Summary
- A Scooby-Doo comic pays homage to both Jaws and a classic episode of the original cartoon, subverting fan expectations.
- The gang faces off against an animatronic Hydra as well as a Great White shark in their latest adventures.
- Fans enjoy seeing Scooby tropes flipped, with new twists on classic foes and mysteries.
One of the most well-known tropes in Scooby-Doo is the unmasking of the villain at the end of each episode, but one comic adventure hilariously plays on the readers’ expectations of this moment while paying homage to a cinematic classic. Scooby-Doo has been a treasured Saturday-morning cartoon since its 1969 debut, quickly earning a slew of comic book adaptations. In recent DC Comics, the talking dog and his teenage detective friends have been given some of their best stories, often subverting the source material.
Like any popular franchise adapted to comics, Scooby-Doo has been reinvented, adapted and imagined in a variety of ways. This has ranged from the gang’s alliance with Batman to their mature, post-apocalyptic horror series, Scooby Apocalypse. However, their most consistently-fun stories continue on through the main Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? series, which has been running bimonthly since 2010. In the recent Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #128, the story “DeHydrated” by Derek Fridolfs and Randy Elliott paid homage to both a classic episode and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.
Scooby and the gang have taken on a variety of monsters throughout their history, from zombies to aliens. While most of their villains are ordinary people in masks, others have been more epic and elaborate in their design. Current writers continue to pay homage to the gang’s past, with this issue recalling the 1978 episode “A Highland Fling With a Monstrous Thing.”
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The Scooby Gang Encounters An Ancient Monster
While enjoying a vacation by a small lake, Scooby and the gang find themselves in a showdown with a three-headed Hydra, plucked from Greek mythology. After going to take a dip in the water, Daphne is the first to be scared off, with the gang following suit. In classic Jaws fashion, the partygoers attempt to shake off the presence of a monster and go about their day. When it returns, Mystery Inc. decides it’s time to take action. With Shaggy and Scooby relaxing on the water as bait, the creature rears its heads again, this time stymied by Fred, Daphne and Velma, who use jetskis to form a whirlpool.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #128 concludes with the gang trying — and failing — to unmask the Hydra, only to realize it’s a remote-controlled animatronic. They discover that a local man, angered by the presence of tourists in his small town, built the creature to scare them off, so he could go back to a quiet life. At the last minute, he reveals his hand when he saves his son from the monster, dropping his control as he does. While he didn’t mean any harm to anyone, the man’s recklessness naturally lands him in police custody, and the gang are free to return to their vacation.
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Fans Love Seeing Scooby Tropes Subverted
Since the franchise shifted towards supernatural horror in the 1990s, fans of Scooby-Doo have enjoyed seeing its tropes subverted for years. Whether it’s the moment Fred realizes he’s dealing with a real zombie in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island or the malfunctioning cowboys in the Westworld-inspired episode “Go West, Young Scoob,” the franchise often avoids its tropes. In “DeHydrated,” the gang realizes they are faced with yet another animatronic villain, paying homage to the mechanical Loch Ness Monster in the classic episode “A Highland Fling With a Monstrous Thing.”
The comic’s second story, “Scuba Scoob” by Georgia Ball and Dario Brizuela, continues the issue’s homage to Jaws. This story largely follows the idea of “DeHydrated,” with the gang facing off against a Jaws-inspired shark. As is the case with the first story, the gang realize their Great White attacker is also under the control of a nearby man, who is trying to scare scuba divers away so that he can hunt for sunken treasure. For fans of classic foes like the Demon Shark, the Loch Ness Monster and the Snow Beast, the issue is a great callback to classic Scooby-Doo mysteries and a classic summer blockbuster.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
#128
is available now from DC Comics.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969)
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is a classic animated mystery series that follows the adventures of four teenagers – Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers – and their talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo. Together, they travel around in their psychedelic van, the Mystery Machine, solving supernatural mysteries and uncovering spooky secrets.