Scooby Apocalypse #2 - Mobile Edition

DC Comics
Scooby Apocalypse #2
By Hervé St-Louis
July 21, 2016 - 00:36

DC Comics
Writer(s): Keith Giffem, J.M. DeMatteis
Penciller(s): Howard Porter
Inker(s): Howard Porter
Colourist(s): Hi-Fi Colors
Letterer(s): Nick J. Nap
Cover Artist(s): Jim Lee, Alex Sinclair; Carlos D'Anda
$2.99

Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy and Scooby are stuck in an underground bunker where all humans have been transformed into monsters or eaten by the mutants. The gang is now attempting to escape the bunker and return to the surface to tell the world about the impending nanite infection that turns people into horrendous creatures. The have found the Mystery Machine to plan their escape but it may be too late as the monsters have cornered the kids. Will they survive?

I missed Scooby Apocalypse #1, the first issue of the reimagined Scooby-Doo series but it doesn’t matter. Issue #2 explained most of what I missed earlier, like old comics used to do. Oh yeah, it was written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis! That’s why it was so easy to get into the ongoing action. It was somewhat funny but not BWA HA HA HA funny.

I was afraid of reading this comic. I did not want to read about a Scooby-Doo with mobile crap stuff attached to his head. He does look like a canine version of Steve Mann. All of the traditional characters from the comic are updated yet much within character, except for Scooby. Here Scooby is just a dog who kinda talks and hangs out with Shaggy. But is courageous. Shaggy is a slacker but along with Fred, he is much less important in the story than Velma and Daphne who dominate the plot.

Velma is the almost evil scientist responsible for the mutation that contaminated the bunker’s staff. Daphne is an investigative journalist who solves mysteries along with cameraman Fred. Throughout the issue, the gals put down the boys so they can rant and rave like a bunch of Steve Englehart women. They dominate the comic to the extent that they boys are window-dressing. I would like to learn more about Fred, besides him being Daphne’s sidekick. I’d also like to find out more about Shaggy, given that he had a prior relationship with Velma as her lab assistant.

Porter delivers the visual to a comic that could be the storyboard of a Hollywood blockbuster about teenaged kids trying to escape from a bunker filled with monsters. His work is scratchy and not clean cut as one would expect from a Scooby-Doo comic. Yes, he updated the style and the characters’ designs. They look like the cast of a current comic book. There is no nostalgia. Porter reinforces all of the character tropes Giffen and DeMatteis have wrought. I’m not sure if it is a good thing.

Rating: 7.5/10