Brock Samson is one of the main characters on the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros., serving as a parody of Doc Savage, Race Bannon and other super-competent individuals in adventure serials. His name is a play on Doc Samson (Doc/Brock) of Marvel Comics, who is based on on Biblical strongman Samson, with whom Brock shares a near-indestructible nature and, except for a few episodes at the beginning of the second season, long hair and similar appearance. He is voiced by Patrick Warburton.
Brock was born the older of two children to a single mother in Omaha, Nebraska. Little is known about his childhood or his background, aside from his 1/2 Swedish, 1/4th Polish, and 1/4th Winnebago ancestry.
Sometime around the early 1980s, he received a football scholarship to an unnamed college where his fellow students included Thaddeus "T.S." Venture, The Monarch, Pete White, and Werner ?nderbheit. Brock was assigned as a roommate for upper-classman Rusty Venture, who never much saw his future bodyguard except at night, when Brock would bring home a revolving door of female classmates to have sex with, while Rusty laid awake in the bottom bunk of their bunk bed set.
Brock's college career ended one fateful afternoon when he accidentally killed Tommy, the team's deaf quarterback, during practice. Haunted by the guilt and furious at the ramifactions of his actions (having been booted from the team and as such, losing his scholarship), Brock drank heavily and returned to his dorm and vented his frustrations by beating Rusty and his friends (Underbheit, White, and another student, Mike Soryama) in a blind fit of rage. Expelled for his murderous rampage, Brock left school in disgrace with his final words to Rusty Venture being to relay the revelation that Rusty's father had died.
With no other options, Brock joined the military (in the episode "Past Tense", Brock says that he is joining the Army, though in the later episode "Assassinanny 911", he is said to have joined the Marines). Within several years, Brock was recruited to join O.S.I., aka the Office of Secret Intelligence, a SHIELD-esque organization of super spies that have been "thanklessly defending this big-ass country since the second American revolution (the invisible one)." There, he was taken under the wing of Colonel Hunter Gathers, an eccentric yet brilliant secret agent (modeled after Hunter S. Thompson). Hunter personally oversaw Brock's training and as a result, became what Brock later described as being the "second closest thing to a father" he ever had.
Brock eventually rose to the rank of Level 8, Class A; which granted Brock a License to Kill. Brock would use this newfound right with great zeal (it also indicates he is an organ donor). Strangely enough, he failed to notice when his cherished license to kill expired in one episode, and only found out when he gave his license as proof of identity.
With Colonel Gathers, Brock faced what he would later describe as "mind-blowing weirdness at every turn" as an agent of OSI. He befriended fellow agent (and Johnny Quest main character) Race Bannon and during a period stationed in Vietnam during the 1980s, developed a rivalry with a fellow agent named Hauser, who Brock would met again several years later during a visit to the White House, as a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the President.
Brock's career as a field agent would ultimately come to an end, when he became involved in Colonel Gathers' attempt to expose the existence of the then-secretive "Guild of Calamitous Intent". Linking college professor Hamilton J. Fantomas to the Guild, Brock and Gathers used disgraced game show contestant Billy "Quizboy" Whalen as a mole to infiltrate Fantomas' class and gain his sympathy in order to find out what he was up to, with the newly granted artificial limbs and eye that Gathers gave Billy to force him to spy for them. The plan failed though when Billy was roped into an experiment designed to restore Professor Fantomas' withered and deformed limbs , inadvertedly turning him into the villainous "Phantom Limb" in the process. The failure of the plan resulted in Colonel Gathers being reassigned to Guam and Brock being punished by being taken out of active field duty and assigned bodyguard duty for the military's top scientific contractor: Rusty Venture.
Hence Brock was assigned to protect Dr. Thaddeus Venture and his family, ostensibly to prevent Venture's more dangerous inventions from falling into villainous hands and threatening national security. The official code name for this assignment is "Operation Rusty's Blanket." ("Rusty" was Dr. Venture's much-despised childhood nickname.) It is revealed in "The Invisible Hand of Fate" that the man who gave Brock this assignment was secret Guild of Calamitous Intent member Sgt. Hatred, whose secret identity was OSI Sgt. Haine.
It is hinted at in the third season episode "The Buddy System" that Brock may have a teenage son, Dermott Fictel, of whom he is unaware. Dermott revealed his connection to Brock after being captured by #24 in "Tears of a Sea Cow", to which #24 didn't believe him.
Brock embodies the 'strong, but silent' stereotype, usually speaking in a low, gravelly murmur and maintaining a casual aura. He speaks in an oddly calm manner in anything short of the most urgent circumstances, and his level voice is often at odds with his perpetually-crazed expression. However, he also has a hair-trigger temper which can cause him to snap at the slightest provocation, including a friendly touch on the shoulder at an inopportune moment. When he is engulfed in a fit of rage, he exhibits near super-human strength, a facial twitch, and is apparently capable of enduring almost any kind of physical punishment imaginable, and his "normal" endurance is nearly as impressive. Even when shot in the shoulder, he only lost consciousness for a few hours. Simple surgery to remove the bullet revealed that Brock's body harbored three additional bullets, a blowgun dart, two shark's teeth, a bayonet tip, a twisted paper clip, and a meager handful of buckshot, none of which seemed to bother him in the slightest.
Brock's ability to endure pain is matched only by his ability to dish out pain to others, which he does with great enthusiasm. As mentioned, he possesses a license to kill, and has proven himself quite capable and willing to kill anyone or anything at a moment's notice, in a manner that is as grisly as it is creative. He is also known to be quite thorough in ensuring that a threat is completely eliminated. On at least one occasion, he urinated on what appeared to be a mummy's corpse, in the belief that defiling it would prevent any subsequent reanimation. Additionally, he can be briefly seen through the eyes of another character killing two men by pinning them to the wall with a running lawnmower.
In combat, he scorns firearms, instead preferring bladed weapons (particularly his serrated Bowie knife), blunt objects, or his bare hands. He does, however, appear to make an exception for certain projectile-based weapons. He expressed a fondness for a functioning net cannon, his sole complaint against them is that too often they merely "mess up the guy's hair." In addition, he honors one of his mentor's only rules: to never kill women or children, only subduing them with nonlethal means when necessary. Brock has an odd relationship with Dr. Venture. He doesn't always take the man seriously, yet dotes on him when he's hurt or ill. The two sometimes reminisce about their past escapades with fondness and even camaraderie and laughter. Brock even obeys Dr. Venture's rule that he can't smoke inside the compound, and helps with domestic chores. Dr. Venture seems to have a fondness for Brock, even sharing simple things with him like having extra coupons for shopping.
Brock has an avuncular, if not paternal, relationship with the Venture boys. He seems especially fond of Hank, who idolizes him in turn. Samson shows greater concern for their well-being and development than Dr. Venture ever has, expressing concerns over Hank's sanity and Dean's effeminacy (though he never expresses the latter in such blunt terms), and also gives them useful advice on their first big date ("Victor. Echo. November."). However, Brock has been slightly annoyed by Hank from time to time. His relationship with Venture and the boys has matured to the point that he refers to them as his family ("Hate Floats"), and it is suggested that he prefers being their bodyguard to the weirdness and moral ambiguity of his former life ("Assassinanny 911"). It is also possible that Brock has a son of his own ("The Buddy System"). Brock seems to be on a friendly basis with H.E.L.P.eR., the Venture's robot, even going so far as to have arguments over Led Zeppelin (H.E.L.P.eR. dismisses Zeppelin as "jock rock") and sharing appreciation for poetry. Brock seems to treat H.E.L.P.eR. almost as an equal, unlike Doctor Venture, who criticizes and yells at the hapless robot most of the time.
It is of particular note that Brock's personality and relationships have evolved considerably throughout the series. In the beginning of the series he seemed to be hostile to most of the family, largely ignoring them and just focusing on brutally murdering his enemies and having sex with as many women as possible. As the series has continued he has begun showing considerably more affection to the Ventures, and a great deal of worry about their safety. Things have also been shown as disturbing him greatly, a big difference from the unfeeling Brock in the early episodes.
He seems to be unfazed by most supervillains, despite his comment that the Guild of Calamitous Intent is the only organization he still respects; the only one who seems to be able to deal with Brock on his own level is Phantom Limb. Brock has proven himself able to sneak up on Limb and hold him at knife-point, successfully convincing the Limb to not attack the Venture family anymore. He also has a past history with David Bowie, who in the Venture Brothers universe is also a shapeshifting mutant and the leader of Guild, under the title of Sovereign. Whether or not Brock knows of Bowie's leadership role in the Guild is ambiguous, though when they meet face to face in Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I), Brock makes cryptic references to a past encounter in Berlin, Germany that according to Brock, would have justified him killing Bowie on the spot had Bowie's bodyguards and Dr. Girlfriend not intervened to keep the two men from coming to blows.
Brock's remarkable ability to survive extensive injury has served him well, including the following incidents:
Episode: "Dia de Los Dangerous!"
Event: Shot with over two dozen tranquilizer darts as well as apparently lethal darts, hit with a truck, and buried alive.
Effects: Extreme rage upon waking several hours later, downs a bottle of tequila and in retaliation he runs over many of the Monarch's henchmen with his car.
Episode: "Careers in Science".
Event: Exposed to the vacuum of space for several seconds without protective equipment, or even a shirt, which caused his body to freeze.
Effects: Slight nosebleed, coughed up a pink chunk the size of a small kiwifruit but didn't feel anything missing and decided to "go lie down."
Episode: "The Incredible Mr. Brisby".
Event: Drugged with a chloral hydrate-laced cigarette, dumped into a tar pit.
Effects: None, after washing off tar.
Episode: "Return to Spider-Skull Island".
Event: Bashed over the head with a pipe wrench, chained to the roof of his own car which subsequently catches fire and crashes through a window.
Effects: Loss of mullet.
Episode: "Hate Floats".
Event: Shot in the shoulder at close range with a 9mm pistol.
Effects: Brief period of unconsciousness due to blood loss.
Episode:"Assassinanny 911" (in flashback).
Event: Stabbed simultaneously in the kidneys with drug-tipped stilettos, pinned to a bed with a sai in each shoulder, and trapped in a burning room.
Effects: Frustrated anguish over lack of cigarettes.
Episode: "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills".
Event: Falls victim to plastic explosives while investigating a dumpster, later hit head-on by a car.
Effects: Charred clothes, lost a shoe.
Episode: "íViva los Muertos!"
Event: Assaulted en-masse by dozens of gun-toting Monarch henchmen in the Venture Compound Hangar.
Effects: Guilty conscience for killing the last retreating henchman.
Episode: "Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part II)"
Event: Clinging to the top of Phantom Limb's Command Craft as it crashes into the floor of the Grand Canyon.
Effects: None.
Episode: "Home Is Where The Hate Is".
Event: Attacked by Sergeant Hatred's entire army.
Effects: Blood stains on his clothes, temporary heavy breathing.
Episode: "Now Museum, Now You Don't".
Event: Nearly coaxed back to an exploding island.
Effects: None.
