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Jonas Venture, Sr.
The Venture Bros. character
Jonas Venture
Jonas as he confronts The Blue Morpho
First appearance

Careers in Science
Last appearance

Arrears 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)
Thaddeus Venture (son)
Jonas Venture Jr. (son, deceased)
The Monarch (son/creation)
Hank Venture (grandson)
Dean Venture (grandson)
Dermott Fictel (grandson)
Notable
characteristics

Genius-level intellect
High level of strength and charisma
Alliances

Blue Morpho I
Team Venture
Prior
alliances

M.U.T.H.E.R.
Enemies

Force Majeure (deceased)
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 a major character and one of the main antagonists of the Adult Swim series The Venture Bros. The father of Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, the late Dr. Jonas "JJ" Venture, Jr., and The Monarch, he founded Venture Industries and was also the founder and leader of the first Team Venture. His actions directly and indirectly influenced much of the in-show characters and universe. He was voiced by Paul Boocock.

Personality

Jonas is modeled in the vein of Dr. Benton Quest, James Bond, and Indiana Jones as far as being a dashing adventurer, super-scientist, and overall superhero that was beloved by the public, and seen by governments as an ally against evil and a promoter of science and technology. However, behind this image was a personality that was more dark, toxic, and sinister. Jonas in reality was an amoral, megalomaniac that only ever acted in his own greedy, selfish, self-interests. He was manipulative to his friends, so much so that, according to Colonel Gentleman, he "collected" and used friends and people, and was particularly abusive and neglectful to his son, Rusty Venture. He effectively used Rusty as a tool to boost his image and did not care at all when he was injured or killed, or when members of the original Team Venture also abused, bullied, and hazed him. He also was a womanizer that only saw women as trophies of conquest and frequently partied and slept around with fellow heroes and celebrities. He also turned a blind eye to and did not care when the original Team Venture committed abuses. Especially the crazed and violent behavior of The Action Man, with whom he frequently joined in womanizing with prostitutes and physically and emotionally abusing Rusty.

Character History

Not much is known about Jonas' past before his adulthood other than he was descended from Colonel Lloyd Venture. 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 inheriting his grandfather's wealth, and also because of the various patents and inventions he created such as the Uniwax and commercial H.E.L.P.eR robots. He also designed all the attractions in Brisbyland, and had several contracts with the American military. 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 as well as other creatures. Whether Rusty was conceived as a clone or simply brought back to life as one is unknown, nor is Rusty seemingly aware of it. Rusty would later go on to use the cloning facility for his own children, Hank and Dean, as their adventures would frequently lead to his sons' own deaths.

From the 1950's to the 1980's, Jonas Venture went on 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 adventures were serialized and fictionalized in a cartoon series, The Rusty Venture Show, and a comic book titled Dr. Venture. Jonas became so renowned that almost every villain wanted to arch him as he faced many villains during his adventures, such as Force Majeure, Scaramantula, L. Ron, Turnbuckle, and Dr. Z, but he was always one step ahead of them. The cartoon series and comics glossed over Jonas' more problematic traits, as shown by the public's general unawareness 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. He also formed the Boys Brigade, which was a club of boy adventurers. Some of the members of the club such as Phantom Limb and Professor Impossible would be become supervillains themselves later in their lives.

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 became sentient 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 of him, which were meant to raise a growing Rusty in the event he did not survive the apocalypse to do it himself.

Sometime in the late 1960's, Jonas met Blue Morpho on 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 the bad first impression, they later became friends. In 1967, Jonas went over to Blue Morpho's house to see some new video recording equipment, though it was a facade for them to have sex with Jill St. John and Stella Stevens. Jonas secretly recorded the affair and used the tape to blackmail Morpho, a married man, into doing the dangerous missions Jonas would not do. Around this time, he also offered to help Mrs. Fitzcarraldo with their infertility problems, since she and Blue Morpho were having trouble conceiving. However, and instead, he cloned Rusty, and gave the clone to the Fitzcarraldo's couple while placing baboon DNA to prevent baldness and enhancing his aggression, having ignored the protests of his colleague Ben. As a result, the Fitzcarroldo's son would be Malcom, later known as The Monarch.

While he was working on a government project on the set of Isotope Pictures, he encountered Bobbi St. Simone and wanted her as part of his usual sexual conquests. He invited her back to the The Venture Compound, where he gave her invisibility powers in exchange for sex. She had trouble controlling the negative side effects of her invisibility powers, so she returned to Jonas, begging him to remove her powers, but he instead blackmailed and forced her into the Office of Secret Intelligence as one of their agents.

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 as a way to keep Morpho alive and to test the concept of brain transfers to machines. After Team Venture voiced their disgust and disapproval of it and him, Jonas relegated it to babysitting Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture and walking their dog, Scamp. One day while it was watching Rusty, Venturion experienced a malfunction that made it attack and strangle Rusty. Kano intervened and damaged it beyond repair, saving Rusty. Kano was so distraught at destroying what was left of his old friend, The Blue Morpho, that he took a vow of silence from that moment and never spoke to anyone ever again. Jonas on the other hand, simply threw him away and no longer cared.

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.

In the infamous, Movie Night on April 9, 1987, Venturion, now called Vendata and a member of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, led Red Death and other supervillains on an attack on the station. Vendata confronted Jonas with the sex tape threatening to use it to blackmail him. A unconcerned and unafraid Jonas ignored Vendata's threats and walked away. The station's doors opened up after that moment, sucking Jonas and others into space, killing them. It is unknown and unconfirmed who opened the door, but Vendata is considered the main suspect. Team Venture recovered his body and attempted to move his corpse to the PROBLEM machine, but Jonas' frozen body was shattered to pieces as he was accidentally dropped on the floor by Colonel Gentleman who slipped on Rusty's old toy cowboy that had been lodged in the device. Only his head was placed inside The PROBLEM in the hopes of someday resurrecting him.

In the season 7 premiere The Curse of the Haunted Problem, it is revealed that Jonas Venture was still alive, existing in a semi-comatose state inside the PROBLEM. 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's blinking light was apparently caused by him attempting to communicate, which was previously believed to be caused by Rusty's melted toy and later urine leaking out of his space suit. Eventually, Jonas made yet another attempt to communicate, which would ultimately cause GARGANTUA-1 to suffer a complete system-failure and crash onto Earth.

After GARGANTUA-1 crashed in a desert, Dr. Jonas Venture, Jr. retrieved the PROBLEM, unaware of its true purpose, from the crash site and had it placed in the Venture Industries headquarters in New York for sentimental reasons. Shortly after Rusty took over the company following Jonas Jr's death, 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 building was possessed. Dean asked Dr. Orpheus and his Order of the Triad to help 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. Jonas woke up and called out Rusty's name, but was soon hit with an axe by a crazed Pete WhitePete 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.

In Arrears in Science, Vendata, now revealed to formally be Venturion and 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 Rusty to help him clone a new body for him after he took Vendata's body as a temporary substitute, unaware that the clone labs had long since been destroyed. Jonas continued to speak with Morpho, who protested innocence at not killing Jonas, but Blue Morpho noticed something was up and unplugged himself from The PROBLEM as he saw The Monarch. Panicking, Jonas attempted to use Blue Morpho's momentary fixation on his son to ambush him and forcibly take his body, attaching wires around Blue Morpho and tying him up in the real world while Jonas also attempted to strangle him 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 became inert as a result. Jonas' head was later re-frozen and given to OSI for research, leaving his ultimate fate unknown.

Relationships with other characters

Family

Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture

Jonas' oldest son that he had cloned from himself and fertilized with eggs from an unknown woman. As soon as he was able to, Jonas made him a member of Team Venture, and took him along on his adventures, many of which were serialized in the cartoon TV show, and comic books, making him a household name that was idolized by millions. However, behind the scenes, Jonas was a careless parent that hardly ever took care of or worried about the well-being of his son. Rusty was frequently injured or killed on adventures, but, and as it was suggested The Inamorata Consequence, Jonas had cloned him several times as replacements, similar to how Rusty would to his own sons later. While Jonas cared to a degree to bring him back, given how his own teammates stated that Jonas gets bored with his own creations, it might also explain why he felt so free to bully and show little regard for his own son's life or feelings. In Spanakopita!, while he does beat up the men who kidnapped his son for a ransom, Jonas was actually at fault for leaving Rusty unattended for days and did not respond immediately when he was kidnapped. He also turned a blind eye and essentially did not care when Team Venture also abused, bullied, and hazed Rusty. Especially when The Action Man often threatened to shoot him, or shank his penis with the Shrink ray in front of dozens of people on his sixteenth birthday. He demonstrated manipulative tendencies to keep Rusty under his control such as when he appointed himself Rusty's therapist. However, instead of listening to him or caring how he felt, he would sneak out of the room and appear at the end of the session just in time to rebuke his son's problems and called him ungrateful for the opportunities given to him. Indeed, his abusive, neglectful attitude and Jonas's overall amoral and toxic personality were the overall cause of the trauma instilled in Rusty, indirectly responsible for his failure in life.

The last time the two spoke was during Rusty's first days in college. Rusty was complaining about his time there while 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 modeled his superego off of Jonas. He admitted aloud to the OSI and gathered guests 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, Rusty stated while he may have resented his father he never wanted to hurt him (in contrast to Lance Hale and Dale Hale). He continued to use his fathers inventions such as the cloning chamber, the Learning Beds with videos of Jonas to educate Hank and Dean, the X-1 and X-2, and in general, piggybacks off of his father's legacy to benefit himself.

In The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem, Rusty 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, Rusty was upset that he was never told that his father was still alive. Later on, Jonas 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 took over Vendata/Morpho's body as a temporary substitute, showing he had confidence in his son's ability. Master Billy Quizboy refused this request and seemed annoyed. That would be the last time he would speak to his father alive again.

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. He took on the name Jonas to respect and honor him. 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 the P.R.O.B.L.E.M machine back to VenTech Tower. Jonas, himself, is not entirely aware of his connection to JJ. 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.

The Monarch

In Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, that Jonas is actually Monarch's biological father and creator. He made a clone of his son Thaddeus and gave him to the Fitzcarraldo couple to be raised as their child. Unlike them, Jonas on the other hand, never showed any parental interest and simply just saw the boy as a way to boost his ego by placing baboon DNA to prevent baldness and enhancing his aggression, ignoring the protests of Ben.

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 Malcolm had survived.

As far as it can be told, he never has identified or associated Malcolm as his child. Though he did somewhat acknowledge him when he interrupted his talk with B.M. in Arrears in Science. However, he did not seem to recognize him.

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.

Alliances

Team Venture

Jonas was the founder and leader of the original Team Venture. It was shown that Jonas possessed a degree of care and trust in his team, turning to them to watch Rusty whenever they went on adventures. 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 Rusty 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 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. However, the encounter, and their friendship as a whole, turned out to be a ruse, as Jonas secretly recorded the orgy and used the tape to blackmail Morpho into doing what he wanted. He also had taken Kano "as payment" and implied that he wanted to also "help" Mrs. Fitzcarraldo with her fertility issues by sleeping with her. 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 and outright threw him away and forgot him when it attacked Rusty. When he, now reprogrammed as Guild villain, Vendata attacked the Gargantua-1 station and confronted Jonas with the sex tape, Jonas recognized him as The Morpho. For that reason, he was unconcerned and unafraid, as he ignored Vendata's threats and walks away.

By Season 7, when Morpho fully regained his memories, 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.

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 present.

Bobbi St. Simone

Jonas met Bobbi on the set of the "Follow That Bikini" show and wanted to sleep with her. He manipulates her by giving her invisibility powers in exchange for sex and forgets about her afterward. When her powers ruin her acting career, she begs him to change her back, but he refused and forces and manipulates her into doing OSI spy work. She waits until Jonas's death before she approach Rusty to undo her powers indicating that her and Jonas were enemies.

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.

Episode Appearances

Pilot

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Movie

Gallery

Trivia

  • It is unknown who his wife (if he was ever married) or Rusty's mother was, as this is never pointed out or alluded to within the show.
  • It is heavily 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.
  • 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. He was also skeptical that Kano was there to save him, while his team were okay with him. However, he had no problem recruiting him.
  • In Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, during Bobbi St. Simone's flashback, Jonas is seen talking to Stanley Kubrick. Behind them is the set of the moon landing, indicating that Jonas is behind the conspiracy theory that the moon landings were actually faked and filmed on Hollywood film sets.

References

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