The Action Man

The Action Man
	The Venture Bros. character
First appearance	"Ghosts of the Sargasso"
Voiced by	Christopher McCulloch
Information
Full name	Rodney (surname unknown)
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Retired super-soldier
Relatives	Jeanie (wife; deceased)
Nationality	American
Notable; characteristics	Flatulence; Lecherous womanizer; Moral laxity; Prosthetic knees; Skilled in brawling, shooting, and killing; Violent nature and questionable mental stability
Current; Alliances	Colonel Gentleman (roommate); Rose Whalen (romantic interest)
Prior; Alliances	Original Team Venture
Enemies	Brainulo; L. Ron; Manotaur (deceased); Scaramantula; Turnbuckle (deceased)

The Action Man (real name: Rodney) was a former member of the original Team Venture and one of Jonas Venture Sr.'s close friends and allies. He is voiced by Christopher McCulloch

History

The Action Man's early history is largely unknown, but what is known is that he became friends with Jonas Venture Sr. and joined Team Venture. He would take part in multiple adventures where he would go into battle guns ablaze and killing everything in sight. Throughout much of his career, he would spend his time joining Jonas Venture in womanizing and sleeping with many hookers, a lifestyle that his fellow teammate Paul Entmann often tried to dissuade him from. The Action Man continued to serve with Team Venture for many years and as Jonas' son Rusty Venture grew older he would join Jonas and the rest of Team Venture in hazing and abusing Rusty. In fact, he was the worst and most vicious to Rusty than anyone else. Action Man also inadvertently created the Equally Matched Aggression Level system when he beat up and killed a Level 1 villain called Turnbuckle that had turned up on the Venture Compound to attack Jonas and held Rusty hostage. During an undersea mission, their fellow Team Venture member, Major Tom, lost his life, leaving his wife Jeanie widowed. The Action Man married Jeanie. After Jonas was killed during Movie Night, he and the rest of Team Venture recovered his body from space and attempted to put it back in the PROBLEM machine, but Gentleman had slipped on one of Rusty's old toys that had been lodged in the machine, causing the whole team to fall and drop Jonas's body, shattering it into pieces. In a panic, they only just put his head into the machine and did not tell anyone else what had happened.

The Action Man along with the rest of the original Team Venture was summoned by Hank and Dean Venture to save the kidnapped Rusty Venture from the mad scientist Mike Sorayama. By this time, he has flatulence problems and "plastic knees" that hinder his movements despite being physically capable. In the end Rusty and Brock managed to escape by themselves, but Brock in a blind rage beat the daylights out of the original Team Venture. The Action Man along with the original members of Team Venture appeared on Spider-Skull Island during the opening of the Venture Museum. While there he met up with his old friend Entmann and invited him to come live at his place.

At some point, Action Man's wife Jeanie died for unknown reasons, and he moved to a retirement home in Boca Raton, Florida.

In a flashback, we see Action Man along with Jonas Sr. fighting L Ron Hubbard aboard the X-2 shortly before its destruction. Action Man shoots two henchmen holding an ex-First Lady hostage before being blasted by another who is in turn knocked out by Kano. They are then seen diving off the X-2 when L Ron Hubbard's robot self-destructs.

After Rusty's supposed death, The Action Man who was Hank's godfather, had taken custody of him and showed him around Florida. While there, he also revealed to Hank that he had accidentally crushed Paul Entmann with his rocking chair and held a small funeral for him on the front lawn of his Boca Raton retirement community. He had Hank take a dump on his grave to act as "fertilizer" to symbolize new life as is Team Venture tradition.

Rodney informed Hank, he needed him to help him seduce fellow senior citizen Rose Whalen who he had been interested in for forty years. Hank agreed but only if he could return to the Venture Compound something Action Man agreed too. In the end, he and Hank were successful in winning over Rose and Hank was allowed return to Venture Industries after finding out Rusty was still alive. Everyone present proceed to have a more proper funeral for Paul Entmann. During this funeral, Colonel Gentleman tells Action Man that he's moving back to America and offered Action Man to be his roommate and that he could bring Rose along. Action Man agrees and with the rest of the original Team Venture asks the Venture Bros to take a dump on Entmann as part of the tradition.

He along with Rose, Colonel Gentleman, and Master Billy Quizboy attend the grand opening of Gargantua 2 space station. While there he tries to tell Rose to stop babying Billy and get annoyed when she ignores him. Later on, they are held hostage by The Revenge Society led by Phantom Limb (who he and Gentleman recognize). Hank Venture tries to get them fight back but they try to persuade him to let the villains take the money and leave due to the space station being insured. But with encouragement from Rose, they fend off against their captors and retreat when the station is attacked by meteors. He later attends the funeral of Jonas Venture Jr.

In Tanks for Nuthin', he, Colonel Gentlemen, and Pete White watch the video of Billy Quizboy (under the effects of mind control gas) and laughs at the various things the latter does. He soon laughs as Gentlemen offers the real Billy (who is now back to normal) some fast food as Billy complains to Rose about this.

In the episode Arrears in Science he suffers a stroke, as predicted by Dr. Orpheus in Season 1, and falls into a coma. Pete White uses the reverse setting on the Shrink Ray to enlarge a cockroach, which Dr. Orpheus enchants. Kano and Colonel Gentleman secure the unconscious Action Man to the giant cockroach's back and the three ride it all the way to the hospital.

Still comatose in The Saphrax Protocol, The Action Man finds himself in a purgatory-like state that resembles the ice planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back crossed with the planet from the film Barbarella. He encounters his godson Hank Venture, who is comatose from a head injury, and the two have a long heart-to-heart conversation about love, obsession, and growing up. In the process The Action Man reveals to Hank that his real mother was an actress named Bobbi St. Simone. He says Dr. Venture became obsessive and smothered her until she stopped taking his calls, changed her name, and moved to another state.

Personality

The Action Man was a dangerously violent man in his youth and would often go into battle with his guns shooting everything in sight and would enjoy beating and shooting his enemies into a bloody pulp. Even in old age this behavior has only lessened a bit and when he donned the title of Action Man again he was ready to cause needless violence like old times.

He is also a lecherous womanizer who enjoyed flirting and sleeping with numerous partners, many of which were prostitutes. His fellow Team Venture teammate Paul Entmann would often scold him by saying "stop thinking with your Action Crotch". He stopped such activities when married his wife Jeanie.

Though his relationship seems to have calmed him down a bit as he most likely doesn't want to scare Rose off. He does seem to have on guilt for, according to Rodney, killing a baby, which he claims was a werewolf. The Action Man also condemned Jonas Venture for creating Venturion from the remains of their mutual friend Don Fitzcarraldo, better known as the Blue Morpho. Its also in his coma-state, he talks to Hank about his relationship with Sirena. Actually trying to give him mature advice and reminds him, he hasn't had many relationships that most of them were crushes. His revealing his mother to Hank, seems to indicate that the twins' mother believed Rodney was reliable enough to keep a secret about her name change and moving away.

Relationships with other Characters

Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture

Rusty and The Action Man are close, going back years to when Rusty was a boy that worked together on adventures. However, Action Man was the most abusive towards Rusty and was the source of most of his childhood trauma after his father, Jonas Venture. He would often wake up Rusty by cocking a unloaded pistol by his head, saying "not today." In another incident, he tossed a fake grenade under his dog Scamp. When Rusty ran over to the dog to try and save him, the grenade impaled and injured Rusty with a prank flag. He also brutally beat up and executed Turnbuckle in cold blood right next to Rusty without any concern. However, the worst thing Action Man ever did to Rusty was during his sixteenth birthday, where in front of Jonas, Team Venture, party guests, and women, Action Man shank his penis with the Shrink ray for laughs.

Despite the constant and traumatic abuse that Rodney inflicted on him, Rusty still considers the Action Man a core member of the Venture Family, making him Hank's godfather.

Hank Venture

The Action Man is Hank's godfather. Aside from Brock, the only other adult that Hank seems to respect and lookup to is The Action Man. After Rusty was presumed dead, Hank was sent to live with him at his retirement home in Florida where the two got along. Hank helps Rodney ask out and date Rose Whalen. Later the two reunite in purgatory, where Rodney's consciousness has been since his stroke, as the two work together to try to escape. Rodney also tries to help Hank find his mother by giving him the later revealed to be wrong advice that Bobbi St. Simone is his real mother.

Dr. Paul Entmann

Entmann was considered one of Action Man's closest friends on the original Team Venture. He would often try to convince and stop Action Man from his womanizing and sleeping with prostitutes by saying "stop thinking with your Action Crotch". After Entmann was found and saved by Brock Samson, Entmann moves in with Rodney at the retirement home in Florida and spent a lot of time together until Action Man accidentally crushed him with his rocking chair. Entmann was originally interred at the Action man's retirement home by Rodney, but his grave was later moved to the Venture Compound. Entmann's funeral was presided over by the Action Man, Colonel Gentleman, and Dr. Rusty Venture who urinate on Entmann's grave (in keeping with Team Venture tradition) to signify the end of life.

Rose Whalen

Rose and Rodney used to work together as heroes back in the 1960s. Rodney confesses to Hank that he had a crush on Rose all of this time despite being married to Jeanie and his womanizing before then. With Hank's help, he wins over the affections of Rodney as it appears she felt the same way about him, and they become romantic partners. They move in together into Col. Gentleman's apartment in New York City.

Jeanie

Jeanie, who was originally the wife of Major Tom, remarried Action Man years later after Tom's fatal accident. Rodney credits Jeanie for setting his life straight and away from the parties and womanizing. When Rusty inadvertently reanimated Tom as a restless undead corpse. When The Venture Family called Jeanie to talk with the spirit and put it to rest, The Action Man interrupted the conversation, and in a jealous and unsympathetic tone, and said that he had married Jeanie. He is seen at one time yelling at Jeanie for not being able to find his knee pads, which at the very least hints that he had a bit of a temper. Since he later revealed that he was really in love with Rose Whalen, it is unknown if he truly loved Jeanie, or if he merely settled on Jeanie after failing to win over Rose.

Episode Appearances

Season 1

Season 3

Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny
What Goes Down Must Come Up (flashback)
Now Museum--Now You Don't
ORB

Season 4

Season 5

Spanakopita! (flashback, dream sequence)
The Devil's Grip

Season 6

Season 7

Trivia

In Past Tense, after The Action Man attacked and later apologize to Dr. Orpheus, the occultist Dr. Orpheus interrupts with "two years and seventeen days... by a stroke", to which he appears pleased. This was assumed to be referring to The Action Man's death. In the season 7 episode Arrears in Science he does indeed suffer a stroke but was transferred to a hospital (by way of giant cockroach) and was later stated by Colonel Gentleman to be hanging on, albeit in a coma. Col. Gentleman claims this was not his first stroke however, implying he may pull through.
It's likely due to the number of David Bowie references in the show that the name "The Action Man" is a reference to his 1980 hit "Ashes to Ashes".
The Action Man claims to have plastic prosthetic knees, which hinders his ability to run in his old age.
In The Devil's Grip The Action Man tells Rose Whalen that Jonas Venture Sr. put him on "jump juice" to make him a Super Soldier "for the good of flag and country". This is similar to the origin of the patriotic Marvel Comics superhero Captain America.