Scooby Who are You?

Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis, Jim Lee & Howard Porter “Scooby Apocalypse, Volume 1” (DC Comics, 2017)

I really just don’t know what I think about this.

I know that Scooby has mutated over time.  My Scooby was the OG>Scrappy. It changed and quite frankly seemed diminished as time went on.

As part of the current wave of re-imagined Hanna-Barbera books, they are once again a changed Scooby and the gang.  And what do I think?

It’s Resident Evil meets Mad Max. The book opens with the dawning of a monster apocalypse.  Velma is now a scientist from the secret lab responsible for the disaster. Shaggy was a dog trainer at the lab, while Scooby was the product of experimentation.  Daphne is a fading investigative reporter who now does a Josh Gates shtick, while Fred is her camera man with a crush. And Scrappy, well… let’s not talk about Scrappy.

The fundamental dynamics have changed as well.  Rather than a group of friends who investigate phenomena that always turns out to be real estate fraud, the Gang are just meeting. While Scooby & Shaggy have strong ties, there is tension between all the others. And this time, the monsters are all too real.

So yeah, I don’t know if this is for me.  But it was a very interesting read that will be for someone. And give it strong marks for execution. The creative team has a plan and are doing a great job of making it happen. In particular, the art seems to be some of the best that I’ve seen from Rebirth.

So while I’m still a bit on the fence, I’m down for more of this crazy new version of Scooby.