The Venture Bros. kicked off the fifth season with one of the funniest episodes in the show’s entire run. This episode continues the run, mixing the usual cockeyed look at genre cliches with some simultaneously hysterical and clever action.
The first episode was largely about Dean, and as a result, he largely sits this one out. Instead, Hatred, Rusty, and Hank are off to South America, to track down Venturestein. Apparently he’s gone native since he was sent to break up a few shoe factory strikes, in what the Army assumes is one rogue soldier. Needless to say it turns out to be a lot more.
As usual, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer build the episode around a very valid question more serious genre shows never bring up: If all the creations of mad scientists have a mind of their own, why wouldn’t they band together against the mad scientist community? Of course, it’s a bad idea in of itself, something the “abominations” point out in the middle of a surprisingly reasonable angry mob, but it’s hilarious in how it’s applied.
In the meantime, Hank is busy eating as much coffee as humanly possible. And, shades of his application to SPHINX in season four, it turns out that all that time Hank has spent being obsessed with Batman has paid off. We even learn a little bit about Hatred that actually might explain a few of his… personality problems.
If there’s a flaw, it’s the fact that one character, Congresswoman Marsha Backwood, seems mostly to exist to fill a little time. You can’t really call it “political satire”, even if the character is fairly obviously inspired by Michelle Bachman, because she doesn’t do anything political. On the other hand, she does have a scene that’s the funniest moment in the episode and shows that Publick and Hammer aren’t afraid of a cheap gag if it works.
In short, the show is officially two-for-two. And next week? we see what 21’s been up to with SPHINX.