Dr. Jonas Venture, Jr. | |
---|---|
The Venture Bros. character | |
Jonas Venture, Jr. on Spider-Skull Island | |
First appearance |
Return to Spider-Skull Island |
Last appearance |
All This and Gargantua-2 |
Voiced by |
James Urbaniak |
Information | |
Aliases |
J.J. Chairman (by The Pirate Captain) |
Occupation |
Founder and former CEO of VenTech Industries Super-Scientist Curator of The Jonas Venture Jr. Museum of Jonas Venture |
Relatives |
Lloyd Venture (great grandfather, deceased) Jonas' father (grandfather, deceased) Jonas Venture Sr. (father; "deceased") Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (clone/"twin brother") Hank Venture (nephew) Dean Venture (nephew) Dermott Fictel (nephew) The Monarch (blood relative) Sally Impossible (girlfriend) |
Alliances |
Team Venture Sally Impossible (romantic) |
Dr. Jonas Venture, Jr. (often shortened to 'J.J.') was the son of the late Jonas Venture, Sr., younger twin brother of Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, uncle of Hank Venture, Dean Venture and Dermott Fictel, and the founder and CEO of Venture Techno Industries. He was one of the supporting characters on the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros. He is voiced by James Urbaniak.
History
Background
Although J.J. is the fraternal twin brother of Dr. Thaddeus Venture, his existence was unknown to the rest of the world for approximately forty-three years. Somehow, Thaddeus "absorbed" his brother in the womb without killing him, possibly a case of "Fetus-in-fetu". (He may have retained some sort of primal memory of the act, as for most of the first season, Thaddeus was haunted by recurring nightmares of a fetus swallowing, strangling, or otherwise harming another near-identical fetus.) Against all odds, J.J. survived inside Thaddeus' torso for over four decades by using tissue from Thaddeus' body to supplement his own. J.J. even remained conscious enough to be aware of his brother's thoughts and activities.
"Birth"
When he judged the time to be right, he caused Thaddeus great pain from within. Thaddeus was rushed to the emergency room, where J.J.'s under-developed body was removed, under the assumption that it was a tumor. Free at last from his prison, J.J. quickly returned to the Venture Compound in secret and constructed an enormous mechanical body for himself. He easily neutralized Brock and nearly succeeded in killing Thaddeus, but was foiled with the assistance of H.E.L.P.eR.. In a rare moment of compassion, Thaddeus stopped Brock from killing his brother and begrudgingly offered him half of the Venture "empire" in reparation for trapping him for decades within his body. He also allowed his brother to name himself 'Jonas Venture, Jr.'. As the brothers made their peace with each other, Jonas agreed to take, among other assets, the X-2 (Venture Industries' research ship) and the abandoned Venture Compound on Spider-Skull Island.
As a Super-Scientist
J.J.'s body was unable to fully develop while inside his brother; standing approximately two feet tall, his appearance is similar to a person with dwarfism, while his left arm is largely vestigial, ending in a stump with no hand. After reconciling with Thaddeus, Master Billy Quizboy and Pete White fitted him with a bionic arm similar to Billy's.
Within the span of a few months (in the hiatus between the show's first and second seasons), J.J. grew his hair out to a ponytail, earned two doctorates, lost some of the weight he had accumulated from living inside Thaddeus' body with little activity, developed a smoother, less hoarse voice, and generally began repairing some of the damage that Thaddeus had inflicted through sheer incompetence upon Venture Industries. Proving himself more capable than his twin, Jonas completed the majority of Thaddeus' contract work with the government by the time his brother returned. He also built the X-X-1, an improved version of his father's X-1 jet plane with a list of additional amenities, including a fully automated autopilot mechanism and a lounge with Space Invaders.
Jonas eventually built Venture Techno Industries ('VenTech', for short) and released a series of new highly popular products such as the jPhone, eventually losing interest in super-science in favor of more practical technological development and marketing. He purchased a skyscraper in New York City, naming it VenTech Tower; this became his primary residence. J.J's impact on the world would continue to be felt by Thaddeus, with many in business and academia now considering J.J. the superior Dr. Venture, much to the former's frustration.
In Season 4, it is revealed that J.J. is in space in orbit of Earth, in the process of building another Gargantua Space Station. Sally is shown helping him in the process, along with other allies and subordinates formally under Rusty's supervision, such as Hector and Swifty.
Death
In All This and Gargantua-2, J.J. reveals to his brother that he has cancer and is slowly dying. When Gargantua-2 suffers a meltdown, J.J. sacrifices himself (along with General Treister) in order to save the guests on board the space station. His testament dictated that VenTech Industries and its subsidiaries are to be given to Rusty upon his death. Despite his death, J.J.'s presence is still felt by his family through the various personalized recordings still installed throughout VenTech Tower. Rusty would unfortunately continue with J.J.'s legacy as he had their father's, choosing to plunder his collection of unfinished works for the sake of promoting himself.
Contrast with Thaddeus Venture
J.J. seems to be nearly everything that Thaddeus is not: competent, productive, physically fit, self-confident, modest, kind, accepting, suave, and successful with the opposite sex. He is pretty much identical in performance and even in appearance to his father, Jonas Venture, Sr.. J.J. had once said that he is the son that should have carried on the Venture legacy, rather than Thaddeus. Despite his diminutive stature and bionic arm, he has proven very attractive to women, the latest of which was Sally Impossible (who had moved in with him, and established a happy family life).
After reconciling with his brother, his personality seemingly transformed from that of a fratricidal maniac to that of a jovial genius, while Thaddeus has remained a bitter, cynical, socially awkward recluse. In the episode Now Museum-Now You Don't, which deals with J.J. establishing a museum on Spider-Skull Island to honor his father's memory, J.J.'s personality is shown to be more manipulative, paternally condescending, domineering and even brittle than in past episodes, with a desire to minimize Thaddeus' past role in Team Venture. Whether this is a true indication of his character is up for debate, as Brainulo was present and emphasizing hostilities/unpleasant traits of everyone at the museum's opening; additionally, these negative traits of J.J.'s could simply have been from the stress of arranging a large party, full of his father's peers, with minimal assistance and no support/input whatsoever from Thaddeus.
Although J.J. is much less oblivious than Thaddeus, he is not completely unflappable. While on a mission to retrieve the hidden components of a mysterious device his father built, he was confronted by a drug-crazed, bedraggled Jonny Quest. J.J. was at a loss for what to do, until his colleague (an ex-"ghost pirate" captain) soothed the paranoid, ranting man with the prospect of falsified prescriptions (in a deleted scene for the episode, J.J. expresses his disdain and remorse for this action, on ethical grounds). J.J. and the captain were later captured by Richard Impossible under unexplained circumstances. J.J. helped save the day, however, by communicating with H.E.L.P.eR. via a collar-mounted communications device ("What kind of an idiot would strap his only means of emergency communication to his wrist? They always tie you up!"). After assisting Brock in defeating Impossible, J.J. began flirting with Richard's emotionally-starved wife Sally, true to his ladies'-man personality. Eventually, Sally, Ned, and her son are seen living at Spider-Skull Island with him, he and Sally sharing a loving relationship and Ned happily hugging J.J. (hard enough to occasionally cause a 'brain vein' and turn J.J.'s face red).
It seems that J.J's apparent competence and good-natured personality happens to be an ironic twist of fate, especially given his claim in his first appearance that he was the son that their father should have had. It's quite strongly implicated, and later confirmed, that many of Thaddeus' shortcomings are the result of his father's poor parenting, combined with various traumatic experiences incurred during his stint as a boy adventurer in his childhood. It could be surmised that J.J. is able to fulfill the role expected of a son of the great Dr. Venture better than Thaddeus, though only because he was never raised by him.
Relationships
Family
Dr. Jonas Venture, Sr.
Jonas Sr. is the father of Thaddeus and J.J., whom he never met due to being absorbed by, and trapped inside of, his brother for over forty years. Despite never knowing his father, J.J. is shown to deeply respect him, even once stating to Thaddeus that he was supposed to be the true son of their late father. J.J.'s idolization of his father is so great that he would even name himself after him, later going off to create a museum on Spider-Skull Island where he and guests would commemorate the legacy of his father. J.J. himself seems largely unaware of his father's more morally-reprehensible traits, often openly glorifying him much to the frustration of those who actually knew him.
Unknowingly, J.J. was responsible for finding and bringing his father's head (which was both alive and stored in the PROBLEM) back to VenTech Tower. J.J. died without ever knowing that his father was still alive; Jonas Sr. was not aware of their familial connection, referring to him only as his savior.
Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture
Thaddeus is Jonas Jr.'s older twin brother who had devoured him while they were still in the womb over forty years ago. When J.J. was liberated, he immediately tried to kill him for imprisoning him for all that time. Thaddeus was shocked at the revelation of having a brother, while his recently revealed twin showed nothing but contempt and vengeance, even declaring to Thaddeus, "You stole my life from me! Well guess what, Rusty? I'm taking yours, and I'm claiming my birthright! The Venture empire is mine!". However, when J.J. was defeated and was about to be killed by Brock, Thaddeus in a rare moment of compassion stopped him, calling J.J. his brother. In an attempt to make amends for trapping him for over four decades, Thaddeus decided to give him half of Venture Industries.
Thaddeus' attitude towards J.J. has changed radically, perhaps because he senses that in a short period of time, J.J. had made great progress towards fulfilling the world's expectations for the son of Jonas Venture, Sr. (which Thaddeus had utterly failed to do in his entire adult life). By the beginning of the second season, Thaddeus had begun treating J.J. with the same contempt he displays for nearly everyone else, avoiding him whenever possible and bitterly mocking him when forced to interact with him. J.J., however, appears to ignore his brother's scorn in a disappointed, but good-natured manner.
While jealousy and bitterness did indeed drive a wedge between the brothers, it appears that they do not completely despise one another; in The Doctor is Sin, Thaddeus was given the opportunity to become a supervillain and the arch-enemy of J.J., as a way of dealing with his sense of inadequacy instilled by his father. Thaddeus declined without stating a given reason, additionally giving up the numerous benefits arranged for him by his benefactor, Dr. Henry Killinger; the incident left him feeling drained and intensely depressed, while also debating as to whether he was an immoral person or not.
At the start of Season 6, J.J. started to treat his brother with respect and told him how he got all the good genes and had people that he can rely on. He then confessed to Thaddeus that he had cancer and was dying, which completely shocked Thaddeus who hugged and held his brother in his arms for a while, nearly catatonic in shock. In his final moments, J.J. happily bid his brother and nephews farewell before sacrificing himself (along with General Treister). During his funeral, he gave his brother the multi-billion dollar HQ of Venture industries in New York, something that caused Thaddeus to faint. In Hostile Makeover, when hearing a recording of J.J.'s voice on Dean's phone, Thaddeus became silent, telling Dean, "too soon," showing he respected his brother.
Hank and Dean Venture
While J.J.'s nephews Hank and Dean seem to be mostly noncommittal towards their newly-discovered uncle so far, they retain a somewhat childish mixture of fascination and revulsion towards him due to his appearance. There have been slight hints that they share a much warmer relationship with him than Thaddeus does with either of them. J.J. had trusted them with the X-X-1 to find a missing piece of their father's device (a task they completed successfully), and he seemed happy to see Dean when attempting to break his brother's force-field while calling Dean "nephew". At J.J.'s funeral, Dean expressed sadness at his uncle's passing and seemed hopeful when he thought Dr. Orpheus intended to resurrect him, but was dejected when it turned out to be an old stuffed animal.
The Monarch
In Tears of a Sea Cow it was revealed that The Monarch was assigned by the Guild of Calamitous Intent as his new arch nemesis, though currently only on a trial basis. The Monarch proceeds to use J.J. in a plan to exploit a loophole in the Guild's rules that allows the Monarch to go after Thaddeus and his boys once again. Since Thaddeus and The Monarch were said to be blood relatives, the connection applies to J.J. and The Monarch as well.
Romantic
Sally Impossible
In Twenty Years to Midnight, J.J. expressed an interest in Sally Impossible, openly flirting with her; shortly afterwards, the two began a relationship with J.J. allowing Sally, her infant son, and cousin Ned to move in with him on Spider-Skull Island. Not much is known about their relationship except that it appeared to be strained at one point, as J.J. was caught up in the extravagant life of a super scientist and carrying his father's legacy. It is unknown whether or not Sally knew that J.J. was dying of cancer near the end, but she was distraught when J.J. sacrificed himself to save all those on board Gargantua-2. At his funeral, his lawyer reveals that J.J. had left Sally with a generous inheritance as well as the rights to Spider Skull Island, showing that he truly cared for Sally. In Rapacity in Blue, J.J. shows how much he cared about Sally in a hologram alarm of himself, by having it remind him to hug her and tell Sally how special she is.
Other
Team Venture
Perhaps due to Thaddeus' resentment towards him, J.J. has had limited involvement with Team Venture since his emergence. This is ironic, given that he possesses what is probably the most competent scientific (and certainly the most well-balanced) mind on the show. The original Team Venture holds him in similar contempt and interactions between them have been tense at best. However, they did seem touched after watching a film of Jonas Venture, Sr., as well listening to J.J. when he stated his reason for the museum was to honor the memory of his late father.
Episode Appearances
- Dia de los Dangerous! (as fetus)
- Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic! (as fetus)
- Return to Spider-Skull Island
- Powerless in the Face of Death
- Twenty Years to Midnight
- Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?
- The Doctor is Sin
- Tears of a Sea Cow
- Now Museum-Now You Don't
- The Lepidopterists
- Bright Lights, Dean City
- What Color is Your Cleansuit?
- Momma's Boys (app voice)
- All This and Gargantua-2
- Hostile Makeover (app voice)
- Maybe No Go (hallucination)
- Rapacity in Blue (hologram)
- The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem (flashback, hologram)
- Arrears in Science (flashback)
Trivia
- Urbaniak has stated that first-season J.J. is vocally patterned after Charlton Heston. From season 2 onwards, J.J's voice is much more relaxed, casual, and cordial.
|