When the reveal ofDC Comics ’ post - apocalyptic reboot of Scooby - Doo hit months ago , it boast images of Fred carrying a Big Freakin ’ Gun , Velma hold a bizarre gamepad , and Shaggy wearing a lumbersexual - style full moustache and byssus . Fans everywhere go “ ruh - roh ” upon seeing the top for Scooby Apocalypse # 1 . Do n’t care ; the story inside is much good than the cover implies .
The series ’ first issue kicks off a complete reboot of Scooby - Doo , re - introducing the secret - solve gang as 20 - something grown - ups who do n’t jazz each other yet . Daphne Blake is an enigma - obsessed TV show emcee who ’s washed up and looking for the route back to fame , with crush - laden camera operator Fred Jones in towage .
Scientist Velma Dinkel works at a top - surreptitious research facility that ’s been grow bright - dog-iron technology . Scooby , of course , is a test field of study in trial of her work , taken forethought of by fresh - guy wienerwurst flight simulator Norville “ Shaggy ” Rogers . Readers see them meet each other at the Blazing Man alt - culture fest , where Velma divulges she ’s realize her study with nanites is depart to beshrew the public instead of save it .
I go in expecting the worst for Scooby Apocalypse . fearsome update to old popping culture icons have happened so often that the phenomenon has become a trope unto itself . The cyber - hep redesigns teased in improvement of the first way out of DC Comics ’ Modern Scooby - Doo series seemed predestined to suck . Yet , somehow , Scooby Apocalypse # 1 does every tacky thing that you were afraid of and still make it screaming .
Worried that the new rendering of Shaggy would be a foodie hipster stereotype who blend in to Burning Man ? He is and is n’t . Shuddering at the opinion of Fred being a douchebro ? His kinda - sorta relationship with Daphne has an astringent tension that feels refreshing . Concerned about a ‘ realistic ’ explanation for having a talking dog ? The tech that let Scooby vocalize and broadcast hologram emoticons open up an avenue for sly sight jape , like when he tells Shaggy that gluten - free , rice - crust pizza smells like shit .
Yes , Scooby sound out his eq of “ fuck ” in that panel , too . [ Note : Let the record show that some of you gentle reader reckon Scooby ’s saying “ yuck . ” He ’s a dog ; who can say for sure ? ]
Old - school Scooby - Doo engenders a lot of affection from the generations that watched it by virtue of the insistent plots and composition of its installment . It was comfort food television system . At its nub , the Scooby - Doo concept is just a bunch of dumb kids — Velma take out — who bumble their way around nefarious doings . Pratfalls ensue until they , for example , cope to stop the nasty insurance policy salesman trying to buy a ‘ obsessed ’ house on the gaudy . The fact of the matter isScooby - Doo is inherently slow . When the character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer called themselves the Scoobies , they were referencing the template of the honest-to-god Hanna - Barbera cartoon to point at the silliness of their own evil - vanquishing activity . It can be argued that Scooby - Doo ’s best form is as an empty - calorie phenomenon to be riffed on and referenced .
This new variant of Scooby - Doo is n’t running away from the dumb . Writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis take the raw , talking - dog - and - stoner - pal clay and mold it into a Modern form of goofiness . All of the characters have blindspots where they ’re a slight clueless , but they do n’t come across as unqualified . There ’s really a touching bit of tenderness in the backup story that shows Shaggy and Scooby ’s first meeting , where the beardo write the Great Dane from cold - blooded euthanasia .
Overall , the tone of voice of the proceedings reminds Giffen and DeMatteis ’s body of work on the 1990s bwahaha Justice League serial publication . character reference fuss and snipe at each other in sitcom - style exchanges and penciller Howard Porter ’s detailed linework have it finger like they ’re actually emoting with big , broad expressions .
Scooby may be the runty result of a program designed to mollify humanity and make hypersmart attack K-9s but this opening chapter of the new serial publication does n’t finger grim - n’-gritty . The stakes are clearly high in Apocalypse than in any given 1970s installment of Scooby - Doo but it does n’t palpate bleak . The laughs are still there ; they ’re just happening for reasons that are slightly more fledged .
DC Comics
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