The Batman Scooby-Doo Mysteries #3

The Batman Scooby-Doo Mysteries #3

DC Comics 2021

Written by Ivan Cohen

Illustrated by Dario Bizuela

Coloured by Franco Riesco

Lettered by Saida Temofonte

The hit new series teaming Batman with Mystery Inc. finds the heroes mixed and matched in surprising ways! Why does Batman join forces with Scooby-Doo, while Shaggy partners with Ace the Bat-Hound? All clues lead to the Gotham City Dog Show, where a special guest villain won’t let Batman stay a “two-dog knight” for long!

Still one of the best books on stands today. This all-ages offering really does make my heart sing with joy. This deserves to be so much more than a limited series, I miss the whole Scooby-Doo Team-Up series but this one would work as a monthly as well and there’s a whole slew of heroes already in Gotham for them to team-up with with or without Batman. As it stands this issue starts off beautifully as Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo teaming up with Batman and Ace the Bat-Hound. This just automatically brings a smile to my face and there’s no one that I know who wouldn’t fall in love with this series, if you don’t I don’t wanna know ya heh.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is perfectly presented. The character development that we see is phenomenal and that’s thanks to the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. This is where some real talent and skill come into play too because there are moments adults will catch that has a decidedly different meaning than a kids point of view will see. This makes the reading experience unique to different readers and that’s some bloody good skill and talent right there. The pacing is sensational and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story all we want to see is more.

I love how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story play such important roles. Whether it’s conversations between Ace and Scooby or Batman contemplating about what Daphne says it’s these little moments that add such depth and complexity to a seemingly simple story. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceedingly well.

The interiors are like a dream come true. The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail work is astonishingly well rendered. That we see backgrounds makes me a happy camper and then how they work within the composition of the panels bring us great depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows such a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is perfectly rendered as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is perfectly rendered. The creativity and imagination here make this feel like we’re watching the cartoon series and that alone is priceless.

The way that this is done is utterly brilliant to me. Find the clues and guess the villain before it’s revealed is one of those things that is much harder than one might expect and much easier in hindsight when you realise the clues all added up. If you aren’t reading this, than first shame on you and second go get a copy NOW, than you should be and passing it around the house and talk about it over a device free meal. See who got the clues and who didn’t and it’s a great way to bond over such classic and iconic characters.