The good news for Venture Bros. fans is that Season 7 is finally premiering on August 5. The bad news is that it's been well over two years since Season 6 aired. We don't blame anyone who might have trouble remembering what happened last time around, especially given how complicated the show's mythology has become over the years.

The Basics

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The New Venture Headquarters

Rebuilding the Guild

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The Monarch's Metamorphosis

What's Next in Season 7

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To help prepare for the new season, we've put together a guide breaking down all the major characters and storylines in play for Season 7. Whether you're new to The Venture Bros. or just need a refresher, here's everything that's happened in this crazy universe up to this point.The Venture Bros. started out as a fairly straightforward parody of the Jonny Quest franchise. The series largely revolves around the Venture family - cranky, self-loathing Dr. Rusty Venture and his two adventure-craving sons, Hank and Dean - and their intrepid bodyguard Brock Samson. The first season of the series featured these four embarking on one globe-trotting adventure after another, usually with the evil Monarch and his henchmen trying their best to ruin the day.But things have grown considerably more complex and outlandish since the end of Season 1 and the reveal that Hank and Dean have both been killed and cloned a number of times. The cast of characters has grown considerably. Alliances have shifted. Heroes have become villains and vice versa. The conflict between the Ventures and the Monarch has been revealed to be just one cog in a much bigger scheme involving organizations like the Guild of Calamitous Intent and the Office of Secret Intelligence. The Venture Bros. has evolved far beyond lampooning Jonny Quest and grown to satirize all manner of comic books, TV series, and celebrities.The one common thread throughout the series is that The Venture Bros. is a story about failure. The Venture Bros. universe is crammed full of colorfully clad misfits and losers who never quite seem to get ahead in life.The current status quo for the series was established in "All This and Gargantua-2," a double-length special that aired in January 2015 and bridged the gap between Seasons 5 and 6. That episode managed to tie up most of the show's loose ends up to that point, culminating in the defeat of the Investors, a group of vampiric immortals who had been pulling the strings of a number of villains in the Venture Bros. universe. Several other major recurring characters died in that episode, including the Sovereign (the shape-shifting ex-head of the Guild of Calamitous Intent) and Dr. Venture's estranged brother, Jonas Venture, Jr.That episode also ended with the Monarch finally achieving his lifelong goal of destroying the Venture Compound. For once, though, life threw Rusty Venture a bone. He inherited his late brother's vast corporate and scientific empire, including a fancy new skyscraper in Manhattan.Season 6 focused a great deal on the Venture family adjusting to their new lives in Manhattan. Even Brock tagged along, resuming his old role as family bodyguard after taking several seasons off to work as an OSI agent. Dean started college, while Hank fell in love with a supervillain's daughter. Dr. Venture, true to form, proved somewhat less competent than his brother when it came to running a multinational corporation. But no one struggled more in Season 6 than ex-family bodyguard Sgt. Hatred, who was demoted to security guard status after Brock reclaimed his old job.Season 6 also established that Billy Quizboy and Pete White have become official Venture employees after their own company was bought and sold by Billy's nemesis, Augustus St. Cloud.The Guild of Calamitous Intent has pretty much been the dominant evil force in the Venture Bros. universe from the beginning, but this evil organization barely survived the events of Season 5 and "All This and Gargantua-2." Many of its figureheads were wiped out by the Investors, and even the Sovereign himself was killed by stray gunfire.However, this was all part of Dr. Henry Killinger's plan to build a stronger, more resilient Guild. Killinger himself has become the new Sovereign. He's installed a new Council of 13 that includes villains like Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, The Phantom Limb, Dr. Z, Radical Left, and the two-headed, single-bodied Dragoon and Red Mantle. The Council of 13's ranks are still a bit thin these days, but they've been busy recruiting new members like Wide Wale, a major new villain inspired by Marvel's Kingpin. Wide Wale has been granted exclusive rights to antagonize the Venture family, even as his daughter Sirena has struck up a romance with Hank.This newer, better Guild has also shown a greater willingness to work alongside its rival organization, the OSI. The two joined forces in Season 6 to confront the threat of a deadly new hero named the Blue Morpho.The Blue Morpho storyline wound up being the central plot point of Season 6. As far as the Guild and OSI is concerned, the Blue Morpho is a clear and present danger to both organizations - a hero who refuses to play by the honor code that governs both organizations and eliminates villains with brutal efficiency. The truth is that the Blue Morpho is actually the Monarch in disguise, and is nothing more than his ill-inspired attempt to regain his "arching rights" for the Venture family.Both the Monarch and his trusty sidekick, Henchman 21, languished in Season 6 as they tried to find a new purpose after losing their floating headquarters and being denied entry into the Council of 13. They found that purpose when the Monarch discovered a secret lair underneath his childhood home in New Jersey. He discovered that his father was secretly the Blue Morpho, a Green Hornet-esque superhero who fought alongside Jonas Venture, Sr. and carried out all manner of clandestine missions. The Monarch adopted the mantle, not to continue his father's crusade, but as a way of intimidating the other villains assigned to arch the Venture family and eventually reclaim those arching rights for himself.Ironically, the Monarch proved to be a far more effective hero than he ever was a villain, even if his successes were generally the result of lucky accidents. The new Blue Morpho and Kano proved so adept at taking down Guild-sponsored villains that the Guild and OSI were forced to join forces against them. Dr. Mrs. The Monarch led the charge to bring down this heroic interloper, never realizing she was chasing after her own husband.We know very little about the plot of Season 7 right now. Even the teaser trailer released in late June is merely a clip from one episode, showing Dr. Venture reaching out to Dr. Orpheus and his Order of the Triad in order to exorcise some pesky demons from the Venture headquarters.However, it does seem safe to assume that Season 7 will be a more direct continuation of its predecessor than usual. Season 6 wrapped on a fairly open-ended note, without concluding the ongoing Blue Morpho and Wide Wale conflicts. That's mostly because creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer essentially ran out of room for the season thanks to "All This and Gargantua-2." With that in mind, look for Season 7 to finally resolve the Blue Morpho storyline even as it introduces new characters and plot threads.It's also possible we'll get a closer look at the Monarch's family background and his possible connection to the Venture family. It's long been speculated that the Monarch and Dr. Venture are related (possibly long-lost brothers), and the Blue Morpho storyline certainly seems to be leaning in that direction.

What do you hope to see in Venture Bros. Season 7? Hit the comments to share your thoughts.Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN