Brock Samson

**Brock Samson** is one of the main characters from the *The Venture Bros.* series.

Brock is the man's man of secret agents. Disdaining guns in favor of his ever-present Bowie knife, he has a license to kill and the overpowering desire to use it. Fiercely loyal to Dr. Venture and the boys, Brock will let nothing stand in the way of their safety, be it ninja, super-villain or Chupacabra.

In season four, after quitting the OSI, he joined Hunter and SPHINX. However, after the Ventures discover the SPHINX compound, he regularly interacts with them during the season's second half. After Hunter is placed as head of OSI, all members of Sphinx are rolled back into OSI, including Brock. He returns to Team Venture in Season 6, being reinstated as their bodyguard due to Rusty's rise in status following his move to New York.

In the AWA fics, Brock is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Brock was originally based on pro-wrestler Psycho Sid Vicious (real name Sid Eudy), there were complaints by WWE about this and later the creators had to tone down Brock's psychotic behavior from the first season. In the episode Eeney, Meeney, Miney ...Magic, Brock was about to give Molotov a powerbomb onto the bed, but that part was removed and now just shows him walking to the bed with Molotov punching him whilst sitting on his shoulders facing him. Appropriate to his half-Swedish heritage, he has blonde hair and light blue eyes. His mullet hairstyle is a trademark of sorts; other characters comment on it frequently, and it earns him the nickname 'Franken-Mullet.' His hair grows steadily longer over the course of the second season, and he grows mutton-chop sideburns.

At the beginning of Season 4, after quitting his job with the O.S.I. Brock lived with Steve Summers and Sasquatch, during which his body fell horribly out of shape, resulting in a potbelly and devolved muscles. Upon joining with his fellow Ex-O.S.I. members in S.P.H.I.N.X. however, Brock slowly regained his fit muscular physique.

In keeping with the show's vaguely anachronistic sense of fashion, Brock is usually drawn in clothing styles that were popular in the 1970s and early 80's: 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."

After the start of season 4, Brock has a metal plate fastened between his pectorals to cover a wound he received when H.E.L.P.eR's head was lodged in his chest following an explosion. Although he has since healed, the plate has yet to be removed.

## **Personality**

Though he has become a well-developed, three dimensional character, Brock mostly embodies the 'strong, silent' stereotype. He usually speaks in a low, gravelly deadpan and maintains a casual aura. He speaks calmly in anything short of the most urgent circumstances, and his level voice is sometimes at odds with a crazed facial expression. During said moment, Brock will take down every enemy in sight but despite that, he refuses to kill women and children due to his teachings from Colonel Hunter Gathers. He loves fighting and killing seeing his agent duty as his true purpose even, though he sometimes doubts his lethal actions. This came to ahead in ¡Viva los Muertos! when he killed a helpless henchman who had given up fighting and was later resurrected as Venturestein. His terror of Brock and tortured existence made Brock realize that he'd gone too far killing a helpless man. Afterwards, while reconciling the fact that being a lethal badass is what he is while also resolving to control his bloodlust so as to only resort to serious violence and lethal force if it's necessary and unavoidable. His fear of the supernatural is one of the few things which was shown to be able to faze Brock, as shown when Dean spoke Sumerian and when the VenTech Tower was "haunted".

Brock seems to be unfazed by most super-villains, despite his comment that the Guild of Calamitous Intent is one of few organizations he respects.The only villain who seems to be able to communicate with Brock on his own level is Phantom Limb. He also has a history with David Bowie, who, in the Venture Brothers universe, is impersonated by a shapeshifter that is the leader of the Guild in addition to a famous performer. Whether or not Brock knows of Bowie's role in the Guild is not clear, but Brock makes it clear that he would be happy to kill Bowie if the opportunity arose.

Brock's personality has evolved considerably throughout the series. In the beginning of the series, he seemed to be hostile and closed off to most of the family. While loyal to them and has shown to care about them, he largely ignored them, focused on brutally murdering his enemies and having sex as often as possible. As the series has continued he has begun showing affection for the Ventures, and a great deal of concern for their safety. Though a departure from the unfeeling Brock of early episodes, the writers confirm he is still assumed to be the 'Swedish Murder Machine' behind the scenes.

## **Abilities**

He exhibits near super-human strength, a facial twitch, and the ability to endure almost any kind of physical punishment, including unprotected exposure to the vacuum of outer space. During surgery to remove a bullet from his shoulder in the episode Hate Floats, his body is discovered to harbor three additional bullets, "a blowgun dart, two shark's teeth, the tip of a bayonet, a twisted paper clip, and a meager handful of buckshot," which he had apparently failed to notice. He is seen by his enemies as unstoppable, which is sometimes confirmed as he took a tank shot to the chest and survived, though he had a metal plate installed. He has only been matched in battle few times and shows respect to each enemy that manages it.

His ability to endure pain is matched by his ability to inflict it, which he does with great enthusiasm. He has shown himself to be capable of killing many different creatures at a moment's notice, including men, monsters, bears, and tyrannosaurus. He generally disdains firearms, preferring to kill instead with his hands or his Bowie knife, but occasionally makes exceptions for certain projectile weapons. Despite his disdain for guns, he is an excellent marksman: in the episode The Incredible Mr. Brisby, Brock repeatedly stops the fall of Dr. Venture by pinning the cuff of his pants to the wall with a rivet-gun. He has the ability to tell if anybody is in his classic muscle car. Even from a different continent.

## **Trivia**

* Brock's O.S.I. agent number is 9262, as revealed in *The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Part II)*.
* In *Spanakopita!*, it is revealed that Brock has fathered at least two illegitimate sons with women on the Mediterranean island where the episode is set.
* Brock is heavily based on Samson from The Bible.
* Brock has an herb garden and regularly does the lawn with his signature special blend of Blue Ridge and Creeping Red.
* According to Think Tank's readout in *Tanks for Nuthin'*, Brock's interests include Hand-to-hand Combat, Murder, and Zeppelin (presumably the band Led Zeppelin, not the dirigibles). It also lists several aliases, many of which were nicknames applied to Brock by Shore Leave. Such as: Goldilocks, Ape Drape, Captain Mullethead, FrankenMullet, Brock of Ages, Thinkulosa, BrockLobster, Brocodile, Pop n Fresh, Babe Ruthless, Brockness Monster, Agent Topanga Lawrence, Hockey Hair
* Brock's name may also be a play on Doc Samson, a recurring character from Marvel's Hulk comic books.
* Born May 28, 1962.
* Brock is willing to show mercy if he's already hurt someone to the point they aren't a threat.
* He hates when henchman commit suicide by cyanide capsule, robbing him of the chance to kill them himself, and considers it "cheating".