Monarch (The Venture Bros.)

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The Monarch is one of the main characters and the primary antagonist on the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros.. He is a parody of a supervillain, who has modeled himself after the Monarch butterfly. He is voiced by Christopher McCulloch.

Character outline

The Monarch's primary traits are his butterfly theme, his shrill voice, his sexual need of Doctor Girlfriend, and his hatred of Thaddeus Venture. His base of operations is a giant, floating cocoon (characters have commented on how illogical this is), and all of his weaponry is modeled (often erroneously) on physical traits of butterflies. In spite of his fascination with them, the Monarch remains oblivious to the actual biology and physical capabilities of butterflies("The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay"). The Monarch commands a set of henchmen dressed in yellow and black attire with butterfly wings, all known solely by number (except for junior henchmen), which he frequently kills when in a bad mood, resulting in what appears to be an inexhaustible supply. These men are not particularly bright or capable, and most, with two notable exceptions (#21,#24), are liable to die within a month or upon meeting Brock Samson. The costumes are equipped with a wide array of gadgets, and the wings even allow flight and flotation, but the henchmen were ignorant of this fact until the end of Season 2("Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part II)"). The henchmen are passionately loyal to the Monarch, and it is suggested many of them were down on their luck or troubled when he recruited them and gave them a purpose.

The Monarch is aided by his lover Doctor Girlfriend, a gravelly voiced woman with a striking resemblance to a young Jackie Kennedy; the Monarch seems oblivious to the fact that her very deep voice is abnormal, which it was revealed was in Season 3 was due to her 18-year cigarette habit ("Home Is Where The Hate Is"). In spite of the Monarch's homicidal tendencies, he and Dr. Girlfriend share a bizarre parental relationship with the henchmen. At the end of the second season, The Monarch and Doctor Girlfriend were finally wed, while the Guild of Calamitous Intent officially sanctioned the wedding at the beginning of season three ("Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny").

The Monarch's arch-rival (to him, at least) is Dr. Venture. The Monarch's entire career of "arching" Dr. Venture was unsanctioned by the Guild of Calamitous Intent; "The Monarch" was not even a registered member of the Guild until the beginning of season three ("Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny"). Prior to that, he had been registered with the Guild as various low-level henchmen for other villains. The Monarch's hatred for Venture stems from some reason unknown, with the first instance of attempted murder occurring when they were both in college ("Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny"). The Monarch is eventually forced to give up illegally "arching" Dr. Venture in order to wed Doctor Girlfriend, but makes repeated attempts to rekindle their one-sided rivalry. He also hates Hank, Dean, and Brock Samson to a lesser extent because of their affiliation with Dr. Venture. However, he is aware of how Dr. Venture neglects the boys, and seems to have some respect (if merely a loathing one) for Brock.

Like many of the characters in the show, the Monarch is a failure at what he does (to a certain extent). In the series' pilot episode, Monarch was initially portrayed as being evil yet incompetent; in the series proper while he is lethal, with an amoral approach to life and the value of others (he has no qualms with killing henchmen, replacement arch-enemies, fellow students during his college days, breaking in to Venture's house and having sex with a robot in an attempt to "take revenge" on Venture somehow), the entire manner in which he presents himself makes him more likely to be thought of as vain and incompetent rather than evil. He has had the opportunity on numerous occasions to significantly harm Thaddeus Venture and his family, but prefers to play at a "battle of wits"-preferring to live out an unending hero/villain fantasy, than actually kill Venture once and for all. When the Monarch doesn't abandon his plans, they end up failing anyway for a number of reasons — amongst them henchmen incompetence, bad planning, and bizarre circumstances.

Character history

The Monarch was the child of a wealthy couple that died when their private plane crashed in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The Monarch was the only one to survive the crash, and spent 3 months living in the forest amongst a colony of Monarch butterflies, who "adopted" him. As he was ignorant of their migration patterns, the butterflies eventually left, and the devastated Monarch hitch-hiked to the city and collected his sizable inheritance. The remainder of his boyhood and teenage years were likely spent in New York, as "The Trial of the Monarch" revealed Monarch's connection with the 1980s New York punk scene. The Monarch apparently left New York to go to college [he, Thaddeus Venture, Werner Underbheit, Pete White, and Mike Sorayama all went to college at the same time-Brock Samson did attend for one of those years, but was a freshman to the others senior class levels ("Past Tense")]. In college, he shared a creative writing class with Dr. Venture; apparently, the Monarch devoted all of his assignments to butterflies (which led Venture to initially assume he was a "closet case"). At some point in college, The Monarch made his first attempt to kill Thaddeus, which instead resulted in Underbheit's disfigurement ("Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny").

After leaving college (it is unknown if he graduated), The Monarch went to work at the Guild of Calamitous Intent as a registered low-level henchman to Sea An-enemy, Helicoptro, and Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Nightmare Coat, while he waited for his trust fund to come out of escrow. During this time, he also illegally moonlighted as his "Monarch" alter-ego, unsuccessfully arching on a young Dr. Venture. He was working as Henchman 9 for Phantom Limb when he met his future wife; she had just failed at being a solo super-villain (Lady AuPair), and accepted a Number 2 position working for Phantom Limb, this time as Queen Etheria. Donning one of his "early version" butterfly costumes, he attended a dinner party held by the Guild, and successfully seduced Queen Etheria in his car parked outside; Phantom Limb discovered this, and both Queen Etheria and The Monarch left together.

With the guidance of his new Number 2 (Doctor Girlfriend), The Monarch gave up his "legal" Guild career of henching, and turned to full-time arching of Doctor Venture (while his career as "The Monarch" was illegal and unsanctioned by The Guild, Phantom Limb played an elaborate ruse on The Monarch, and hid that fact from him). Using The Monarch's vast wealth, they built a giant, floating military base from which to launch his attacks on Dr. Venture. Near the end of the first season, he and Doctor Girlfriend have a falling out over a tell-all book published by the Monarch's henchmen (according to the Monarch, "filled with lies and pictures of also-lies"), which brought to light her salacious past with a variety of other supervillains. She left him and went back to Phantom Limb, who in turn framed the Monarch for murder so that he could have Doctor Girlfriend to himself. The Monarch managed to escape from prison and rebuild his career, eventually winning Doctor Girlfriend; The Monarch and Doctor Girlfriend were officially married at the beginning of season 3, whereupon she changed her name to Dr. Mrs. The Monarch.

In return for recognition and leniency from the Guild (and for permission to marry his wife), The Monarch was forced to stop arching Dr. Venture, a fact which he has trouble coming to terms with. Season 3 saw The Monarch sinking ever-lower in depression over not arching Venture: killing all 8 of his "new assignments" from the Guild, nearly ruining his marriage, raiding the Venture compound and having sex with "GUARDO" (a robotic guardian with the face of Dr. Venture), in an attempt to give it chlamydia; and finally arching Jonas Venture, Jr. on a trial basis. Thanks to a "family by-laws" loophole found by Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, season 3 ends with a horrific showdown at the Venture compound, where The Monarch: donned a flying, shooting, (but otherwise immovable) mech suit; faced off against the O.S.I.; ended up killing all of the Hank-and-Dean clone slugs, O.S.I. troopers, many henchmen; and finally fell to earth in a nauseated bundle, to be picked up by his remaining henchmen and his wife.

Equipment and abilities

Though the Monarch has no powers, his costume is equipped with a variety of gadgets. His costume conceals large butterfly wings crafted by Doctor Girlfriend that allow him to fly, and he also has two wristbands that shoot out a number of darts (variously depicted as either tranquilizers or lethal), which he depends on extensively. He has shown on multiple occasions to be surprisingly competent in battle. In the episode "Dia De Los Dangerous", he explains that he was raised by butterflies, which involved living off milkweed, "ensuring his toxicity to this day," though it does not appear to have any bearing on his performance.

All of the Monarch's equipment is based on butterflies. His base is a giant flying cocoon. It has a hilariously hideous pink-and-purple color scheme inside and he refers to the central workstation as his "throne room." The master bedroom's bed doubles as an escape pod, shaped like a smaller cocoon. Its internal defenses were personally designed by him, which may explain why Brock could easily nearly take it out single-handedly ("Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean"). He also has a car, the Monarch-mobile, also decked out in purple, as well as a butterfly-shaped aircraft (with cargo/henchman room in the abdomen) that was only shown once. The cocoon's engine may run on antimatter ("Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part 1)").

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