Brock Samson

Brock Samson (a.k.a. The Swedish Murder Machine) is one of the main characters on the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros., serving as a parody of Doc Savage, Race Bannon and other super-competent individuals in adventure serials. His name is a play on Doc Samson (Doc/Brock) of Marvel Comics, who is based on the Biblical strongman Samson, with whom Brock shares a near-indestructible nature and, except for a few episodes at the beginning of the second season and end of the third, long hair and similar appearance. He is voiced by Patrick Warburton.

Background

Brock was born the older of two children to a single mother in Omaha, Nebraska. Little is known about his childhood or his background, aside from his 1/2 Swedish, 1/4th Polish, and 1/4th Winnebago ancestry (though the Winnebago comment may have been a joke in reference to his size, not his actual lineage). As a teenager, Brock lost his virginity at the age of 14, and has continued a promiscuous life-style through his adult years.

Sometime around the early 1980s, he received a football scholarship to "State University" where his fellow students included Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, The Monarch, Pete White, and Werner Ünderbheit. Brock was assigned as a roommate for upper-classman Rusty Venture, who never much saw his future bodyguard except at night, when Brock would bring home a revolving door of female classmates to have sex with, while Rusty lay awake in the bottom bunk of their bunk bed set.

Brock's college career ended one fateful afternoon when he accidentally killed Tommy, the team's deaf quarterback, during practice. Haunted by the guilt and furious at the ramifications of his actions (having been booted from the team and as such, losing his scholarship), Brock drank heavily and returned to his dorm and became enraged after stepping on their 20-sided die. He subsequently beat Rusty and his friends (Underbheit, White, and another student, Mike Soriyama) in a blind fit of rage. Expelled for his rampage, Brock left school in disgrace with his final words to Rusty Venture being to relay the revelation that Rusty's father had died.

With no other options, Brock joined the military. Within several years, Brock was recruited to join O.S.I., aka the Office of Secret Intelligence, a SHIELD-esque organization of super spies that have been "thanklessly defending this big-ass country since the second American revolution (the invisible one)." There, he was taken under the wing of Colonel Hunter Gathers, an eccentric yet brilliant secret agent (modeled after Hunter S. Thompson). Hunter personally oversaw Brock's training and as a result, became what Brock later described as being the "second closest thing to a father" he ever had.

Brock eventually rose to the rank of Level 8, Class A; which granted Brock a License to Kill. Brock would use this newfound right with great zeal (the license also indicates he is an organ donor). Strangely enough, he failed to notice when his cherished license to kill expired in one episode, and only found out when he gave his license as proof of identity.

With Colonel Gathers, Brock faced what he would later describe as "mind-blowing weirdness at every turn" as an agent of OSI. He befriended fellow agent (and Johnny Quest main character) Race Bannon and during a period while he was stationed in Vietnam during the 1980s, developed a rivalry with a fellow agent named Hauser, who Brock would meet again several years later during a visit to the White House, as a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the President.

File:Brocklicense.jpg

Brock's license to kill.

Brock's career as a field agent would ultimately come to an end, when he became involved in Colonel Gathers' attempt to expose the existence of the then-secretive "Guild of Calamitous Intent". Linking college professor Hamilton J. Fantomas to the Guild, Brock and Gathers used disgraced game show contestant Billy "Quizboy" Whalen as a mole to infiltrate Fantomas's class and gain his sympathy in order to find out what he was up to, with the newly granted artificial limbs and eye that Gathers gave Billy to force him to spy for them. The plan failed though when Billy was roped into an experiment designed to restore Professor Fantomas' withered and deformed limbs, inadvertedly turning him into the villainous "Phantom Limb" in the process. The failure of the plan resulted in Colonel Gathers being reassigned to Guam and Brock being punished by being taken out of active field duty and assigned bodyguard duty for the military's top scientific contractor: Rusty Venture.

Hence Brock was assigned to protect Dr. Thaddeus Venture and his family, ostensibly to prevent Venture's more dangerous inventions from falling into villainous hands and threatening national security. The official code name for this assignment is "Operation Rusty's Blanket." ("Rusty" was Dr. Venture's much-despised childhood nickname.) It is revealed in "The Invisible Hand of Fate" that the man who gave Brock this assignment was secret Guild of Calamitous Intent member Sgt. Hatred, whose secret identity was OSI Sgt. Haine. In the episode ORB, it is revealed that Operation Rusty's Blanket or O.R.B. was only a front for his true mission: to assassinate Dr. Venture, should he get too close to the secret of the mysterious ORB. The pattern of Ventures being assassinated by their own bodyguards, for the same purpose, seems to have been repeated at least since the late Victorian era.

It is hinted at in the third season episode "The Buddy System" that Brock may have a teenage son, Dermott Fictel, of whom he is unaware. Dermott suggested his possible connection to Brock after being captured by #24 in "Tears of a Sea Cow", but #24 didn't believe him.

Molotov Cocktease

Main article: Molotov Cocktease

While many of the details of Brock's time with OSI have yet to be revealed, one aspect that has been fleshed out considerably is Brock's love/hate relationship with former KGB agent-turned-freelance mercenary Molotov Cocktease, whom Brock has referred to as the "only woman [he has] ever loved." The two first met early in Brock's career as an OSI agent during a mission in Paris. The two went into a hotel room, only to have Molotov impale Brock upon the bed with her boot heel spikes and light the room on fire. In spite of the overt danger, Brock was more concerned that she took his cigarettes.

Molotov serves as an apparently perfect match for Brock, efficiently lethal and extremely hard to kill, and their rivalry has led to much bloodshed. Molotov killed Brock's partner and Brock responded in kind by killing her father. At another point in their relationship, Brock managed to pluck out Molotov's left eye, which he keeps in a jar in his room as a macabre forget-me-not. Further complicating things was Molotov's decision to wear a chastity belt, which frustrates Brock to no end with his inability to act upon his sexual attraction to her; ironically, according to the Adult Swim website, Molotov wears the chastity belt to honor the dying wishes of her father, whom Brock killed, making Brock indirectly responsible for his own sexual frustrations.

This mutual sexual attraction has led to their rivalry thawing somewhat, and the two have become grudging friends, to the point that Molotov agreed to fill in for Brock as the Venture Family's bodyguard while Brock was away on OSI business. While guarding the Venture family, Molotov, in anger, revealed her god-like adoration of Samson, and criticized the Ventures for treating him like a household servant. Upon Brock's return, Molotov confronted Brock with an offer to run away with her, and form a partnership as mercenaries; Brock politely turned Molotov down, pointing out that he considers the Ventures his surrogate family, and that he would not leave them—even for Molotov.

Appearance

Brock is drawn in an exaggerated muscular style satiric of comic-book superheroes, with his upper body incredibly huge and massive while his legs are ridiculously long, skinny and stick-like (but this strangely doesn't hamper his prowess in that area, as he is still able to run very quickly, jump high, outrun and catch his victims, karate-kick etc). Appropriate to his half-Swedish heritage, he has blonde hair and light blue eyes. His mullet hairstyle has become a trademark of sorts, to the point that its loss after the events of the first-season finale was mentioned in a TV Guide synopsis. His appearance may be based on the exaggerated style popular of the He-Man comics, as Col. Gentleman once referred to him insultingly as "Prince Adam", or perhaps as an allusion to the biblical character Samson for whom he is named. Over the course of the second season, his hair has grown steadily longer in each episode; Brock has also begun sporting long mutton-chop sideburns in the second season. In a scene in "The Incredible Mr. Brisby" with Molotov Cocktease it is shown that he is extremely well-endowed, further demonstrating his unparalleled manliness. In keeping with the show's vaguely anachronistic sense of fashion, Brock is usually drawn in clothing styles popular in the 1970s: four-pocket sports shirts, skin-tight polos, pastel-colored pants, white shoes, and side-zip ankle boots are all recurring items of clothing in his wardrobe. He and Dr. Venture appear to be the only characters on the show with significantly varied wardrobe. Brock also sports a half-finished tattoo of the Swan Song Records logo on his right biceps which he describes as "Icarus from the Led Zeppelin albums".

Personality, abilities and relationships

Brock embodies the 'strong, but silent' stereotype, usually speaking in a low, gravelly murmur and maintaining a casual aura. He speaks in an oddly calm manner in anything short of the most urgent circumstances, and his level voice is often at odds with his perpetually-crazed expression. However, he also has a hair-trigger temper which can cause him to snap at the slightest provocation, including a friendly touch on the shoulder at an inopportune moment. When he is engulfed in a fit of rage, he exhibits near super-human strength, a facial twitch, and is apparently capable of enduring almost any kind of physical punishment imaginable, and his "normal" endurance is nearly as impressive. Even when shot in the shoulder, he only lost consciousness for a few hours. Simple surgery to remove the bullet revealed that Brock's body harbored "three additional bullets, a blowgun dart, two shark's teeth, a bayonet tip, a twisted paper clip, and a meager handful of buckshot", none of which seemed to bother him in the slightest. Finally, Brock Samson has survived unprotected exposure to the vacuum of outer space and was capable of walking afterwards with a swift recovery to full ability following shortly thereafter. Of course the invulnerability and strength of Brock might be subject to discontinuity, amibguity, and unpredictable variation of superhero ability within the cartoon superhero trope. It is likely that a man (or material) capable of surviving vacuum without notable deficiency would not be so vulnerable as Brock is sometimes shown to be, such as when he is knocked unconscious by a speeding automobile.

Brock's ability to endure pain is matched only by his ability to dish out pain to others, which he does with great enthusiasm. As mentioned, he possesses a license to kill, and has proven himself quite capable and willing to kill anyone or anything at a moment's notice, in a manner that is as grisly as it is creative. He is also known to be quite thorough in ensuring that a threat is completely eliminated. On at least one occasion, he urinated on what appeared to be a mummy's corpse, in the belief that defiling it would prevent any subsequent reanimation. Additionally, he can be briefly seen through the eyes of another character killing two men by pinning them to the wall with a running lawnmower. In combat, he scorns firearms, instead preferring bladed weapons (particularly his serrated Bowie knife), blunt objects, or his bare hands. He does, however, appear to make an exception for certain projectile-based weapons. He expressed a fondness for a functioning net cannon, his sole complaint against them is that too often they merely "mess up the guy's hair." In addition, he honors one of his mentor's only rules: to never kill women or children, only subduing them with nonlethal means when necessary.

Brock has an odd relationship with Dr. Venture. He doesn't always take the man seriously, yet dotes on him when he's hurt or ill. The two sometimes reminisce about their past escapades with fondness and even camaraderie and laughter. Brock even obeys Dr. Venture's rule that he can't smoke inside the compound, and helps with domestic chores. Dr. Venture seems to have a fondness for Brock, even sharing simple things with him like having extra coupons for shopping. Brock has an avuncular, if not paternal, relationship with the Venture boys. He seems especially fond of Hank, who idolizes him in turn. Samson shows greater concern for their well-being and development than Dr. Venture ever has, expressing concerns over Hank's sanity and Dean's effeminacy (though he never expresses the latter in such blunt terms), and also gives them useful advice on their first big date ("Victor. Echo. November."). However, Brock has been slightly annoyed by Hank from time to time. His relationship with Venture and the boys has matured to the point that he refers to them as his family ("Hate Floats"), and it is suggested that he prefers being their bodyguard to the "weirdness and moral ambiguity" of his former life ("Assassinanny 911"). It is also possible that Brock has a son of his own ("The Buddy System"). Brock seems to be on a friendly basis with H.E.L.P.eR., the Venture's robot, even going so far as to have arguments over Led Zeppelin (H.E.L.P.eR. dismisses Zeppelin as "jock rock") and sharing appreciation for poetry. Brock seems to treat H.E.L.P.eR. almost as an equal, unlike Doctor Venture, who criticizes and yells at the hapless robot most of the time.

It is of particular note that Brock's personality and relationships have evolved considerably throughout the series. In the beginning of the series he seemed to be hostile to most of the family, largely ignoring them and just focusing on brutally murdering his enemies and having sex with as many women as possible. As the series has continued he has begun showing considerably more affection to the Ventures, and a great deal of worry about their safety. Things have also been shown as disturbing him greatly, a big difference from the unfeeling Brock in the early episodes.

He seems to be unfazed by most supervillains, despite his comment that the Guild of Calamitous Intent is the only organization he still respects; the only one who seems to be able to deal with Brock on his own level is Phantom Limb. Brock has proven himself able to sneak up on Limb and hold him at knife-point, successfully convincing the Limb to not attack the Venture family anymore. He also has a past history with David Bowie, who in the Venture Brothers universe is also a shapeshifting mutant and the leader of Guild, under the title of Sovereign. Whether or not Brock knows of Bowie's leadership role in the Guild is ambiguous, though when they meet face to face in Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I), Brock makes cryptic references to a past encounter in Berlin, Germany that according to Brock, would have justified him killing Bowie on the spot had Bowie's bodyguards and Dr. Girlfriend not intervened to keep the two men from coming to blows.

It has occasionally been suggested that Brock is from Minnesota, which has a large Scandinavian population. He is apparently a fan of the Vikings, judging from his headphones in a Season 3 episode ("Orb"). His mentor, Sergeant Hunter Gathers also referred to him as being from the Land of Lakes.

Recurring themes

Brock has several strong traits that are best thought of as a mixture of hyper-masculinity and virtue:

• Muscle cars: One of the show's signature vehicles is Brock's orange 1969 Dodge 'Hemi' Charger which he named Adrienne, which he maintains and cleans with a near-obsessive fastidiousness. On several occasions, the car has become an instrument of death and destruction. Brock has used it not only to fatally run down dozens of The Monarch's henchmen, but also to defeat Venture's twin brother Jonas Venture Jr. The latter act (in which Brock, chained to the car's roof, guided H.E.L.P.eR. through the difficulties of manual shifting) inflicted severe damage on the beloved car, which Brock repaired early in the show's second season. Brock has apparently implanted a flamethrower in the car's steering wheel and rigged it to activate during any attempt at hotwiring the vehicle. When Brock is later forced to destroy the car lest it destroy him, he appears anguished over his loss and asks for a minute (to collect himself).

• Martial Arts: Brock's amazing physical strength is not his only weapon, as he is also very talented at various fighting systems. In "Viva Los Muertos", he uses a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Wedgelock to disarm Ted of his gun. In the episode "The Buddy System", Brock is seen wearing a white judogi with a red obi, which is an optional belt for 9th and 10th degree yudansha. Brock has also been shown to be capable enough to out-wrestle an alligator, and even Kano. On many occasions, he has also been shown to be scarily capable with his knife, to the point that he is better with it than the average person is with a gun. In "Ice Station – Impossible!", he exhibited the ability to completely skin an adult polar bear in mere seconds. He has demonstrated skills in Boxing, Krav Maga, Muay Thai, and Streetfighting.

• Womanizing: Brock has displayed a voracious sexual appetite on par with his macho bearing. No woman seems to be able to resist his advances once he catches her eye. His conquests range from sleazy (middle-aged prostitutes and overweight strippers) to bizarre (The Queen of the Ant People) with the exception of Dr. Girlfriend, whom he is convinced is a transsexual & Ginnie, Dr. Quymn's bodyguard. This promiscuity is likely a reference to the legendary exploits of James Bond, another character with whom Brock has much in common.

• Classic Rock music: Brock's devotion to Led Zeppelin surfaces in several episodes. Some references are rather subtle (when driving the Charger, Brock almost always is listening to facsimile Led Zeppelin songs) while others are more overt, such as Hank rifling through Brock's collection of "Zep" cassette tapes or Brock drawing the logo of the band's label instead of completing the essay portion of a written exam, in addition to having a (currently incomplete) tattoo of it on his arm. He passionately believes that the band is more than just "jock rock" whose music talks about love and longing... and hobbits. In an "interview" with IGN.com, Brock has stated that his favorite track is Led Zeppelin's "'Moby Dick', live at Montreaux." His password is "John. Bonham. Rocks." In response to a question sent from a fan on MySpace, Doc Hammer stated that Brock also likes Rush (up to the album "Moving Pictures"), early music from the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath (until Ozzy Osbourne left), and the solo Dio. At some point in his youth, Brock also played the bass guitar (according to the Christmas special - the only episode to mention this - it was painted with zebra stripes - a popular motif among 80s rockers). In said Christmas special, he intended to give it to Hank as a present (whereas Dean was much more difficult to shop for); it is worth noting, however, that all but the last few moments of the episode were part of Dr. Venture's dream sequence, so whether or not he actually played is not currently known. The only other reference to his musical aspirations is his regret, in his possibly non-canon interview with IGN that he regretted not getting a band together (he claimed to play "bass" and "vox" [1]).

• Intelligence: For the "Brawn" of the group, Brock has shown to be incredibly street smart, at least in the area of adventuring. This quality has best been exemplified in "Twenty Years to Midnight", when he uses Dr. Impossible as an escape route of sorts. In "The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Part I)" & "Part II" , Brock was shown to be smart enough to kill an assassin using a dead shark, a wire, and his own clothes and hair, as well as to trick The Monarch and the O.S.I. into killing each other's henchmen in large numbers.

• Mercy: Brock has on several occasions shown mercy and/or regret towards henchmen of the various villains he faces. When trapped in the castle of Baron Underbheit, he violently killed several henchmen and began to torture the last remaining one by squeezing his testicles, only to apologize profusely and let him go to his wife upon discovering a lump in them ; when Phantom Limb had sent out a strike team from the Guild of Calamitous Intent to kill the Venture family, he stabbed one of the operatives, threatening to make the wound fatal if he refused to talk, but upon the knife's removal, the Henchman overreacted, believing himself to be dying, and forced Brock to sing a Technotronic song as he did not wish to die alone; Brock began to feel genuine guilt when Dr. Venture brought back one of The Monarch's henchmen as a Frankenstein-style monster, but these feelings were quickly dispelled by the repressed psychological influence of his mentor, Col. Hunter Gathers. In addition, Brock has had numerous chances to kill The Monarch's only surviving henchmen, #21 and #24, but has always refrained either due to coincidence, a lack of interest, or extenuating circumstances. He does his best to avoid civilian fatalities in keeping with the "no women, no children" policy his mentor Hunter taught him to follow. This has led to some occasionally ludicrous circumstances, such as when Brock was sent to kill Col. Hunter Gathers, but finds he has undergone gender-reassignment surgery-leaving Brock no choice but to let her live.

• Respect: Brock's behavior can range from indifferent to friendly with people, but one of the surest ways to get him angry is to make fun of him and otherwise show disrespect. He easily accepts criticism, especially from those he protects, and brushes off snide remarks, but outright mockery targeted at him drives him into a rage as shown in "Mid-Life Chrysalis" and "The Buddy System", where he is quite capable of hurting or even killing people. Brock seems so used to people being afraid of him, or at least respecting him, that he cannot fathom a non-violent way to deal with someone insulting him.

• Loyalty: Brock is extremely loyal to people he forms a connection with, and often relates to them or even refers to them in a 'familial' manner. For his 'family', he'll endure a great deal of humiliation or danger.
  • He refers to Col. Hunter Gathers as being like a father to him in "Assassinanny 911". He defends him from ridicule in "The Invisible Hand of Fate", and even plays various "time passing" games with him on a long-drive.
  • He willingly takes the supposedly humiliating assignment of being Doctor Venture's bodyguard, from O.S.I., a position he held in the series for nearly two decades.
  • He is still willing to assassinate Col. Hunter Gathers when O.S.I. feels it's necessary, staying loyal to O.S.I. despite his rather humiliating reassignment to protect the Ventures.
  • He refers to the Ventures as his family in "Victor. Echo. November." when they are threatened.
  • He constantly risks his life for the Ventures, and often shows affection for them, even holding Doctor Venture's hand in "Return to Spider-Skull Island" when Venture is troubled by a medical issue.
  • While he is prepared to assassinate Doctor Venture to prevent him from learning the secrets of the mysterious O.R.B., he is obviously relieved when this turns out to be unnecessary.

Brock's loyalty does, however, have its limits: when a melee erupts involving Dr. Venture's half-baked clones, the O.S.I., and The Monarch, the ensuing carnage -- including a gory massacre of Venture's cloned "Hanks" and "Deans" -- leads a horrified Brock finally to snap, simply announcing, "Screw this...I quit."

Adventures

Since Brock serves as the "brawn" to Dr. Venture's purported "brain," it is unsurprising that his exploits are among the show's most spectacular and action-intensive sequences. Over the course of the series so far, he has infiltrated The Monarch's cocoon base, killing dozens of henchmen, smuggled Sasquatch and the bionic man to safety, been buried alive in Tijuana, and taken part in a blood-soaked raid on an amusement park, among other things. Come the show's second season, his quick thinking has served the Venture family well, such as using Professor Impossible's own elasticity against him to retrieve pieces of a stargate Jonas Venture urged his son to build, fulfilled his desire to get Edgar Allan Poe in a headlock, taking down a cult devoted to Osiris with various historical figures, single-handedly holding off an attack from the Guild on the Venture compound, and helping a pathetic underground resistance overthrow Ünderland's ruler.

He was ordered by the OSI to seek and destroy his mentor, Col. Hunter Gathers, due to Gathers' having disappeared with millions of dollars and decades' worth of government secrets. Tracking him down to Macronesia, Brock found him unconscious and apparently recovering from gender-reassignment surgery. The plastic surgeon informed Brock that Hunter did not defect for treason, but, rather, to start a new life as a woman (or, perhaps, to avoid his inevitable assassination by Brock). Brock let him live, after checking his crotch "just to make sure" that killing him would have violated his mentor's "no women, no children" rule.

In the episode Ice Station – Impossible! Brock mentions that he had served with Race Bannon on several occasions. He regards his fellow agent with respect calling him "one of the best."

More recently, after unexpectedly encountering Brock at a tattoo parlor, the Monarch's henchmen (many of whom were drunk at the time) managed to capture him (at the cost of many of their own - the "predictable casualties," according to Henchman No. 21) and bring him and the rest of the Venture family to the Monarch's cocoon. Ironically, this was a rare instance in which the Monarch did not want the Venture clan in his grasp, as he had sworn off their rivalry in order to wed Dr. Girlfriend. He covered for the Ventures' presence by claiming he had invited them to the wedding as a goodwill gesture. In yet another ironic twist, Brock came to the Monarch's defense when, during the wedding ceremony, the Phantom Limb struck the Cocoon and Guild in a coup d'etat. Brock succeeded in rallying the Monarch's forces to fight off Limb's massive armada. In the end, however, the battle came down to a struggle between Phantom Limb and the Guild Sovereign (David Bowie). Brock's counterattack was largely irrelevant, though it did give Hank his first real opportunity to fight at Brock's side.

External links

• IGN: 10 Questions: Brock Samson
• The Venture Bros.: AdultSwim.com
• Brock Samson: MySpace Fan Page