Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Review: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #43

By Philip Schweier
October 24, 2018 - 09:10

This issue, the Scooby gang meets a team of super-heroes with varying powers, led by a scientist in a wheelchair. One might think it’s derivative of the X-Men, but the Doom Patrol actually pre-dates, if only by a few months. Still, they are perhaps DC’s strangest heroes, and this issue supports that. Among its members are a living street and a bodybuilder with hypnotic muscles.

I am uncertain how much was created by writer Sholly Fisch for this single outing, and trippy though it may be, I like it. It harkens back to the Silver Age when comic books knew no creative boundaries. Common sense and narrative logic were completely disregarded in favor of telling a story.

However, I’m not enamored of this issue’s artwork, as the contour lines on the Scoobies vary from panel to panel. One time it’s heavy and thick, another it’s lighter and thin. I suspect this is due to a library of stock illustrations being dropped in, and enlarged to fit. Make the figure larger, the lines that create the image get thicker. I don’t mind the cheat so much as the excessive use of it with no regard for consistency. Perhaps the solution would be to have three images – small, medium, large – available to avoid such a giveaway.

One of the things I enjoy about the title is how self-aware it is. When Mystery Inc and the Doom Patrol are confronted by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, it’s not lost on them that they face Monsieur Mallah, whom they defeated last issue. Kudos for that kind attention to continuity, while not taking it so seriously.

Rating: 3 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12