SCOOBY APOCALYPSE #1

Publisher: DC Comics | Writer: Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis | Artist: Howard Porter Colorist: Hi Fi

Those meddling kids—Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and their dog, Scooby-Doo—get more ghostdebunking than they bargained for when faced with a fundamental change in their world. The apocalypse has happened. Old rules about logic no longer apply. The creatures of the night are among us, and the crew of the Magical Mystery Machine has to fight to survive— because in the apocalyptic badlands of the near-future, the horrors are real!

Reboots and reimaginings of our beloved childhood intellectual properties can be extremely tedious especially as creators endeavor to relate to modern audiences and, in doing so, lose to the heart and soul of what made the property memorable in the first place. Scooby Doo and Mystery Incorporated are no strangers to reimaginings. There are dozens of animated series and films, as well as live action outings that each put their own unique spin on our favorite anthropomorphic great dane and his band of meddling friends. Scooby Apocalypse is the most adult rendition of the characters we’ve ever seen. Jim Lee had a heavy hand in this series and it is evident in the character designs for the gang. Scooby isn’t just a loveable canine with an uncanny ability of speech but the product of a science experiment gone awry performed by Doctor Velma Dinkley and saved by Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, a dog whisperer of sorts hired to maintain Scooby and the other canine science experiments. Fred and Daphne are a pair of down on their luck mystery tv show cameraman and star, respectively who, through Velma, are drawn into a mystery that might just end the world as we know it. While a drastic departure from the cartoons of yesteryear, Scooby Apocalypse maintains, at its core, a deep understanding of what made this quintet of characters so internationally popular for decades. Best of all, like the cartoons themselves, this comic series is full of intrigue, character and wit. If you’re into reboots of classic characters and apocalyptic fiction, you’re going to love this series.

A mysterious techno-virus has been released on Earth, infecting 600 million people and turning them instantly into violent, monstrous engines of destruction. The heroes of the DCU are caught completely unprepared for a pandemic of this magnitude and struggle to save their loved ones first... but what happens to the World’’s Greatest Heroes if the world ends?

Zombie fiction works best when it’s a reflection of the time in which it is created and of its audience. DCeased overtly ties the end of life on earth via a techno virus that turns its host in a flesh eating denizen of the dead to social media. It is Darkseid’s insatiable desire to rewrite the universe by his design using the anti-life equation mixed with Cyborg’s technology that unleashes the end times upon our planet. While the art isn’t necessarily something I was blown away by, due to its inconsistency throughout the issue, the story itself is presented well and its pacing is on point. Cyborg joking at the expense of Darkseid made me smile and then watching as Vic’s tongue is removed for his insolence was unsettling. This book marked the beginning of a Marvel Zombieesque venture for the Distinguished Competition that branched off into wild, violent and uncharted territory for our favorite DC characters. The final splash page was surprising and disturbing, letting the readers know that just about anything can and will happen in this universe. I enjoy a good zombie series and, although the DCeased series of stories hit needlessly convoluted spots along the way, this book and its subsequent issues and tie-in series is a must read for fans of DC and horror.

8.0/10 VERDICT