GO TEAM VENTURE!

Well, we are headed into Summer and for the most part, unless you are into American Gladiators or a crappy looking American version of a Japanese game show, TV season is over. However, one nugget of boob-tube goodness worth tuning into is Cartoon Network/Adult Swim's 'The Venture Brothers'.

Most of the central characters on The Venture Bros. are comedic takes on Hanna Barbera's 'Jonny Quest', comic book superheroes/supervillains and other famous figures ripped from a seemingly endless pop culture encyclopedia. Hank and Dean Venture are the daft twin brothers the show takes it's name from, sons of self-proclaimed 'super-scientist' Dr. Thaddeus 'Rusty' Venture, owner of Venture Industries. Finally, 'Team Venture' is rounded out by Brock Samson (voiced by the excellent Patrick Warburton), the massively-muscled and hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family.

Throughout the series, the Venture family has had various fascinating, recurring antagonists. Many of them are current or former members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, a group that loosely resembles to the Legion of Doom from the Saturday morning Superfriends cartoon. Main baddies include the pernicious but ineffective Monarch, the masculine-voiced (yet uber hot) Doctor Girlfriend, the Dr. Doom-esque Baron Werner Ünderbheit and ruthless killer/villain insurance agent, The Phantom Limb.

As no paltry, poorly written two-paragraph synopsis can do this show justice, I cannot stress enough how this show is a Saturday-morning cartoon/comic book/sci-fi/pulp fiction/pop culture fanboy's wet dream. In the past two season alone, aside from Jonny Quest, the show has pulled characters/plotlines/references from such diverse sources as Scooby Doo, The Fantastic Four, Doc Savage, Nick Fury/S.H.E.I.L.D., The Six Million Dollar Man, William S. Burroughs, Doctor Strange, Star Wars and even David Freaking Bowie. I'm only scratching the surface here too, but (hopefully) you get my point.

EPISODE 1 of Season 3 just aired last Sunday at it's normal 10:30PM CST slot, so (after checking out the season premiere via the handy link provided) there is still time to get on board. I will warn you, that a good portion of it may end up over your head if you didn't catch a lick of Seasons 1 & 2...luckily for you, both are currently available on DVD. Get caught up during the week and watch the new season on Sunday nights, you'll thank me for it!