As much as I like heaps of references, Century did hold up as a story for me as well.  Frankly, I found the ending to be rather touching.
  For an alternate take on having a "modern" League, I would probably recommend the excellent - and somewhat parallel - Planetary series by Warren Ellis.

Well, for those that didn't like the third series arc, the latest one - the prequel to "At the Mountains of Madness" starring Captain Nemo's daughter was unbelievably fantastic.

Ah, fair enough - I'm the same way.

Dean doing stuff?  I don't know, there's:
Dean continuing to tell off Triana's stepfather.
Dean striking up a conversation with a woman his own age and continuing to talk with her over three months.
Dean figuring out a way to defeat a mutant genius.
Dean destroying the learning bed and moving out on his own.
Dean going…

Zack - I'm guessing you're not a Lovecraft fan?  The asylum was "Dunwich Asylum" - a play on Batman's "Arkham Asylum" as both Arkham and Dunwich are fictional Massachusetts towns created by HP Lovecraft.

I'm still not getting the 'helpless' part - Dean has been actually accomplishing things all season.

Certainly Billy's origin episode seems to support it - she definitely was Rusty's bodyguard as she appeared there and in the opening of Season Three with the Monarch's life story.

I disagree - for example, they settled the matter about Hank and Dean being clones rather conclusively in the opening of Season Two.  After teasing the origin of Billy Quizboy and Phantom Limb in Season Two, they definitively explained both in Season Three.  They've had a pretty good track record so far.

Reminded me of the "science vs. magic" fight between Dr. Venture and Dr. Orpheus on the Venture Brothers.

The actual Scooby Doo gang apparently does exist in the Ventureverse, according to "Self-Medication".

Not only that, but Billy manages to beat him every time.  That has got to burn.

Yep.  And in Rusty's case, he actually seemed to be getting something substantial in return - something St. Cloud definitely won't.

I'm the opposite end of the spectrum on Dean.  Hank got his growth, and Dean needed a radical change.  I like that the new Dean actually appear competent - certainly more so than some of the adults.  When he said "This is ridiculous" in SPHINX Rising and walks off, for instance, I didn't think he was having a teenage…

I wonder if Dean might be pursuing his own science research - I'm getting the impression is that he's actually getting into it, but doesn't want his dad involved.

I doubt that they are directly related.  Although I have to wonder about Rusty's mother… did we just see her, maybe?  Is that why he was so attracted to "Charlene"?

To be honest, though, Rusty seemed to be doing at least a passable job at the science game - his press conference unveiling the Venture car seemed well-attended.  He seemed to start to lose his nerve after the boys were born, if the Billy flashback ep. is any indication (although Myra may have been more of a negative…

And yet, they are joined by the Albino Code…

That was truly awesome - especially when Action Man gets hit by "engrams".

Nah, like the post said there's something touching about the islanders keeping up the pretense of the fake festival to basically make Rusty happy.
  And talk about pyrrhic victory - St. Cloud paid a huge sum of money for a nonexistent festival, after Billy managed to beat him.

Yeah, "Luck of the Fry-ish" really does it for me, too.  (It helps that it has some solid comedy as well - the one-number combination RonCo safe always cracks me up)