Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #33 (2018) – Part 1
by Sholly Fisch & Dario Brizuela
Don’t be surprised this happened, Scooby-Doo has crossed over with everybody.
Also, this series seems to be a bit unusual, having two different numbering systems: in the print version this is #33 and is a single story, but in the digital version it’s split into two separate parts with #66 and #67.
Since I couldn’t find out which one came out first, and since we’re close to the end of the Apocrypha anyway, I’m splitting this into two parts.
But that’s why the two covers will be identical except for the chapter number at the bottom.
As a disclaimer, I don’t know a whole lot about this franchise.
I’ve watched a few episodes from the roughly 6,000 series that starred the Scooby gang, but I can’t call myself a regular fan.
So I don’t know if this opening scene at “Monster Manor” is a reference to something specific.
When I said that Scooby-Doo has crossed over with everybody, I really mean it: they met DC Comics time traveler Rip Hunter just a few issues ago!
To show just how insane this series and this franchise is: the issue they reference when they met Rip Hunter is the one where the main team-up was with the Challengers Of The Unknown…
…which is from the SAME series where they had a team-up with THESE guys in the previous issue!!!
I can’t stress this enough but Scooby-Doo WILL. TEAM-UP. WITH. EVERYBODY.
Including the Legion of Super-Heroes, who show up straight from the Silver Age.
So the three founders take the whole Scooby gang inside the Time-Bubble™ and bring them to the 31st century.
But why would the Legion even need to take these guys into the future?
Because nobody in the future believes in ghosts. But I guess they do believe in steroids because every male Legionnaire is freaking JACKED.
Unlike the writers of the Star Trek crossover, at least this time the writer DID his homework: if you have to bring up ghosts in a Legion story, there’s no better alternative to the Ghost Of Ferro Lad.
WILL. TEAM-UP. WITH. EVERYBODY.
Obviously the ghost is basically immune to everything.
The ghost then disappears, but not before all this commotion caught the attention of the rest of the team.
The comic will feature a lot of Legionnaires, and even those who can’t make a full appearance make a cameo.
These missions are nuts: Mon-El and Ultra Boy dealing with an invasion is fine, but you send only Colossal Boy and Element Lad to deal with the Time Trapper and BOUNCING BOY AND SHRINKING VIOLET to fight Darkseid???
Sadly Darkseid doesn’t actually meet Scooby-Doo in this series, but I’m sure he’s either met him somewhere else or that he eventually will.
Also: DARKSEID exists in the same universe of SCOOBY-DOO.
The gang gets to the investigation, and even Ferro Lad’s brother gets named.
Also: the look of the Legionnaires is spot on for the Silver Age, but what’s up with Phantom Girl’s hairdo? Have we ever seen her with this hair?
This series obviously has a young target audience, so I’m kind of surprised they’re allowed to directly reference death.
If this is what it takes to be considered legendary in the 31st century, the future is very dumb.
This story is funny enough to get a few chuckles, with Velma’s question here being my favorite along with Shaggy’s “aliens from the future” bit from the beginning.
Only Brainiac 5 would design a ring for someone who doesn’t even have fingers.
Well he HAS been a member of the Sinestro Corps.
I do like how none of the members of the gang is able to fly properly. It always bothers me when someone puts on the Flight Ring and immediately knows how to fly like a pro.
Ferro Lad’s brother DEFINITELY had a better deal in this reality than in the main continuity.
To be fair to the Legionnaires there’re not COMPLETELY stupid in this, as they did investigate other options before summoning a ghost-catching dog from the past.
I praised the writer for doing his homework on the Legion, but disappointingly there’s still one mistake: Projectra is one of the few Legionnaires coming from a planet where not everyone has powers!
You knew this was coming the second Matter-Eater Lad showed up.
Wait wait wait. You mean to tell me you guys have been dealing with a green energy ghost and you didn’t think ONCE about the possibility this was Emerald Empress playing tricks???
And that’s when we end Part 1.
Next time: Scooby-Doo versus the Fatal Five!!!
Does any of this show up in any regular continuity?
On the Legion side, definitely not. On the Scooby-Doo side, what even IS continuity?
SHOULD any of this have happened in regular continuity?
Really?
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
The only way it could have been more Silver Age is if Krypto got involved.
Who, by the way…
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
I’m a casual Scooby-Doo fan at best, but this mixture of absurdity and references to 1960s comics is right up my alley. Nothing really new for a Legion fan, and they don’t come off as particularly bright… but if you have to introduce the Legion to a younger audience that has no idea about them, this should easily get their attention.
On the other side, however, don’t go down the Scooby-Doo rabbit hole of trying to make sense of how anything works because THIS FRANCHISE IS INSANE.
And I wrote that BEFORE discovering that DC published a series about the Scooby gang surviving in a post-apocalyptic world that lasted THIRTY-SIX ISSUES.
Written by J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen of all people!!!
We are legion
Active Legionnaires: 17
-Cosmic Boy
-Saturn Girl
-Lightning Lad
-Brainiac 5
-Phantom Girl
-Chameleon Boy
-Princess Projectra
-Matter-Eater Lad
-Shadow Lass
-Ferro Lad
-Mon-El
-Ultra-Boy
-Element Lad
-Colossal Boy
-Bouncing Boy
-Shrinking Violet
-Karate Kid
Deceased Legionnaires: 1
-Ferro Lad
18 people have been members
Comic books always enjoy more lax censorship than cartoons. Not only the death of Top was referenced in a story starring Rogues, but there was also an issue starring numerous ape DC characters- including Pryemaul with direct references to him being a Nazi.
I’m not sure I’d call myself a Scooby fan, but I did grow up along with it and the franchise’s ongoing success does fascinate me. This crossover seems fine so far – neither good nor bad really, just more of the same we’ve seen in so many comics already and doing a tolerable job with both parts of the team-up (although the Legion timeline seems out of place – should they still be in that clubhouse with the members we’ve seen?). Maybe the second half will change that assessment but I doubt it, these are such disposable entertainment it’s hard to feel strongly about them.
Shadow Lass is what throws it off. The upside-down rocket ship was trashed by the Fatal Five during her first visit. She was battlefield inducted into membership as part of that fight. But a cuter, smaller headquarters is fitting for a kid-oriented franchise like Scooby-Doo.
Have to say I’m disappointed in your lack of faith in the Legion. In this continuity the Time Trapper is just a guy in a cheap costume and he’s probably haunting the Happy Humor ice cream factory alongside the Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry Technicolor Phantoms. That would most likely make him Grape-flavored, although he’s certainly lame enough we can’t rule out Eggplant or something instead. Darkseid is, of course, the same lame-ass one from the later days of the Super-Friends franchise, and stands no chance at all against someone as powerful as Bouncing Boy. I’m surprised Violet even bothered to show up for the fight, honestly. Maybe she’s beaten up Desaad and a battalion of para-demons off-screen or something. Interesting to note that if any Darkseid is in continuity with Scooby Doo, then so is Ambush Bug – and Giffen was on that depressingly serious post-apocalyptic Scooby book, as you noted.
If you’re going to bring up Scooby-Doo and Krypto, Too!, you should note that there’s a blink and you’ll miss it cameo by the Bendis-era Legion.
It looks like the online issues are the print issues split in half. That makes #33 in print the same as #66 and 67 online. #34 would then be #68 and 69 online.
Yes. Apparently it’s done so that the individual online pages display better on a screen, with two of those e-pages “stacked” one above teh other to make a single print page.
The one thing I don’t enjoy about this crossover is that the art is clearly done very, VERY cheaply. Very few backgrounds, almost all of the Scooby gang’s art is stock inages, and most of the Legionnaires are based off the same template. It’s a shame, because I really do love it otherwise.