Review: SCOOBY APOCALYPSE #1

Story by Jim Lee and Keith Giffen

I wasn’t interested in reviewing this comic, no, scratch that, I thought I was too old to review this comic. I mean, Scooby Doo is for kids right? Kids who have no understanding of gigantic plot holes (like letting the audience know when, exactly did the Scooby gang realize that the “Barnacle Ghost was old man Peterson?) or why the weird, icky sexual subtext of Fred, Daphne and Vellma seems so off-putting.

So I’ll admit it, I was not looking forward to reading a comic that rebooted Scooby and the gang while adding to an already saturated field of Apocalyptic story lines.

But I was wrong…so wrong.

And I’m not afraid to admit it.

Nope, this is not your younger sibling’s apocalypse-centered Scooby story.

In fact, fuck that kid.

This story is for you, the jaded teen you who is filled with attitude and a healthy dollop of anti-governmental rebellion. We are talking about a full reboot that decimates those old characters and rebuilds them into faster, smarter, better versions.

Like the scientist-with-a-conscious Velma who takes no shit and is willing to bring down everything she’s worked for; TV host Daphne and her cameraman, Fred, trying desperately to keep their deep cable channel show Daphne Blake’s Mysterious Mysteries alive by any means necessary and Shaggy and Scooby…well, okay, so they are kinda the same but better written and more clever so that’s an improvement.

So how much should I tell you about Scooby Apocalypse?

You know, besides the fact that it’s like a mash-up between Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wilfred and the 2005 Doctor Who 2-parter The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances?  Not much because the best way to read this comic is by going into it unprepared, maybe even a little incredulous, so that when you are finished you are left with a feeling of satisfaction that for once, something didn’t completely suck balls.

Which, as you know, is a rarity these days.

But the ultimate question is this: Is this a good comic?

Yes, so far it is and I am hopeful that it will stay that way because judging by issue #1, who would have thought that maybe those meddling kids really do know what they are doing.

Now go eat some Scooby Snacks and read this thing.