The Batman And Scooby-Doo Mysteries #10 - DC Comics

THE BATMAN AND SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES No. 10, September 2023

Initially appearing to promise plenty of deep-sea detective work aboard the first annual “Mega-Mystery Cruise”, courtesy of Bruce Wayne’s state-of-the-art exploration vessel attempting to “scan the ocean floor with incredible precision”, Ivan Cohen’s narrative for “Scooby-Cruise, Where Are You?” ultimately must have come as a great disappointment to its readers. Indeed, by the time the ship has dramatically been pulled off-course and docked alongside a deserted island, even the “entertainment executive specializing in working with established brands across diverse media” appears to have become so disinterested in his own storyline that it abruptly ends without Batman throwing a single punch.

Much of this lethargy sadly starts to appear following Velma unwittingly ruining one of the trip’s amateur detective games by immediately identifying the actor who supposedly stole a priceless diamond necklace. The premise that every other room contains a fake themed theft should have led to all sorts of investigative intrigues and criminal conundrums. But none of these Machiavellian machinations ever materialise as the writer simply seems to use them as an implausible explanation as to how a gang of salty swashbucklers could hide in plain sight on the Silver St. Cloud; “The pirates didn’t need a ship, because they were already on ours!” 

To make matters worse though, once the unruly crew of cut-throats are discovered, the author just lazily pens them supposedly being outfought by Mystery Incorporated off-screen. This resolution makes absolutely no sense considering that artist Dario Brizuela prodigiously pencils just a pair of the pirates previously terrifying the young sleuths, and smacks of Cohen simply needing the narrative to end before this twenty-page periodical runs out of sheet space.

However, arguably this book’s worst moment comes when Captain Hyde is revealed to be the Black Manta, who then calmly surrenders to Batman without any fight whatsoever. Just why a super-villain who in the past has been a match for the Justice League needed to don a fake beard and cutlass is never explained. Nor is his need to capture Wayne’s ship and redirect it to an isolated landmass, when the “ruthless underwater mercenary” already has access to so much advanced technology that he can simply teleport beneath the waves like a ghost at a moment’s notice.

Written by: Ivan Cohen, Drawn by: Dario Brizuela and Colored by: Franco Riesco