Comic Info
Comic Name: Scooby Apocalypse
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis
Artist: Howard Porter/Dale Eaglesham/Wellinton Alves/Scott Hanna
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2017
Scooby Apocalypse #1
Reprints Scooby Apocalypse #1-6 (July 2016-December 2016). Daphne Blake is looking for her big score with her series Daphne Blake’s Mysterious Mysteries. When she and her cameraman Freddie receive a strange summons to a concert by an anonymous source, they find themselves falling into a nightmare. Velma Dinkley is going to tell Freddie and Daphne about Project Elysium and what it could mean for humanity. When Daphne, Freddie, Velma, and a trainer named Shaggy with a “smart-dog” named Scooby become trapped in a safe room, the world outside goes to hell…and solving the outbreak’s mystery could be their only hope!
Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMattis, Scooby Apocalypse—Volume 1 is a DC Comics series. Based on an idea by Jim Lee developed from the Hanna-Barbera series, the collection features art by Howard Porter, Dale Eaglesham, Wellinton Alves, and Scott Hanna.
DC’s ties to Hanna Barbera’s products were opened for exploration with the series Future Quest. I enjoyed Future Quest and The Flintstones series, but the concept and the look of Scooby Apocalypse was off-putting. I finally picked up the series and though it wasn’t as bad as I thought, it kind of feels like a hodgepodge of other similar series.
Scooby Apocalypse #6 Variant
The series is built around taking a classic TV show and altering it into something new. There has been so much psycho and pop analysis of Scooby-Doo that looking at Scooby-Doo “differently” isn’t that interesting. Other series in the DC/Hanna Barbera took much less talked about characters like Snagglepuss or even the Flintstones which hasn’t had as much pop-culture exploration despite its cultural impact.
Even shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer nicknamed their detective work as the Scooby Gang and this feels like it is almost trying to combine Buffy with Scooby-Doo. The monsters aren’t just guys in masks but actual monsters. The characterization of core stars of the series is reflective, and different than the original intent, but it seems to lose the fun and wackiness of the show. It feels like you could serve up and explore these characters better (and they deserve better).
Scooby Apocalypse isn’t all bad. In fact it is a little better than average. The disappointment in the series is that it could have been really, really fun or that the characters could have been used in a different way that was smart and introspective (think Afterlife with Archie which feels like a bit of a model for this comic). Scooby Apocalypse might evolve, and I hope Scooby Apocalypse—Volume 2 steps up the game (and the Scooby Gang).
