The Venture Bros. episode
Handsome Ransom
Season 4
Orig. Airdate	Oct 25, 2009
Writer(s)	Jackson Publick
Director	Jackson Publick
Production #	4-40
Quotes	Transcript
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[edit] Overview

The Monarch once again manages to kidnap Hank and Dean and demands ten million dollars for their release. However, a past nemesis of The Monarch, Captain Sunshine, throws a wrench in The Monarch's diabolical gears of villainy and rescues Hank to make him his new sidekick. Hank is all too happy to leave his honky father in an act of teen rebelliousness, but will he enjoy the life of a teenage sidekick?

[edit] Rundown

• The boys are kidnapped by The Monarch, who contacts Rusty and demands $10 million in ransom.
• Captain Sunshine opens up a can of whoop-ass on The Monarch and hauls him off to jail after laying waste to the cocoon.
• The Monarch shows up just as Rusty is at the agreed upon location of the money drop off.
• The Monarch explains what due process is, and how that is how he got out of jail.
• Dr. Mrs. The Monarch explains that Captain Sunshine took Hank.
• Captain Sunshine flies through the skies with Hank, declaring that they're "gonna be super friends" and acting all creepy-uncle. He takes Hank to his compound.
• Rusty meets up with The Monarch to exchange fake money, and when Rusty's double cross falls apart, he still manages to keep Dean after demanding something for waiting two hours for The Monarch.
• Hank agrees to be Captain Sunshine's side kick after being bought off with video game tokens and Ferris wheel rides.
• Rusty hits up his brother for cash unsuccessfully, but manages to sucker Pete and Billy who have just committed insurance fraud.
• Captain Sunshine waits for Hank on his bed, and asks him about lube.
• Dr. Venture gets the $10 million dollars in insurance money from Pete and Billy.
• Sgt. Hatred finds out that Billy is a 37 year old man-boy.
• Captain Sunshine talks to his super team on his own big screen, and Hank comes in thanking the Captain for the lube.
• Rusty gets kicked in the nuts by The Monarch at the new trade-off after Rusty finds out that The Monarch doesn't have Hank.
• A plan to kick The Monarch's ass backfires as Billy tries to enlarge a shrunken Sgt. Hatred inside the money bag The Monarch made off with.
• Captain Sunshine has a run-in with Scorpio. A few words are traded and Captain Sun. beats the crap out of Scorpio.
• Dr. MTM ingeniously traces Captain Sunshine back to his lair using flakes of sunburned skin from The Monarch to detect his location. Tiny Sgt. Hatred faxes Rusty Captain Sunshine's location.
• It is revealed that Captain Sunshine's by-night identity is newscaster Chuck Scarsdale, and along with the super heroes he was talking to in his lair earlier, make up the Channel 5 Action News team.
• Pete, Billy and Rusty break into Captain Sunshine's house. Captain Sunshine's disabled butler, Desmond, manages to alert Captain Sunshine via communicator watch.
• Chuck Scarsdale flips out when his watch starts flashing and he sees footage of a "UFO" (The Monarch's cocoon) hovering over his house and runs out of the studio, stealing the news chopper to get home.
• The Monarch breaks into Captain Sunshine's home and Hank and 21 "fight" each other.
• Chaos ensues as Hank tries to escape The Monarch, and when Chuck Scarsdale shows up, Pete, Billy and Rusty flee for fear of being on the news.
• The Monarch finally corners Hank but ends up falling through Hank's bed into Captain Sunshine's Sanctum Solarium, his secret lair, dressed in a side kick costume and with a wicked wedgie.
• The Monarch confronts Captain sunshine, who is wigging out. He shoots him with a radiation cannon, which for some odd reason, The Monarch thought would have a damaging effect on Captain Sunshine. Instead

Captain Sunshine regains his by-day strength and sunburns the ever loving crap out of The Monarch and all his Henchmen.

• As Captain Sunshine is about to toast Pete, Billy and Rusty, Hank stops him and explains why he can't be Wonderboy anymore. Captain Sunshine has his heart broken, but manages to despondently kick Hank out from his Sanctum Solarium.

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Fun Facts

• Captain Sunshine was voiced by Kevin Conroy, who is most well known for voicing Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman: The Animated Series. The episode is rife with Batman references:
  • While fighting the Monarch, Captain Sunshine at some point says: "You may be invulnerable Monarch, but no one is invulnerable to justice!", the fact Captain Sunshine thinks the Monarch is invulnerable was foreshadowed and explained by an anecdote of the Monarch's he gives to doctor Girlfriend and Truckules at the party in Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny, appearantly Captain sunshine shot a raygun at the Monarch while unaware that the safety was on, Monarch bluffed his exo-skeleton to be impenetrable right before the blast, causing Captain sunshine to believe him invulnerable.
  • The giant Monarch penny, first seen in Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny(Also A Batman reference as Batman has a giant penny decorating his cave.)
  • Captain Sunshine's insistence to replace Wonderboy is likely a reference to Batman's constant replacement of Robin- the original Robin was Dick Grayson (who left), replaced by Jason Todd (who died), replaced by Tim Drake (who also left), replaced by Stephanie Brown (who faked her death), replaced by Damian Wayne.
  • Pete White calls himself Bruce White when knocking on the door to Sunshine's home, an obvious reference to Bruce Wayne. He then calls Billy his "ward", a title which Bruce Wayne always gave to Dick Grayson in the early comics.
• There are a number of other comic book and superhero references throughout:
  • U.S. Steel, Ghost Robot, and the entire team of newscast superheroes are an homage to DC Comics' Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters.
  • Sunshine's tells The Monarch "You're not fighting a boy now!" just as Superman said "You're not fighting a woman, now!" in his first appearance.
  • "...or your boys will follow the rainbow bridge to Valhalla" is a reference to Marvel's Thor.
  • The "Sanctum Solarium" (which Hank describes as 'almost as cool as the Batcave') references Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.
  • The narrator in the final battle scene mimics Ted Knight's narration for the Superfriends cartoons.
  • (As he is threatening Captain Sunshine with the artificial sunshine gun built by Dr. Mrs. The Monarch) The Monarch quotes ABC's animated cool guy Timer: "I'll be 'having a fun time, eating sunshine, on a stick!'"
• Sunshine's compound looks like Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, with a secret hatch sundial replacing the floral clock, and at least a Ferris wheel to match Neverland's amusement park.
• When the Monarch is in Wonderboy's costume and is approaching Captain Sunshine saying "Come and get it," (after implying that Captain Sunshine had a sexual relationship with his former sidekick), he is making the American Sign-Language sign for vagina. As can be seen (from the Monarch's point of view) in the screen-cap for the episode on this page.
  • Captain Sunshine's implied sexual relationship with Wonderboy could also be a reference to Batman and Robin's controversial sexual relationship dating back from the 1950's.
• Wonderboy is also a Robin reference as Robin is somtimes called The Boy Wonder.
• When Sunshine kisses Hank and says "You broke my heart Hank" it is a reference to Godfather 2 when Micheal does the same to his brother Fredo, after finding out he had betrayed him.

[edit] Unanswered Questions

When Rusty calls up Conjectural Technologies, Billy and White are celebrating their ten million dollar check from General Consolidated Insurance and wearing neck braces. Billy easily tears his brace off, implying that neither is injured and suggesting they committed insurance fraud to obtain their "seed money." Is this the case? (Answered in part in The Silent Partners)

Upon seeing The Cocoon hovering over Captain Sunshine's home, why did it appear that Sunshine was the only member of his team to recognize the UFO as a super-villain? Was Barbie-Q just a good actress, or was she just unaware of a "C-Lister" like The Monarch's ride?

How was Desmond, Captain Sunshine's butler, able to recover from Rusty's knock-out gas so quickly. (Answered in Any Which Way But Zeus)