Phantom Limb
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- This article is about the fictional character. For the syndrome he is named after, see phantom limb.
- For the song by American band The Shins, see Phantom Limb (song).
Phantom Limb is a fictional villain on the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros. He is a parody of articulate and "gentlemanly" supervillains, such as Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the James Bond books and films. His code name is a reference to phantom limb syndrome, and his true name (Hamilton G. Fantomos) may be a reference to the French supervillain Fantômas, as well as the science fiction detective Gil Hamilton. His costume also bears a strong visual resemblance to the Lee Falk comic strip hero The Phantom.
[edit] Background
The backstory of Hamilton G. Fantomos and how he became the villain known as Phantom Limb, is shrouded in mystery and rumor. The episode "Victor. Echo. November." featured several characters (The Monarch, Hank Venture, and Monarch henchmen #21) discussing Phantom Limb's origin, each with various variations:
- According to the Monarch; Phantom Limb was a scrawny college student who developed a "muscle growth accelerator" to increase his body size and strength with the aid of his 12-year-old roommate, Master Billy Quizboy. The device malfunctioned, causing Phantom Limb's arms and legs to become invisible and giving him his “death touch” power by way of accelerating his limbs beyond the speed of light.
- According to #21: Phantom Limb (with his current body type) and Master Billy Quizboy were heroic scientists working on a time machine they had funding using money gleaned from Card Sharks. During a test run it malfunctioned and teleported just Phantom Limb's arms and legs, as well as Billy's hand when he reached out in an attempt to help, 40 years into the future where they now wait.
- According to Hank Venture: Phantom Limb was a stage magician (minus his trademark mustache) who, during a performance for the Queen of England, accidentally caused his limbs to disappear. Hank went on to explain they they were transported to the moon with a number of other magical accoutrements. Hanks version also makes Phantom Limb responsible for cutting off (and eating) Master Billy Quizboy's hand.
The truth of the three is to be taken with a grain of salt, with the last version in particular (told by Hank Venture) being immediately denied by his brother as being false. Furthermore, the episode "Victor. Echo. November." ends with a scene where Master Billy Quizboy admits to Dr. Venture that he doesn't remember how he received his robotic hand, which may also rule out the first and second scenarios. Though given statements in a previous episode ("Hate Floats"), where Phantom Limb refers to himself as a former “goody-goody” super-scientist, the time machine scenario may still be the true origin; in that same episode, he also used a muscle growth accelerator on Brock Samson, which could give credence to the first scenario; that with the help of mind-wipe technology supplied by the Guild of Calamitous Intent, Phantom Limb erased Billy's memories of his partnership with him and as such, caused him to lose all memory of the accident that caused him to lose his hand.
That said, the "Hate Floats" offered the only concrete information on the character's origin from the character himself. During a confrontation with Brock Samson, Samson mocks Phantom Limb and describes him as a "quitter" scientist, implying that the incident that turned his legs and arms invisible also caused Phantom Limb to become a super-villain and reject using his intellect for the betterment of mankind. Phantom Limb mockingly agrees with Brock, referring to himself as a "goody-goody" super-scientist who invented such things as a muscle regenerator until a "disastrous experiment" led to his limbs becoming invisible and gaining newfound powers. No mention of Billy Quizboy is made by Limb though during his confrontation with Brock, though he uses a muscle regeneration device to help Brock heal a shoulder injury.
Despite being a high ranking member of Guild of Calamitous Intent, Phantom Limb's early villainous career was said to be quite low-class by his own account, with Limb living off of Ramen Noodles and SpaghettiO's, and driving a Honda Accord with a ghost on the hood as his vehicle. But despite this, he quickly became a feared and ruthless villain and ultimately formed an alliance with Dr. Girlfriend (then known as "Lady Au-Pair"), renaming her "Queen Etheria" and taking her on as both his second-in-command and lover. The relationship would not last, as Queen Etheria was seduced away from Phantom Limb by the Monarch, a move that has resulted in a long-standing rivalry between the two villains.
Phantom Limb first appears in the series at Dr. Venture's tag sale, where he runs into Dr. Girlfriend while The Monarch is in the bathroom. He chides her for still being with "the butterfly" and asks her to rejoin him, to which she angrily rejects, stating that she "has a good thing going on now". He is later shown to be a competent fighter after The Monarch starts a riot: since his arms and legs are invisible, he can easily strike others without warning.
Phantom Limb's next appearance was in the episode The Trial of the Monarch. In the episode, Phantom Limb frames The Monarch the murder of a police officer, who the Guild has bribed into allowing them to fake his death in exchange for a new life of wealth and a super-model wife. The plan coincided with another Guild operation regarding the capture of "Tiny Attorney", a deformed district attorney with a track record of successful criminal prosecution of super-villains. He is surprisingly allowed to complete his objectives by Brock Samson, whose respect for the Guild leads to him to take cover in the bathroom with Hank and Dean Venture while Phantom Limb's scheme unfolds.
The “Trial of the Monarch” brought Phantom Limb's desire for revenge against Monarch and his desire to reunite with Dr. Girlfriend together as Dr. Girlfriend aided Phantom Limb in framing the Monarch, in hopes of teaching him a lesson after a fight between the two of them led her to seek refuge at her ex-boyfriend's home. Monarch did himself no favors in the reconciliation of Limb and his former lover, when Monarch went on a tangent during his trial testimony about how he had dumped Dr. Girlfriend and was glad that she was gone.
Phantom Limb's next appearance was in Powerless in the Face of Death, when he discovered the Monarch's plan to escape prison and bribed and/or threatened the Monarch's fellow imprisoned super-villains into backing out of the Monarch's plan at the moment Monarch began his escape. However, despite Phantom Limb's best efforts (and perhaps spurned on by Phantom Limb's refusal to use his position in the Guild to help him escape jail), King Gorilla revealed to the Monarch that Phantom Limb had ordered the imprisoned Guild members into turning their backs on Monarch and personally helped the Monarch escape from prison, after making Monarch vow that he succeed in his plans to reunite with Dr. Girlfriend..
While Phantom Limb and Dr. Girlfriend were shopping at a mall, Phantom Limb's obsession with buying cooking utensils for an upcoming dinner party caused Dr. Girlfriend to excuse herself from her boyfriend in order to get a drink. The Monarch cornered her in the food court and tried to convince her to return to him. Phantom Limb spotted them and angrily approached, causing The Monarch to tranquilize her in a panic and attempt to kidnap her; he clumsily dropped her while flying away. Mistakenly believing that The Monarch was successful in his abduction attempt, Phantom Limb nursed the wounded Brock back to health and misled him into thinking that The Monarch had kidnapped the Venture family. After proudly declaring that his home was "Location B" for the Guild, Phantom Limb allowed Brock to choose from his impressive array of weaponry and equipment and led him to The Monarch's cocoon for a rescue mission. Although the two seemed to be happily cooperating (Brock was impressed by the "killer-hand thing"), Brock angered Phantom Limb by repeatedly questioning whether Dr. Girlfriend was a transsexual, leading to Phantom Limb shooting Brock in the neck with a tranquillizer dart.
Even though he is a force to be reckoned with, most of Phantom Limb's time is spent either engaging in overseeing the bureaucratic aspects of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, mainly recruiting members and dealing with the day-by-day bookkeeping aspects of running such a major organization. And while still quite capable of personally carrying out kidnapping plots and murder schemes, most of the character's villainous schemes involve rather mundane crimes such as the trafficking of valuable stolen artwork to wealthy clients of the Guild. This led to much strife between Limb and Dr. Girlfriend in the episode "Victor. Echo. November.", though Phantom Limb cryptically told Dr. Girlfriend (and the Monarch) that his ambitions were much more than that of a bookkeeper for the Guild, foreshadowing his ultimate attempt at a coup d'etat against the Guild's leader, the mysterious “Sovereign”.
In the two-part season finale “Showdown at Cremation Creek", Phantom Limb is officially dumped by Dr. Girlfriend, after Monarch reconciled with her behind Limb's back and ultimately proposed marriage. As their wedding approached, the Sovereign refused to grant Phantom Limb permission to kill Monarch and steal Dr. Girlfriend away from him on the day of the wedding. This was the turning point for Limb's ambition to rule the Guild as Sovereign, as he planned not only to launch an all out assault on the Monarch's wedding using Guild forces loyal to him, but also to have Phantom Limb loyalists Klaus Nomi and Iggy Pop assassinate the Sovereign, who is revealed to be international superstar (and Homo Superior shapeshifter) David Bowie. Limb nearly succeeds, capturing Girlfriend and having Iggy Pop “kill” Bowie, but Bowie survived via turning himself into a pack of cigarettes when Pop tried to kill him and the combination of Bowie, Brock Samson - leading The Monarch's henchmen in battle against the Guild - and accidental intervention by the Order of the Triad brought those plans to a (literal) crashing halt through a massive aircrash involving the Monarch's airship, the Triad's plane, and Limb's own aerial assault vehicle. It is implied that Limb survived the crash but not without a major price: permanently losing both an arm and his leg as well as what is implied to be his penis (discreetly taken by the Alchemist for his own use). He is currently on the run from Bowie, who has vowed to use the entire resources of the Guild to kill Phantom Limb for his attempt to kill Bowie, while Monarch declares Phantom Limb his new arch-nemesis. If and how Phantom Limb will return is yet to be revealed.
[edit] Personality
Phantom Limb, unlike most other characters on the show, is cool, cunning, generally serious (although he has his ridiculous side) and occasionally even rather chilling in his ruthlessness. He is clearly able to plan well-ahead and in the course of only a few episodes is revealed to be a dangerous man to tangle with, able to even deal with Brock Samson at his own level while garnering Samson's respect.
In spite of this (or possibly because of this), Phantom Limb is extremely arrogant and pompous, almost to the point of theatrical drama, and to the point where he overreaches himself. He is prone to overacting when confronting several Monarch henchmen who he murders and often uses a far more extensive vocabulary than the situation demanded ("Hate Floats"). He also seems to have a penchant for using mismatched metaphors, like "precise soup" and "bigger rat fish." He can be condescending and sexist towards women, and seems unable to understand why this may anger them.
He was involved with Dr. Girlfriend, who used to work for him under the alias "Queen Etheria". The two were romantically involved as well as professionally. Limb continued to carry a torch for his ex-girlfriend (he kept her old costume in storage, with a few crusty spots on it which he told Doctor Girlfriend were his tears), culminating in him framing her new boyfriend The Monarch for murder to break the two up for good. Phantom Limb looks down upon the Monarch, often calling him "the butterfly" as a sign of disrespect, yet is so self-involved as a Guild operative (i.e. pencil-pusher) that he takes time out to organize The Monarch's re-admittance to the organization, complete with paperwork. Doctor Girlfriend eventually grows bored with the more realistic and even mundane aspects of Phantom Limb's crimes, missing the over-the-top super-villainy of the Monarch.
[edit] Powers and abilities
The Phantom Limb's arms and legs are completely invisible (hence his name). In fact, his costume consists of a purple, short-sleeved, legless garment with an open-faced hood and domino mask; as such, it is not clear how much of his body is actually visible.
Phantom Limb possesses the ability to kill (or incapacitate) a person via physically making contact with another person with his hands. The only visible sign of this effect is a flashing pattern which vaguely resembles blood vessels along his invisible arms. These "phantom limbs" and/or their strange powers are capable of deflecting projectiles. Phantom Limb has complete control over these powers, allowing him to touch people without outright killing them. Also, it has been established that Phantom Limb can use his "death touch" while wearing gloves as well as the fact that direct bodily contact is not necessary for him to use the power; in "The Trial of the Monarch", grabbing the barrel of a security guard's gun (with a gloved hand, no less) caused the guard to die. Only one person - David Bowie - has been shown to be immune to Limb's powers, thanks to his status as a 'Homo Superior'. There is a similarity between his powers and the 'imaginary arm' of Larry Niven's Gil 'The Arm' Hamilton.
But what makes Phantom Limb most dangerous is his access to the resources of the Guild of Calamitous Intent. As a high-ranking member, he has access to the Guild's full resources of minions and equipment at a moment's notice, giving him a large reach regarding evil actions. As such, he can order a person's death via a simple order on a whim. His influence within the Guild was so deep, that he was able to get both Klaus Nomi and Iggy Pop to join his coup d'etat against David Bowie without Bowie realizing that the two (who served as his bodyguards) had betrayed him until they had made their move.
| The Venture Bros. | |
|---|---|
| Characters Main | Secondary |
Hank Venture • Dean Venture • Dr. Thaddeus Venture • Brock Samson • H.E.L.P.eR. • Jonas Venture Junior Dr. Orpheus • Triana Orpheus • Pete White • Master Billy Quizboy • Molotov Cocktease • Myra Brandish The Monarch • Doctor Girlfriend • #21 • #24 • Baron Werner Ünderbheit • Phantom Limb |
| Organizations Prominent | Minor |
Team Venture/Venture Industries • Order of the Triad • Monarch Henchmen • Guild of Calamitous Intent |
| Cast and crew | Paul Boocock • Lisa Hammer • Steven Rattazzi • Michael Sinterniklaas • James Urbaniak • Patrick Warburton Jackson Publick • Doc Hammer • J. G. Thirlwell • World Leaders Entertainment |
| Episodes | Pilot • Season 1 • Season 2 • Specials • Phone Calls |
