Review: DC
Scooby Apocalypse #4
Submitted: Joshua Williams, Comic News Writer
24 August 16
Submitted: Joshua Williams, Comic News Writer
24 August 16
The gang barely escapes their underground base that has been overrun with
vampire-monsters. Daphne, Velma, Fred,
Shaggy and Scooby (the traditional Hanna-Barbera Scooby Doo, Where Are You team) decide to take a break, after their
escape, in a ghost town. Their thinking is:
‘this town is deserted, this should be a good place to rest.’ As night
approaches, the town grows ever more crowded… crowded with the infected! Let’s hope DC make Hanna-Barbera proud with
their new story-arc, Scooby Apocalypse.
Scooby
Apocalypse #4, written by Keith Griffen and J.M.
DeMatteis, begins as Velma is suddenly awakened from an uncomfortable sleep. She realizes she has overslept and is late
for her turn to guard their camp. Velma
is surprised to find Daphne up to the task (with Scooby on guard) and on full
alert as she approaches. The
conversation between our heroines heats up and heats up fast. Daphne accuses Velma of co-conspiring with
the Four (The Four are Velma’s employers, who operate several underground
facilities and perform weird scientific experiments; their current experiment,
however, went haywire) and partially blames Velma for what has happened. As the comic unfolds, readers learn that our
gang is being hunted. Soon, our deserted
desert town becomes very crowded and all of our beloved characters find
themselves in extreme danger like we’ve never seen.
Griffen and DeMatteis have a difficult task at hand in
making Scooby Apocalypse a
success. Giving Velma more of the
spotlight is a great approach since she has always been the most
intelligent. It seems as though the gang
will be going as far as Velma takes them.
With Velma at the forefront, what kind of tension will this put on the
gang? Griffen and Dematteis successfully
incorporate a ‘nemesis’ dynamic between our two heroines. Besides being pleasantly surprised by the
others actions (in a good way, thus far).
Even as Daphne questions Velma’s intentions and believes Velma has
undisclosed information about the recent tragic events. As the reality of post-apocalyptic life
sets in, Daphne’s instincts as a reporter begin to kick in. What happened to the rest of the
population? Are Scooby and the gang the
only survivors? Velma knows there are
several other bunkers similar to the work environment Velma recently worked
in.
The narrative of Scooby
Apocalypse #4 definitely poses some problems. There is virtually no action in this issue,
just dialogue to move the plot along.
Therefore, readers would need to read some of the previous issues to make
sense of some of the plot details. While
our non-traditional heroines take the reins in this issue, we get nothing from
our leading men. Besides cracking a few
Hanna-Barbera style jokes from the 1960s and 70s, this issue offer almost
nothing.
THE
VERDICT: As Scooby Apocalypse begins,
the intense action of the first few issues instantly catch the readers’
attention. However, creating new and
different themes from such an old traditional cartoon naturally has
problems. Firstly, Griffen and Dematties
do not use Scooby Doo really at all. He
has only a few lines; perhaps the introduction of Cyber-Scrappy, our
puppy-villain, will pull more plot out of our main character. Finally, the writers are faced with a very
difficult task: creating a post-apocalyptic world. The underground base… is that borrowed from
Resident Evil? The deserted town, on the
other hand, seems a bit similar to the Walking Dead. The Scooby
Apocalypse is just kicking off, so readers can expect discrepancies and
holes in the plot because DC intends to add a bit more
gore and seriousness to a traditional kid cartoon; however, with the talent
creating this story-arc, these issues should be smoothed out. I expect them to do so, and to do so
soon.
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