Guild of Calamitous Intent

The Guild of Calamitous Intent is a fictional organization of supervillains in the Adult Swim program The Venture Bros.. The Guild was first mentioned in the season one episode "Home Insecurity", with it's first major appearance being in "The Trial of the Monarch".

History
Little is known about how the Guild of Calamitous Intent came into existence. What is known is that the Guild was founded in 1910 and has, in its long history of existence, become the premiere super-villain organization in the Venture Brothers universe. Its membership easily dwarfs rival groups such as "The Fraternity of Fear" and "The Partnership of Peril", in part due to the fact that the Guild offers protection from authorities and benefits such as free health and dental insurance to all members, as well as access to henchmen and other technology to help villains commit crimes. In exchange, Guild members are required to follow a very strict code of honor with regards to how they carry out their criminal schemes (see "Honor Code" section below).

Because of this strict honor code, having a member of the Guild of Calamitous Intent as a mortal enemy is highly sought after by super-heroes in the Venture Brothers universe. Because of this, the Guild employs an unusual, though incredibly popular, policy to allow super-heroes to register with the Guild and either be assigned or in some cases, be allowed to audition villains from the Guild's vast ranks, to serve as the hero's arch-nemesis.

Because of their policy (referred to as "controlled costumed aggression"), the Guild of Calamitous Intent enjoys a level of popularity and acceptance in society and amongst law enforcement. The Guild even has turned this popularity and trustworthiness into the group's official motto: "Hate You Can Trust". The group also holds the rare distinction, due to their honor code and precise way of doing business, of being the only organization that Brock Samson has respect for.

Sovereign
The Guild itself is run by the "Sovereign", who first appeared in the season one episode "The Trial of the Monarch" and later in "Fallen Arches" and the two part "Showdown at Cremation Creek". Prior to "Showdown at Cremation Creek", the Sovereign appears via a telescreen as a heavily distorted head. In "Showdown at Cremation Creek Part II", the hidden secret of the Guild of Calamitous Intent was revealed: "Sovereign" isn't a person but the title for the leader of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, which is passed on to the next highest ranking Guild member in the event something should happen to keep the current "Sovereign" from carrying out his duties. As of the end of the second season of the Venture Brothers, the current Sovereign was revealed to be superstar musician David Bowie, who in the Venture Brothers universe, is a shapeshifting super-villain along with being an internationally acclaimed musician.

Watch and Ward
The Sovereign is personally aided by two assistants, named Watch and Ward. The two oversee the Guild's activities as well as the Guild's various espionage programs and serve as a link between Sovereign and Phantom Limb. The two characters are based upon show creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, both visually and in their dialogue, the bulk of which is taken from casual, everyday interaction between the two creators

Phantom Limb
Phantom Limb was a high-ranking Guild operative, having achieved his lofty position through years of service inside the Guild. Limb was powerful enough within the Guild that he was able to seize command following the apparent assassination of the Sovereign, David Bowie. (It is unclear, however, if Limb was actually the Guild's second-in-command, and thus assumed the Sovereignty legitimately, or if he merely claimed the position for himself by winning the loyalty of the Guild's armed forces.) As one the Guild's highest-ranking members, Phantom Limb was responsible for the bulk of the day-by-day activities of the Guild, such as carrying out assassinations, targeting super-heroes who actively oppose the Guild and its very existence for death, and other assignments such as espionage and kidnapping. He was also adept at some of the more mundane aspects of Guild business, such as bookkeeping and the liquidating of stolen goods.

Phantom Limb's rank within the Guild was such that his home would occasionally serve as a secondary base of operations for the Guild. While he did not have the coveted position of "Sovereign", Phantom Limb was shown to be have free reign over the resources of the Guild to such an extent that he could deploy the Guild's chief minions, the terrifyingly precise "Strangers", to murder anyone he wanted on a whim.

Unfortunately, two invisible fistfuls of jealously would cause the downfall of Phantom Limb. After Dr. Girlfriend dumped him (for the second time) to accept the Monarch's marriage proposal, Phantom Limb had to be verbally warned by the Guild Sovereign against an act of vengeance on the despised Monarch. After promising his leader that the wedding would proceed undisturbed, Phantom Limb and an inner circle of loyal "Strangers" completely violated orders and attacked the ceremony. In the midst of the ambush, it was revealed that the wedding itself was only a secondary target; the true objective of the attack was to kill David Bowie, International Pop Star, Film Actor--and secret Sovereign Leader of the Guild. With the Sovereign apparently dead at the hands of his traitorous bodyguards, Phantom Limb assumed command of the Guild and moved to completely wipe out the Monarch's rallying forces. But with Brock Samson leading the henchmen, Phantom Limb was delayed just long enough to allow the surprise return of David Bowie, who had used his superhuman powers to transform into a cigarette during his implied destruction. After factions from all sides collided (literally, as the Order of the Triad suddenly arrived in the X-1,) Phantom Limb's aircraft went down. Following the crash, Bowie--unhurt--casually reconfirmed his position as the true Sovereign and declared that his traitorous former subordinate was now the Guild's newest archenemy. In a cruel twist of fate, it appears that Phantom Limb's appearance may now be more than superficial; at least two invisible severed limbs were detected at the final crash site.

Strangers
Besides it's vast membership of villains, the Guild employs its own henchmen, called "Strangers". Loosely based upon the villains of the film "Dark City", "strangers" are the main field operatives of the organization and dress in fur-lined trenchcoats and fedoras, as well as having cyborg parts. These minions mainly carry out Guild business, which can include serving as deadly assassins squads, acts of espionage, and armed forces for Guild assaults.

Honor Code
What seperates the Guild from most villains organizations is the complex honor code that the Guild abides by. The code is partially conceived as a set of rules outlined in the Guild of Calamitous Intent's official handbook which have been expanded upon over the years with various treaties signed via major super-heroes such as Jonas Venture Sr. and unspoken gentlemen's agreements forged with various local law enforcement organizations which involve the Guild providing resources such as new police cruisers to local precincts in exchange for the police turning a blind eye to the crimes committed by Guild members in exchange for the Guild banning its members from harming or murdering local cops under any circumstances.

This code of conduct is required by all Guild members as a condition to join the group. While some members willingly follow these rules and don't question them, others see the rules as a bothersome formality that must be followed so as to ensure that they can still receive the Guild's very generous health and dental care plans as well as a level of immunity from local law enforcement groups.

The code of conduct is complex and include the following rules, which are to be enforced at all times:


 * Villains are limited in weapons they can use as well as what situations they can use certain weapons in. Scenerios where minions equipped with semi-automatic firearms, firing wildly in an enviroment filled with innocent bystanders is forbidden by the Guild.
 * Crimes such as rape and sexual assault, upon both male and female is forbidden.
 * Any hero who is associated with the Guild through it's "Arch-Nemesis Assignment Program" will never, under any circumstance, be paired off for battle against a villain who is more powerful than the hero in question
 * Local law enforcement officers are off-limits and can not be harmed under any circumstances.

Furthermore, all Guild members are required to follow and honor all treaties signed with the super-hero community, many of which were negotiated personally by Jonas Venture Sr. These include treaties banning Guild members from attacking heroes on holidays such as Thanksgiving as well as requiring Guild members to allow super-heroes and their children to leave their custody in the event that said super-hero's child is injured during a hostage crisis and receive medical treatment, on the condition that once said child is treated, that the child and parent both must report back to the villain and resume the hostage crisis. The second treaty, called "Rusty's Law" after Dr. Thadeus Venture, was initiated specifically because of events in his childhood involving his father and the Guild.

Breaking these rules by engaging in acts of "costumed agression" can result in expulsion from the Guild, who will rescind any prior vow of help in dealing with said offending villain being prosecuted and sent to jail. In one particular case, the villain King Gorilla was abandoned by the Guild and sentenced to life in prison for raping and dismembering Motley Crue member Vince Neil on national television.

Trivia

 * The Guild, in having most of the villains in the "Venture Brothers" universe's as dues paying members is similar to the DC Comics supervillain team the Secret Society of Super Villains and the Legion of Doom from Superfriends.