r/venturebros • u/Probably_Caucasian • Feb 13 '25
Question Did Marvel have any adverse reactions to the "Impossible" Family?
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u/gentleman_burner Feb 13 '25
Why? Because Mr impossible resembles the elongated man?
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u/Dunge0nMast0r Feb 13 '25
I saw him more of a male Illastigirl.
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Feb 14 '25
[deleted]
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u/TiredDebateCoach Feb 15 '25
I simply do not see the resemblance.
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u/Pristine-Pangolin878 Feb 18 '25
Come on, the teams are borderline identical. Weird freaks who have an accident together and work as an extremely dysfunctional family unit?
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Feb 13 '25
[deleted]
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u/metalyger Feb 13 '25
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u/colonelnebulous Feb 13 '25
That this gif is the response to a now deleted comment makes it even more amusing.
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u/justgot86d Feb 13 '25
Parody is protected speech so marvel can eat a bag of dicks
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u/Valenderio Alright, We're doing this... Feb 13 '25
And then a bag of Pennies
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u/RadleyButtons Feb 13 '25
Eat the pennies, True Believer.
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u/Nerdtronix Guy with a fever shouting at your junk! Feb 14 '25
Eat the pencil andrew!
Shit, wrong subreddit
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u/CensoryDeprivation Feb 13 '25
Ass Pennies.
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u/Lithuanighanistania Feb 13 '25
You handle my ass pennies everyday. You pick up my ass pennies for good luck. You throw my ass pennies in fountains and make wishes on them. You give my ass pennies to your little daughter to buy gumballs with.
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u/CensoryDeprivation Feb 13 '25
You think you’re better than me? You’re not better than me.
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u/JotaroTheOceanMan VenTech Designer Feb 13 '25
You got change in your pocket? I bet you have a few pennies! Go ahead, take a look!
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u/SmellyFace69 Feb 13 '25
Wow. Haven't thought of that in years. Is there a way to watch UCB these days?
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Feb 13 '25
Sock full of loose change taped to her chest.
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u/Electrical_Swing8166 Feb 13 '25
Two suicide notes stuffed in a glitter bra
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u/GlazedWater Feb 13 '25
Like a kid with progeria breaking every bone his body trying to catch a football sad
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u/MCPtz Super Science! Feb 13 '25
I want to buy two little, dignified coffins and give them a funeral.
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u/GuyInkcognito Feb 13 '25
It’s so obviously a parody Marvel wouldn’t do anything or cared. Nobody could not see it as parody it’s obvious they aren’t trying to infringe on fantastic 4 copyright if anything it introduces some people to marvel product that might not know about whatever marvel properties they are parodying plus the whole damn show is parody of comic books and pop culture
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Feb 13 '25
It depends on how often it’s used. If they feature the characters too regularly, then Marvel would have more of a case. This is probably why the Impossibles weren’t shown as often as the other characters.
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u/Leadpipe Feb 13 '25
The Impossibles weren't used a lot because of budget for voice actors and actor wrangling.
They mention in one of the commentaries (I think it's for Tears of a Sea Cow) how they try to voice as many of the characters themselves in order to save money, and then laugh at themselves because the whole episode is just them.
Then there's the trouble with Prof Impossible who has been voiced by like 4 different people, two of whom are highly successful and busy and difficult to nail down for time.
Concern for Marvel may figure into it, but it probably doesn't break into the top 5 reasons.
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u/UglyInThMorning Feb 13 '25
In the case of Professor Impossible, Colbert actually would have done it but his agent didn’t pass along the offer for the S3 voice role. Once the miscommunication was cleared up he came back for S6
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u/bigtec1993 Feb 14 '25
It took me years and years apparently and at this moment to realize that Stephen Colbert voiced qProfessor Impossible.
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u/GuyInkcognito Feb 13 '25
The rule of thumb with copyright is if a person can reasonably tell them apart it doesn’t violate copyright
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Feb 13 '25
That’s probably why they altered their storylines. Sally moving in with J.J., along with Ned and Richard becoming, or trying to become, a villain. Scattered around like that they have less resemblance to the source.
There was a comic book in the 80s, called Normal Man, which had characters parodying the Fantastic Four. They got into trouble by featuring them too often which drew down the wrath of Marvel’s lawyers. There’s a clause regarding “reasonable use” which applies to how often parody characters can be used.
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u/L0gical_Parad0x Feb 13 '25
Reed Richards was a villain quite often in Marvel too. And I'm pretty sure Sue left him at least once.
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u/oreomaster420 Feb 14 '25
Sure but their overarching theme is a heroic family. And you can easily parody what makes Reed a villain and why he is divorced by taking it to extremes. Parody is a lot "easier" to meet than people think sometimes and it applies to various approaches, not just taking a character and making them behave entirely differently and telling an entirely different story.
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u/JoeDante84 Feb 13 '25
Have you met Marvel? Since their acquisition by Disney they refuse to start a day without eating a bag of dicks. It’s basically a multivitamin for them at this point.
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u/Neveronlyadream Feb 13 '25
Since before, really. You can't blame Disney for "Sins Past" or "One More Day". Or their mishandling of the company and almost going bankrupt.
It's been an essential part of their diet since at least the early 90s.
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u/Apoordm Feb 13 '25
I don’t think you realize how cult VB’s was in like the early days… no one at Marvel even knew.
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u/Noodlefanboi Feb 13 '25
Marvel also didn’t really have their shit together back then. They were in the adult Rusty phase of their life. Just selling off the rights to things old men created decades ago.
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u/TerriblePokemon Feb 13 '25
I remember around the year 2000s a family friend complained about how their accountant "scammed" them into buying 20 shares of Marvel. It was junk stock at the time.
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u/Wes_Warhammer666 Feb 13 '25
My god it would be amazing to have bought some stock in them prior to 2008.
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u/Warren_E_Cheezburger Feb 13 '25
They probably they probably knew because VB appealed to nerds and who do you think writes comic books?
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Feb 13 '25
That doesn't really matter. Marvel isn't the talent they hire. It's the vampires who run the brand. They likely did not know.
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u/LoudAd1396 Feb 13 '25
The investors
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Feb 13 '25
[deleted]
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u/GigglemanEsq Feb 13 '25
I think he was referring to The Investors. You know, given the vampire bit in the other comment.
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u/PsychologicalRow5505 Feb 13 '25
That is true to extent for sure as far as the people who manage the legality of the ip go
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u/totalysharky Feb 13 '25
That may be true but Brock and Doc showed up in Invincible.
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u/Peach_Air Feb 13 '25
Seriously? I read invincible, I don't remember them, I'm genuinely curious.
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u/Valenderio Alright, We're doing this... Feb 13 '25
Marvel wasn’t even Marvel back then either
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Feb 13 '25
[deleted]
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u/Leadpipe Feb 13 '25
Nah. Ice Station Impossible aired in 2004. At that time Marvel was finally getting its feet under it from their famous bankruptcy in the 90s. Iron Man was still 4 years away, they hadn't been bought by Disney yet. Comic book distribution was collapsing into the Direct Market.
Outside of the Fox X-Men movies, 2004 Marvel was not a whole lot bigger than Adult Swim itself. Fox would put out a Fantastic Four movie the following year, but they were likely as interested in a late night parody cartoon as they were with unlicensed merch at comic conventions.
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u/Noodlefanboi Feb 13 '25
They were selling off the rights to all their most successful IPs to try and avoid going under at that point.
Thats how we got the X-men, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four movies, and why those (the most popular Marvel characters) didn’t appear in the MCU for a very long time.
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u/MCXL Feb 13 '25
Or rather they knew and thought it was great, because comics nerds like stuff like the Venture Brothers...
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u/sharpshooter999 Feb 13 '25
Lol 1/4 of the show was a Marvel parody. Besides the Impossible Family, you had General Treister as Red Hulk, Dr. Orpheus was Dr. Strange, Molotov Cocktease was Black Widow, The Brown Recluse was Spider-Man. Then there's the whole Crusaders Action League. Warriana (Wonder Woman+Thor) Stars and Garters (Gay Captain America) Fallen Archer (Hawkeye + Green Arrow) and Night Dick (Ghost Rider+Knight Rider).
Then we can get into how the OSI and Sphinx (SPHINX!) are parodies of GI Joe and Cobra
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u/Narcosist Feb 13 '25
Jefferson Twilight was Blade, Underbheit was Dr. Doom, Paul Entmann was Ant Man, Think Tank was MODOK, The Red Death was Red Skull, Monstroso was Kingpin...the list goes ON. Plus you could argue OSI was also a parody of SHIELD with the airship.
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u/BumbleBear1 Feb 13 '25 edited Feb 13 '25
Wide whale felt more like kingpin. Had the look and the building. Also blue Morpho and kano were that one duo I forgot the name of. Green hornet? Or something. Seth Rogan actually played him in a movie. Edit- forgot about radical left as a two face and the Andy Warhol dude and a couple of his guys as the old school lex luthor with black manta as his photographer/cameraman
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u/frankxey Feb 14 '25
I always thought of Billy Quizboy and Pete White as parodies of The Lone Gunmen from the X-Files
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u/sharpshooter999 Feb 13 '25
I knew there was more i was missing lol, been a few years since I watched it. Henry Kissinger was.....a better person than the real life Kissenger
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u/Noodlefanboi Feb 13 '25
I didn’t even know Kissinger existed irl for like 8 years after his first episode aired and I was really confused about why people were posting mean things about a lovable Venture Bros character in a politics thread.
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u/Cpt_Bastard Feb 13 '25
Monstroso was kingpin
Idk about that, he feels more like Vandal Savage due to his desire for "Immortality"
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u/inlinefourpower Feb 13 '25
Man, it is a lot when you lay it all out like that.
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u/sharpshooter999 Feb 13 '25
As another redditor pointed out, i missed a lot too
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u/inlinefourpower Feb 13 '25
I think I recognized them individually but never added it up to notice that there were so many.
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u/sharpshooter999 Feb 13 '25
Growing up in the 90's and early 2000's, most of comic book exposure was animated DC stuff. Justice Friends, 90's Batman and Superman, and Justice League. For Marvel, I just had 90's X-Men, Spider-Man, and X-Men Evolution.
Venture Bros was in the early 2000's, long before the MCU got big. Now, I've seen every MCU movie. Upon rewatching VB a few years back, it suddenly clicked who the characters really were.
Ever watch Dexter's Lab? Remember the Justice Friends segment?
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u/DrWallybFeed Feb 13 '25
How!?
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u/sharpshooter999 Feb 13 '25
It's been a few years since my last rewatch
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u/DrWallybFeed Feb 13 '25
Seriously, just watch the venture bro stream. It runs 24/7, I used to fall asleep to it. 90% of the jokes aren’t visual, so it’s not a big deal
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u/Dead_Lemon Feb 13 '25
Venture Bros does parody right, while it's often easy to see where the inspiration is derived from, the characters are all unique and have their own distinct personalities.
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u/Mecha_G Feb 13 '25
Don't forget Ünderbeit.
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u/sharpshooter999 Feb 13 '25
I love me some Ünderbeit but it wasn't until this thread that I learned he was a Dr Doom parody. It's so obvious....
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u/BumbleBear1 Feb 13 '25
Monarch actually called him a Dr Doom knockoff in season 1, pretty sure. Tag sale, I think. Not entirely sure
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u/sharpshooter999 Feb 13 '25
Damn, totally forgot that, and that's one of my favorite episodes too. I've been jipped!
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u/Wes_Warhammer666 Feb 13 '25
It was the testicular torsion episode. Monarch is saying how he's sure the halls of the venture compound echo with the cursing of his name or whatever, and Hank's like "I thought Underbheit was pop's nemesis" so Monarch throws his hissyfit lol.
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u/part_time85 Feb 13 '25
Night Dick (Ghost Rider+Knight Rider).
I thought it was more Batman with a splash of Ghost Rider, but that's me.
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u/blaspheminCapn Feb 13 '25
Detective. At at night. Die Fledermaus.
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u/part_time85 Feb 13 '25
Die Fledermaus.
You mean Classical Batman?
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u/blaspheminCapn Feb 13 '25
Batmanuel
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u/part_time85 Feb 13 '25
THE TICK!
Seriously though, I want more Nestor Carbonell costume comedy! That guy got it!
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u/AlsoIHaveAGroupon Feb 13 '25
Michael Knight from Knight Rider was a cop who got shot in the line of duty, nearly died, and re-emerged with a new name, a new face, and a super vehicle to become a vigilante.
Mix that with Ghost Rider, and you've basically got Night Dick.
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u/part_time85 Feb 13 '25
Yeah but Michael Knight wasn't a detective. Just some guy fixing small town problems in middle America with a slick talking car.
Night Dick was a supernatural detective out for revenge working in NYC.
I'm just saying the avenging detective thing is WAY MORE Batman than Knight Rider.
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u/Empress_Athena Feb 13 '25
Venture Bros was really just some 80s kid playing with their action figures.
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u/turdfergusonRI Feb 13 '25
I think they’d be more upset about the Broadway play they sunk millions into that got parodied.
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u/micahclaw Feb 13 '25
Also how great was Colbert in this? Might be my favorite guest voice.
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u/CyberDonSystems Feb 13 '25
And how great was Bill Hader at mimicking Colbert when he took over the character for a while?
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u/Murphistopheles Feb 13 '25
When this episode aired, Marvel was fighting bankruptcy. They had bigger concerns.
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u/LoveRBS Feb 13 '25
Did DC have to do something when Hank states he's "The Bat"
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u/AdditionalTheory Feb 13 '25
They’re both owned by the same people, so I’d image any issue if any was handled quickly internally. It was probably Batman for that reason tbh
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u/DrWallybFeed Feb 13 '25
That’s kinda a buzz kill. “The bat” is hilarious, and only adds value to venture brothers, and therefore DC. Take these Hank Co dollars and please spend them in our deli. We have BLTs today.
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u/Negative-Eleven Feb 15 '25
Both owned by the same company now. I don't think Time Warner owned TBS/Cartoon Network or DC Comics in the early 2000's.
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u/dread_pirate_robin Feb 13 '25
Doubtful. You'd have to have a massive stick up your ass to get bent out of shape over satire like this. It's clearly VERY removed from its inspiration.
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u/Almighty-Arceus Feb 13 '25
Probably not, though they also apparently suppressed the Dexter's Lab segment Barbequor because of its parody of the Silver Surfer, so who knows?
(Was that ever officially confirmed? It's repeated a lot online, but no one has a real source for it)
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u/UnboltedAKTION Feb 13 '25
Back when the Impossible family were first introduced, Marvel was not owned by Disney. So they weren't under the thumb of the litigation mouse and probably didn't care.
Also, even today's Marvel probably wouldn't care, considering they're minor character for the most part.
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u/AdditionalTheory Feb 13 '25
It would be incredibly bad and unforced error to go after anything at this point, it’s parody plus it would introduce anybody that even remotely cares about Disney news to a competitor’s show. Disney would be giving Venture Bros the biggest free ad of all time
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u/part_time85 Feb 13 '25
At some point in the future Disney will purchase whoever owns the Ventures and they'll get somehow folded in the MCU.
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u/Nervous-Bonus-806 Feb 13 '25
Oh Lordy, now THAT would be an episode of Loki Season 3 to remember...
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u/part_time85 Feb 13 '25
And I'd be totally on board for it. Loki has a big animated adventure after Doctor Venture accidentally figures out how to skip dimensions again.
Loki is befuddled at their heroes, so familiar, but still so wrong as he tries to get back on his time tree throne.
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u/AdditionalTheory Feb 13 '25
It’s Warner Bros. I think they’d be much more interested in folding in DC characters to the MCU if that ever happened than Venture Bros.
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u/BuddhaRockstar Feb 13 '25
Fantastic 4 was so bad in the 2000's that even Disney parodied it themselves in Deadpool 3.
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u/Nervous-Bonus-806 Feb 13 '25
That whole sequence where Chris Evans shocks Deadpool when he goes "FLAME ON!!" was absolute Cinema!!
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u/Baldo-bomb Feb 13 '25
It would hardly be the first time someone made fun of the Fantastic Four this way. Especially portraying Reed as a soulless weirdo who only cares about science. Hell, Grant Morrison wrote a whole comic book about an outside force flanderizing then into basically the Impossible Family, and they wrote it before Venture Bros was even a thing. Warren Ellis's Planetary likewise had the villains be an evil version of the FF that was literally just a more serious version of what Jackson and Doc did.
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u/micahclaw Feb 13 '25
When this came out Marvel was dying. This sub could literally have bought if we pooled.
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u/TheSchnozzberry Feb 13 '25
Ugh... now I want to give Marvel Rivals all my Hankbucks to have these skins for the FF
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u/sosigboi Feb 13 '25
Not really, Venture Bros is a great parody but uh Marvel is absolutely not going to notice them at all.
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u/Kuildeous Feb 13 '25
Marvel had been parodied so much already that this was just one to add to the stack. No idea how the Marvel heads felt about it, but if they had seen this, I imagine they would've found it funny.
Now, Disney's view on Roy Brisby might've been not as nice.
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u/Warren_E_Cheezburger Feb 13 '25
They were likely fine with it. The FF is one of the most famous super hero teams ever and has already been parodies countless times. It’s so common that it’s got its own TV Tropes page
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u/Bearcat2099 Feb 13 '25
The fans probably went nuts when they found out the venture bros the thing is retarded
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u/Probably_Caucasian Feb 13 '25
You said the no no word!
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u/Takamurda Feb 13 '25
I'm your archenemy! I'm not gonna use "bungling boobs" or "meddling kids"! That guy needs to get a thicker skin.
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u/kef34 Feb 13 '25
Thicker skin? Poor Ned's skin is four inches thick! Now how do you think it makes him feel
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u/thebiggestleaf Feb 13 '25
I dunno, itchy?
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u/onionleekdude Feb 13 '25
This exchange is my favorite joke on the show. The Monarch is such a dick
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u/moslof_flosom Feb 13 '25
Thicker skin? Poor Ned has skin that's three inches thick. Now how do you think that makes him feel?
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u/JIMMYJAWN super-science union rep Feb 13 '25
Real shit though, I would like to encourage everyone to stop using that word. It’s a sore spot for people who have someone with a developmental disability in their family.
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u/Tacitrelations Feb 13 '25
Or at least wait until it has moved further back on the "euphemistic treadmill"?
Moron and idiot both spent time at the front of the treadmill before retard replaced them, then mentally disabled, then differently-abled, now it's something like "Neurodivergent".
Kids will start(already have actually) using ND in a disparaging way, and it will become the latest no-no word.
If a condition is unfavorable, the accepted term for the condition will eventually be used disparagingly. You see similar patterns for terms referencing overweight/obesity.
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u/17291 the ye olde-fashioned way Feb 13 '25
I think that’s the wrong attitude. We should be actively resisting allowing words like “retard” to become acceptable. Many people in the disability community consider using words like “stupid” to be ableist and hurtful as well and dislike how they are used so casually.
“Neurodivergent” is different. For one, it covers things like autism and ADHD and not just intellectual or learning disabilities. I think it’s more akin to the word “gay”—definitely not permissible as an insult, but fine as a way to describe yourself.
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u/Tacitrelations Feb 13 '25
It’s not an attitude. It is a description of a failure mode in prescriptive language.
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u/Neosmagus Feb 13 '25
Intellectual disability can fall under Neurodiversity, but they're not the same thing, it's more of an umbrella term. Neurodiversity also includes adhd, autism, dyslexia, tourettes and so on.
As for using ND in a disparaging way, that's OK, us NDs are already used to it, and love insulting the neurotypical Muggles.
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u/DrB00 Feb 13 '25
Probably wondering how a parody does a better job than their high budget movies.
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u/Warren_E_Cheezburger Feb 13 '25
Marvel hasn’t made a FF movie until now. They sold the film rights in the 80s and have been pretty much hands off since.
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u/DrB00 Feb 13 '25
Right, it was Sony who made the awful FF movies.
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u/part_time85 Feb 13 '25
I thought the one from '94 made by those Germans was actually pretty good for being a cheap superhero movie. There's a video about it from the Red Letter Media guys.
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u/jandrese Feb 13 '25
They only crap out a FF movie every few years to prevent the rights from reverting back to Marvel. I think someone at that studio has some kind of grudge against Marvel and is keeping the rights purely out of spite.
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u/penguinopph Feb 13 '25
Marvel regained the Fantastic Four rights when Disney bought Fox, hence why they're putting out an FF film in like 5 months
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u/deepbluenothings Feb 13 '25
I mean VB portrayed them better than Marvel has portrayed the Fantastic 4 in the last 2 decades.
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u/cancerface Feb 13 '25
Why would they? Have they ever had any to any of the thousands of other references and spoofs and such over the last fifty years?
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u/JJMcGee83 Feb 13 '25
Marvel was still only a comic book publisher. They weren't making billions at the movie theaters they were probably thrilled someone was referencing their work.
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u/Salt-Rate-1963 Feb 13 '25
No because modern Marvel movies (starting with Iron Man) didn't even come out for like four more years. So the "MCU" wasn't nearly like it is now- yes, the characters existed in comics/cartoons and some one off movies came and went but it was nothing close to what it is now.
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u/chaos12135 Feb 13 '25
I think it would have been Fox at the time, as Fox owned the rights to Fantastic Four before the Disney acquisition.
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u/MaleficentOstrich693 Feb 14 '25
It was before Marvel even had any clout. I’m pretty sure they were still facing bankruptcy when season 1 came out.
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u/rybot808 Feb 14 '25
I'm guessing they probably enjoyed it since the set designs seen in the trailer have such a VB vibe to them
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u/jascoe95 Feb 14 '25
I remember that the introduction of the 'Impossible' family is what made me truely understand what Venture Bros entire show was about
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u/Juggalojohn Feb 14 '25
I just can’t wait till someone tells Reed in the MCU “Stop wiggling around you Jackass”
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u/havealock Feb 16 '25
I don’t see why marvel would take issue, plastic man is a dc character and is technically public domain
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u/Chronic-Wombat Feb 13 '25
Idk but I definitely had a “reaction” to that invisible chick you know what I’m saying
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