[WARNING – This Venture Bros. review contains some minor spoilers.]

It’s three days before the Science Now conference and Dr. Venture is in need of a hot new invention to unveil. Well, a hot new invention that isn’t the “O.S. Sparkle Dream” that his late brother invented… whatever THAT is. Rusty Venture may not have much but he does have his pride.

Unfortunately, all the creative team in the Super Science department have – apart from a lot of dead mice – is a gas that might be used to control people’s minds. Or inspire religious visions. It’s hard to say because there’s no evidence the mice had any religion to inspire religious visions beforehand.

Meanwhile, as Hank asks the only people on Earth less capable of romancing a woman than him for advice in anticipation of his date with Wide Whale’s daughter, The Monarch and Henchman 21 have hit upon a cunning plan on how to once again become the official arch-enemy of Dr. Venture. For while the rules of The Guild of Calamitous Intent are quite clear upon the matter of poaching another villain’s rightful “arch”, super heroes can beat up whoever they damn well please. And they just so happen to have a whole secret cave with some costumes that will be just about the right size with a few alterations…

Will The Blue Morpho and Kano stalk the streets of New York City once more? Will they get stuck in traffic and find a place to park near the VenTech Tower?

Will The Monarch uphold his father’s legacy as a bad guy who pretended to be a good guy?  Was he actually a bad guy pretending to be a good guy?

Will he save Dr. Venture from the Haranguetan before Brock Samson can manage it? And most importantly – will anyone be fooled by his uniform, which makes him look like The Monarch on his way to a Mad Man themed costumed party?

The only real flaw with Rapacity In Blue is that the subplot with Hank doesn’t really go anywhere.  The bits with Hank asking Dean and Brock for advice on dealing with women are cute but there’s no real payoff and these scenes pale in comparison to the rest of the episode. And oh, the rest of the episode!

It’s clear that Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick have been planning this moment out for a while and it pays off perfectly. Half the fun of The Venture Bros. lies in spotting all the references  and there’s a ton of them in The Monarch’s storyline in this episode. From the obvious parody of The Green Hornet to the subtle riff on the Batman ’66 theme, the episode works on a lot of levels. If only we had gotten more of this and less of Hank asking how to remove a sports bra.