The Venture Bros. is one of the most expansive animated series of the 21st century, mixing a deep pool of references from across film, television, music, history and culture into the sci-fi/super spy/superhero series, but there’s actually a secret connection between The Venture Bros and one of those iconic pop culture franchises that it loves to reference. A cross-franchise videogame from 2013 tied together the worlds of Evil Dead and The Venture Bros. by revealing a time-displaced Ash Williams was actually the distant ancestor of Brock Samson.
Poker Night at the Inventory 2 from the videogame studio Telltale Games was a 2013 digital poker game. The game specifically pitted players in games of Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha Hold ‘Em against four characters from different franchises — Ash from the Evil Dead series, Sam from the Sam & Max franchise, Claptrap from the Borderlands video games and Brock Samson from The Venture Bros.
Amidst the card game, which featured GLaDOS from Portal serving as dealer, the characters would joke, bicker and tease one another, highlighting all the little similarities and differences between them. In various dialogue conversations, Brock and Ash are shown to get along well; although, Brock is quick to poke fun at the relatively scrawny adventure hero, but one of the dialogue moments hints at a deeper connection between the two.
While talking with Sam, Ash reveals that after the events of Army of Darkness returned him to the present day, he tried to find out what happened to Sheila. Sheila had served as Ash’s love interest in the film and remained in the 14th century after he departed. Thanks to GLaDOS, Ash finds out that Sheila eventually married a Sir Theodore in the year 1300; however, she was seemingly pregnant at the time, suggesting Ash may have had a child in the distant era after a night of passion with Sheila. She ultimately had a single son, and the bloodline barely survived the Black Plague through a single heir, while Sheila and the rest of the family died due to the disease.
This last surviving member of the family moved to Poland in the 15th century, before eventually fleeing the Nazis in the 20th century by moving to America. There, they settled in with a Swedish-heavy community in Nebraska. In the 1960s, the last surviving descendant of Sheila, Bonnie Jablonski, was briefly married and had two sons. One of these two sons ended up being Brock Samson, who is more exhausted by the revelation than anything else, befitting his experience dealing with the unexpected and bizarre elements in the world of The Venture Bros.
In fact, Ash’s experience with one-liners and overcoming the ridiculous are traits he shares with Brock. Samson has confronted supernatural, alien and bizarre threats almost his entire adult life, starting with his time as an agent of the OSI before becoming Rusty Venture’s bodyguard. Along the way, he’s overcome all sorts of threats — much as Ash did.
Evil Dead existing in the same world as The Venture Bros isn’t all that shocking either, considering how dominated by pop culture and magic both worlds have been revealed to be. Plus, beings like Dr. Henry Killinger, Doctor Orpheus and his Master have proven magic does exist in The Venture Bros universe.
Ash also fits perfectly into the show’s universe, with his overarching storyline of being an amazing monster-fighter who finds himself washed out and dealing with a mundane life being similar in tone to The Venture Bros. The Adult Swim show has always had failure as a central theme, and often forces its characters to try and overcome their failings to become better people. While rights issues may keep Ash and Brock from ever having a formal crossover, it’s still a fun connection that exists between both characters — and one that might explain a little bit about both of their worlds.
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