The Batman And Scooby-Doo Mysteries [2024] #3 - DC Comics

THE BATMAN AND SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES No. 3, May 2024

For those Bat-fans who enjoy seeing the Dark Knight team up with the ever-seductive Catwoman and explore the duo’s complicated love–hate relationship, Ivan Cohen’s script for “Shiny” certainly should have been quite the hit. True, Selina Kyle’s anti-heroic alter-ego is once again “blamed for another string of robberies in Gotham” which she did not commit. But this fairly familiar plot still allows the “media-development executive at DC Comics” to pen a few surprises to catch his audience off-guard - most notably the true identity of the book’s lead antagonist stemming way back to the mid-Eighties and John Byrne’s run on “The Man Of Steel”.

Sadly however, the former editor doesn’t do quite as well writing for Mystery Incorporated. Disappointingly both Shaggy Rogers and Scooby-Doo are practically non-existent. Whilst Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley are incredibly irritating as they repeatedly question the Caped Crusader’s decision-making when it comes to the cat burglar's motivations. Indeed, the two female amateur investigators arguably come across as a right arrogant pair of holier-than-thou do-gooders, who apparently know far more about criminal catching than the Justice Leaguer ever will; “No offense, Batman.”

Commissioner Gordon also appears to fall under the two teenagers’ implausible spell far too willingly, unconvincingly preferring to believe them over the Dark Knight when it comes to Catwoman’s innocence and even relying upon the ‘meddling kids’ to keep Kyle incarcerated overnight rather than ‘one of the greatest comic book superheroes ever created.’ This contrivance genuinely grates upon the senses considering the trust which has built up between the two men since Batman first saved the police officer’s city single-handedly, and subsequently sits rather uncomfortably in the subconscious as the storytelling unsatisfactorily progresses.

Delightfully, what this twenty-page publication lacks in credible drama, it somewhat makes up for with the wonderful layouts of Dario Brizuela. In fact, the Argentinian illustrator’s ability to seamlessly combine aspects of the classic “Hanna-Barbera” cartoons and the “Batman: The Animated Series” together, alongside his own take on the Caped Crusader, debatably makes Issue Three of “The Batman And Scooby-Doo Mysteries” worth the cover price alone. Furthermore, his pencilling of the Penguin is so spot on that many a bibliophile will find it impossible not to hear actor Paul Williams’ voice reading out Oswald Cobblepot’s dialogue.

Written by: Ivan Cohen, Art by: Dario Brizuela, and Color by: Franco Riesco