Scooby-Doo Team-up #41

Hay-Elp! I Can’t Return This Comic!

Writer: Sholly Fisch
Artist: Scott Jeralds
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: August 22, 2018
Cover Price: $2.99

Scooby Dooby Doo where are you, taking us?
To a crocodile-infested desert with Penelope Pitstop and the Ant Hill Gang!


So, Scooby and crew’s latest team-up is with Hannah-Barbera's dated racecar driver Penelope and her gangster buddies.  Why? This reader is not exactly certain. This comic opens in true 70’s Saturday morning cartoon fashion with a damsel in distress tied to railroad tracks. Grant it, writer Sholly Fisch tries to make light of this generic peril, but when it happens three to four times in the same issue, the shit just falls flat.

In my observations, Fisch, artist Scott Jeraids, and the rest of the creative crew pretty much mailed this one in.  With a plot filled with holes, copy and paste art, and a monster not only un-original (Blue Frankenstein?) but lacking a backstory altogether, this comic is frankly a waste of time.  Sure, it is known that the Hooded Claw is always after Penelope’s inheritance, but why he feels the need to disguise himself as a monster is left unexplained.  Not to mention, he doesn’t manage to scare anyone besides our forever skittish and stoned duo Scooby and Shaggy.

There really is no storyline in this book, but I’ll do my best to explain it.  Penelope is tied to some railroad tracks, but with the help of her nail file and the Ant Hill Gang, she escapes certain death just in time.  Upset at his own failure, the Hooded Claw attempts to scare off Penelope’s newest investigative friends (Scooby and crew) by dressing in a Frankenstein outfit, and that fails too.  Then he ties Penelope to a tree over-hanging a crocodile-filled river, but the Ant Hill Gang simply removes the entire tree to safety.  Now the Hooded Claw has the A.H.G. falsely arrested by the Bully Brothers disguised as policemen.  In the meantime, we find all our protagonists once again tied to some tracks without explanation.  Hooded Claw then feels the need to reveal that he is, in fact, the man beneath the Frankenstein mask and delivers the typical villain monologue while the crew frees themselves with yet more nail files.  Penelope breaks the A.H.G. free from prison and the real police show up to arrest Claw and the Bully Brothers.  Yup, that’s it.

Bits and Pieces:

So unless you’re some creepy super fan of Hanna-Barbera B-list characters and can only get off by seeing them reincarnated in the comic book media, I strongly suggest you skip this issue.  The few one-liners and other attempts at humor sprinkled sparsely throughout this book fall flat.  The art is cookie cutter, the story is weak, and the characters one dimensional.  Save yourself the three dollars and frustration and Scooby-Dooby-Don’t.

1.5/10