Scooby Apocalypse, Volume 1 - SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

DC Comics has been the home to many completely unexpected yet infamously successful crossovers: Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Justice League/Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Star Trek/Green Lantern, just to name a handful. Few have impressed the unsuspecting DC reader in recent memory more than the DC Meets Looney Tunes series, which started its original (and thus far, only) run in February 2018. Even the Flinstones have had a fairly recent stint with the publishing giant. But before this Hanna Barbera property shared pages with the likes of Batman and Wonder Woman, there was another. Scooby Apocalypse wasn't a crossover in the traditional sense, but even just considering the simple fact that it was published by DC and set to feature cover art by Jim Lee and Alex Sinclair was enough to excite fans to see this gritty reimagining of the classic Scooby gang just as much as a regular crossover would. Among those fans was me.

So, naturally, I waited until almost a year after the last issue came out to read it.

If you keep reading this blog, you'll notice that is going to be a running theme with me. Not only do I like to take my time with my media consumption, I have a massive queue of comics, games, movies, shows and even music that I want to get into, but not enough time in a day to do it. I'm hoping this review is still relevant to some folks who maybe aren't in the know about this series, or to anyone like me who hasn't had the time to take a look at it. Hopefully though, my tardiness won't be an issue anymore, since I'm not working to get into school and I've settled into university life enough to focus on my passions. But back to my main point.

Scooby Apocalypse excited me for the reason it excited most fans: it took the familiar characters from all of our childhoods, the lovable dynamic between them, and traded in a certain level of goofy cartooniness and the masked ghouls for a more mature Mystery Inc., as well as a genuine threat: the takeover of the world by real monsters.

So, let's get into it, shall we? This is my review of volume one of Scooby Apocalypse by DC Comics, which includes issues one through six. And yeah, there's no spoilers. Duh.

After reading the first six issues of Scooby Apocalypse, I think I can safely say that this is the Scooby Doo revamp that fans didn't know they needed.

The story follows an older Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby who never actually formed Mystery Inc. as teenagers and only meet as adults. I will admit that when I learned this fact, I was concerned that this series was going to be another Riverdale situation. Wild comparison, I know. What I mean by that is I was worried the original concept was going to be shoved into an unfitting story and situation where the only similarity between the new version and the source material is the likenesses of the characters. However, I couldn't have been more wrong. Writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis expertly translate the characters of our childhood into fleshed out, mature versions of themselves that are interesting and fresh but also still possess their authenticity. The obvious aspects are kept the same: Shaggy and Scooby's lovable bond isn't lost, Fred still tries to act as a leader (and his relationship with Daphne is still dysfunctional), and Velma is still the somewhat clumsy brains of the operation. Surprisingly though, I was especially impressed by her way of connecting with the other members of the group. Velma's updated characterization was not only unique and compelling, but it also made a lot of sense as a modern-day, revitalized version of the Velma we already know, and gave her more substance than any other character in my opinion.

Fans will notice references and concepts taken from several different runs of Scooby-Doo, dating all the way back to the original 1969 TV series. I have to give it to the writers for taking catchphrases, stories and characteristics from such a G-rated property and making them fit so well with such a gritty atmosphere. My only complaint from a writing standpoint is that there are times where the dialogue gets slightly repetitive and is overly utilized for exposition (i.e., there's a considerable amount of disregard for the "show don't tell" rule). However, I'm willing to let this go since this is only the first volume and there was plenty of world-building to be done in a universe with such an unestablished canon.

I don't have much to say about the art, not because it is unremarkable in any way but because I don't have any critiques for it. In my (artistically ungifted) opinion, it's crisp, kickass and polished enough for an apocalypse story, but colourful, eye-catching and outlandish enough for a Scooby-Doo story. I don't consider this a spoiler because it's mostly just expressed in the cover art, but a tattooed, metalhead-looking Shaggy with a proper beard and ear piercings is something I never knew I needed in my life.

There's a sentence I never thought I'd say. Anyways...

Here's my bottom line: I'm optimistic for the rest of the series. In its first few issues, it's already broken a lot of tired tropes and breathed new life into the apocalypse genre, and I want to stress that the novelty of this being a Scooby-Doo adaptation for mature audiences isn't the sole reason for that. This isn't your run-of-the-mill apocalypse story, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something new in that regard. I'd also obviously recommend it to anyone who watched Scooby-Doo when they were younger and feels nostalgic for it. Something I loved most about this book is that it reminded me of how much I loved watching What's New, Scooby-Doo? as a kid. This story is the perfect mix of old-school and new-school, and I'm all about it.

(Sidenote: the theme song for What's New, Scooby-Doo? was amazing and up there with the original, and I will fight ANYONE on that.)

Overall rating: 8.5/10