Jonas Venture, Sr.

Jonas Venture, Sr.
	The Venture Bros. character
	; Jonas in Wetsuit
First appearance	Careers in Science
Voiced by	Paul Boocock
Information
Aliases	Dr. Fangdragon ("Now Museum-Now You Don't")
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Super Scientist and Adventurer
Family	Colonel Lloyd Venture (grandfather, deceased); An unnamed father; Thaddeus Venture (son); Jonas Venture Jr. (son, deceased); Hank Venture (grandson); Dean Venture (grandson); Dermott Fictel (grandson)
Notable; characteristics	Genius-level intellect; High level of strength and charisma; Indifference towards Rusty
Alliances	Blue Morpho I; Team Venture
Prior; alliances	M.U.T.H.E.R.
Enemies	Brainulo; Dr. Z; Half-Jackal; L. Ron; Manotaur (deceased); M.U.T.H.E.R.; Scaramantula; Turnbuckle (deceased); The Guild of Calamitous Intent; The Fraternity of Torment
Cause of Death	Ejected into space
College Fraternity	Gamma Psi Delta

Dr. Jonas Venture, Sr. is the grandson of Colonel Lloyd Venture, the father of Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture and the late Dr. Jonas "JJ" Venture, Jr., as well as the paternal grandfather of Hank Venture, Dean Venture, and Rusty's illegitimate son Dermott Fictel. He was a great Super Scientist and was the leader of the original Team Venture.

Personality

Though known by the public for his status as a brilliant scientist, great adventurer and wonderful man: Jonas' real personality was that of a selfish, narcissistic, irresponsible man-child. Later seasons even show him to be a megalomaniac. Jonas was a careless parent; hardly ever taking care or worrying about the well-being of his son just as Rusty would do with his own children. Indeed, his neglectful attitude and his reckless stunts as an adventurer or scientist were the overall cause of the trauma instilled in his son. Though he might have loved his son, and friends, he was a terrible parent and friend as his strongest love was always for himself. He would always prioritize his own desires over all others believing they were the most important and would refuse to take responsibility for the problems his actions. He demonstrated manipulative tendencies, to keep people under his control, for example, he appointed himself Rusty's "psychologist" and when Rusty voiced his feelings, he called him "ungrateful".

Colonel Gentlemen stated Jonas "collected" friends, meaning people are just no more than things to him to flaunt around until he gets bored. He showed no restrictions when he held parties and orgies in his compound, often ignoring Rusty completely. When Rusty became a teenager, Jonas went from a somewhat caring father to what could only be described as a "gigantic, gaping asshole bully." Jonas tortured his son relentlessly with endless and humiliating pranks, and did little if anything to halt his own teammates when they would play harmful pranks on Rusty, or violent threats; (i.e. The Action Man often threatening to shoot the boy or made the boy think a grenade go off and the flag impaled the child).

It is implied some of Jonas' inventions were designed as a way of him to cheat death, as seen with the cloning that he would teach his son, a stasis device called PROBLEM, and attempting to place his brain in the robot body of Vendata, despite knowing it would kill the latter.

History

Not much is known about Jonas' past before his adulthood, but he seemingly began his career as an adventuring super scientist sometime in the early 1950's, with this first adventure involving stopping The Rosenbergs from trying to sell an atomic weapon to the Russians. He was a very wealthy man, likely due to the various patents and inventions he created (I.e the Uniwax & commercial H.E.L.P.eR robots). He also designed all the attractions in Brisbyland, and had several contracts with the U.S army. Early on he constructed the Venture Compound in Colorado Springs as his home and the headquarters of his company, Venture Industries.

One of Jonas' most noteworthy achievements is cloning technology, which he developed with his friend Ben. He constructed a cloning lab in the Venture Compound, and used it to clone his son, Rusty. Whether Rusty was conceived as a clone or simply brought back to life as one is unknown. Rusty would later go on to use the cloning facility for his own children, Hank and Dean.

From the 1950's to the 1980's, Jonas Venture went to numerous adventures around the globe with his team and his son Rusty. He quickly developed a reputation as the greatest adventurer ever, and became a legend among heroes and villains alike. His and his sons exploits even spawned a cartoon series called The Rusty Venture Show, and a comic book titled Dr. Venture. Jonas became so renowned that almost every villain wanted to arch him, and this reputation carried over to his son Rusty. Jonas faced many villains during his adventures, such as Scaramantula, L. Ron Hubbard and Dr. Z, but was always one step ahead of them.

Jonas' reputation lead to him hosting a summit between the Guild and the OSI in his compound in which the Treaty of Tolerance was signed, which determined a set of rules of conduct between the two organizations. Jonas found members of both parties to be completely childish and incapable of serious discussion, so he made them settle their arguments in a pool battle, which became a tradition later on.

In the 1960's, Jonas had created an incredibly advanced underground fallout shelter in case of a global catastrophe, and had young members of the Rusty Venture Club tour the shelter. Unfortunately, the artificial intelligence program controlling the shelter called M.U.T.H.E.R went crazy and attempted to poison everyone inside. Team Venture and Jonas managed to escape, but Jonas left the children inside the fallout shelter and never went back to help them. The children would grow up as insane religious fanatics who worshiped Jonas through old video tape recordings.

Sometime in the 1960's, Jonas met Blue Morpho in Spider Skull Island, where Scaramantula was holding him, Rusty and Team Venture as prisoners. Blue Morpho and Kano saved them, But Jonas initially thought very little of Blue Morpho and rejected him at first. Despite these bad first impressions, they later became friends and Jonas would use Blue Morpho's talents to do his dirty work for him, such as retrieving important items for Jonas and helping him get rid of evidence. Much of this was done because Jonas blackmailed B.M with a sextape.

In 1976, Blue Morpho died in a plane crash, but Jonas was able to recover what was left of him and reconstruct him as a cyborg called Venturion to do mundane tasks around his compound, such as take the Venture family dog Scamp for walks. Team Venture found this act repulsive and inhumane, but Jonas saw it as the greatest feat of super science he had performed. Venturion eventually snapped due to a system error, and nearly choked Rusty. This forced Kano to put him down by violently detaching his head. Venturion was then discarded into a dumpster, where he was later found by Dr. Z and reprogrammed into Vendata.

During Rusty's childhood, Jonas began constructing the Gargantua 1 space station, which was completed in 1987. The space station was dubbed the 9th wonder of the world, as it was very advanced and completely self sustaining. Jonas would eventually meet his end on his own space station that same year during The Movie Night Massacre.

Death

In Arrears in Science, it is revealed that Jonas nearly died during Movie Night on April 9, 1987, when someone opened the bay doors on Gargantua 1. The Action Man, Colonel Gentleman, and Kano attempted to move his body to The PROBLEM, but Jonas' frozen body got shattered to pieces as he was accidentally dropped on the floor when Colonel Gentleman slipped on Rusty's old toy cowboy. Thus, only his head was placed inside The PROBLEM.

Jonas shattered — Jonas' frozen corpse accidentally shattered as Col. Gentleman stepped on Rusty's old toy cowboy.

In the season 7 premiere The Curse of the Haunted Problem, it is revealed that Jonas Venture is still alive, having ordered the original Team Venture to place his body (which was apparently destroyed, leaving only his head) into a semi-comatose state inside the PROBLEM (Progressive Biological Life Extension Module) in the event of his death. He was hardwired into all the systems of GARGANTUA-1, with a makeshift digestive tract providing nutrients to his head by consuming the proteins of rodents and insects living in the space station. The problem blinking light was apparently caused by him and not Rusty's melted toy and later his leaking suit. He also accidentally crashed the Gargantua-1 in an attempt to communicate.

JonasVentureSr Head — The Head of Jonas Venture Sr. suspended inside the PROBLEM.

After Gargantua-1 crashed in a desert, Jonas Venture Jr. retrieved the PROBLEM from the crash site and had it placed in the Venture Industries headquarters in New York. Shortly after Rusty took over the company, the PROBLEM activated, causing Jonas to hack into the electrical systems of the building and causing havoc during nights, which made it seem like the place was haunted. Dean called Dr. Orpheus, Al and Jefferson to investigate the supposed haunting. Orpheus tore the front panel of the PROBLEM open, revealing the comatose head of Jonas Venture hooked into a synthetic nervous system. Rusty was shocked to see him and questioned the old Team Venture why no one never told him about his father's fate. He woke up and called out Rusty's name, but was soon hit with an axe by Pete White, who was attempting to stop Jonas from hacking the building. Not realizing what he had done, this caused Jonas to scream as he began bursting with electricity, causing the whole building to shake.

Jonas tries to kill bm — Jonas attempting to kill The Blue Morpho.

In Arrears in Science, the original Blue Morpho arrived at the shaking VenTech Tower. He requested to see Jonas Venture, and upon realizing his comatose state inside The PROBLEM, he plugged himself in, and met Jonas inside his mind. Jonas caused Blue Morpho to regain his old memories regarding his identity, his family, and the events of Movie Night.

Jonas spoke to his son through his wrist watch, while attempting to convince Billy to kill Blue Morpho by removing his brain so that Jonas could place his own inside the former Venturion. He explained that he wanted Thaddeus to help him clone a new body for him after he takes Vendata's body as a temporary substitute. Jonas continued to speak with Morpho who protested innocence at not killing Jonas but Blue Morpho notice something was up and unplugged himself from The PROBLEM as he saw The Monarch. Jonas attempted to use Blue Morpho's momentary fixation on his son to ambush Blue Morpho and forcibly take his body, attaching wires around Blue Morpho, tying him up in the real world while Jonas also attempted to strangle the Blue Morpho in his mind. This caused The PROBLEM to fall onto the escalator. As the two fought, Blue Morpho accidentally activated his rocket boosters on his feet, causing him and Jonas, along with Rusty and Monarch, to fly out of the Ventec building. They all crashed, but Jonas and Blue Morpho fell unconscious (or possibly died) as a result. Jonas' head was later re-frozen and given to OSI for research.

Relationships with other characters

Family

Colonel Lloyd Venture

Lloyd Venture is Jonas' grandfather and one of the founders of the original Guild that devolved into The Guild of Calamitous Intent. Not much is known about their relationship as the two were never seen interacting.

Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture

Jonas' oldest son, who for many years was brought along on adventures and sometimes had experiments tested on him. Flashbacks depict Jonas attempting to be a loving parent. However, he was shown to be very neglectful and showed no care to how much danger his son was in. In Spanakopita!, while he does beat up the men who kidnapped his son for a ransom, Jonas was actually at fault for leaving his child unattended for days while he went to a wedding. Intentional or not, Jonas was known to be very narcissistic and egotistical, something that was reflected in how he raised Rusty. It was also suggested in The Inamorata Consequence, Jonas had cloned his son several times, similar to Thaddeus' way of Hank and Dean. Thaddeus may not be aware of this, since he was confused by Dean's words. If this was the case, it shows that Jonas cared for his son enough to bring him back.

Jonas was mainly responsible for instilling trauma within Rusty which corresponds with how Rusty raised his own boys. One example was when Jonas attempted to perform therapy on Rusty. However, instead of listening to his son or caring how he felt, he snuck out of the room and appeared at the end of the session just in time to rebuke his son's problems and just mainly called him ungrateful for the opportunities given to him. Another example was when Jonas threw a "swingers" party at his home, where instead of having Rusty at another place, he held the party only rooms away from Rusty and Tara Quymm.

The last time the two spoke was during Rusty's first days in college. Rusty was complaining about his time there so far and Jonas can be seen on the watch communicator having a party while talking to his son. Later, Rusty is told by Brock that while he was in the nurse's office his dad died, leaving Rusty quite shocked at the news.

Despite hostile feelings he had for his father, Rusty still had some form of respect for him. He admitted aloud to Billy that while his father was a terrible parent, he was a great scientist. It appears that he still loved his father as in Self-Medication, Thaddeus stated while he may have resented his father he never wanted to hurt him (in contrast to Lance Hale and Dale Hale).

In The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem, Thaddeus was shocked to find his father's disembodied but still living head connected to a machine. Jonas regained consciousness and called out to his son who spoke to him before he was forced to run away.

During Arrears in Science, he spoke to his son for the first time in twenty years through his communicator watch. He seemed happy to speak with him and wanted him to clone a new body for him after he takes Morpho's body as a temporary substitute, showing he had confidence in his son's ability. Thaddeus was unsure and was launched with the two through the streets. Thaddeus kept his father's head, while wishing he could see the parade though stated he was dead but begrudgingly gave the head to OSI.

Jonas "JJ" Venture Jr.

Jonas Venture's youngest son, whose existence was not known of for over forty years due to JJ being eaten by Rusty while in the womb. JJ, however, through unknown means, managed to survive those painful decades inside his brother. Eventually he emerged in the episode Return to Spider-Skull Island, where he states that he was destined to be the son Jonas Sr. should have had. Though the two had never met, JJ is shown to deeply respect and idolize his father for all his achievements, even making a museum for him.

Unknowingly, JJ was responsible for finding and bringing his father's head (which was in a machine) back to VenTech Tower. Jonas, himself, is not entirely aware of his connection to JJ. He mostly referred to him as a "savior".

In Arrears in Science, Jonas mentions him to Blue Morpho and calls him his savior, unaware that this was his second son.

Hank Venture and Dean Venture

Jonas saw them through the PROBLEM and tried to communicate with them. It is unknown if he is aware they were his grandchildren but its likely he didn't know.

During The Curse of the Haunted Problem, Jonas taking control of the tower led to Dean contacting Dr. Orpheus who discovered the still living head of Jonas. Dean was shocked to see his grandfather though ran out the building when Jonas took control of it.

In Arrears in Science, Dean informs Hank of what occurred in their home and told him that their grandfather was still alive, to Hank's excitement. Hank initially wanted to see his grandfather's disembodied head but Dean talked him out of it.

Alliances

Team Venture

Jonas was the leader of the original Team Venture and the group went on multiple adventures all around the world. It was shown that Jonas possessed a degree of care and trust in his team, turning to them to watch his son whenever they went on a trip. All of them were aware of the circumstances surrounding Jonas' death and placed his head in PROBLEM to keep him alive and didn't tell Thaddeus until The Curse of the Haunted Problem.

In Arrears in Science, Jonas showed he still cared for his friends in spite of his conditions and called them a great team.

The Blue Morpho

Many years ago, Jonas and his team were held hostage on Spider Skull Island by the villain Scaramantula but were saved by the Blue Morpho. At first, Jonas was hostile toward the vigilante due to having heard bad rumors of the latter and wasted no time twisting his arm when meeting him.

Nonetheless, the two became great friends as shown in Rapacity in Blue where they are seen conversing with one another about Morpho's latest invention before sleeping with Jill St. John and Stella Stevens. In A Party for Tarzan, Dr. Z stated Blue Morpho was a great friend of Jonas and would do anything for the latter which was shown when he disguised himself as a woman and slept with the villain. In Red Means Stop, Colonel Gentleman stated that Jonas was filled with grief when the Blue Morpho died. This would lead him to resurrect him as the cyborg Venturion, he was very excited to bring a man back to life, despite the protests he received from his friends. However, when he lost interest in his "toy", he was quick to discard him as a simple nanny to his son.

In Arrears in Science, it is revealed Jonas used the sex tape of him and Blue Morpho with the women to blackmail the latter to do what he wanted. He also had taken Kano "as payment" and implied that he inseminated Mrs. Fitzcarraldo (most likely slept with her), which conceived The Monarch.

While Morpho was regaining his memories, a little of his old self returned and condemned Jonas for making him do his dirty work. Jonas was amused to see him regain some pieces of his true being, though he showed no shame in condemning Morpho for leading to his current condition as a head. More importantly, he felt no remorse for blackmailing him, or using his wife, simply called it "helping". Jonas once again would only think of himself, even more so while Vendata was "distracted". He was quick to try and ask Billy to have help him take control of Vendata's body until he could get a cloned body. Billy objected, stating the process would kill Vendata, which he couldn't condone as a doctor. Jonas, once again, saw no problem so long as it benefited him.

In the end, this plan failed as Morpho and Jonas were rendered out of commission with any hope of saving them being slim.

Romantic

Mz. Quymn

For some time, Jonas was involved in an affair with Mz. Quymn who was married to Colonel Horace Gentleman (a closeted bisexual at the time). It is unknown how long Venture and Quymn were together, but during one of their encounters the two accidentally and drunkenly stumbled upon their children who were playing explorers. This is also during which hosting an adult party with the children somewhat present. The affair is hinted to have led to the birth of Tara Quymn as she and Rusty, Jonas' son, look remarkably similar. This would make them half-siblings, but this has yet to be confirmed.

Jill St. John and Stella Stevens

In Rapacity in Blue The Monarch and Henchman 21 watch an old videotape of Jonas Venture Sr. and The Blue Morpho lightly bantering with one another before proceeding to get naked with actresses Jill St. John and Stella Stevens. It is revealed in Arrears in Science that Jonas used this sex tape to blackmail The Blue Morpho into doing his bidding.

Grace Kelly

In Red Means Stop, Colonel Gentleman tells Rusty Venture that his father slept with Grace Kelly, famed actress and former Princess of Monaco.

Other

The Monarch

In Arrears in Science, it's heavily hinted that he is the father of Malcom aka The Monarch through Blue Morpho's wife. Possibly through artificial insemination or he most likely seduced his mother, taking advantage of the couple's desperateness to have a baby.

Blue Morpho clearly suspected the boy wasn't his, but loved Malcom without hesitation. Jonas, on the other hand, its never explored or seen. He possibly either felt Rusty was enough for him as a parent. He perhaps simply just saw the boy as both something to boost his ego or hold over Morpho as a way to make him "grateful" to Jonas.

However, Jonas along with Morpho and his wife were seen in a picture with Thaddeus and Rusty as children, meaning he knew of the boy. Though this is no indication so far that he's interacted with him. Neither boys (and it appears the original Team Venture as well) know this revelation. Additionally, when the plane crash happened, it appears neither Team Venture nor Jonas attempted to locate or make sure Malcom had survived.

As far as it can be told, he never has identified or associated Malcom as his child. Though he did somewhat acknowledge him when he interrupted his talk with B.M. However, he did not seem to recognize him as young "Malcom" or kept it to himself. He smirked hoping that the Monarch would help set his plans in motions to get rid of Blue Morpho. Unfortunately he did not count on Blue Morpho wanting to see his (step)son.

Episode Appearances

Pilot

The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay (early mention)

Season 1

Careers in Science (trauma induced hallucination)
The Incredible Mr. Brisby (flashback)
Ghosts of the Sargasso (flashback)
Past Tense (flashback)
Return to Spider-Skull Island (flashback)

Season 2

Powerless in the Face of Death (flashback)
Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I) (voice only - talking alarm clock)
Hate Floats (voice only)
Twenty Years to Midnight (video recording, flashback, alien disguise)

Gallery

Trivia

It is unknown who his wife (if he ever married) or Thaddeus' mother was.
During The Inamorata Consequence and The Saphrax Protocol, it implied Jonas had Thaddeus cloned like the latter does to his sons.
Jonas is quite possibly the father of The Monarch and Dr. Quymn, due to their resemblance to the current Ventures and since their mothers were either sexually or implied to be involved with Jonas for an unknown amount of time.
- During Arrears in Science he told The Blue Morpho that his "science" was "potent". This could mean he's hinting at fathering children during affairs like the one with Mz. Quymn ande Mrs. Fitzcarraldo.
- In The Saphrax Protocol, it is revealed that Thaddeus and the Monarch are indeed "blood relatives," though how exactly is not elaborated on.
He's implied to be racist, as his Dr. Fangdragon disguise embodies several offensive Asian design stereotypes like slanted eyes, visible teeth, and tangzhuang outfit. Moreso, he cites his disguise's home village as Japananawa, which is based on Japan, despite his disguise and name having Chinese themes.
While he saw him, he had no idea Jonas Venture Jr., Hank, and Dean were his family.