Dr. Jonas Venture, Sr. (voiced by Paul Boocock): Deceased father of Dr. Thaddeus Venture and Jonas Junior, seen in dreams, hallucinations, old videotapes, and flashbacks. He was the foremost scientist and adventurer in the world of his time and every bit as careless with his son as Dr. Thaddeus Venture is with his children. He created what is now known as Venture Industries and led the original Team Venture. His character is based on Doc Savage and Dr. Benton Quest. In the episode entitled “ORB”, it is implied that Kano killed Dr. Venture under orders from the O.S.I., in order to protect the secret of the mysterious ORB. His public reputation is excellent; he is generally viewed as a brilliant scientist, adventurer and generally a wonderful man. The events of the show, however, have demonstrated that the truth is not as clear cut. He seemed to be more concerned with having fun, typically letting others clean up the mess and do the leg work. In What Goes Down, Must Come Up the deranged computer system M.U.T.H.E.R attacks and he abandons a train full of orphans and never comes back for them, leading them to become deranged lunatics who ironically worship him. In The Buddy System he created a chamber to help astronauts live in space but simply forgot about it. Their fates are unknown but one of their skeletons was displayed ceremonially. His actions had a particularly damaging effect on his son, Rusty. In “Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman” he is shown surreptitiously holding hands with young Tara Quymn’s mother behind the back of her husband, the closeted but enthusiastically bisexual Colonel Gentleman. Later Jonas and Mrs. Quymn fall on the box fort in which Rusty and Tara are playing while wildly making love. In The Incredible Mr. Brisby it’s shown he tested his inventions on Rusty when he was little. He is shown to have a haphazard style of parenting often ignoring his duties or delegating them on to others. In The Doctor is Sin he (inadvertently) exposes himself to Rusty, installing a deep insecurity complex. In “Careers in Science” he brought Rusty up to a space station to assist him, which Rusty later openly questions. In Now Museum-Now You Don’t Dr. Venture remarks that his time in Team Venture traumatized him; in Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean, The Monarch comments to Hank that Hank’s grandfather “really did a number” on Hank’s father. In the season 3 finale Dr. Venture mentions his dad made him kill a man with a house key.
The Action Man, whose real name is Rodney (voiced by Christopher McCulloch): Retired member of the original Team Venture. He is an all-American supersoldier reminiscent of a B-grade Nick Fury, though his costume evokes elements of a vintage Captain America. Since his retirement, he has become a crotchety old man with flatulence problems and “plastic knees” that hinder his movements. He married Major Tom’s widow, Jeannie, after Tom’s tragic accident. Dr. Orpheus predicted that Action Man would have a fatal stroke two years and seventeen days after an accidental confrontation (largely out of spite for shooting him). The Action Man gets his name from the David Bowie song “Ashes to Ashes”, which functioned as a follow-up to “Space Oddity”, which introduced “Major Tom”. He had a habit of waking up Rusty Venture back in the old days by placing an unloaded gun against the sleeping boy’s head and pulling the trigger, in which he said “not today”.
Colonel Horace Gentleman (voiced by Christopher McCulloch impersonating Sean Connery): Retired member of the original Team Venture and later ersatz leader of the reformed Team Venture. He is a Scottish gentleman and adventurer in the vein of Allan Quatermain and James Bond. The influence is apparent in the similarity of his voice to that of Sean Connery, who has played both characters in movies. He dresses in an old-fashioned British suit, complete with cane and fedora. (His design is likely based on Theodore Marley “Ham” Brooks, a similarly up-classed, cane wielding gentlemen who was one of Doc Savage’s ‘Fabulous Five’.) It is briefly implied that he is a pederast and this was later confirmed by the creators.[1] In the second season, Hank and Dean find him apparently dead of unspecified causes; however, it is revealed in the Season 3 episode “Now Museum-Now You Don’t” that he was merely in a diabetic coma and is still alive. He is an ethnic/gender chauvinist, and has a penchant for writing out random lists in his notebook such as “Toys Colonel Gentleman Wishes He Had When He Was a Lad but They Weren’t Invented Yet”, “Good Name for An Imaginary Friend” and “Hollywood Actresses That Need a Smack in the Mouth.”, something Dean Venture, in a rare moment of shrewdness, referred to as the “the diary of a crazy person”. He briefly bore a grudge against Rusty Venture for breaking the heart of his step-daughter, Dr. Quymn, whom he retained some affection for.
Kano (voiced by Christopher McCulloch): Retired member of the original Team Venture. He is a master of the martial arts and an accomplished pilot. In earlier episodes, he never speaks and only communicates by way of origami and sparse gestures; however this is attributed to a vow of silence he’d taken as revealed in the episode “ORB”. The vow was made when he took a great man from the world, which Brock believe was Jonas Venture Sr., when Brock asks him if he killed Dr. Venture Kano didn’t answer. As Col. Gentleman describes him, his hands are “powerful enough to crush a boulder, yet delicate enough to crush a butterfly.” Although not a villain, his silent demeanor, fighting skills and brute strength all correspond with the bodyguard/henchman archetype found in many works of fiction, with particular similarities to Oddjob. Although a hulking, powerful fighter, he is still no match for Brock Samson, at least in his old age. In addition to his skill in fighting and origami, Kano also appears to be a capable aircraft pilot (“despite his racial handicap,” according to Col. Gentleman).
Otto Aquarius (voiced by T. Ryder Smith): Retired member of the original Team Venture. An exiled son of Atlantis, he is half-human and half-Atlantean, which grants him a greatly extended life-span and the power to communicate telepathically with sea-creatures, who obey his commands. Most recently, he has converted to either The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (according to the special features section of the Season 1 DVD) or the Jehovah’s Witnesses (according to Jackson Publick’s blog), though his bizarre appearance often sabotages his attempts at evangelism. Due to his new found faith, he is now a pacifist, limiting his usefulness to the reformed Team Venture. In a deleted scene, he refuses to work alongside Kano, Col. Gentleman, and the Action Man, accusing them of being, “an idolater, a sodomite, and a murderer” respectively; he goes on to explain that the only reason he went in the first place was to accumulate missionary hours. He is a parody of aquatic characters such as Sub-Mariner, Aquaman and Abe Sapien of Hellboy fame.
Dr. Entmann (voiced by Stephen DeStefano): A tiny man that was left abandoned in a nuclear fallout shelter by Jonas Venture, Sr. He originally went by the name Humongeloid, was 15-feet tall, and appeared similar to pro wrestler André the Giant, with curly hair, a flabby physique, and medical complications. Dr. Entmann was found by Brock Samson in “What Goes Down, Must Come Up”, and he is now living with the Venture family. Since he is based upon and is referenced to Ant-Man, his name may be a play on that character’s name.