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| SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP No. 2, March 2014 |
Created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, and debuting
in July 1955, the canine crime-fighting partner of the Dark Knight, Ace the
Bat-Hound, has proved something of an anathema to the vast majority of serious comic
book collectors. Whether it be due to the German Shepherd’s rather
absurd-looking cape and cowl or his bat emblem dog collar, the animal has
suffered a rather inconsistent spotty relationship with aficionados of the Batman canon. Perhaps artist Alex Ross best sums up the dividing opinion over
the character with his belief that ‘as a child, the idea of Batman having a dog is
cool but as an adult the same idea is outrageous.’
Fortunately Sholly Fisch suffers
no such qualms about incorporating Ace into the Hanna Barbera-based universe of
Scooby Doo, bringing the “skilled detective” together with Norville
Rogers’ friendly hound for their “first-ever team-up” following a meeting of
the ‘Mystery Analysts of Gotham City’. “Translated from the barking” the
subsequent jolly storyline, though straight forward, admirably relies
upon the keen senses specific to the four-legged animals to progress the plot,
rather than simply using the characters’ pairing as a cheap gimmick. For the
Scarecrow is in town robbing jewellers, and whilst Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, Velma
and the Dynamic Duo are ‘trapped’ fighting fear-gas generated monstrosities,
the two dogs, immune to the fumes as they’re “not people”, must save the day.
However the “DC Comics” children’s title writer also manages to include plenty of
in-jokes for those who “grew up with the Mystery Incorporated gang and want to
enjoy something of a nostalgic trip down memory lane." Be that Fred and Batman
discussing the differences between using “many cutting-edge forensic
techniques” and simply ‘just pulling off their masks', or Shaggy chastising
Jonathan Crane for using his line “Let me out of here!” There are some genuine
‘laugh out loud’ moments within this comic’s twenty pages.
Having said that much of the
success of “Who’s Scared?”, which proved it was not just “for young readers”
with a sales figure of 8,984 copies in January 2014, is undoubtedly down to
artist Dario Brizuela. For in addition to superbly capturing the look and feel of the Seventies animated cartoon franchise, the Argentinian’s pencilling also manages to pay
homage to some of the great iconic Batman images of all time. With nods to the
definitive cover of Frank Miller’s 1986 four-issue mini-series “The Dark Knight
Returns” as well as to the distinctive art-style of Warner Brothers’ 1992 “Batman:
The Animated Series” all being readily recognisable despite something
of a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ “dynamic Scooby-duo” makeover.
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| Writer: Sholly Fisch, Artist: Dario Brizuela, and Colorist: Heroic Age |
Zoinks! This looks good, although I think might describe it as a guilty pleasure given my usual blood spattered comic likes! What can I say, I have mixed tastes and I've always liked the Scooby Gang. Pardon my ignorance but I never even knew that Batman had a dog or that he was called Ace.
ReplyDeleteBryan, I've had to pick a few of these up from US as they seem rare over in the UK for some reason. but I now have the full run - and its still going. There is a pure Scooby-Doo title too, which looks very good as well. But for now I'm sticking with this team-up comic. Its a great read and by Jinkies, just silly fun. Big fan of Ace myself, but as you've probably picked up, he's a bit of a forgotten star from yesteryear.
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