The Monarch

The Monarch
	The Venture Bros. character
First appearance	The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay
Voiced by	Christopher McCulloch
Information
Aliases	Malcolm (real name); Shadowman 9 (formerly); Blue Morpho (vigilante alias)
Occupation	Aspiring supervillain and sworn enemy of Dr. Venture. Formerlly Phantom Limb and Dr. Jonas Venture Jr. on a trial basis
Relatives	Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (wife) ; Unnamed Mother (Mother, deceased) ; The Blue Morpho (Father, deceased) ; Mother-in-Law (via Dr. Mrs. The Monarch)
Notable; Characteristics	Semi-mechanical suit equipped with a grappling hook, poison darts, tranquilizer darts, a gas gun, and collapsible wings which enable flight; obsessed with Monarch butterflies
Current Alliances	The Guild of Calamitous Intent;; The Fluttering Horde, ; Doctor Girlfriend.
Prior; Alliances	Phantom Limb, the Sea Anemone, Helicoptro, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Nightmare Coat (all former bosses)
Enemies	Brock Samson; Captain Sunshine; Dr. Dugong (Assigned by the Guild, deceased); Dr. Heinie (taken to improve arching level); Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (would-be archenemy) and the Venture Family; Phantom Limb; Professor Vibrations; Sergeant Hatred; Wide Whale and his arching rights licensees

The Monarch (real name: Malcolm ) 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/royalty theme (based on both Monarch terms for butterfly and royalty), his shrill voice, and his obsessive hatred of Thaddeus Venture. He has set his base of operations inside a floating cocoon (many characters have commented on how illogical this is), and all of his weaponry is modeled 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). Monarch frequently kills henchmen when he is in a bad mood. 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 "co-arches" with his wife Doctor Mrs. The Monarch (formerly his lover and aide Doctor Girlfriend), a gravelly-voiced woman with a striking resemblance to a young Jackie Kennedy; 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"). After their marriage, Doctor Girlfriend changed her name to Doctor Mrs. The Monarch.

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"). It is intimated by his wife that Venture was somehow involved in the destruction of The Monarchs career. 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.

The Monarch has had the opportunity on numerous occasions to significantly harm Thaddeus Venture and his family, but prefers to play at a "deadly game of Cat and Also Cat."

History

Malcolm, the child who would later become The Monarch was the child of a wealthy couple. His father was a talented hero named the Blue Morpho. At some unknown point in his past Malcolm's parents knew Dr. Venture and would take the young Monarch to play with Rusty, which for some unknown reason The Monarch has no recollection of the events. The Monarch's parents would later die 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 amidst 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.("Past Tense"). In college, he was known as Malcolm and 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, known as T.S. in college, by blowing up a school building, but not only was T.S. not in class that day, T.S. got the credit for blowing up the building and blowing off Underbites jaw("Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny").

After graduating college with a BA in Creative Writing, The Monarch went to work at the Guild of Calamitous Intent as a registered low-level henchman to various villains including Phantom Limb (known as Shadowman 9), 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. It was during his henching day 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 henching career, and turned to full-time arching of Doctor Venture. 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 rebuilt his career, eventually winning back 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 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 shooting, flying (but otherwise immovable) armor and faced off against the O.S.I. alongside an army of his own men. He ended up killing all of the Hank-and-Dean clone slugs, several O.S.I. troopers, many of his own henchmen, and finally fell to earth in a nauseated bundle, to be picked up by his remaining henchmen and his wife.

In the second episode of Season 4, The Monarch kidnaps Hank & Dean and tries to order Dr. Venture to pay a ransom. Hank is immediately rescued by Captain Sunshine, who takes him back to his lair to make him the new Wonder Boy. (The Monarch killed the last Wonder Boy in a drunken rage while he and Dr. Girlfriend were broken up.) Dr Venture gets Dean back and then both he and the Monarch track down Captain Sunshine's lair in order to get Hank back. His wife creates for Monarch a solar ray cannon, guessing that Captain Sunshine's powers don't work at night. However, the ray gun empowers Sunshine who then defeats the Monarch. The Monarch, his wife, and 21 head home in a cab. One of them then fires a dart at the cabbie when he inquired about the fare.

In the hour long special (Operation: P.R.O.M) The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend headed to the prom (Taking Sergeant Hatred's ex-wife Tinyfeet along to help them get in) and meet up with 21, but when he admits that he realizes Dr. Venture is not a bad person, the Monarch accuses him of being drugged. An inebriated 21 snaps and angrily reveals his infatuation with Dr. Girlfriend, even telling the Monarch about their previous amorous encounter, but the Monarch merely laughs it off due to his "swinger" relationship with Dr. Girlfriend (common among villains) and tells 21 to stop being a crybaby. Having had enough, 21 quits his job as henchman and storms off.

During Season 5, the Monarch continues to try and antagonize Dr. Venture but repeatedly fails in every attempt as well believing that Henchman 21 still works for him much to his wife's dismay. In the finale, his wife is offered a position on The Council of 13 and he kidnaps Dr. Venture who after failing to torment with physical torture he succeeds in breaking him with mental torture. Henchman 21 also returns just as the cocoon is destroyed along with a majority of the monarch's henchman by Sergeant Hatred.

As a result of the Cocoon and his mansion's destruction, The Monarch along with his wife and Henchman 21 have moved into The Monarch's childhood home in Newark, New Jersey. In the beginning of Season 6, he is seen trying to adjust to having no base, henchman and his wife being on the council. While exploring the house, he discovers to his shock that his father was once a super-hero called the Blue Morpho who had a secret base under the house.

He decided to hide the discovery from his wife, until he decided what to do, originally wanting to turn it into his lair and ignore his father's legacy. However, this changed after trying to intimidate other villains so he could arch Dr. Venture and realizing it would not work after being framed by a villain named Copycat who made it look like he had broken a deal with Doctor Girlfriend about arching Venture.

The Monarch eventually decided to take up the role of Blue Morpho after 21 showed him a video of his father and Jonas Venture Sr. talking about how he has decided to become a bad guy, right before the two have sex with two women that 21 assures him is not his mom. The Monarch and 21 soon kill a villain named Haranguetan who was arching the Ventures and decide to defeat any villain assigned to arch Venture as a way to clear out the competition. They also withhold this information from Dr. Mrs. The Monarch to avoid trouble with the council of 13.

Personality

The Monarch is a colorful villain whose theatrics are not matched by his competence - his plans tend to go awry through mixtures of error, arrogance, bad luck, being outwitted, and Brock Samson killing henchmen until enough are dead to stop any schemes. He also is given to grandiose speeches and phrases, some of which get away from him or don't sound like he expected. Despite his seeming ineptness he is quite skilled at villainy. After he was banned from arching Rusty he ran through eight arches in a few months killing all of them on the first day. He was almost assassinated by OSI for it, but managed to escape through sheer tenacity and trickery. His abilities have grown over the series and along the way he has gained allies and a powerful henchman in the form of 21 who turned his following of inept idiot henchmen into a fearsome fighting force.

The Monarch has admitted, only to #21, that sometimes he hates himself more than other villains hate their arch-nemeses. Despite his wealth, power, beautiful wife, and loyal henchmen, he seems eternally insecure and self-loathing. The reasons for this have yet to be explained.

The Monarch can be witty and charming, and possesses a cutting sarcastic wit. Unfortunately these traits tend to emerge right before he does something very unwise. He often explodes in episodes of violent rage which get him into a lot of trouble. For some reason he rarely teams up with other supervillians preferring to work alone with his henchmen and wife. When he does team up he inevitably betrays them and goes his own way.

He is deeply in love with his wife, and the two have an erratic but passionate long-term history. The Monarch can be both loving and playful (as witnessed in several intimate scenes), but also bitterly insecure over their relationship. This insecurity has almost cost them their relationship several times.

Despite his flaws, he is considered by many (including Doctor Mrs. The Monarch and #21) to be a person truly talented in villainy, filled with a villainous kind of hatred that's almost an art form.

The possible explanation for The Monarch's odd mixture of ineptness and genre-aware cunning, may have been given in the season 3 premiere Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny, in which it was revealed that The Monarch was actually a Guild henchman who started his own career as a full-blown "villain" without "going through the proper channels" of the Guild or receiving formal training. Depending on how one looks at it, The Monarch could actually be seen as a very successful henchman, who was able to bootstrap his way up to being a major villain, and win over Dr. Girlfriend. This furthers the dichotomy between the Monarch and Dr. Venture: Venture started out with everything, the son of the great Jonas Venture that had all of the advantages, and his life turned into a failure. The Monarch may not be the most successful or competent villain ever, but compared to Venture, he's at least got the excuse that he wasn't supposed to be a major villain, but refused to play the hand fate dealt him.

Relationships With Other Characters

Dr. Girlfriend

The Monarch first met Dr. Girlfriend back when she was still known as Lady Au Pair and the Monarch was "Shadowman 9," a henchman for Phantom Limb. Dr. Girlfriend later became Phantom Limb's number two (Queen Etheria). At the time Malcolm was moonlighting as the Monarch, and showed up to a party hosted by Phantom Limb as such, effectively wooing Dr. Girlfriend. They leave together and soon after become a couple, with Dr. Girlfriend now serving as the Monarch's number two. In the season one episode Trial of the Monarch they break up. Dr. Girlfriend goes back to Phantom Limb, who later frames the Monarch for murder and he is sent to prison. In season two he breaks out and tries to win her back. In the episode I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills Dr. Henry Killinger reunites them and they plan to get married in Showdown at Cremation Creek (however Phantom Limb interrupts the wedding and they aren't officially wed until the episode Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny.) She now goes by the name Dr. Mrs. the Monarch and instead of being his number two, she is his equal.

Dr. Venture

Dr. Venture is his sworn enemy but it's never been revealed why. Popular theories are that it started in college, as they went to the same one. However, due to their incredibly similar appearances it is also believed that they may be related in some way.

The Henchmen

Other than #21 and #24, he thinks of his henchman as fairly disposable and insists that they prefer to be called "minions."

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). He has shown on multiple occasions to be surprisingly competent in battle as he has held his own against a horde of Guild robots on one occasion. 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.

While The Monarch has an obvious relish for the theatrics and grandiose aspects of supervillainy, he has proven he's not above cheap tricks and underhanded tactics as a more practical approach. In Handsome Ransom, The Monarch simply kicked Dr. Venture in the groin and robbed him of the ransom drop while the two were negotiating.

All of the Monarch's equipment is based on butterflies. His base is a giant flying cocoon. It has a 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 take them 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 II)"). The Monarch also briefly had a "Butterfly Glider" (based off the Green Goblin's weapon), a large golden butterfly shaped personal flying transport that ran on bio-diesel The Diving Bell Vs. The Butter-Glider

After taking up the mantle of The Blue Morpho, the monarch takes to wearing his father's old costume and has full access to the latter's old gadgets which includes tranquilizers, his car and water scooters all of which he found in the latter's secret lair.

Christmas Songs

Gallery

Trivia

A picture of the monarch playing with Dr. Venture implies that the two may have been close friends as children.
Apparently the Monarch's father was an anti-hero. Who was a villian but often teamed up with Heroes.