I Reads You Review: SCOOBY-DOO, Where Are You? #43

SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? #43
DC COMICS – @DCComics

STORY: Sholly Fisch, Vito Delsante and Nick Purpura
PENCILS: Dave Alvarez, Tim Levins
INKS: Dave Alvarez, Dan Davis
COLORS: Wendy Broome, Heroic Age
LETTERS: Saida Temofonte, Sal Cipriano
COVER: Dave Alvarez
28pp, Color, $2.99 U.S. (May 2014)

Rated “E” for “Everyone”

I recently received another issue of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?  I purchased a subscription to DC Comics’ current Scooby-Doo comic book series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (which launched in 2010) from a fundraising drive.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #43 opens with “Game Changer” (written by Sholly Fisch and drawn by Dave Alvarez).  Twin sisters, Flora and Fauna Wilde, summon Mystery Inc. to the Wilde Life Nature Preserve to solve a mystery.  The game preserve is home to animals in danger of going extinct.

However, the ghost of the Jungle Man and his fearsome ghost leopard are terrorizing the preserve, insisting that “civilized” man does not belong there.  Plus, animals are disappearing from the preserve.  It’s up to the Scooby gang to solve the mystery of the big man and his big cat before everyone turns extinct.

In “Ghouls Night at the Opera” (written by Vito Delsante and Nick Purpura and penciled by Tim Levins), the gang arrives in Seattle where they have another case.  Apparently, the cast and crew of “Punk Rock: The Musical” are being terrorized by “The Ghoul.”  Now, the gang plans to sing their way through a web of backstage backstabbing and other antics to discover who the Ghoul really is.

In the recent reviews of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? that I’ve written, I often complained that some of the Scooby-Doo short stories would work better as full-length, single-issue stories.  However, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #43 offers two stories that are just right as short stories.

Story aside, “Game Changer” offers some of the best art I’ve seen in a Scooby-Doo comic book.  Drawn by Dave Alvarez, “Game Changer” also has spectacular coloring by Wendy Broome.  “Game Changer” is the subject of the cover art, with a striking image drawn by Alvarez and featuring (once again) dazzling color.  In fact, the cover is so eye-catching that I could not help but notice it on the shelf of a local comic book store, every time I walking past that shelf.

I think “Ghouls Night at the Opera” is a reprint from Scooby-Doo #128, the Scooby-Doo comic book series prior to this one.  When I saw that some of the characters’ dialogue was meant to be sung, I knew I would be annoyed, but I actually found the story to be surprisingly nice.

I’ll use the excuse that “Game Changer” and the cover art for this issue hypnotized me into giving Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #43 a high grade.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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