Scooby Doo Team-Up #50 – Sholly Fisch, Writer; Scott Jeralds, Artist; Silvana Brys, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Scooby Doo Team-Up is surprisingly one of DC’s longest-running series, and Sholly Fisch brings his wacky crossover adventure to the end of the road with this delightfully meta issue. Over the last forty-nine issues, the Mystery Machine crew has teamed up with every DC and Hanna-Barbera character imaginable, but for the final issue, they team up with…themselves! This is all courtesy of Bat-Mite and his friendly rival Scooby-Mite, who interrupt the gang’s team-up with Batman to bring in the ultimate anniversary event – a multiversal crossover. The Batmen of the multiverse play a relatively small role in the story, with some popular ones like Red Rain’s vampire Batman and the Batmen from different eras from the early Elseworlds guest-star, but this isn’t really about Batman – it’s about the cartoon characters celebrating their fiftieth anniversary, and this issue pays tribute to all their versions – including some you wouldn’t expect to see in an all-ages book.
Sholly Fisch has proven from the start that he knows DC and cartoon history inside and out, but this issue proves he knows the titular cartoon just as well. For someone who knows the history of Scooby and the gang, it’s amazing just how well he differentiates each of the different versions of the characters as they chase a team-up of their most famous villains. The Scooby Apocalypse gang are always just short of committing murder, while the Mystery Incorporated gang are actually good at their jobs. The A Pup Named Scooby Doo kids are constantly suspecting Redd Herring, and there’s one from an ill-fated teen drama reboot who are only interested in personal drama. There’s even multiple versions of Scrappy Doo in the mix. I’m not sure what this series ended, but it’s ending on a high and it’s a shame that this series won’t be around to introduce kids to the history of DC and Hanna-Barbera anymore.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
