Cloning

Clones awaiting activation

Cloning is the genetic duplication of an organism using artificial means. In the world of the Venture Bros., cloning of humans is a viable, if highly illegal, practice. It has had a profound impact the Venture Family, for only through cloning has Hank Venture, Dean Venture and even young Rusty Venture (and Jonas Venture Jr.) lived past many deaths throughout the years (in a manner of speaking).

Principles

Dr. Orpheus and the memory synapse computer

Unlike in some fictional universes, cloning in the Venture Bros. universe takes time, and it does not necessarily impart learned experiences. The Clone Slugs had be grown in high tech and expensive clone vats over time. The memory synapses of the living Venture children were recorded nightly and stored onto a computer. When clone slugs were released from stasis to replace a recently fallen Venture child, the Learning Beds administered these synaptic memory recording to the clones in their sleep. Interestingly, whereas cloning was a seemingly scientific process, Dr. Orpheus seemed to detect (and was able to communicate with) the souls of Hank and Dean Venture in the synapse computer, whereas their clone slugs seemed to lack souls.

D-19 in the Cloning Tube

The cloning process may not have been exactly safe. Although obviously malformed clones were sometimes abandoned and flushed into the sewers, as was the case with D19, more subtle abnormalities and maladies may have gone unnoticed. The current Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture carried a parasitic twin fetus that lived inside him for years before it escaped and became Jonas Venture Jr., (Rusty's dreams seemed to indicate that he somehow absorbed Jonas Jr. while they were both in the mother's "womb"). Ben later mentioned with some note when he performed a physical on Dean Venture that Dean lacked Fetiform Teratoma, a highly unusual form of teratoma where organic material resembling a fetus develops inside the body of a host organism. This may be taken to imply that developmental abnormalities such as Jonas Venture Jr.'s growth are not unique.

History

At some point, all cloning research was made illegal across North America by Congress. Regardless of the legality or lack thereof, Jonas Venture Sr., Ben, and later Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture developed and "perfected" the process of cloning. The Ventures kept a laboratory on the grounds of the Venture Compound. It was kept a secret, even from the OSI.

In his youth, Rusty died at least once and was cloned (including his twin Jonas Venture Jr.), though he never knew this. Adult Rusty knew of the general process and further worked on his father's cloning research and followed in Jonas Sr.'s footsteps of cloning his children. Hank and Dean died multiple times over the years from causes both exotic and mundane.

The existence of the clone slugs were eventually revealed in a conflict between the Fluttering Horde and OSI soldiers. Said conflict also resulted in the eradication of the clone slugs. The lab was later destroyed in a "spell of purification" cast by Dr. Orpheus in an effort to prevent Neo-Nazis from cloning Adolf Hitler.

In The Inamorata Consequence, cloning facilities (or at least apparatuses resembling cloning facilities) were shown to still exist in Ben's House on the Venture Compound.

In Arrears in Science, the disembodied head of Jonas Venture Sr. announced his plan to clone a new body for himself after he (upon having his existing brain transferred into Venturion) and Rusty got the cloning lab running again. This plan never came to pass, as both Venturion (then known as Vendata, but was revealed to originally be The Blue Morpho) and Jonas took each other out before it could happen.

In Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, Ben reveals that both the Monarch and Rusty are clones of the original Rusty Venture with the Monarch having 2% of Baboon DNA in order to prevent premature balding but at the cost of making him more aggressive.

Known Clones

• Rusty Venture and Jonas Venture Jr. (deceased)
• The Monarch
• D-19 (deceased)
• Hank Venture and Dean Venture, 12 sets (11 sets deceased), plus 1 individual (deceased)
• Rusty quickly cloned a child named Kyle that was disemboweled by the E-Den Gorilla, on the Venture Compound, as a result of a summer camp gone horribly wrong. The cloned child was deformed and seemingly mute but given to the parents regardless. Thaddeus told Brock, the clone would develop and have to be potty trained again, and he rid it of the "ticking time bomb of cancer" the original had.

Parties Seeking Cloning

Multiple external parties have attempted to persuade or force Thaddeus Rusty Venture to make clones for them. None of said parties have been successful in these motivational endeavors for reasons varying from happenstance to personality or ideological conflicts.

• Roy Brisby attempted to force Thaddeus Venture to reveal his secrets of cloning in order to get a new body.
• Gary Fischer asked Thaddeus Venture to clone Henchman 24, or at least a young version of him Gary could raise on his own.
• Fritz and his Neo-Nazis attempted to force Thaddeus Venture into cloning a new, human body for Adolf Hitler's rebirth.
• Jonas Venture, Sr. attempted to have his brain transplanted into Venturion, until he and Thaddeus Venture could get the old clone program up and running, in order to get a new body.

Trivia

• A running gag in the series involves Hank and Dean collectively going "What?" when faced with the knowledge that they're both clones, only for something to prevent them from learning anything further.