Part of the Venture Bros. charm is that the show is filled to the brim with nostalgia references and genre in-jokes. Let’s find some comic connections in the Season 6 trailers, shall we?
First up, check out these trailers:
Coooooool… Now more!
Okay, now let’s dive in…
That statue up there of Jonas Venture Sr. is inspired by the “Partners” statue of Walt Disney, among other things.
Obviously Hunter Gathers is based on Hunter S. Thompson mixed with Nick Fury. Niiiice.
Monarch and his butterfly-themed henchmen are inspired by characters like those in Batman’s rogues’ gallery, where the villain somehow hires tons of guys to dress in goofy outfits. Over at Marvel, many of these henchmen are trained at Taskmaster Academy.
Beefamato. Heh. Also, Hank’s suit looks like part of Herbie the Love Bug’s crew.
The pirate-themed Sea Captain is based on the long tradition of goofy Scooby Doo villains. And he’s great.
Billy Quizboy is based on a long tradition of boy geniuses, from the literary Tom Swift to Marvel’s Terry Vance. And his symbol is, er… so, anyway…
Quinjet.
Some neat villains here at the league (wonder why not-David Bowie is on the screen in the back). In the foreground we a gecko-seeming take on Serpentor or King Cobra (or King Cobra), and the woman on the right seems like Evil-Lyn from Masters of the Universe by way of Tron.
As from the famous South Park episode, there’s a long tradition of rodents in fantasy works, from Redwall to Mouse Guard.
Is it just me, or does Hank’s step off the roof remind you of Back to the Future II? For that matter, the girl in the dress reminds me of Lorraine from the prom.
Got an 80s vibe going on with Hank’s look. Oh, and Sgt. Hatred is inspired by G.I. Joe character/professional wrestler Sgt. Slaughter.
A lot of interesting ne’er-do-wells here, and off the bat, we have a pastiche on Frog-Man and He-Man‘s Mer-Man. Plus Dr. Phage is a human virus. Cool.
While Rusty Venture’s boyhood was based on Johnny Quest, Jonas Venture Sr. and his team were based on Doc Savage and his Fabulous Five. Each also has their own more specific inspirations, like Action Man’s inspiration Captain Action, and Col. Gentleman’s inspiration Sean Connery, uh, I mean James Bond.
The guy with the odd roach on his nose, believe it or not, isn’t the first guy to have unnecessary incongruous facial markings. Just ask the Shroud.
The spider-themed Brown Widow is doing a classic half-Spidey face Peter Parker has been doing since the 60s, and of course, his bully Tosh Thompkins is based on Pete’s bully Flash Thompson. The question of whether someone would be too old for college (not sure how that’s relevant…) is likely a comment on the continual de-aging of Pete and his cast, as he graduated high school in a few years, but stayed in college for decades (until Doctor Octopus took over his mind and forced him to finish his schooling).
Ah, a robot dinosaur. Aside from the Dinobots, this calls to mind the classic Robosaurus and the now-obscure Zoids.
Just as the Ventures are partially inspired by Doc Samson, the Man of Bronze was based out of the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. Also, the Fantastic Four and Avengers have both famously been based out of sky-scrapers for years. And heck, if you’re going to be in New York City, you are going to run into superheroes.
Okay, it’s clear who these guys are meant to be, from the hooded archer (more in a bit), to the shield-slinging patriot, to the woman (probably) warrior with the golden rope, but a quick note on the patriot’s gender identity: knowing this show’s past, they could go any direction with this, but this wouldn’t be the first non-cis hero out there. There’s Green Gable from the webcomic Spinnerette, Maidman from Empowered, and of course, the original hero, Madam Fatal. Also, the amazon has one breast, which was something the mythical Amazons were famous for, as supposedly it aided in their arrow-slinging.
Not knowing the backstories on these guys yet, sure seems like Kingpin and Rat Pack-member Dean Martin.
For the record, the OSI uniforms are based on classic Steranko-designed SHIELD uniforms. They were all over Marvel in the 80s and 90s.
Fallen Archer. Beautiful. Obviously, archers have been a thing in comics for decades, from the well-known Green Arrow and Hawkeye, to the lesser known Shaft and Hawkeye, to the more obscure Arrow. Also, fallen arches suck.
Obviously Hank’s channeling Michael Jackson here, but more specifically, he’s dressed for “Bad” from Bad. That was a time when Jackson like presenting himself as a superhero protecting children from muggers and drug-pushers. And… let’s just move on.
Oh, and he was driving a Dynasphere.
Trapped in an elevator with the devil. The film Devil got a lot of flak for being produced by the much-maligned Shyamalan and for not being as jump-scary or gory as modern “horror” films, but I actually liked its old school, suspense aesthetic.
Night Dick’s name is (aside from a double entendre) a reference to the private detectives of the crime noir days of the 1930s and ’40s, and his look seems to be a lot of Will Eisner’s the Spirit and a bit of Ghost Rider.
Think Tank. Love it. Obviously, there’s a long line of deformed, poorly proportioned, super-intelligent villains, but let’s run down some: MODOK, Ape-X, and Angstrom Levy from Invincible.
Battle Thatcher is named for the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher, and seems inspired by wrestler-themed tough-lady characters like Battleaxe (seriously) of the Grapplers.
This guy with the scythe seems to be inspired by death-themed characters like the Grim Reaper.
So, what did you guys catch?
Monomythic.com 
That red bull is definitely shooting fire out it’s ass. I would bet a hefty amount that the Think in Think Tank stands for something ridiculous. Then I’d double down on Bad Hank’s mugger being Pete White helping him impress a girl.
Also, that is Truck-a-saurus Rex menacing Billy N Pete’s trailer. :)
I hope you’re right about T.H.I.N.K. Tank!