Powerless in the Face of Death

The Venture Bros. Are Back! From the Dead!!
The second season of Adult Swim's The Venture Bros. surpasses its first in nearly every way. The first season introduced us to the Venture universe, which is occupied by hilarious characters who never cease to reach new levels of incompetance. Many of the episodes were laugh-out-loud hilarious that remained so throughout the entire half hour. So if season 1 was taht good, yet this year is so much better, that really says something to the quality of season 2.

The precredits sequence of the season premiere, "Powerless in the Face of Death", is amazing to watch, though some of its power may be lost on DVD. There was a 2-year gap between seasons 1 and 2, and season 1 ended with the deaths of Hank and Dean Venture, the title characters. In the hiatus period, there was a lot of speculation of how the show would go on (Dr. Thaddeus Venture and his brother Jonas Venture, Jr. would be the new Venture Bros., Dr. Orpheus would ressurect them, Dr. Venture would clone them, Dr. Venture...

The smartest and most well-planned cartoon out there, hands down.
First of all, let me correct Fernando Gonzales by saying that this show IS still hand-drawn ... only the coloring and inking are digitally done. That's one of the reasons it's a favorite of mine, really.

Now, on to the review. It's not that I didn't think Jackson and Doc would be able to top Season One. It's that I knew they could ... and they STILL blew me away. If you've seen Season One of The Venture Brothers, you -need- to see this one. It's got everything the first had, and more ... the character development, in particular, is absolutely stupendous. The boys at Astrobase Go really know their characters, and they've started to show us just how much.

If you like your cartoons smart, funny, strange, and full of more clever pop culture references than you can shake a shrink ray at, check this one out. I did, at the urging of a friend, while the first season was still out, and I was hardly disappointed. VB is one of the few shows on television I actually...

Go Team Venture!
One of the funniest shows on Adult Swim is the "Venture Brothers," a deeply warped look at boys' adventure characters like Jonny Quest and the Hardy Brothers.

The second season is basically much the same as the first, building on previous storylines (example: Jonas Jr.) and having various kooky violent adventures for our friends, and hilarious dialogue ("You've come to steal our great ideas. You've been foiled--we have none!"). That is, after they deal with the shocking cliffhanger that the first season ended with-- the death of Hank and Dean, the title characters.

The second season opens with Dr. Venture escaping to various exotic locales, before being dragged home by Brock. A devastated Dr. Orpheus decides to use necromancy to bring the boys back to life, but can't find their souls -- and a zombielike Hank and Dean appear in the doorway.

Oops, it turns out that the boys have a penchant for getting killed, and so Dr. Venture always keeps handy clones...

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