Scooby-Doo! Team-Up 5

A friend on Facebook recently asked “When’s the last time you read a proper kids’ comic?” “As it happens,” I replied, “yesterday. And I read it again today.”  This is that comic.

I was put onto this by another head of our editorial Cerberus, Will Morgan, who said “I am, completely sincerely, far more entertained by this than by anything else DC has released in the last three years.” He’s not wrong. This is utterly, utterly charming.

Yes, it’s a kids’ comic, but anyone who likes comics should like this. For a start, one should support this title’s existence on principle. Good kids’ comics should be encouraged, as they’re hard enough to find these days, when most parents bringing their offspring in need to be actively diverted from the majority of product. It is entirely sensible for DC to build its future audience with comics like this – it’s just a shame that at the moment there is little for them to move on to that is not nasty, misogynistic pap.

But this is also a very enjoyable comic to read, that will appeal to both kids and adults. Not in the sort of Pixar way of working on two levels, with jokes that will pass by the juniors but be appreciated by the grown-ups. There’s very little subtext here – just a well-written story that children will enjoy, and adults will too, if they retain any connection with their childhood and their humanity.

A strong preference for nostalgia helps, of course.  In particular, if you are a fan of Scooby-Doo (in its good incarnations, of course – basically the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? from 1969, and the more recent What’s New, Scooby-Doo?) you should be reading this series. Sholly Fisch has been writing Scooby-Doo comics since 2004, and he has a very firm command of the characters’ dialogue – everyone is recognisable, no-one strikes a wrong note. Dario Brizuela’s artwork perfectly captures the look of the old Hanna-Barbera characters. “Meddling children” of course gets a reference. And there are sly jokes at the expense of the show’s format.

My second favourite line in a whole comic full of great lines. (Read to the end of the review to find my first.)

The first four issues of Scooby Doo! Team-Up were very Bat-focussed (but if that means the return of Bat-Hound, who am I to complain?). In this issue, the gang find themselves on Paradise Island, at the recommendation of Batman himself, to solve the mysterious appearances of mythological monsters. This being Scooby-Doo, of course, the monsters aren’t real, though this being a Wonder Woman comic, the story is not as devoid of the genuinely supernatural as classic Scooby-Doo.* But Fisch manages this very well, and the two traditions never jar.

The comic may not deliver on the cover’s promise of Daphe and Velma in Greek armour, but nothing else disappoints. Wonder Woman fans should also read this comic. You get pretty much everything you might want – the Invisible Plane, Queen Hippolyta, Amazons on Kangas, Nubia, and a brilliant Etta Candy joke. And Scooby singing the words for the 1970s theme song. And the villain is a fondly-remembered but rarely-seen relic of the Golden Age.

This is a lovely comic. I laughed throughout. And it breathes new life into the hoary old concept of the team-up book. Go seek it out if you can – you won’t regret it.

And the best line? Gotta be “Rufferin’ Raphro!” Genius. See?  DC can do something right sometimes.

* Yes, I know some Scooby-Doo shows in the 1980s had genuinely supernatural elements, They were also rubbish.