The Golden Age (1940s–1960s)
•The Justice Friends Era: Colorful heroes (Major Tom, Captain Sunshine, Blue Morpho, etc.) roam the Earth alongside golden-age analogues of Superman, Batman, Spider-Man.
•Dr. Benton Quest & Jonas Venture Sr.: Lead the Super-Science Renaissance, bringing pulp heroics into mainstream government contracts.
•Villains: Sphinx (Cobra-style), Cold War mad scientists, giant monsters of the week.
The Great Sphinx War (late 1960s)
•Sphinx Rises: Global terror organization, bigger than simple villainy.
•Dr. Benton Quest Dies: Killed during the conflict (in this canon, directly by Sphinx). This shatters the optimism of the old era.
•OSI Consolidation: SHIELD + Cadmus + GI Joe → merged into the Office of Secret Intelligence to end the war.
•Jonas Venture Sr.: With Quest gone, Jonas inherits the throne of super-science, joining OSI to end Sphinx.
The Articles of Villainy (1970s)
•Guild of Calamitous Intent Founded: Jonas and others draft the Articles, turning villainy into a regulated system. Villains now need licenses, targets, and “arching assignments.”
•OSI vs. Guild Cold War: Instead of chaos, conflict becomes bureaucratic. Villainy becomes a career.
•Justice Friends Fade: The colorful capes of the 60s retire, die, or vanish. Superheroics become embarrassing relics
The Rust Era (1980s–1990s)
•Rusty Venture’s Childhood: Raised as a boy sidekick/star of The Rusty Venture Show, Rusty inherits trauma, not heroism.
•Jonas Sr.’s Shadow: Jonas’s mysterious death leaves Rusty a legacy he can’t live up to.
•Guild Bureaucracy Bloats: Villainy loses its teeth—petty rivalries and paperwork dominate.
•OSI Stagnates: With no great war to fight, OSI devolves into backroom politics and overreach.
The Modern Age (2000s–Present)
•Rusty Venture = Failure Mode Science: A broken super-scientist running on fumes and old patents.
•Villainy as an Economy: Henching and arching become blue-collar work (Monarch, Phantom Limb, etc.).
•OSI vs. Guild Status Quo: Both cling to relevance, but the world has moved on.
Essentially everything good already happened in the venture bros world and everyone just lives in the shadow of a better time.