I hope you’re ready to have the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! theme song stuck in your head the rest of the day because that’s exactly what happened to me after reading Scooby-Doo Team Up by Sholly Fisch, Dario Brizuela, and Heroic Age.
The first issue of this all-new series sees the Mystery Inc. crew investigating a series of giant bat sightings when they run into another pair of detectives, Batman and Robin. One team suspects that the creature terrorizing the area is just another crook in a mask while the other suspects none other than Kirk Langstrom, the Man-Bat, is behind it all. It’s good, campy fun that should please fans of the Scooby-Doo TV series (all of them, there have been quite a few by now) and Fisch manages to make it an amusing experience for children as well as adults who just want something colorful and stress-free as an escape from the doom and gloom of the typical Batman comic.
Nothing is updated to modern times, for instance, we still see Fred wearing the ‘kerchief and bellbottoms and Robin (Dick Grayson) has on pixie boots and shows off more leg than Velma or Daphne. And that’s the approach I wanted! I wanted to see something that recaptured the look and feel of the cartoon and that’s precisely what this is. When I read the speech balloons for Shaggy, I hear Casey Kasem and when I read the speech balloons for Robin, I hear Casey Kasem—yeah, that’s right. In case you didn’t know, Casey Kasem did the voice-over work for Shaggy and Robin in The New Scooby-Doo Movie that first paired the two 30 years ago (someone just read that sentence and felt very old). Oddly enough, when I read Batman’s lines I never heard Olan Soule, but actually Diedrich Bader, which isn’t surprising consider that Fisch also wrote for the Batman: The Brave and the Bold comic series.
Besides Sholly Fisch flawlessly recreating the voice of the characters and the formula of an average episode of the show, it’s artist Dario Brizuela’s illustrations and the vibrant colors by Heroic Age that really bring the world of Scooby to life. Any panel in the book could be passed off as a single frame from the cartoon and Brizuela does a great job of drawing the exaggerated expressions of a frightened Shaggy. I only wish that Heroic Age had colored Batman’s neck flesh-colored in at least one single frame in order to give homage to a well-known flub from the classic 70’s cartoon (one that was actually acknowledged in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon).
This comic isn’t going to knock your socks off or warrant multiple re-reads, but it’s definitely enjoyable, lighthearted entertainment that does exactly what it needed to do. No, it doesn’t rise above expectations, but it certainly meets them and gives readers a corny, good time. I’m giving it the above average score of ¾ stars or 7.5/10. It’s a nice debut for a kid-friendly series and I hope that future pairings are just as good or better. It would be cool to see Scooby and the gang team-up with less conventional DC characters and even some modern celebrities who are willing to lend their likeness. Weird Al once guest starred on Batman: The Brave & the Bold and that was one of my favorite episodes.
Recommended If…
- You enjoyed Sholly Fisch’s “Batman: Brave & the Bold” and “Super Friends” comics
- You grew up with “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” and “The New Scooby-Doo Movies”
- You’re shopping for a quality comic for your kids
Overall
Scooby-Doo Team-up #1 perfectly channels the look and voice of the Hanna-Barbera classic and features plenty of fun moments for fans (young and old) of the Dynamic Duo and the The Mystery Inc. gang.
SCORE: 7.5/10
