Review: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #41

DC Comics
Review: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #41
By Philip Schweier
August 22, 2018 - 04:37

DC Comics
Writer(s): Sholly Fisch
Artist(s): Scott Jeralds
Colourist(s): Sylvana Bris
Letterer(s): Saida Temofonte
Cover Artist(s): Scott Jeralds, Sylvana Bris

Back in the classic days before cable TV, there was one place where kids could count on their weekly does of animated cartoons – Saturday morning. All three networks offered a smorgasbord of super-heroes, crime-solving teens, and anthropomorphic animals. And Hanna-Barbera was a leading purveyor of adolescent entertainment. So it’s a welcome bit of nostalgia when we are treated to one of their (almost) forgotten properties, Penelope Pitstop.

Penelope was the perpetual damsel in distress, as she navigated an around-the-world race with a host of competitors, some benign, some dastardly. And now Mystery Inc. has been called in to rescue her from a monster. But I’m hardly giving anything away when I explain that the monster is the fabrication of Penelope’s financial guardian, Sylvester Sneekly, aka the Hooded Claw.

For a story based on juvenile cartoons of the late 1960s/early ‘70s, it has more than a few surprising twists. It also follows the same tried-and-true formula that made fans fall in love with Penelope – and the Scooby gang – in the first place. However, fun as it was, it isn’t a sustainable franchise, as Hanna-Barbera eventually learned.

It’s a fun read from an innocent time, when one could spend an entire morning binging on animation, sugary cereals and toy commercials, all in the comfort of one’s pajamas. Kids today will never know such simple joys. Thanks to multiple animated networks and streaming services, they can do it whenever they wish. It’s like Christmas every day.

Rating: 8/10