SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Manga
  • All Ages
  • Young Adult
  • Interviews
  • News

February 17, 2015 by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Review: Scooby-Doo Team-Up Vol. 1

February 17, 2015 by J. Caleb Mozzocco   Leave a Comment

Scooby-Doo Team-Up Vol. 1
Written by Sholly Fisch
Art by Dario Brizuela
DC Comics; $12.99

One of the most surprisingly entertaining kids comics that either of the Big Two direct market publishers have managed in a long time, Scooby-Doo Team-Up has managed to pull off the rare (but always appreciated) trick of addressing child readers and adult readers simultaneously, with sharp, smart franchise-specific jokes and allusions for the grown-ups…in addition to the heaping helping of nostalgia the bi-monthly comic book series serves up.

That nostalgia is actually built into the book’s DNA, inspired as it was by the 1972-74 cartoon series The New Scooby-Doo Movies, in which Scooby and the gang would team up with other cartoon characters and the cartoon avatars of early-70s celebrities. Each issue of the comic follows the same format, and all of those collected in this volume, which are pulled from the first six issues of the series, feature DC superheroes…albeit from sometimes specific incarnations.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

The first three issues feature teamings of Scooby with cover boys Batman and Robin (who appeared in a pair of episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies), a perfectly natural fit of franchises that writer Sholly Fisch and artist Dario Brizuela do a rather extraordinary job of blending and melding further still. Fisch hones in on the similarities between the protagonists—crime-fighting, detective work—and highlights the differences, while finding new paths with which to further explore those similarities and differences. Brizuela, meanwhile, is able to incorporate Batman, Robin and their rogues gallery (plus some rather unexpected DC Comics character cameos) into the basic Scooby-Doo style, so that they all seem to belong together.

In these issues, the Dynamic Duo and Mystery Inc. face-off against Man-Bat and some Man-Bat impersonators, The Scarecrow, and, in their craziest adventure, Bat-Mite and Scooby-Mite. They get some unexpected help along the way from Ace The Bat-Hound and The Mystery Analysts of Gotham City.

In the back half of the book, the team-ups get more unexpected, with Scooby and the gang visiting the Teen Titans Go! version of Titans Tower to help the manic, chibi version of the characters (in a pair of shorter stories, just as each episode of Teen Titans Go! features two mini-episodes); an original interpretation of the Wonder Woman of the comics, blending elements of the Golden Age and 1960s-70s versions; and, finally, the Justice League from the Super Friends cartoon (complete with nods to Wendy and Marvin and The Wonder Twins).

Of these, only the Teen Titans issue provides a gulf in style—visual as well as narrative—that proves too wide for the infinitely flexible Fisch and Brizuela to bridge. There’s just no way to finesse either the Scooby-Doo or Teen Titans Go! character designs enough to make them seem to belong in the same cartoon—or the comic book based on two cartoons, I guess—without breaking the strictures of their original designs. Given the wild, anarchic, even absurdist nature of the Teen Titans Go! show, the issue works perfectly fine as a Teen Titans Go story, but it doesn’t really work as a Scooby-Doo story.

Similar stylistic challenges will arise in future issues of the series, when Scooby-Doo teams up with The Flinstones and The Jetsons, but this collection is a thematically tight one teaming Scooby and his cast with various DC superheroes, usually to combat various DC supervillains. It proves a pretty perfect introduction to those characters, and is thus a pretty ideal starting point into the DC Universe of comics characters, regardless of one’s previous experience with them.

Filed under: All Ages

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
Dario BrizuelaDC ComicsScooby-DooScooby-Doo Team-UpSholly Fisch

About J. Caleb Mozzocco

J. Caleb Mozzocco is a way-too-busy freelance writer who has written about comics for online and print venues for a rather long time now. He currently contributes to Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog and ComicsAlliance, and maintains his own daily-ish blog at EveryDayIsLikeWednesday.blogspot.com. He lives in northeast Ohio, where he works as a circulation clerk at a public library by day.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

May 2022

My Little Pony | This Week’s Comics

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

May 2022

Enola Holmes | This Week’s Comics

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

May 2022

World of Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #15 | Preview

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

May 2022

Orcs: The Curse #1 | Exclusive Preview

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

May 2022

This Week’s Comics | Sorceline

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Books on Film: Sit Back, Relax, and Have Harry Styles Read a Picture Book To You

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Blaze, the Masked Chicklet and a Dearest Enemy: Two Pieces by Unconventional Artist Claude Ponti

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Godzilla: Monsters & Protectors—Rise Up! | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Heavy Medal

Many May Suggestions: First Quarter Mock Newbery Possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Have Some Mysteries and Thrillers for June Through December

by Riley Jensen

The Classroom Bookshelf

Farewell From The Classroom Bookshelf

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Rebekah Lowell visits The Yarn

by Colby Sharp

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Svetlana Chmakova Returns to a Magical World in ‘The Weirn Books’

PEN America and Trust Project Release Newsroom Transparency Tracker | News Bites

From 'Gender Queer' to ‘New Kid', Graphic Novels Are Targeted by Censors

Author Jim Murphy Has Died; Kaepernick, Scholastic Publishing Graphic Memoir; and More | News Bites

Marvel, Scholastic To Launch New Line of Graphic Novels for Young Readers

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2022


COPYRIGHT © 2022