilled surgeon. He fixed Dean's testicular torsion, reattached Rusty's arm, grafted Dragoon's head on to Red Mantle's body in less-than-ideal conditions, guided a miniaturized submarine through Rusty's body to clear a clot, transplanted a gorilla's heart into a giant, and was lauded by the real doctors while working in a hospital at the start of "The Silent Partners". While he does spend a lot of time goofing off with Pete and engaging in nerdy activities (like looking for a secret code in the old "Rusty Venture Show"), many of his failures (and hence "laziness") aren't actually his fault. (Pete cheated for him on Quizboys, causing him to get kicked off the show and the FCC to take his winnings that were supposed to be his college fund. Then when he did go to college while working for the O.S.I., he fails the mission and gets kicked out.) While he regrets never getting his actual medical degree, he never actually goes back to try on his own merit and only gets one via the Investors/Guild.
• Butt-Monkey: Billy can never catch a break. He's teased, mocked, abused, and kidnapped to perform illegal surgeries repeatedly throughout the series. What's even funnier is that he gets so much flak despite being the useful half of his duo.
• Catchphrase: "High five!" It takes a few seasons until he stops getting left hanging all the time, but this surprisingly seems to have little to do with the metal hand, which he never seems to use to give anyone a painful high five. He's not trying to prank anyone, he just wants a high five.
• Cowardly Lion: He's very easily scared ("Brock is training us to fight, so I'm doing what I do best, which is to secretly cower,") but when it gets down to it, he's very into the idea of being a hero. He even manages to stun Brock with a Groin Attack in "The Invisible Hand of Fate" flashback.
• Deadpan Snarker: Billy always has some dry jokes on hand for the absurd scenarios he gets embroiled in.
  Billy: (referring to Hank and Dean's learning beds) Those things are more outdated than Funk and Wagnalls!
• Eyepatch of Power: Wears one over his missing eye. While he's small and meek, he really does pull off some seriously badass feats when necessary, especially when it comes to performing extreme medical procedures in less-than-ideal circumstances.
• Handicapped Badass: Capable of some pretty astounding surgical feats despite having a metal hand and lack of depth perception due to a missing eye.
• Heroic Wannabe: He really wants to be a costumed hero. He's also a small, timid nerd who fully admits to "cowering" when situations turn dangerous.
• High-Five Left Hanging: He likes high-fives, but the laws of the universe seem to conspire against it. Even when White isn't too busy acting aloof to high-five his best friend, they tend to get interrupted by, say, bad news, or a Tranquillizer Dart to the neck.
• Honor Before Reason: He was willing to perform a heart transplant on Monstroso, first for the money, but then because of his doctor's honor. He was still willing to let Brock kill Monstroso after he recovered, though. To be fair, Monstroso had treated him more than fairly, was offering him his life's dream, and had spent a while bonding with him; he had plenty of reasons to like the guy even knowing he was a monster.
• Insufferable Genius: He can be very self-absorbed, but Billy is undeniably knowledgable about medicine and a talented surgeon.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: He doesn't know how he got his metal hand or lost his eye. As revealed in "The Invisible Hand of Fate", every time he regains his memory of working for the O.S.I., Pete takes him to have the memory wiped once again. He seems to have regained the memory (without having it wiped again) by season four given his reaction to Hunter and SPHINX, but it's never confirmed.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Every time he regains the memory of how he lost his eye and hand, Pete knocks him out and takes him to the O.S.I/SPHINX to have his memory wiped again. Later on, it's implied that he now knows the truth permanently.
• The Medic: He's a gifted surgeon and his medical expertise is sought after by heroes and villains alike, usually to perform "illegal surgeries" or deal with the bizarre consequences of super-science.
• Mistaken for Gay: People often mistake he and Pete for a couple. His own mother believes this is why Billy hasn't spoken to her in years, feeling she wouldn't approve of his "lifestyle". Billy doesn't correct her due to wanting to keep gifts she sent them, and Pete hasn't said a word since she called him handsome. By season six, even the rest of the elderly cast genuinely think Pete is Billy's boyfriend.
• My Brain Is Big: Billy claims that his excess of cerebrospinal fluid (due to being hydrocephalic) makes him smarter. This being the cause is debatable, but he's definitely a highly-skilled surgeon.
• Nice Guy: Billy is one of the few genuinely good people in the show's cast. He's kind, polite, helpful, and determined despite all the misery he endures. On the occasions where he loses his cool at someone (usually Pete), he's well within his rights to do so.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: Subverted as he has an illegitimate medical doctorate thanks to doing a favor for Monstroso/the Investors, but even without it, he is one of the most skilled surgeons in the world with incredible knowledge of anatomy.
• Older Than They Look: Mostly in-universe: the lines on his face clearly show he's over 30, but he's often mistaken for a little kid. Dean is reluctant to let Billy examine his nasty case of testicular torsion because he assumes Billy is a little kid, and Sgt. Hatred has pedophilic urges toward him because he looks so young. He played it up for a while because he preferred being a "boy genius" to just a regular grown-up genius.
• Phony Degree: He finally gets a medical doctorate in season four's "The Silent Partners", though it is illegitimate from doing a favor for Monstroso/the Investors. Regardless, he is already a world-class surgeon and medical expert.
• Professor Guinea Pig: He's been the reluctant test subject for various devices that Rusty is trying to exploit such as shrink rays and god gas.
• Properly Paranoid: Billy spent a long time looking for conspiracy clues in the old "Rusty Venture Show" DVDs, long enough to amass quite the Jar Potty collection. He was right to do so, as he finds a code that leads to the hidden location of the world's most dangerous artifact.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: One of the more notable aversions in the series, and not just because of his speech impediment. He speaks like a realistic, slightly nerdy person with "ums", "ahs", pauses, and Buffy Speak.
• Running Gag: He is constantly being kidnapped (or otherwise cajoled) to perform experimental surgeries. Reversing Dean's testicular torsion, sewing Dragoon's head on Red Mantle's shoulder, removing a magical artifact from the Outrider's skull, transplanting King Gorilla's heart into Monstroso, guiding a miniturized sub through Rusty's body... It seems to happen at least once per season.
• Shorter Means Smarter: He's one of the shortest regular cast members and an incredibly skilled surgeon (going as far as transplanting one guy's head onto another guy) with deep anatomical knowledge (able to guide a submarine through Rusty's unconscious body seemingly from memory).
• Speech Impediment: He speaks with a thick lisp. It's evidently genetic since his mother also has it.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: As a man who was reared on space-age pop culture as a child, he shares many of Rusty's attitudes as to how super science can be applied. Also abused for the sake of Rule of Cool, such as in the form of "mind control gas".
• Swiss-Army Appendage: Deconstructed by his mechanical hand, which has a homing function, a fire extinguisher, and it can do a grappling-hook sort of thing, but it can't retract itself and pull him along or anything useful like that, because the mechanism would be too bulky. In fact, after using the grappling-hook function, he apparently has a hard time reattaching it at all, and just leaves it dangling like a mini ball-and-chain for the rest of the day. His idea to have White climb the cable also doesn't work, because it's attached to his nerves and hurts.
• Teen Genius: Both Subverted and Discussed:
  • It's revealed early in the series that he's actually in his 30s despite claiming to be a "boy genius", his short stature and hydrocephalic condition making him look younger than he is. In "The Invisible Hand of Fate" Flashback Episode to his actual teenage years shows that, while he was smart and racked up the points on quiz shows, he was completely overwhelmed by college-level classwork and didn't really display any real-world talent until he grew up.
  • Discussed when he acts as Dean and Hank's guidance counselor in "Pomp and Circuitry" - he reminds Rusty, privately, that the boys really don't have the life skills to face the real world, and he's speaking from experience.
• Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: He and White look a little overdressed in their suits for all the nothing they're generally doing, but Billy's tie is always loose, his shirt is always untucked, and his pants are rolled up at the ankles. The normal but rumpled suit-and-tie look contrasts with White, whose outfit is outdated and eccentric but usually impeccably crisp.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Certainly compared to most others on the show, whose years of experience as adventurers and "super-scientists" have left them very jaded and cynical. Billy is enthusiastic about almost any opportunity to go on a wacky adventure, really thinks the red ball from the "Is There Something I Should Know" video is magic, and usually looks slightly pained when White gets him to bullshit Rusty so they can jack up their fees.
  Brock: It's Level One, Billy. It's a show. He stuns you, you stun him, he vows revenge, and then you tell him that good always triumphs over evil.
  Billy: [like he really thinks he just might hear a "yes"] Does it?
  Brock: Of course not. Now get out there and get this crap over with. You're blocking traffic.
• Younger Than They Look: While his stature gives him the silhouette of a child, he has the craggy, wrinkled face of a man in his fifties, despite still being a relatively young man in his thirties. This especially apparent when compared to Pete, who is 43 and could pass for a man a decade younger.

Rose Whalen

Rose Whalen (Triple Threat)

^{Click here to see her in the 1960s...}
...as Triple Threat

Voiced by: Doc Hammer

Billy's elderly mother. Originally living in an old folks home in Boca Raton, she begins dating the Action Man and moves in with him and Col. Gentleman. In the 1960s, she was a masked heroine known as Triple Threat who worked with the dancer-themed hero Jass and ally to Team Venture.

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• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Still treats her grown son like a little boy, smothering him with unwanted physical affection and doting over him to an extreme. She has a habit of singing "Hush Little Baby" to him when he's upset, including in inappropriate situations.
• Implied Love Interest: It's implied that she was more than crime-fighting partners with the "arrow-straight" Jass, with him possibly even being Billy's father, but it's never outright stated.
• Mama Bear: As St. Cloud discovers, she doesn't like anyone messing with her son.
  Rose: I'll let you take the first swing. And if you don't put me down, I'll beat the living shit out of you till my arthritis kicks in. And I just took my Humira.^note  The half-life of Humira is 10 to 20 days (about 14 on average) and is supposed to be taken every other week. She's going to pummel him for 2 whole weeks.
• Never Mess with Granny: In her youth she was the heroine Triple Threat. Even in her old age, she is still a fully capable ass-kicker, delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to the much younger St. Cloud.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • She and Jass were dancer-themed heroic partners modeled off of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, respectively.
  • According to the creators, her voice is based on that of Carol Channing.
• Official Couple: Starts dating the Action Man with a little help from Hank. Moves with him to New York City starting in season six, as well.
• Punny Name: A triple threat is an entertainer who excels at acting, singing, and dancing. Rose is skilled in physical combat and who knows what else.
• Retired Badass: It's all but stated that she was Triple Threat, an ally to the 1960s Team Venture and Action Man's crush. Triple Threat's mask matches Rose's glasses frames, both wear a rose brooch, and Triple Threat's hair in the '60s is the same color as Billy's in the present. The most damning evidence is after a flashback in "The Devil's Grip" introducing Triple Threat as a character and mentioning she was Action Man's crush, Action Man confides in Hank that he has been trying to pursue Rose romantically for the past 40 years.
• Something about a Rose: Her name is Rose, she wears a rose brooch, and her hero costume in her youth had a rose pin at a time when she was considered extremely attractive. She was implied to be in a relationship with her partner Jass, at some point with Billy's father (if that wasn't also Jass), and later the Action Man.
• Strong Family Resemblance: As an older woman, she not only has her son's voice but effectively looks like an elderly genderbent version of him with normal proportions.

The Order Of The Triad

The Order in General

The Order of the Triad

"Order of the Triad, Assemble!"

A magical super-team headed by Dr. Venture's tenant, Dr. Byron Orpheus. They're typically brought in when Team Venture is dealing with threats and mysteries of the supernatural variety.

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• Arch-Enemy: They get a Guild-sanctioned one in Torrid. Orpheus actually wanted their own Guild-sanctioned arch-enemy, to the point of hosting tryouts for the position in "Fallen Arches". Torrid emerged as the winner by kidnapping Orpheus's daughter Triana, and the Triad are shown battling him a few times in future episodes.
• Comic Trio: Orpheus is a Large Ham who takes both magic and the "costumed heroes/villains" act seriously. Al is also magic, but takes almost none of it seriously. Jefferson has no magic and is often in over his head/a fish out of water in dealing with magic threats. Much of the comedy derives from their interactions in these roles.
• A Day in the Limelight: While the Triad appears in smaller roles throughout much of the series, they tend to get a dedicated episode about Once a Season. To note:
  • Season two's "Fallen Arches" sees Dr. Orpheus get approved by the Guild of Calmitous Intent for an official Arch-Enemy, but as a "team". He recruits Al and Jefferson to join him as they interview potential candidates.
  • Season three's "What Goes Down, Must Come Up" has the Venture boys call in the Triad after their father and Brock disappear.
  • Season four's "The Better Man" sees them in action against Torrid, only for the Outider, Orpheus' former student and the man who stole his wife, get involved.
  • The pre-season five Halloween Episode has them in the A-plot, hosting a party of magic-users that accidentally summons all of the dead bodies buried around the Venture Compound.
  • After being Put on a Bus for seasons five and six, they return to play a large role in the season seven opening "Morphic Trilogy" of episodes as they attempt to quell a suspected poltergeist at VenTech Tower.
• Eye of Providence: Appears in their sigil.
• Old Superhero: Each member of the Triad is middle-aged. While they are physically and mentally fit enough to qualify for their own arch-enemy, the Alchemist rightfully points out that they are too old to keep up the whole "cops and robbers" schtick arching entails for long.
• Supernatural Team: In contrast to the "super-science" angle of the Venture family and their other allies, each member of the Order are in some way involved with the supernatural.

Dr. Orpheus

Dr. Byron Orpheus

Voiced by: Stephen Rattazzi

"Well, if you must call me [a magician], yes. But if you are after mere parlor tricks, you'll be sorely disappointed. For if I reach behind your ear, it will not be a nickel I pull out... BUT YOUR VEEERY SOOOOUUL!!"

Dr. Byron Orpheus is a necromancer and master of mysticism who has the tendency to speak in a ringing, melodramatic tone, often at inappropriate times, usually accompanied by dramatic music. Dr. Orpheus is divorced and has a daughter, Triana. He rents the old "Advanced Arachnid Research" section of the compound from Dr. Venture and tends to join in on the family's adventures when they involve supernatural elements.

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• Abusive Parents: Although he dearly loves Triana and wouldn't directly harm a hair on her head, he's not above wiping her memory when convenient. In their old apartment he did this regularly since the portal to the nether dimension was in her closet.
• Actually Not a Vampire: Dr. Orpheus is easily mistaken for "a Dracula", as the boys did in his introductory episode. The cloak, hair, and use of magic make it an easy mistake to make.
• Aesop Amnesia: Apparently a common result of his chats with his Master, such as when he declared "I already know that I know nothing!" when he clearly hadn't learned that lesson.
• Always Someone Better: The Outrider, a former student of his who his wife left him to be with. Orpheus has trained his entire life just to "perceive that there is a second world," while the Outrider can travel through it. This eventually inverses itself in a way, when it is shown that the Outrider cheated to obtain his powers while Orpheus' master admits that Orpheus is truly his best student.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Triana usually handles his theatrics pretty well, but he can make quite a scene when he suspects someone is hitting on his daughter or is trying to give her The Talk.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Will throw out some rather archaic terms, particularly during some of his more dramatic speeches. Combine it with his Large Ham tendencies and swelling Leitmotif, anything he says automatically sounds more dramatic. Such as when simply giving The Talk to his daughter:
  Dr. Orpheus: Hear me out! [clears throat] When young women reach estrus, the, uhh, lingam, ummm, craves theeee stamen-like skills of the yoni. This is quite natural. ^note He is so embarrassed by the subject that he gets his biology exactly wrong: the lingam is the human equivalent of the stamen, the yoni of the pistil. 'Lingam' and 'yoni' are not so much antiquated as exotic, being the Sanskrit terms that might be familiar to Orpheus from tantric writings or other subcontinental works.)
  Triana: Dad. Come on. I'm doing you a favor.
  Dr. Orpheus: It's just that boys at their age have unchecked desires coursing- nay, RAGING AS A TEMPEST WOULD!! Through their tingling nethers!
• Arch-Enemy: He spends the first season pining for one, and is eventually given one in the form of Torrid, who earns the job during the Triad's "tryout" by kidnapping Triana.
• The Artifact: Introduced as a "necromancer", and he attempts to resurrect somebody at one point while saying that it's perfectly routine. This does not get visited again for a while, and he later says that he only uses the word "necromancer" because "wizard," "sorcerer," and "magician" have fallen out of favor.
• Back from the Dead: It very rarely comes up about the plot besides a failed attempt to resurrect Hank and Dean, but as a necromancer, Orpheus is well-versed in communing with and reviving the dead. He boasts that he regularly performed resurrections on both David Blaine and Evel Knievel (also Ronald Reagan, "until he bounced a check").
• Bad Powers, Good People: He introduces himself as a necromancer, and though he functions as a more general sorcerer, he is capable of raising the dead. Despite this, he's not only a "good" person, but one of the downright nicest in the entire series.
• Berserk Button: Anyone hitting on his daughter is sure to set off his loudest and hammiest retorts.
  Dr. Orpheus: MY DAUGHTER'S VIRGINITY IS NOT A PRIZE TO BE WON!
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's an all-around swell guy and loving dad, but not somebody you'd want to really piss off, as a little wailing Homeboy figurine can attest:
  Dr. Orpheus: That houses the souls of two FOUL-MOUTHED REDNECKS!!
• Captain Ersatz: Of Doctor Strange, being a sorcerer and master of mysticism who wears a cloak.
• Character Catchphrase: "'Kaaay". A sort of non-plussed reaction to the super science stuff that happens around the Ventures, or just a bemused agreement with something weird Dr Venture has just said, in either case contrasting sharply with his usual Large Ham Antiquated Linguistics.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: He's pretty good at giving others advice, and fairly down to Earth when it comes to everyone's problems but his own, in which he's near-constantly met with failure. He minored in Women's Studies in college but his wife left him for one of his students.
• Corrupted Character Copy: To Doctor Strange. He has no real PhD, only a degree in Communications and a minor in Women's Studies from a community college, while Stephen Strange was an accomplished neurosurgeon before becoming Sorceror Supreme. He calls himself a "necromancer" simply because all of the other magic-user titles have fallen out of favor (note that he actually can communicate with and raise the dead as a proper Necromancer does, it's just not his primary field of magic), is constantly outdone by his former student (the Outrider, who also stole his wife), and his Large Ham tendencies are considered annoying and embarrassing by his daughter. Nonetheless, he's by far the nicest member of the main cast.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A self-proclaimed necromancer who typically wears a black cloak and is often mistaken for a vampire, it can be quite the shock that he's one of the most morally decent people on the show.
• Deadpan Snarker: In sharp contrast to his Large Ham behavior, he can get witheringly sarcastic, usually with people who are ignorant or presumptuous about magic or when someone teases him about his ex-wife.
  Dr. Orpheus: Ahh, no. I don't miss her astounding beauty daily.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Once the show starts playing for keeps when it comes to death after season three, Orpheus suddenly becomes immensely disinclined to perform necromancy.
• Foil: To Rusty in multiple ways. To note:
  • In many respects, he is the opposite of Rusty—even aside from the obvious Magic Versus Science angle. Rusty is notoriously lazy and coasts on his inheritance and childhood fame and fortune, while Orpheus is a workaholic who earned his powers through great study and practice. Rusty is a notoriously jaded and cynical Deadpan Snarker, while Orpheus is a dramatic Large Ham who treats even the smallest actions as a big deal. Rusty is self-centered to the extreme and rarely does anything without a profit motive, while Orpheus is incredibly moral and describes himself as a protector of the mortal realm. Rusty hates being involved in the nonsense of the Guild and the Monarch, while Orpheus actively sought out an archvillain and takes genuine pleasure in his adventures.
  • He contrasts Rusty's terrible parenting by being a good father to Triana. His intro episode shows him recording a message just to let her know he's popped over to the other side of the compound for a bit, but she can have one of the puddings in the fridge. He's very involved, but not smothering. Meanwhile, Rusty causes the boys to get into trouble by angrily shooing them away every time he sees them, and has socially crippled them to the point that Dean's attempts to talk to Triana are incredibly pathetic even by teen-boy-with-a-crush standards. However, it's later revealed that his workaholism tends to get in the way despite his good intentions.
  • He's also the opposite in terms of how he treats his child's future. Rusty drags Hank and Dean into his job, and repeatedly ignores their resistance to him or treats it as unimportant. Orpheus does everything he can (even wiping her mind of meetings with the Master) to ensure that Triana won't be following his path, because he's abundantly aware of the terrors of it. And unlike Rusty, once he's had complete confirmation of what the best path for her is, he avidly supports it.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Zig-zagged between he and the Outrider. While the Outrider gained an ability Orpheus cannot, he cheated to get it, but in doing so, made time to spend with his wife (Orpheus' ex-wife). Both the Outrider and The Master admit that Orpheus is the superior sorcerer, but sacrificed too much to get there.
• Historical In-Joke: Ronald Reagan famously believed in astrology and the occult. Dr. Orpheus claims that Reagan was once his client, "until he bounced a check".
• Insistent Terminology: Orpheus habitually refers to Rusty as "Mr. Venture" rather than "Dr. Venture", owing to Rusty's dubious doctorate. Doubles as Hypocritical Humor since Orpheus' own "Dr." title is not from any recognized education institution, but was apparently "bestowed by a higher power".
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Particularly in "I Know Why The Caged Bird Kills", where he's first seen snuggling his cat ("Who's a pretty pretty pussycat? Yes, you are!"), and only gets a little sarcastic at it when it gets startled by the doorbell and claws him. Later, he looks absolutely delighted to be waking up on a dirty motel floor after a beatdown by Myra, because her cats are swarming him affectionately.
  Dr. Orpheus: Hee hee, they smell my cat!
• Large Ham: He cannot stop being a ham, making bombastic speeches with Antiquated Linguistics and wild gesturing over a swelling Leitmotif tends to have that effect. The only time he isn't being one of these is when he's delivering withering sarcasm.
• Leitmotif: Has one that plays whenever he's in extra Large Ham mode, which is quite often. It's loud and swelling, befitting one so dramatic.
• Meaningful Name: Orpheus, a necromancer, shares his name with a figure from Greek mythology who traveled into the underworld to meet with Hades and bring his wife back from the dead, but fails. Like the mythical Orpheus, Byron has also failed to win his ex-wife back.
• Milking the Giant Cow: He'll gesture wildly even if saying rather mundane things.
• Mistaken for Gay: By a couple of rednecks in "Return to Spider-Skull Island" (and he wasn't even wearing his cape), and another time by Rusty. His fashion sense is a little flamboyant, plus Rusty apparently finds it suspicious that Dr. Orpheus willingly spends time with him.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Any time he RAISES HIS VOICE to deliver MUNDAAAAANE INFORMATION to the tune of SWELLING MUUUUSIC!
  "Do not be too hasty entering that room... I HAD TACO BEEEELLLL FOR LUNCH!!!"
  "Get me... my BLUUUUUUUE WINDBREAKER!!!"
  "Who wants...PIZZZZZZA ROLLS?!"
• Mundane Utility: He uses his powers as a powerful necromancer to cook frittatas and rake leaves, among other things.
• Mystical High Collar: Since he's an Expy of Doctor Strange and wears a similar outfit, he has one on his cloak.
• Necromancer: Yes, and a benevolent one at that. Interestingly, while he is a capable necromancer in both the original and popular sense of the word^note communing with the dead and raising the dead, respectively, he clarifies that the actual magic of necromancy isn't his preferred practice. He explains that most terms for a magic-user (magician, wizard, sorcerer, etc.) have become cliché or fallen out of favor in modern times, so he simply goes by "necromancer" not to seem silly.
• Never My Fault: Blames the Outrider's youth and persistent advances on Tatyana as the reason for her leaving him, rather than examine his own shortcomings as a husband.
• Nice Guy: Seriously, he's the nicest guy in the show. Friendly to everyone, good with the boys, a good dad to his own daughter, always willing to help out with whatever adventure/disaster is unfolding without expecting something in return...
• No Indoor Voice: His main tone is loud and dramatic, usually accompanied by his swelling Leitmotif, even when he's just conversing normally.
  Orpheus: Do not be too hasty in entering that [bath]room, I had TACO BELL for lunch!
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: When the Master takes on the form of his beautiful ex-wife to both taunt him and to try to teach him a lesson, Orpheus comes out as more jaded and bitter about seeing her image as his current concern ("beating" the Outrider) has made him just that self-absorbed.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: Not any kind of doctor, actually. He's only got a Bachelor's Degree in communications, though he claims to have been granted the title by "a higher power".
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: If Poker Night 2 is considered canon, he once teamed up with Ash Williams to thwart a demon invasion.
• Out of Focus: Orpheus was a major supporting character throughout the first three seasons but was scaled back, almost to the point of absence in the first half of season four. He gets some more focus mid-late season four but is once again out of focus in the first half of season five, getting only one brief appearance, and aside from a mention or two, is completely absent in season six. His (and the Triad's) return in the season 7 premiere reveals they had been living in a motel ever since the Venture Compound burned down during "All This and Gargantua-2", though now they buy a brownstone in Manhattan, one with a "Doctor Strange window".^note The very real First Warsaw Congregation synagogue in the Lower East Side. He returns to play a major supporting role in the Finale Movie.
• Papa Wolf: For both his own daughter and he Venture brothers. He may otherwise be an ultimate Nice Guy, but mess with them, and you'll find yourself on the bad side of a dead-raising, soul-trapping "master of mysticism".
• Parental Neglect: As much as he hates it, Orpheus admits he wasn't much better at being a father than he was at being a husband. He loves his daughter dearly but is too focused on mastering his magic and his duties to really be there for her as much as he should be, and is an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent even when he is.
• Power at a Price: In a sense. The Outrider admits that between them, Orpheus is the better sorcerer, but the time spent honing his craft cost him his relationship with his wife.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: His disgusted reaction to Dr. Venture's use of "(half) an orphan" when constructing the "Joy Can" named the trope.
• Token Wizard: He's the Venture family's go-to guy to call whenever something supernatural happens, like quelling the angry spirits buried beneath the X-1 hangar and when VenTech Tower appears to be haunted.

Jefferson Twilight

Jefferson Twilight, Blacula Hunter

Voiced by: Charles Parnell

"What's the use in training? I have no magic powers. The second someone uses magic, I get killed!"

An old friend of Dr. Orpheus, Jefferson is a black man who fights "Blaculas" (black vampires) for a living. A pastiche of the superhero Blade and the blaxploitation movie protagonist, Shaft, he wields two swords and dresses like its the 1970s (among other borrowed traits). His left eye is discolored as it is a magical Blacula tracker he calls the "Blood Eye", but he otherwise possesses no magical ability, something he laments as a member of the magic-oriented Order of the Triad.

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• The Big Guy: He's the most physically fit and powerful of the trio and his major contribution to the team involves beating or slicing to death whatever the Alchemist or Orpheus can't hex away.
• Blade Enthusiast: Uses a pair of katanas as his primary weapons. Given that he's not magical in any way that's useful once the fighting has started, these allow him to pull his weight in a Fights Like a Normal-fashion among the otherwise mystical Triad members.
• Boring, but Practical: He's the only non-magic member of a magical Supernatural Team who typically fights other magic-users, leaving him at a major disadvantage. However, he can swing a mean sword and was in the marines, giving him some practical abilities, like knowing how to drink a tank.
• Buffy Speak: In stark contrast the grandiose speaking style of Dr. Orpheus, Jefferson has a tendency to stammer and use crude wording to describe the mind-blowingly weird situations the Triad encounters.
  Jefferson: [The Outrider] brought me back to life! I'm serious, I saw my dead mom and she was all "Jefferson, head into the light". And I was like "I can't mom, I have to stay here and get my ass kicked by a guy made out of fire"!
• Captain Ersatz: A pastiche of Blade the Vampire Hunter (two swords, mother killed by vampires, unusual cravings) and John Shaft (hair, attire, persona while actively hunting Blaculas).
• Corrupted Character Copy: To Blade, as he specifically hunts "blaculas" (black vampires) to the point of Crippling Overspecialization (he notes that he'd be lost if he had to fight a regular vampire and get killed if he had to fight a magic-user without the rest of the Triad around), and Blade's Dhampyr thirst for blood or artificial replacements spoofed by low blood sugar making him crave sugary drinks (most notably Nik-L-Nips).
• Crippling Overspecialization: He often complains about the fact that there are no Blaculas for him to fight and implies that he'd be lost if he came up against a non-black vampire. However, it's later revealed that he is a marine veteran and has a ton of Boring, but Practical skills as a result, such as the ability to drive a tank. He is also revealed to be "between worlds" which... is also pretty specialized, though does come in handy a couple of times.
• A Day in the Limelight: While the Triad as a whole get a dedicated episode about Once a Season, season three's "What Goes Down, Must Come Up" reveals the most about Jefferson's Back Story.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the most deadpan on the show. Most often surfaces when Orpheus and Al are going full Chewing the Scenery in regards to their use of magic, while he has to remind them that he can't use it.
  Dr. Orpheus: Let us try to get a psychic lock on them. I SHALL SHINE THE LIGHT OF THELOS!
  The Alchemist: I'll cast a spell of unveiling!
  Jefferson: I'll, uh... check for Blaculas. *beat* Nope, no Blaculas!
• Early-Installment Weirdness: His first appearance in "Fallen Arches" gives him the Character Tic of failing to finish his sentences which is dropped in later appearances.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Originally the only non-mystical member of the Triad. Later on, he's revealed to be "between worlds" (possibly as a result of dying and being brought back to life by the Outrider in "The Better Man"), which, while impressive, is also an ability with incredibly limited and specific uses.
• Fights Like a Normal: He has two powers ("Blood Eye" Blacula detection and being "between worlds"), neither of which actually help in a fight. Good thing he's an expert swordsman.
• Insistent Terminology: He hunts "Blaculas." Not African-American vampires, because there is not a sizable African-American population in Britain.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Uses two of them as his primary weapons.
• The Load: He considers himself this in the Order of the Triad in most situations, being little more than a guy with swords while his companions have much more versatile magic powers. He does cheer up after the "between worlds" revelation, though its still a pretty niche ability.
• Magical Eye: Has a discolored "Blood Eye" that allows him to track and hunt Blaculas. Apparently, if he finds Blaculas but doesn't get to kill them, he gets an equivalent of "blue balls" in it.
• Out of Focus: He is much less likely to appear outside of the Triad-focused episodes than Orpheus or even Al, who gets more appearances once he starts dating Shore Leave.
• Sarcastic Devotee: Has no confidence at all in the Order of the Triad as an institution but shows up when summoned anyway.
• Semper Fi: He was a tank commander in the marines in his youth, giving him the ability to drive the Venture family "drilling" machine.
• Sweet Tooth: As a play on Blade's half-vampire thirst for blood (or an artificial replacement), Jefferson suffers from diabetes and low blood sugar, leading him to heavily thirst for sugared liquids, such as Nik-L-Nips.
• Token Minority: The most prominent black character in the show.
• Vampire Hunter: Of Blackulas, after watching his mother get taken by them when he was 10. He admits that he'd be lost if he came up against a non-black vampire, however.
• Weaksauce Weakness: In a world with real magic, super-powered heroes and villains, and actual mythical creatures, Jefferson's weakness is diabetes. He's also the only non-magical person a team of magic users that often fights other magic users.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: He often points out that his power is incredibly limited for any kind of general-purpose magic stuff.

The Alchemist

Al/The Alchemist

Voiced by: Dana Snyder

"I care about the true spirit of the divine. I care about the universal truth. But being a magic superhero that keeps chasing the same guy is completely gay! And that is coming from a guy that voluntarily has sex with men!"

Another old friend of Dr. Orpheus, the Alchemist is a mystical sorcerer searching for the philosopher's stone ("as a metaphor for enlightenment") as well as a cure for AIDS. He is openly gay, the least serious overall of the group about the Triad's activities, and often goes by "Al", though it's unclear if it's his real name or merely short for "Alchemist".

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• Alchemy Is Magic: His official title is "The Alchemist" and his first scene is him using chemistry to find the cure for AIDS. However, he is proven not only to have basic knowledge of various occult disciplines and can fire Psi Blasts like Orpheus.
• Camp Gay: Downplayed, as he overall acts more Straight Gay, but he does have his "campy" moments, especially around Shore Leave. It's also ironic as he is the one member of the Order of the Triad who also sees how utterly silly the trappings of super-heroism are and constantly busts Dr. Orpheus's balls whenever he starts taking things too seriously.
• Deadpan Snarker: Typically in response to Dr. Orpheus' Large Ham antics, especially whenever he starts taking the whole "magic heroes/villains" thing too seriously.
• Depraved Homosexual: Not normally, but he and Shore Leave once bet a Rusty Venture (the sex act) on what the sex act actually was. Neither of their guesses were correct, but both refused to call it quits until one of them got a Rusty Venture.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He isn't given a name other than "The Alchemist". He is sometimes called "Al" for short, but it's unclear if it's his real name or merely short for "Alchemist"
• Foil: To Orpheus. Both are experienced magic-users and genuinely Nice Guys, but while Orpheus wants to play "heroes/villains" against a recurring Arch-Enemy, Al would rather use his abilities on "bringing balance to the universe" kind of stuff and doing things that will benefit many, like finding a cure for AIDS. Al has trouble taking the former activity seriously as a result.
• Friend to All Children: More like teenagers, but still in the spirit of the trope. He gets along nicely with Triana and Hank, and the two of them enjoying his company as well. Probably due to his slightly immature behavior, at least with Hank.
• Kavorka Man: Is, by his own admission, a "paunchy, middle-aged gay guy who likes Jimmy Buffet," yet is still able to attract the younger, sexier Shore Leave.
• Kick the Dog: He once tricked Jefferson into going into a diabetic coma for the sheer fun of it.
• Jewish Smartass: Revealed to be Jewish in the movie, and he's among the snarkiest of the cast.
• Leitmotif: Though it only appears in one episode ("What Goes Down Must Come Up"), when the triad is performing magic, it's implied that The Alchemist has one too. When Orpheus does some magic, his leitmotif plays and when The Alchemist does some magic immediately afterward, a little trumpet piece plays. And immediately after that, when it's Jefferson's turn and it's revealed that he has no magic to do, it's completely silent.
• Living Lie Detector: Mentioned in passing during "Everybody Comes To Hank's", it is apparently part of his mystical powerset. As it isn't terribly useful when fighting supernatural threats, he uses it for mundane things like verifying everyone he and Hank interviews are telling the truth.
• Nice Guy: Dead Pan Snarker tendencies and the diabetic coma incident notwithstanding, Al is a supportive friend and great with kids. While he thinks chasing around "the same guy" as a Supernatural Team is silly, he will gladly pitch in when lives are on the line.
• Not What I Signed on For: Admits in a rather heated discussion amongst the three during "Showdown at Cremation Creek" that he thought that the reunited Order of the Triad would be going on more high-minded pursuits rather than chase after the same villain in a "cops and robbers" game.
• Only in It for the Money: Downplayed as, while each member of the Triad signs up for having an arch-enemy for the excitement, the Alchemist also hopes it will procure interest and finding for his research.
• Only Sane Man: Frequently the voice of reason for the Order of the Triad, especially when Orpheus starts getting a little too into their "hero/villain" activities.
• Private Detective: Becomes Hank's partner in the Noir Episode "Everybody Come to Hank's", mostly due to boredom, but later gets into solving the mystery of Dermott's parentage.
• Psi Blast: His primary means of magic attack, firing blasts similar to Orpheus.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Uses magic to turn a tire into gold in "Operation P.R.O.M.". Why does he need to shack up with Orpheus, again?
• Straight Gay: Downplayed. You probably wouldn't guess he was gay if he didn't bring it up. He rarely acts campy, mostly only while he's dating Shore Leave.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Shore Leave in "Operation P.R.O.M." They did.
• Would Hurt a Child: Downplayed. He initially balks at the idea of punching Dermott, knowing he's just a mouthy teenager, but then the kid presses his luck.
  Al: C'mon, Hank, he's a kid! Don't make me hit a kid.
  Dermott: Oh, yeah, like I'd FEEL it. You're like Danny DeVito's Penguin.
  [Al slugs Dermott hard enough in the gut to leave him wheezing and near tears]

The Master

The Master

Some of the forms taken by The Master. Clockwise from the top left - Cerberus, Catherine the Great's horse, Santa Claus (because Halloween doesn't have any good mascots), and Tatiana (Orpheus' ex-wife)

Voiced by: H. Jon Benjamin

The Master: [to Triana] OK listen, I’m The Master. I’m like your dad’s omniscient boss.

An enigmatic, shapeshifting sorcerer who served as Orpheus' magical mentor, The Master inhabits a dimension known as "Necropolis" and is often sought by Orpheus for his counsel. Snarky and not shy about calling Orpheus out, he often takes a form that relates to whatever wisdom he is trying to impart.

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• Actor Allusion: invoked H. Jon Benjamin plays The Master as essentially Coach McGuirk and Sterling Archer with omniscient supernatural powers.
• All Men Are Perverts: He may be an omniscient master of magic, but he sure appreciates Dr. Orpheus' ex-wife's body. He could just be messing with Orpheus, but he gives Tatyana's form a lot of attention while he's in it.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Whatever he is, his power far outstrips that of Orpheus, who can himself, at times, qualify as a Deus ex Machina thanks to his magical abilities. However, he prefers not to participate in mortal matters unless he feels it warrants his attention, such as nuking a veritable army of unintentionally resurrected undead.
• Ambiguously Human: He is a massively powerful magic user who takes a new form every time he appears and his original form, if he has one, is never seen. It's unclear exactly what he is, powerful human or otherwise.
• The Archmage: Subverted. He is an all-power magic user who could probably solve every problem in the series in seconds, but is content to use his powers to goof around while acting as a Trickster Mentor.
• Comically Missing the Point: Loves to needle Orpheus for this as, apparently, their chats often result in Aesop Amnesia on Orpheus' part.
• Cool Old Guy: Orpheus is middle-aged, and The Master is his teacher, so he can't be that young (if he's even mortal at all). He's still one of the powerful beings seen in the series, mostly acting as a Trickster Mentor to his pupils.
• Cynical Mentor: Downplayed. He doesn't really seem to care if Orpheus succeeds or fails, simply imparting his intended lessons and letting Orpheus do what he will with that information. He does seem to care, at least a little, about Orpheus as a person, encouraging him to loosen up and act like a normal guy instead of a Large Ham.
• Deadpan Snarker: Seems to always have a snarky retort ready to go, especially toward Orpheus.
  The Outrider: Why have you chosen the form of Father Christmas?
  The Master: Oh, I'm sorry, should I have chosen the Halloween Ferret? Not a lot of options here, pal.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Is only ever referred to as "The Master" or "Orpheus' Master". Much like his true form, his true name (if he even has one) is a mystery.
• The Faceless: We've never seen his true form, if he even has one.
• Fantastic Nuke: Destroys the accidentally summoned army of the dead during "A Very Venture Halloween" with a flick of his wrist, blowing them up in a nuclear-like explosion.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Possessing magical power even greater than Orpheus, Voluntary Shapeshifting, and his own Pocket Dimension, The Master is one of the most powerful beings seen in the show but his origins and even true identity are never revealed.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He never misses the opportunity to needle Orpheus for his failures in life, or Triana for how she could fail, but he seems to do this for his pupil's benefit (to show them where they've gone wrong and encourage them to change).
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Admits in "The Better Man" that the conversation with Triana isn't their first, but that her mind has been wiped after the previous ones.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: He takes the form of Dr. Orpheus' ex-wife Tatyana at one point, and spends most of the visit openly admiring her ample bosom and shapely behind.
  The Master: Why don't you leave me alone so I can jump rope naked in front of a mirror in your ex-wife's body.
• Mentor Archetype: Seems to be one toward the series' various magic-users. He's specifically a Trickster Mentor to Orpheus, but his familiarity with the Outrider, Triana, and some of the magical villains (Red Mantle, Kurse) at the party in "A Very Venture Halloween" implies that he mentors others as well. Whenever he's not trying to teach Orpheus a lesson, he tends to be much more direct with imparting his wisdom.
• Noble Bigot: Subverted. He's initially built up as one, with Orpheus not bringing The Alchemist to see him because of his sexuality. When the two do actually meet, he shows no issue with Al, joking with him before chastising Al and the assembled magicians for raising zombies on a whim.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He belittles Orpheus a lot, but it's largely to impart lessons and still tells him that he's his best pupil.
• Pocket Dimension: His "Necropolis", explictly referred to as another dimension, appears to be very small whenever other characters visit. It's mostly an elevated throne and a small surrounding area, accessible from places like a closet.
• Power Perversion Potential: He turns into Catherine the Great's horse so that he can re-enact Catherine's supposed sexual encounter with it teach Orpheus a lesson about biting off more than he can chew, turns into Cerberus to lick his own genitals and talk at the same time teach Orpheus a lesson about being a stuffy know-it-all, and takes the form of Orpheus's ex-wife to enjoy the curvy, sexy body remind Orpheus of what he lost by getting too wrapped-up in his work. His shapeshifting always has a purpose and a point, but he milks the "Perversion Potential" as much as he can.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • A gentler example, but he tells Orpheus that he takes himself and his duties far too seriously and that's what drove Tatyana away.
  • He tells off the group of gathered sorcerers in "A Very Venture Halloween" for accidentally summoning an undead army.
    The Master: We shouldn't raise an army of dead guys just because we can!"
• Serious Business: From his dialogue, it sounds like Orpheus's supposed higher calling is actually pretty insignificant fluff that Orpheus treats as Serious Business. This could just be part of his attempt to puncture Orpheus's stuffed shirt.
• Spirit Advisor: Orpheus visits him in his realm (through the portal in Triana's closet) to seek his advice on matters of magic (and just life in general).
• Trickster Mentor: For all the grief he gives Orpheus, he honestly does give him useful advice... albeit indirectly, in the form of riddles, and often belittles Orpheus. His fondness of Voluntary Shapeshifting also suggests a Trickster background.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: With a theme of the show being about failure and a simpler life; it is strongly hinted that The Master is the reason why Orpheus' life became so convoluted and may have ruined his marriage. He may have done this again with Orpheus' daughter Triana after she decided to live with her mother and step-father to learn to become a sorceress.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: His most notable and obvious power, to the point where he's never shown his "true form" (if he even has one). Note that only Orpheus gets the Trickster Mentor and Power Perversion Potential treatment. When appearing before anyone else (Triana, Orpheus' guests), the Master opts for forms that have more direct and obvious connections to the lesson he's about to impart.

Triana Orpheus

Triana Orpheus

Voiced by: Lisa Hammer

"Great, my closet is the doorway to hell."

The teenage daughter of Dr. Orpheus, Triana lives with her father in his rented out laboratory-cum-apartment within the Venture compound. Despite her goth-like appearance, she's a fairly typical teenage girl and possibly the most down-to-earth character on the show, despite her father's tendency to dramatize. Dean has an unrequited crush on her and, as of season four, she's left to study magic with her mother and step-father.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Her dad calls her "Pumpkin", a fairly common affectionate nickname, but its association with Halloween also fits between a necromancer and a goth.
• Daddy's Girl: While Orpheus can be an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent, there is obvious mutual love between them.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the more well-adjusted individuals in the series and doesn't hesitate to break out the snark regarding the ridiculousness of the other characters.
• Follow in My Footsteps: Inverted. Orpheus would rather she go to art school, and, for her own safety, not get mixed up with the magical or supernatural. It's not touched upon whether this was the case before they met the Ventures or not.
• Goth Girls Know Magic: A non-"rebellious" case as magic is actually the "family business". She's the Goth girl daughter of a necromancer and studying magic with her mother, who's also an accomplished sorceress.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Whenever she finds the portal to the Necropolis in her closet, her father erases her memories of it. The Master eventually points this out to her, so she doesn't tell her father about her latest visit.
• Limited Wardrobe: She always wears the same outfit, which is later justified because her father put a portal to a mystical realm in her closet and she has nightmares as a result.
• Missing Mom: Her mother left her father to be with one of her father's students. She lives with her father into season four, but decides to go live with her mother (at The Master's urging) to become a sorceress.
• Not So Stoic: She seems to be an apathetic goth girl in the first season, taking her father's Large Ham tendencies and necromantic powers in stride along with the catastrophic super science escapades of the Ventures next door. However, the thought of Hank and Dean being brought back from the dead by sorcery reduces her to trembling and tears.
• Only Sane Man: She's quite possibly the most "normal" character in the series and often points out the ridiculousness of the things her father and the Ventures get up to.
• Perky Goth: A phenomenally well-adjusted example, especially for the daughter of a Nice Guy, Large Ham sorcerer. As of season four, she leaves to study magic herself, but her personality remains the same.
• Put on a Bus: After recurring through the first three seasons, she moves in with her mother to study magic midway through season four. She returns for the season four finale, then is never seen again.
• Supernatural Sensitivity: Orpheus' Master points out in their conversation together, that just by coming through the portal in her closet, Triana has proved that she has significant magical talent. Muggles can't even see the portal.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Seen mostly toward Hank and Dermott, who don't understand why Dean is into her, leading to some Snark-to-Snark Combat with the latter.

VenTech Industries

VenTech Industries in General

VenTech Industries

A technology company founded by Jonas Venture Jr. Following his death, majority ownership passes to Rusty.

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• Big Applesauce: The headquarters is a massive tower in New York City.
• Boring, but Practical: JJ actually shuttered the Awesome, but Impractical "super-science" division, instead focusing on personal communication technologies and their required operating systems, which makes the company billions.
• Fiction 500: It's a multi-billion dollar company with a massive headquarters in New York City. One of JJ's projects is to build his own space station, Gargantua-2, an undertaking that costs billions of dollars and the cooperation of multiple nations in real life.
• iPhony: The top selling products include the jPhone, jPod, and jPad, each parodies of various Apple products.

Jonas Venture Jr.

Dr. Jonas "J.J." Venture, Jr.

Voiced by: James Urbaniak

"It was addressed to 'Dr. Venture' and since you've been gone, I received two doctorates."

Rusty's twin brother whom he ate in the womb, Jonas Jr. - or J.J. - is a dwarf with all of the skill, charisma, success, and hair that Rusty lacks. After escaping his brother's body, he quickly establishes himself as a "super-scientist" second only to their late father. He frequently gets awarded contracts Rusty wants and is often called by Rusty who asks him for money. By the mid-seasons, he has largely left super-science behind in favor of his more practical tech company, becoming a billionaire while he works on his Gargantua-2 space station.

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• The Ace: Downplayed. He's more like his father than his brother is, in both the good (super-intelligent, handsome, charismatic) and the bad (insufferable ego, narcissism), but neither to the extreme of their father. Within a month of bursting out of Rusty's body, he has already shaken up the "super-science" world as an eager new prodigy and becomes the owner of a billion-dollar tech company within a few seasons. However, he's also a parasitic twin with a malformed body (other than his head and face) who was mistaken for a tumor.
• All There in the Manual: J.J. was dying from cancer anyway when he performed his Heroic Sacrifice in "All This and Gargantua-2". The series' official art book heavily implies that the Guild fatally poisoned him with a carcinogen due to his resistance to playing their "superhero and supervillain" games.
• Always Someone Better: Zig-zagged toward Rusty. Despite being a malformed twin Rusty absorbed in the womb and carried inside of himself for 43 years, JJ proves to be a far more competent scientist and far more popular with the ladies within weeks of breaking out of his brother's body, then succeeds in living up to their father's legacy as the head of a billion dollar tech company. However, before he dies, he actually admits to envying Rusty who has a family and friends who care about him, despite his failures.
• Ancestral Name: Invoked. Jonas Jr. names himself after his father, Jonas Sr., whom he greatly admires despite never actually meeting the man, even building and dedicating a museum to him. Also plays into his Always Someone Better relationship with Rusty, since J.J. is far closer to exemplifying the Science Hero family legacy.
• Artificial Limbs: His left hand didn't form during his development. After he breaks out of Rusty's body, Billy makes him a cybernetic prosthetic.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: While he constantly argues with and mocks his brother, he does care about him; he admits immediately before his death that he's envious of him. After his death, he leaves Rusty his incredibly valuable superscience company and most of his fortune.
• Baldness Means Sickness: He reveals he's dying of cancer by taking off his wig in front of Rusty. He presumably is undergoing chemo treatment, but he still has his eyebrows and beard.
• Character Development: In his first appearance in the season one finale, he outright tries to murder Rusty. Given the nature of his existence as a parasitic twin trapped inside of his brother up until that point, it's hard to blame him for being upset. He mellows out in season two into a smug-genius characterization after he starts making a fully deserved name for himself as Jonas' true inheritor, and is actually generally shown as one of the more moral (if still rather narcissistic and egocentric) characters in the show.
• The Charmer: Despite being a malformed, two-foot-tall, parasitic twin, he still has a handsome face and is amazingly successful with the ladies due to his charisma.
• Combining Mecha: Built one called Ventronic, a flying Shout-Out to Voltron, to defend Spider-Skull Island from attackers. He pilots the core component of it.
• Face Death with Dignity: Chooses to make a Heroic Sacrifice, saving everyone aboard the Gargantua-2, rather than go out slowly and painfully from cancer, with a smile on his face.
• Decoy Protagonist: The first episode of season two's opening credits made it seem like he and Rusty would become the new "Venture Brothers" following Hank and Dean's death. Not only are the boys brought back via cloning, but he and Thaddeus do not form a Sibling Team of any kind.
• Dramatic Irony: Jonas Junior's apparent competence and good-natured personality are an ironic twist of fate, particularly given his claim in his first appearance he was the son that Jonas Venture Sr. should have had. Given the increasing indications through out the series that many of Thaddeus' issues and failings are the results of shortcomings in his father's parenting, combined with various traumatic experiences incurred during his childhood as a boy adventurer, it could be surmised that Jonas Jr. can fulfill the role expected of a son of the great Dr. Venture better than his brother, due to the ironic fact that, unlike Thaddeus, Jonas Junior wasn't actually raised by their father.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Built a Mini-Mecha body out of spare parts in his first appearance and proves to be much more of a technological "genius" than Rusty throughout the rest of the series, inventing equivalents of the iPhone and iPad, as well as a full blown Combining Mecha and space station.
• Geniuses Have Multiple PhDs: He acquires two PhDs after escaping Rusty's body during the one month Time Skip between the season one finale and season two opener. Unlike his college dropout brother Rusty (who goes by "Dr. Venture" via his honorary doctorate from [[Tijuana), his ability to accomplish this shows that Jonas Jr. is the true heir the multi-generational line of Omnidisciplinary Scientists following his world-renowned father and grandfather.
• Genre Blind:
  • J.J. never really experienced all the craziness of living in the world with "super-science", costumed heroes and villains, and real functional magic like his brother, and consequently doesn't really know how to handle it or care to try. For example, during his apparent first arching, he tries to just straight up kill the Monarch and complains to the O.S.I. that he doesn't want to play the Guild's "game" that enforces Joker Immunity on villains. This is another point of contrast to Rusty, who has a similar lack of interest in the scientist-adventurer lifestyle, but still knows all its trappings and goes into it anyway, however halfheartedly.
  • Even later, he still runs into trouble by being ignorant of the world's rules. This is best exemplified by him choosing to make a deal with The Investors, who even by the standards of this universe are about as Obviously Evil as you can get. It predictably backfires in his face as the Investors lead to the destruction of Gargantua-2, forcing J.J. to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save the passengers escaping to safety. To make matters worse, Jonas arrested Brock and Amber Gold, who were specifically there to help save him from the idiotic deal he wound up making.
• Good Is Not Soft: He's one of the most moral individuals in the show. He also doesn't see the point in the rules of the Science Hero or the Guild of Calamitous Intent, which means that his preferred solution to villainy is to shoot the villain rather than arching him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In "All This and Gargantua-2", he pilots the cockpit containing the overloaded nuclear core of Gargantua-2 safely away from its escaping life pods. It detonates with him inside.
• Hollywood Cyborg: He gets a robotic left arm in place of the malformed nub he had in his first appearance.
• Hope Spot: Treister reveals that it's possible to beat cancer by being mutated into a (sentient) Hulk, but such a cure becomes a moot point as J.J. has to sacrifice his life anyway to save all the passengers on Gargantua-2.
• Instant Expert: Earned two Ph. D.s in a month, as revealed in the season two premiere.
• Jerkass to One: Despite his huge ego, he's generally genial to everyone, except Rusty, who he treats like crap. He steals Rusty's contracts, teases him, mocks him, makes fun of him behind his back... It's not entirely without reason, as Rusty ate him while they were in the womb. Later, he reveals that he actually envies Rusty who, despite his failures, actually has family and friends who love him, something J.J. couldn't manage despite his intelligence and charisma.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has all of the arrogance and narcissism of his father, but is one of the nicest and most moral characters on the show.
• Kavorka Man: His decent-looking face (almost an exact copy of his father's with a beard) is his only positive physical trait. His body is otherwise malformed, being just two-feet tall and missing an arm. Despite this, he proves very popular with women and steals Sally Impossible from her husband just minutes after meeting her. It also helps that, despite his physical defects, he's he's incredibly wealthy, deeply intelligent, quite charming, and even friendly when he needs to be.
• Kick the Dog: Despite generally being pretty decent, he attempts to erase Rusty from the family history in "Now Museum—Now You Don't", right down to using editing to make it seem like a clip of Jonas Sr. saying that Rusty was his greatest creation was really referring to J.J. It's an unnecessarily petty direction to take his and Rusty's sibling rivalry.
• Killed Off for Real: During the pre-season six special "All This And Gargantua-2" where he, already dying from cancer, makes a Heroic Sacrifice to pilot the space station's exploding nuclear core away from the escape pods, blowing up along with it. There's a brief moment where it sounds like Dr. Orpheus might have raised him from the dead, only for him to be talking about Dean's giraffe plushie.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Due to his Heroic Sacrifice at the end of "All This and Gargantua-2" and leaving his business and fortune to Rusty in his will. Anyone tuning into seasons six or seven to see Rusty going from Rags to Riches while living in New York City can deduce that J.J. dies.
• Naïve Newcomer: Weirdly, it's both his greatest strength and greatest weakness. Due to being a newcomer into the world of Science Heroes, superheroes, and villains, and not having any of his brother's Freudian Excuses, he's able to easily shake things up in the world very quickly. He creates a functioning space station that even surpasses his father's Gargantua-1, invents equivalents to the iPad and iPhone, and creates a sustainable business empire that focuses on more down-to-earth science. It leaves him with virtually none of the hangups of a lifetime boy adventurer, scientist, or sidekick, too. However, unlike his brother, (who has Seen It All, repeatedly) this leaves him rather Genre Blind, trying to kill the Monarch unaware of the Guild's "escalating violence" response and even making a deal with the Obviously Evil Investors.
• Nice Guy: Can be rather smug and condescending, and does consistently treat Rusty like crap, but by the standards of the Venture universe, those are hardly the worst qualities around. He also seems to care for his nephews, was a loving partner to Sally, and even hired on Hector and Swifty after Rusty canned them.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Due to his lack of experience regarding Guild matters, he is fully prepared to just kill the Monarch and his blow up his flying cocoon when "arched" in "The Lepidopterists". J.J. has to be told that he must adhere to the Guild's Contractual Genre Blindness by both the Monarch and Brock, something he finds baffling.
  Brock: I see, so you just want to kill the Monarch. Okay.
  J.J.: That seems like the sporting thing to do.
  Brock: You wanna what, shoot him? And all his men and his wife? You could steal his cattle, too. Maybe burn his village down?
  J.J.: It's an antiquated system! I mean, my father did this fake archenemy nonsense in the '60s! Maybe my brother is good with this namby-pamby "guy in a costume chases you around" nonsense, but I'm not.
• Outside-Context Problem: Played straight and subverted in different instances:
  • J.J. is everything his brother could have been without his hangups and everything his father appeared to be on the surface. He has zero interest in playing make-believe with villains as he's too busy trying to actually make the world a better place through mostly practical applications of science rather than niche super-science.
  • Unfortunately, even though he tried to operate outside the system, his unfamiliarity with the system is still a real weakness that puts him in danger. He winds up foolishly accepting financial backing from The Investors who pay him back by blowing up the Gargantua-2 space station he used their money to build. It's only through massive outside help and a Heroic Sacrifice of his own that keeps the people inside from getting killed.
• Put on a Bus: Spends all of season four off-planet working to complete a space station and is absent for the better part of season five as well. He finally returns fully in the pre-season six "All This and Gargantua-2" special, but turns out to be Back for the Dead as he performs a Heroic Sacrifice by the episode's end.
• Redeeming Replacement: While he can still be rather smug and arrogant, he spends his time actually using his genius to actually improve the world in ways that even Jonas Sr. couldn't, much less Rusty, while being far less sociopathic than his father. By the time of his death, he has created a billion-dollar tech company and even Faces Death With Dignity while performing a Heroic Sacrifice. (Compare that with how his father staved off death and planned to resume his life in season seven.)
• The Resenter: Downplayed, but qualifies. Despite being more successful and intelligent than Rusty, he is bitter about not being regarded as the son of the late, great Jonas Venture. In his first appearance, this drives him to try and kill Rusty. He's since mellowed out, but has been shown trying to erase Rusty's boyhood accomplishments from memory and replace them with himself. Before his death, he even admits that the envies Rusty, who despite his failures, has friends and family who care about it.
• Secretly Dying: He's wearing a wig during "All This and Gargauntua-2" to hide the fact that he's bald from the public, having seemingly attempted to undergo chemotherapy and failed in his attempt to survive cancer.
• Shorter Means Smarter: JJ, who obtained two doctorates in a month and launched a multi-billion dollar company in about a year, is easily the shortest regular cast member in the show.
• Smug Super: Like his father, J.J. develops a rather obtrusive ego with his massive intellect, though it tends to come out most when he's under stress. It's really his only major character flaw, as he's otherwise a far better and kinder man than his father ever was.
• The Topic of Cancer: He's dying from cancer in his final appearance in "All This and Gargantua-2", though he dies via Heroic Sacrifice before it takes him.
• Vocal Evolution: In his first appearance, he had a deep, raspy voice. Afterward, he gained a smooth and smug voice to go along with his role as Always Someone Better to Rusty. (It's not clear if either one is an affectation, or possibly even both.)
• Yank the Dog's Chain: He manages to drop his fratricidal rage towards Rusty and does a fair amount of good with his portion of the Venture estate, only to be diagnosed with cancer after season five.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Reveals in "All This And Gargantua-2" that his organs are failing as he's dying from cancer. He performs a Heroic Sacrifice before the disease takes him out.

The Pirate Captain

Voiced by: Christopher McCulloch

"I'm really, really sorry about this whole mess, and, you know, the whole pirate thing is behind me now, and... plus, you kinda killed Steve, and burnt my ship. So, if you could give us a lift out of here I figure we'd just call it squaresies."

The leader of the "ghost pirates" in the episode "Ghosts of the Sargasso". After his initial encounter with the Venture family, he began living on the X-2 after having difficulties in finding a job. When Jonas Jr. acquired the ship, he hired the captain. He then resides with Jonas Jr. on Spider Skull Island, fulfilling the duties of a butler, caretaker, and right-hand man. The Captain always refers to Jonas as "Chairman". As of season six, with Jonas dead and Rusty in charge of VenTech, the Captain now works for Rusty as his right-hand in running the company. Notably, he's the only person with any clout in the company that Rusty didn't fire on his first day. He has never been referred to by any name or nickname other than "The Captain" so far.

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• Combining Mecha: As part of Jonas Jr.'s "Ventronic", he forms the right arm.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": No name is ever given. He is only known as "the pirate" or "the Captain".
• Ghost Pirate: Was introduced as such, but it turns out to have been a hoax with the goal of scaring off the crews of passing ships so they could be robbed. He gets his own ship stuck in the sargassum and has been there for a decade.
• Heel–Face Turn: He was never all that evil, but did rob ships in the Sargasso Sea until the Ventures destroy his ship. He goes to work for J.J. and gets annoyed when anyone dredges up his "bad guy" past, but for the most part, is a loyal employee and a reliable right-hand man.
• Hidden Depths: A guy who spent a decade as the captain of a pirate ship stuck in the Sargasso Sea turns out to be a shockingly competent COO of VenTech under J.J. and then Rusty.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He and his crew have been stuck for a decade in the Sargasso, and he fails rather miserably when attempting to take the X-2, getting his own ship sunk and some of his crew killed in the process. He undergoes a Heel–Face Turn after being hired by J.J., serving him well until his death and then Rusty as well.
• Instant Sedation: Gets addicted to Tranquillizer Darts after the O.S.I. agents use some on him in season three's "The Lepidopterists". He kicks until season six when, after getting tranq'd again, relapses and has to get through withdrawl cold turkey before beating it again.
• Monster of the Week: His booth at Rusty's "day camp" in "The Buddy System" touts the benefits of this career choice, as opposed to say, a "career supervillain" like those in the Guild. His own first appearance in the series is modeled after this type of character.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: As he complains to J.J., he was only a pirate captain once, for a brief period of time, but it's all anyone ever uses to refer to him, to the point where it's used as his name.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Hasn't done any actual piracy since his introductory episode, and even then, he was mostly just sitting stuck in sargassum with his crew and trying to spook passing ships so he could rob them. He still goes by "The Pirate Captain".
• Shout-Out:
  • He is modelled after Scooby-Doo-style Monster of the Week villains, and makes a lot of specific references to that end (such as mentioning that he got to meet Cher and "the guy who was the voice of Inspector Gadget"^note Don Adams, who both guest-starred on Scooby-Doo).
  • One he becomes COO of VenTech in season six, he frequently wears a black turtleneck sweater and blue jeans ala Steve Jobs.
• Sixth Ranger: Serves the main Team Venture in season six following J.J.'s death, being the one most responsible for keeping VenTech up and running.
• Talk Like a Pirate: Constantly. Makes sense when he's introduced as a hoax Ghost Pirate, but continues to do it throughout the series, even upon becoming COO of a billion-dollar company like VenTech.
• Tech Bro: Shows elements of it after becoming the COO of VenTech in season six, running around worrying about the company's stock prices (not unjustifiably) and dressing like Steve Jobs, all while continuing to Talk Like a Pirate.
• Took a Level in Badass: He's introduced as the captain of a hoax Ghost Pirate crew who has been stuck in the Sargasso Sea for a decade robbing ships that pass by. Despite this, he apparently became a skilled enough sailor to re-rig a sloop and sail it with the help of Brock and Shore Leave to track an enormous mega-yacht from across the globe. Even further, by season six, he's become the COO of VenTech, and the functional leader of the company in charge of running its day-to-day operations while Rusty spends all the money and plays the "super-science" game.
• Tranquillizer Dart: He develops an addiction to them after first being hit by Doe and Cardholder in "The Lepidoterists". He apparently kicks it, but falls off the wagon at the start of season six and has to go through a brutal detox.

The Impossibles

The Impossible Family in General

A super-science family based heavily on the Fantastic Four.

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• Blessed with Suck: Each of them except for Richard gets saddled with an actively detrimental "ability".
• Dark Parody: The family was exposed to a Super-Empowering event that left 3/4 of them with severe physical detriments. It negatively impacts them to the point where Sally leaves Richard who, in his despair, goes into a suicidal depression and eventually turns to outright villainy. A far cry from their inspiration.
• Expy Coexistence: They exist in a world where the Fantastic Four is a comic book, even going as them for Halloween one year (winning the prize for best group costume).
• The Fantastic Faux: Richard is almost a note-for-note parody of Reed Richards, down to being a scientist with rubber abilities, with his For Science! sociopathy played up. The rest of his group includes his wife Sally, whose skin is invisible and her power is to make it visible, Sally's mentally-impaired cousin Ned, whose skin became one giant callous, and Sally's brother Cody, who bursts into flame if his skin touches oxygen (with no immunity to burning). The parody plays up the darker aspects of the FF and turns them up to eleven, with the team eventually falling apart and Impossible becoming an antagonist in later seasons.
• Freak Lab Accident: How they all ended up with their "powers". It happens offscreen before the series and is left ambiguous about what actually took place.

Professor Richard Impossible

Voiced by: Stephen Colbert (Seasons one, two, and six), Christopher McCullouch (Season three), Bill Hader (Season four), Peter McCulloch (Pilot)

(When asked by Sally about what's more important than family) "Sciiiennnceee?"

A super-scientist colleague of Dr. Venture, Prof. Richard Impossible served in the original Team Venture "Boys Brigade" and was a professor at State University. Prior to the start of the series, he and his family were involved in an accident that gave Richard stretching powers while everyone else got useless (or outright harmful) "powers". His wife Sally later left him for Jonas Jr., taking their son Rocket, and his life fell into shambles. Fellow former "Boys Brigrade" member Phantom Limb convinces him to become a supervillain as part of Limb's Revenge Society, until it is dissolved following the destruction of Gagantua-2.

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• Abusive Parents: Is completely indifferent to the well-being of his and Sally's infant son, Rocket.
• Accidental Hero: Saves the whole Spider Skull Island from exploding in "Now Museum, Now You Don't", by trying to kill himself with it, "inhaling" the explosion into his rubbery body.
• Beard of Sorrow: Starts to grow one after Sally dumps him. Shaves it (with the help of Phantom Limb) immediately after joining the Revenge Society and finding new purpose as a supervillain.
• Break the Haughty: By the time his Trauma Conga Line is finished, Richard has become a wreck of a man. It is only after Phantom Limb tells him to literally pull himself together and decides to form the villainous Revenge Society that things begin to look up again.
• Broken Ace: He's an undeniably brilliant scientist, but he's also seriously lacking in empathy and completely selfish. He only breaks further after his wife divorces him.
• Captain Ersatz: A very corrupted version of Mr. Fantastic, being a scientist patriarch with Rubber Man powers.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He really enjoys his new status of villain, changing his name, throwing puns, and everything else that comes with it.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Is introduced as a Captain Ersatz of Reed Richards, but soon shows a much darker side as a sexist, bigoted Jerkass who's uncaring and abusive to his family with a destructive For Science! attitude. Hilariously, he actually predates a lot of Marvel's own deconstructions of Reed, like his Ultimate Universe incarnation, who ends up becoming a villain in his own right, and the Council of Reeds.
• Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Usually seen with one, befitting his "gentlemanly super-scientist professor" characterization. After his Face–Heel Turn, as part of his Evil Costume Switch, he starts using one shaped like a skull instead.
• Domestic Abuse: Not physically, but he emotionally neglects Sally and tries to keep her hidden away due to her "condition".
• The Dragon: The second-in-command of Phantom Limb's Revenge Society.
• Driven to Suicide: Tries to kill himself at least two times after Sally leaves him. One makes him an Accidental Hero, "swallowing" the explosion of Spider-Skull Island (which doesn't harm his rubbery body) and saving all of the other guests in the process.
• Evil Costume Switch: After joining the Revenge Society, he adopts a darker purple costume with a skull logo. He also swaps out his Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe for one shaped like a skull as well.
• Face–Heel Turn: He was always a dick, but he drops all pretense of being one of the "good guys" upon joining Phantom Limb's Revenge Society.
• For Science!: He conducted an experiment resulting in a Freak Lab Accident, granting him incredible stretching powers but leaving the rest of his family with painful and hideous "powers". Not only is he completely unsympathetic to their plight, but he treats them like prisoners most of the time lest they embarrass him. He is a Corrupted Character Copy of The Fantastic Four's Reed Richards, who has slipped into this trope from Reed Richards Is Useless more than once (most prominently during Civil War (2006)). His crowning moment of "For Science!" comes when confronted by his wife because their son is missing, he ignores her and handwaves it:
  Sally: What could possibly be more important than your family, Richard?!
  Richard: ... sssssssssssscience?
• Hate Sink: Professor Impossible's arrogance, pettiness, and lack of empathy (as well the sadistic relish he takes in hurting people) make him a thoroughly loathsome character. All the bad things that happen to him, from being abandoned by Sally to embarrassing himself at J.J.'s party, are richly deserved.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: In the first two seasons he identifies as a "good guy" despite some despicable behaviors. In season three, after Sally leaves him, he crosses the Despair Event Horizon and at least has enough good in him to attempt a Heroic Sacrifice, if only because he's Driven to Suicide first. Then in season four, he joins Phantom Limb's Revenge Society and embraces his inner evil. Then in the pre-season six special "All This and Gargantua-2", he leaves the Revenge Society after his ex-wife convinces him to leave with her instead of dying on the space station.
• Hero with an F in Good: His turn to the dark side is itself a deconstruction of the idea that such a "hero" is better suited to being a villain, as the same traits that made him a bad hero, such as his lack of empathy and absent mindedness, continue to hamper him in his new career path.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Though Driven to Suicide after Sally leaves him, he has been unable to actually kill himself because his Rubber Man body is so durable. Even "swallowing" an explosion meant to destroy an entire island merely inflates him like a massive balloon.
• Insufferable Genius: As a Reed Richards parody, he takes all of Reed's faults and turns them up to eleven. Arrogance, lacking empathy, For Science! pursuits above all else...
• Jerkass: He's a self-aggrandizing super-scientist who would unthinkingly do horrible things for profit, glory, and scientific curiosity. While such a description would apply to many other characters in the show, Professor Impossible has repeatedly shown his contempt and lack of empathy towards others by coldly dismissing them as insignificant in the face of his own scientific pursuits and abilities.
• Laughably Evil: Became waaay more humorous once he underwent his Face–Heel Turn and joined the Revenge Society. It's helped along by the change in voice actors around that same time to the humorous Bill Hader, as well.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Even before his Face–Heel Turn, he was shown to be very unethical. His first solution to Hank being contaminated by The Goliath Serum was to kill him. He doesn't even pause what he's doing when he finds out that his son is missing and is only concerned about it because his wife is beating on him and berating him because of it.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: While his lack of experience kept him from being an effective supervillain immediately after his Face–Heel Turn, it must be remembered that this is the same person who has devised a biological agent capable of turning living creatures into bombs and has harnessed his brother-in-law's self-combustion powers to provide Impossible Industries with enough free electricity to go completely "green", all of which occurred before he decided to become a real supervillain.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Although he can still be harmed, his elastic nature makes him incredibly difficult to kill or even injure.
• Parental Neglect: Barely acknowledges the existence of his son, Rocket. He even attempts to justify his neglect by claiming that Rocket is probably not his biological son.
• Rubber Man: As a spoof of Mr. Fantastic, he has incredible stretching abilities and is the only one of the Impossibles to have a useful power.
• Self-Serving Memory: He doesn't correct Phantom Limb when he claims it was Rusty's fault his wife left him.
• The Sociopath: A high-functioning and affable one (in a 1950s TV-dad kind of way), but his interactions with people underlines that this guy has serious difficulty differentiating between people and disposable lab rats. He's really not that different from Jonas Venture Sr. in this regard, having served under him the Team Venture "Boys Brigade", but lacking as much good publicity.
• Smug Super: The superpowers he received were significantly more useful than the "powers" the rest of his family got, and he knows it.
• String Theory: When Phantom Limb tracks him down, he's stretched himself all across his office, as a sign of his worsening mental state and his desire to retain control of everything.
• Teacher/Student Romance: A deleted scene from "The Invisible Hand of Fate" shows that he was fired from State University when the college learned he was having an affair with Sally, who was his student at the time. Though humiliated, he expressed some optimism over how his sacking would allow the two of them to "date openly", eventually leading to their extremely rocky marriage.
• That Man Is Dead: Attempts this by calling himself Professor Incorrigible as a villain, but its clear that Phantom Limb isn't crazy about the name.
• Trauma Conga Line: In "Twenty Years to Midnight", he is turned into a flag by Team Venture, his wife leaves him, and the next time we see him he's crossed the Despair Event Horizon and Driven to Suicide. However, his humiliation wasn't over, because then his repeated attempts at suicide fail spectacularly and publicly. It all feeds into his eventual Face–Heel Turn into villainy.
• Villain Decay: Starts off as an extremely competent and dangerous scientist who is nominally "good", easily capturing the Ventures in "Twenty Minutes to Midnight". Following his Trauma Conga Line and Face–Heel Turn, he becomes ineffective like most of the show's other villains. Like the rest of the Revenge Society, he gets a bump in competency courtesy of Dr. Killinger by "All This and Gargantua-2", but departs from villainy after.
• Villainous Breakdown: Starts off as a sociopathic For Science!-focused Nominal Hero and undergoes a major breakdown after Sally leaves him. Goes over the Despair Event Horizon, is Driven to Suicide (but fails), and ultimately undergoes a full Face–Heel Turn into full villainy.
• Villainous Friendship: He was in the original Team Venture "Boys Brigade" under fellow amoral scientist Jonas Venture Sr. and with future supervillain Phantom Limb. He later develops one with the rest of the Revenge Society.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He manages to keep his good publicity up until his split with Sally. Though he isn't actually exposed for the Jerkass that he is, his mental breakdown and decline have become apparent to others, causing staff to leave Impossible Industries.

Sally Impossible

Voiced by: Mia Baron

"What could be more important than your family, Richard?!"

Richard Impossible's ex-wife, the lab accident that gave him stretching powers made her skin invisible, with her "power" being to make it visible. When she loses focus, it becomes invisible, showing her insides. Her brother, Cody, and cousin, Ned, were similarly impacted. To save his public image, Richard hid them away and refused to let Sally interact with anyone. She has a crush on Dr. Venture and, through him, met Jonas Jr., whom she leaves Richard to be with, taking their son Rocket as well as Ned.

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• Awful Wedded Life: With Richard. While his flaws were apparent even before, the accident that "empowered" them made things far worse. He forced her to hide away, cutting her off form a normal life, while neglecting and emotionally abusing her.
• Captain Ersatz: Of The Invisible Woman from Fantastic Four. However, instead of having the ability to turn completely invisible, Sally's skin is invisible and her power is to make it visible.
• Flaying Alive: When she loses control of her power, her skin turns invisible, making it look like it's been stripped off with muscles and organs visible beneath.
• Nice Girl: She's a very sweet person whose clinginess with Rusty was only due to her desperation to get out from under Richard's thumb. Meeting and starting a relationship with J.J. helped her to fully get over her issues.
• Pet the Dog: She still hates Richard, but saves him anyway at the end of "All This and Gargantua-2" because he's Rocket's dad.
• Power Incontinence: The Freak Lab Accident that "empowers" the family left her with invisible skin, leaving everything beneath on full display and terrifying most people who see her. Her "ability" is to make her skin visible, leaving her with a normal appearance... but she has to focus to maintain it. Early on, when she gets upset, she often loses control. After leaving Richard for J.J., she gets better control over it, though can still lose it if she's startled.
• Put on a Bus: After "All This and Gargantua 2", she takes her share of Jonas Jr.'s inheritance and doesn't appear again.
• Stealth Pun: The super-science accident made her skin invisible all the time, making her The Visible Woman.
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed, but present in her relationship with Richard. Before, she was always cowering in front of her husband and gets sparks of courage if she knew she could escape or at least discredit him. She ratchets up a bit when Richard shows his neglect for Rocket and by her third appearance, she's done with his crap and is disgusted by his attempts to win her back (though she does show some appreciation for his attempted (supposed) Heroic Sacrifice). She is now a part of J.J's fighting force, helping to defend Spider Skull Island from the Monarch in a giant mecha. As part of that, she's also improved her control over her visibility (only failing once when startled) and manages to conquer her issues.
• Superpower Disability: Her "power" is invisible skin, which really just makes her look horrifying as if she has been flayed alive, and takes constant effort to suppress.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Given a deforming "super power" in a Freak Lab Accident that also debilitated her brother and cousin, then hidden away by her sociopathic husband who neglects and emotionally abuses her, she has a chance meeting with Jonas Jr. that changes her life. They hit off, she leaves Richard to be with him, and, even later when J.J. dies, is left a huge inheritance.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: She finally escapes her abusive husband, ending up with a man who truly loves and appreciates her, only for said man to die just a few years later, leaving her only with her young child and mentally handicapped cousin. Though, this is ultimately subcerted as she was still given a huge amount of inheritance money, and is now the current owner of Spider Skull island. So her life is still leaps and bounds better than it was when we first saw her in the series.

Cody

Voiced by: Christopher McCulloch

[Agonized screaming]

Sally's brother, who due to the the family's lab accident, painfully bursts into flame when in contact with oxygen. As such, Cody usually has to be encased in a stasis chamber to control his condition and relieve his pain. He did not initially follow Sally and Ned to Spider Skull Island, but was kept by Richard, who harnessed Cody's heat to power Impossible Industries.

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• Captain Ersatz: Of The Human Torch from Fantastic Four, except without any control of, or immunity to, his fire powers.
• Man on Fire: This is effectively his power, as he will burst into flames and run around screaming if he touches oxygen.
• People Jars: Spends most of his time in one to protect him form oxygen exposure and triggering his power. He is in extreme pain outside of it, and this includes the entire time he's powering Impossible Industries.
• Required Secondary Powers: Deconstructed. He's a perfect example of what happens when you gain the power to be on fire, without the power to turn the fire off, and also without the very necessary power to not feel pain from the flames.
• Shout-Out: Though he's based on Johnny Storm, the second Human Torch, the idea that he catches fire in the presence of any kind of oxygen is derived from Jim Hammond, the original (who, fortunately for him, was a robot and therefore didn't need to worry about the pain).
• Superpower Disability: He has Playing with Fire powers and does not die from them... but can't turn them off and feels the pain from them.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Dean frees him from his chamber powering Impossible Industries in "Bright Lights, Dean City", chasing him around and attempting to put him out with a fire extinguisher. We don't see what happens to him afterwards but he isn't seen with Richard again, suggesting he was either killed in the collapsing building or somehow managed to escape on his own.

Ned

Voiced by: Christopher McCulloch

"Ned go boom boom."

Sally and Cody's mentally challenged cousin. Due to the the family's lab accident, his skin is basically one giant callous, leaving him incredibly tough, but also in constant pain. After Sally leaves Richard, Ned follows her to Spider-Skull island to live with Jonas Jr.

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• Bring My Brown Pants: His response to seeing scary things is to poop himself, which he refers to as a "boom boom".
• Captain Ersatz: Of The Thing from Fantastic Four, except mentally handicapped and with incredibly calloused skin instead of stone.
• Dumb Muscle: Subverted, as he was mentally challenged before the freak accident that gave him superhuman strength, not as result of it.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Runs around pantless at the gala in "Now Museum, Now You Don't!", which the Pirate Captain claims is making people sick.^note The uncensored version reveals that Ned's penis — an unmoving Stock Femur Bone covered in flesh and sticking out of his pubis — is closer to a walrus phallus than a human one.
• Handicapped Badass: The guy's roughly the same size as Brock, and his skin is incredibly thick, so he can pack a wallop when he wants to, but is mentally challenged and in constant pain from his condition.
• Hulk Speak: He rarely speaks in complete sentences. Unlike the Trope Namer, this isn't due to his superpower, as he was mentally challenged before the accident.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Although he occasionally causes trouble for his family, he has the mind and innocence of a child.
• Manchild: He has the mind of an innocent child due to his mental handicap.
• Required Secondary Powers: Like Cody, he Deconstructs this idea. His calloused body makes him super strong and super tough, but also leaves him in near-constant pain.
• Superpower Disability: Has the Super-Strength and increased toughness that comes from being a Captain Ersatz of The Thing, but the lack of Required Secondary Powers means he's pretty much in constant pain because of it.
• Super-Strength: His large size and condition leave him incredibly strong.
• Super-Toughness: His skin is basically a giant callous, leaving him much more durable than a normal person. For example, Doe and Cardholder's Tranquilizer Darts just bounce of him in "The Lepidopterists".