Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again! October is here people, which marks the return of Scooby-Doo Month, a series of reviews involving the Great Dane and Mystery Inc.! Last year, we took a look at my favorite Scooby movies. This year, we're focused strictly on series, and what better way to start it off with something a little more current. Today, we kick Scooby-Doo month off with Scooby Apocalypse.
Before discussing this series, a little backstory is needed. Earlier in the year, DC Comics announced their plans to take classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including Johnny Quest, Space Ghost, and Wacky Races, and re imagine them in new comics series. Scooby and the gang were a part of this transformation.
Upon first hearing of the series, I didn't think much about it. There wasn't a lot of things related to Scooby that I wasn't really too excited over since the ending of Mystery Incorporated (Don't worry, we're covering that this month too). Then I saw the first image and I raised an eyebrow. This new series seemed to be going a more futuristic, post apocalyptic, survival/monster fighting route and I wasn't sure if I was on board with the idea or not. It wasn't so much the darker tone that set off alarms in my head. After all, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, my favorite Scooby movie was a darker story than what was the norm.
It was more the fact that the series seemed to be a very far cry from Scooby-Doo. A very big reason why some of these reimaginings and reboots fail is because they lack the core, the very reason why the original version was so beloved and successful. But, I've rambled on long enough, let's get into what this comic's about.
The first issue of the story serves as an origin story of how the gang met. Struggling T.V. Show star Daphne and her cameraman Fred are at the Blazing Man culture festival looking a mysterious informant that may have information that could boost the ratings of their show. Nearby, dog trainer Shaggy and Scooby, who in this series is the prototype to an experiment that creates "smart dogs".
Eventually these four all come together at a top secret facility Shaggy works at; and Daphne and Fred are introduced to Velma.
Velma then reveals to the group that she's one of four scientists working for the government on "Project Elysium": a project that is to spread nanites like a plague on the world and to eliminate the feelings of greed, anger, and violence in humanity, which in turn results in a more peaceful world. Unfortunately, things didn't work out the way Velma intended, and now she wants to try and put a stop to it. Ironically, as she's explaining all of this, the nanites have been activated and the effects are something Velma didn't expect as instead of being the docile people she expected, they've turned into horrific monsters. Now, in their "Mystery Machine", the gang must try to survive these creatures and try to get down to the bottom of this new apocalyptic world.
One thing that I will praise this series for is that despite how radically different it is, the key components that make a Scooby-Doo series are still presented. You have a group of adults (In this case) driving around in their van trying to solve the mysteries of who activated Project Elysium and who changed it so that it made people into raving monsters. All the while, they're trying to avoid monsters from causing them harm.
As for the characters, In spite of the modern tweaks here and there, they're still very recognizable as far as looks and personality goes. Velma's still the smart girl that's trying to analyze everything but in this comic's case, her intelligence has made her more distant from people; and Shaggy and Scooby are still food eating comic relief characters, just more serious and not as hesitant to get into the action.
The two most changed characters in this comic are Fred and Daphne. Daphne in this book is angry and yelling. That's her two definitive traits. Which at first is understandable, you just found out the world has gone to hell and one of the people responsible is right next to you. But when all you're doing is being angry and/or yelling at people is all you're doing for a majority of this comic's run so far, it starts to become grating. Fred himself is probably the most shallow of all the characters. Most of his character revolves around Daphne. they worked together in college, he's her cameraman, and he's completely head over heels for her. It's kind of a reverse of how the roles were in Mystery Incorporated where a lot of Daphne's character was dedicated to her pining over Fred. Except whereas the comic at least gave Daphne her her quirks, traits, and background that made her more than just Fred's love interest, Fred's only personality trait is that he's kind of a big oaf. We're only five issues in the comic so hopefully as it goes on, the two will improve character wise, we even see glimpses of it for Daphne in the fifth issue.
I also have something of a beef with the art in the comic. It can be hit or miss with me at times. In some panels, it looks totally fine and I am a fan of the character designs for the gang (Although I swear Shaggy looks like he's Oliver Queen before he got stuck on the island). Other times, the art to me looks kind of ugly, and for the kind of story this is trying to tell, looking ugly can work in its favor. But I look at the panels like the one above with Fred and Daphne talking and I wonder "What's wrong with your face?" And that happens for me quite a few times in this book.
But, my biggest problem with Scooby Apocalypse as a whole is that to me, it's kind of boring. There's nothing wrong with the story, in fact I'd say it's a perfectly adequate one. The problem is, it's one that's been done before: Big infection breaks out that changes humanity as we know it into monsters. And now this rag tag group of strangers have to band together and maneuver around and fight off these creatures to find shelter or find out what's causing all of this. There have been plenty of shows and movies in the last few years that have done that alone, The Walking Dead is the first one that came to mind. And hell, even High School of the Dead, with its matrix breasticles, have hit some of the same beats as Scooby Apocalypse. Even though we haven't seen any, this comic is pretty much your standard Zombie movie with Scooby-Doo, and Newsflash DC team behind this series...
There's already a Zombie movie with Scooby-Doo!
I look at every new series in the Scooby franchise (It's kind of weird to call it a franchise) as reflections of the year/era it came out. Scooby-Doo Where are you came out at a time when there was a demand for non-violent Saturday morning cartoons. What's New Scooby-Doo was a reflection of what was popular in the 2000's which was why you had Simple Plan doing the theme song and their songs were used in chase scenes. The latest animated series, Be Cool Scooby-Doo came out in a time where Cartoon Network's main focus was 15 minute comedy shows, the most successful one being Teen Titans Go.
I mention all of this because even by the standards of this franchise, Scooby Apocalypse feels a little dated to me. Coming out after The Walking Dead and other series like it had reached their peak and the zombie and post apocalyptic craze has somewhat died down. Now that's not saying that the comic is bad, no. It's an interesting reimagining of The Great Dane and in spite of my complaints, there's nothing wrong with the writing whatsoever. But, it definitely won't be anything I'll remember in the near future. If you're curious about it, I'd say give the first issue a try. Whether you continue from there or not is up to you. Maybe you'll see something in it that I didn't.
That's all for now everyone, Scooby-Doo month will continue next time with The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. If you're craving for more Scooby reviews from me, check out my reviews from last year's Scooby-Doo month.
Till next time, I'm The Shaman of Animation.
Take Care...
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