What The Heck Is DC Comics Doing to Scooby-Doo?

Shaggy looks like he lives in Bushwick now and works at an artisanal clam chowder pop-up. Zoinks, Scoob!

Corporate synergy is afoot. Warner Bros. owns both DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera; for years, the former company has published comfortingly, familiar comics based on the latter’s baby-boomer cartoon properties. Now, as announced today in an Entertainment Weekly interview, they’re re-imagining The Flintstones, Wacky Races and Scooby-Doo as part of a new wave of titles.

A promo image for Scooby Apocalypse by Jim Lee show off sexed-up, hipster-ized (sorry, there’s really no other way to say it) versions of Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy, with tribal tattoos and dandified facial hair on the guys. The version of The Flintstones by Amanda Conner—artist on the best-selling Harley Quinn series—hews closer to the but imagine the cast with body proportions that are closer to the real-world. And Wackyraceland looks like a Mad Max: Fury Road riff on the old-school car-combat crossover show.

While those new takes are the most divergent, the re-inventions don’t all come off as that jarring. Future Quest looks like a mash-up of the H-B action characters and the Darwyn Cooke promo art is line with Alex Toth, the beloved cartoonist (and influence on Cooke) who contributed character designs to some of Hanna-Barbera’s biggest shows. I’m a longtime Johnny Quest fan and will admit to getting tingly at a comic where his crew and Space Ghost’s team might have adventures together. Gonna need some convincing on the rest, though.

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