Scooby Apocalypse - Review

Note: this is a spoiler-free advance review of Scooby Apocalypse #1, which will be released on Wednesday, May 25.

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People always say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But sometimes it's perfectly acceptable to look at a comic cover and say, "Thanks, but I'll pass." If Scooby Apocalypse #1's cover doesn't win you over with its depiction of a tribal tat-adorned Fred, a hipster-styled Shaggy and an emoji-spewing Scooby-Doo, nothing inside the comic will change your mind. This comic isn't nearly ironic or self-aware enough.

It's a little fascinating how diametrically opposed this series is to its fellow Hanna-Barbera revival, Future Quest. That series got off to a great start last week by focusing on what made classic cartoons like Jonny Quest and Space Ghost work, merely smoothing over a few rough edges in the process of updating those franchises for a contemporary audiences and mashing them together. By comparison, Scooby Apocalypse goes out of its way to overhaul the Scooby franchise. This first issue presents a world where a shadowy organization is performing illegal genetic and nanotech experiments and Daphne and Fred are struggling TV journalists trying to keep their conspiracy-themed show afloat. This comic is as much The X-Files as it is Scooby-Doo. There's an awful lot of back-story and exposition and world-building here for a franchise that used to be focused on a group of teenagers and their talking dog driving around and solving mysteries.

With such an overly complicated premise, the only way Scooby Apocalypse can work is if it takes a satirical approach to the material. This comic needs a certain self-awareness and willingness to poke fun at itself, because you can't ask readers to take those character designs seriously. Which is why it's so perplexing that the creators do exactly that. It's not that this issue is completely devoid of humor, but it's certainly much more straightforward and grim than it should be. It's reminiscent of those early drafts of the Ghostbusters script, back when Dan Akroyd was preoccupied with the sci-fi trappings and minutia of busting ghosts at the expense of the humor and fun. There's already a vaguely post-apocalyptic quality to the classic Scooby-Doo cartoons. That world is nothing but deserted farmland and cranky old men dressing like monsters to scare away the roving bands of hippies. Why not just embrace that element rather than wasting so much time exploring how Scooby was created in a lab?

The relative lack of humor is all the more disappointing considering that this series is co-written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, the minds behind the lighthearted Justice League International and the fathers of that "Bwa-Ha-Ha" approach to superheroes. Scooby Apocalypse barely reads like a comedy. I can't even imagine how younger fans will respond to this issue. Needless to say, it's a good thing DC still publishes a pair of more traditional Scooby titles. There are a few instances, particularly in the Scooby and Shaggy-centric backup story, where Giffen and DeMatteis are able to make the characters stand out as being more than the caricatures they were in the original cartoon, but on the whole this issue focuses too much on exposition over character development.

The art style doesn't necessarily help matters, either. Howard Porter reunites with his Justice League 3000 collaborators for this series. Porter was probably the ideal choice in terms of what the creative team are striving for here - a darker, relatively more realistic and more adult-oriented take on Scooby-Doo - and in terms of channeling the vibe of Jim Lee's cover. But again, that approach feels wildly off base with this franchise. Nowhere is that more apparent than with Scooby himself. Porter's Scooby seems stuck halfway between being a realistic portrayal of a Great Dane and a talking cartoon dog. The rest of the gang aren't stylized nearly enough, with the exception of Velma, who is depicted as being so petite she might as well be eight-years-old. The art never seems to settle on a consistent balance between grounded realism and zany style, and too often it errs on the side of the former.

Hi-Fi's colors do enhance the story, at least. The colors are bright and vivid, while at the same time creating a surreal edge and slowly mounting sense of dread as the apocalypse looms. That's the one area where this comic remains true to the source material - it's clear just from looking at the environments that there's something slightly off about this world.