Review: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #5
A little full disclosure before we begin: I’ve been friends with writer Sholly Fisch since college, so that’s quite a ways back, and I’ve been a fan of his comic writing since his early days writing backup stories for Marvel Comics and Epic Comics. (He also wrote a backup story for my Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 comic, which was published last year through my StarWarp Concepts company.)
These days, I wish the editors at DC would stop pigeon-holing him as “the kids’ comic guy”—based on his successes with such titles as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, DC Super Friends, The Powerpuff Girls, and the Eisner Award–nominated The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold—and give him a more adult series to pilot; after all, it was Grant Morrison himself who requested Sholly write the backup stories for Morrison’s run on Action Comics; that should carry a lot of weight, shouldn’t it?
But until the time comes when DC’s editors finally wake up and assign him one of the Nu52 titles (beyond fill-in issues on Catwoman and Action Comics), fans young and old can enjoy his latest series, Scooby-Doo! Team-Up, in which the cartoon hound and his mystery-solving Scooby Gang crossover with the animated versions of DC’s most famous characters.
Take the latest issue, Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #5, for example. Wonder Woman has invited the gang to Paradise Island to solve a mystery: the appearance of mythological creatures that attack the Amazons and then disappear without a trace. The one complication for the Scooby Gang is that, according to Aphrodite’s Law, any man who sets foot on Paradise Island will rob the Amazons of their powers. That means the initial spotlight is on Daphne and Velma as they put their detective skills to work, with Fred and Shaggy left sitting in Wonder Woman’s invisible jet. Using their wits, though, the gang is still able to put their heads together and help uncover the mystery baddie.
One of Sholly’s strengths as a writer has been his ability to bring DC’s more mainstream characters into a kids’ comic and distil their traits down to a pure, understandable level, which he accomplishes in his portrayal of Wonder Woman. For adult readers, Wonder Woman is a paragon of feminism (though her Nu52 writing team may beg to differ, as evidenced in recent days) who explains to Velma and Daphne that “the Amazon philosophy is to develop every aspect of our potential, and achieve all that we can.” For younger readers, she’s a strong female character who kicks butt, yet also talks about things like sisterhood and understanding.
Artist Dario Brizuela (DC Super Friends, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The New Animated Adventures) complements Fisch’s story, presenting a classic Scooby Gang line-up—right down to Shaggy’s rubber-faced expressions and Scooby’s loose-limbed gait—while his Wonder Woman is reminiscent of cartoon fare like the original Superfriends.
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Bottom line? In an industry that seems to go out of its way to exclude children from having all-ages superhero comics they can enjoy, Scooby-Doo! Team-Up is a fun series that should appeal not just to them, but their parents as well. Give it a try. Each issue is a stand-alone story—#1 co-starred Batman; #2, Ace the Bathound; #3, Batmite; and #4, Teen Titans Go!—so you can jump in anytime.
Scooby-Doo Team-Up #5
“Trouble in Paradise”
Written by Sholly Fisch
Art and cover by Dario Brizuela
Publisher: DC Comics
32 pages • full-color
$2.99 U.S.
On sale now
About the Author
Steven Roman Steven A. Roman is the author of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novel series and the graphic novels Lorelei: Sects and the City and Sunn, and the bestselling author of the novels X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy and Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand. Follow his adventures in publishing at StarWarp Concepts.
