Scooby-Doo Team-Up #35 – Sholly Fisch, Writer; Walter Carzon, Penciller; Horacio Ottolini, Inker; Silvana Brys, Colorist
Rating:
Ray – 7.5/10
Generally, Scooby-Doo Team-Up is at its best when it’s playing around with strange corners of the DCU, but some of its Hanna-Barbera outings are pretty entertaining too, especially the Top Cat one-off. Scooby-Doo Team-Up #35, featuring the cast of Yogi Bear, isn’t quite as inventive as that one, but it does a great job of capturing the spirit of the residents of Jellystone Park. And naturally for a Yogi Bear crossover, the adventure centers around…a picnic basket. The Mystery Machine gang is heading out for a relaxing day of camping, with a picnic basket big enough to satisfy even Shaggy and Scooby – for a short time. No sooner do they get to the park than they’re hassled by Yogi and Boo-Boo, who try to con them out of their food – but then a giant ghost comes along, seemingly steals the basket, and takes Shaggy and Scooby along with it.
Ranger Smith, much like Officer Dibble in Top Cat, is mainly here to play the straight person. Yogi is naturally his top suspect, and he plans to send him off to the zoo if he’s guilty of picnic larceny, but the gang teams up to help Boo-Boo prove his friend’s innocence. It’s a fast-paced, fun issue that brings in some obscure Hanna-Barbera villains, and has a distinct slapstick vibe that will be very familiar to fans of the classic cartoons.
Scooby-Doo Team-Up is up and down, but I think it serves a great purpose in the DC lineup. Not only is it introducing kids to DC heroes as obscure as Hawkman and The Atom, but it’s making sure that some of the more oddball Hanna-Barbera cartoons stay alive by proximity to the endlessly successful Scooby-Doo. Sholly Fisch has written I believe every issue of this comic, and his love for the old-school cartoon library is what makes this title work as long as it has.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
