Remember The Time .... ?

Welcome to a special second post this week; and in honor of this being a special post, here's a special comic!

Scooby-Doo! Team-Up No. 1
DC Comics
Sholly Fisch, writer
Dario Brizuela, artist

I didn't know anything about this title a few months ago when I was doing my monthly comics pre-order. But it looked like a fun title that maybe harkened back to the old "Scooby-Doo Movies" cartoon show. This animated classic took the original Mystery Incorporated gang of Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred, expanded their initial half-hour adventures into an hour-long program and paired them with a different guest-star each episode. Sometimes the guest was a real personality such as Sandy Duncan, Don Adams, Don Knotts, Jerry Reed  or Jonathan Winters animated for the show. Other times, the guests might be real people starring in their own animated shows, like the Harlem Globetrotters, or fictional characters like the Addams Family and the Three Stooges. Some episodes even starred other cartoon characters such as the casts of Josie and the Pussycats and Speed Buggy.

Two episodes of this series teamed the Scooby gang with the Caped Crusaders, Batman and Robin, and pitted their combined forces against both the Penguin and the Joker. Those episodes of "Scooby-Doo Movies" were so popular and fondly remembered by fans, that the much more recent "The Brave and the Bold" animated Batman series included a tribute to them. In that episode, Bat-Mite, the imp from another dimension who idolizes Batman, tells of some of the Dark Knights strangest team-ups, one of which includes Batman and Robin crossing paths with both the Scooby gang and "Weird Al" Yankovic in a "Scooby-Doo Movies" style mystery.

Back to this comic, the advance solicit information promised that the team-up in this first issue of this comic series would again pair the Scooby gang with Batman and Robin. Sign me up!

And what a romp this issue is! It fully acknowledges the previous team-ups from "Scooby-Doo Movies," as well as including a number of other "in jokes."

The Mystery Incorporated gang travels to an unnamed mall to investigate reports of a "giant bat creature." Once there, they see Batman and Robin. Daphne greets the Caped Crusaders with, "Long time, no see, Batman -- ever since our run-in with the Joker and the Penguin!" Fred, shaking hands with Batman, adds, "Yeah, we kept running into all sorts of people back then. Singers, basketball players ... It felt like we were teaming up with someone different every week!" And Batman responds with, "I know the feeling."

In the few months between ordering this issue and receiving my copy, I have since learned that Scooby-Doo! Team-Up is scheduled to be a three-issue bimonthly series. You can bet I've pre-ordered issue Nos. 2 and 3 and am anxiously awaiting them, too!