Panel selection from Scooby-Doo Apocalypse #4. Illustrated by Howard Porter with colors by Hi-Fi. Screencap via the author.
The big news in comics this week is the leak that Disney Channel star Zendaya may be cast as the role of Spider-Man’s long-time love interest, Mary Jane Watson, in an upcoming reboot. And, in the most pathetic corners of Twitter, comic nerds are crying out because “Mary Jane can’t be black.” This is the worst of what comic/nerd/fandom culture can be, and anytime some “controversy” like this crops up, it makes one want to drop their trade paperbacks, shelve their video game systems, and run for the hills. For all the work that Marvel’s doing to amp up its diversity and push toward inclusion, there’s still, culturally, in a big-picture sense, a very long way to go. But it has to start at the top, and casting Zendaya in this role is another good, smart, bold step in the right direction.
As for this week in comic books, the best are strangely about horror, possession, apocalyptic stories…and Scooby-Doo.
Cover for Scooby Apocalypse #4. Cover illustrated by Jim Lee with Alex Sinclair. Photo courtesy DC Comics.
How’s this for a premise? Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, and Fred all live in the near-future where a plague of nanobots have turned humans into bloodthirsty creatures inspired by classic movie monsters. In this verison of Scooby-Doo, Scoob can talk because he’s a cybernetically enhanced “Smart Dog,” Daphne and Fred are kickass documentarians that can handle huge rifles, Velma’s a super-scientist, and Shaggy has a twirly moustache. This issue sees the crew learning to work together as they’re chased from point to point. Dialogue heavy, this comic should please fans of Scooby-Doo and The Walking Dead.
Oh, I must have these. Why yes, I love Scoobert. Sparrow and Crowe: The Demoniac of Los Angeles #1, Broken Moon: Legends of the Deep #1, B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth #144 (from the pages of Hellboy) are also covered at The Creators Project, and they all look grand!
Oh, I’m all behind this, just as long as they totally leave out Scrappy.
It looks like other companies are looking at the success of Archie Comics reinventing themselves with the likes of Afterlife With Archie.
Hopefully though their books won’t take as long between issues.
On Spider-Man… I was actually meh about this, because I felt burned by the trilogy and the first reboot.
Seeing Spider-Man in Civil War piqued my interest, though… and now? Casting Zendaya as Mary Jane? White assholes shedding their sweet, delicious rage tears over it?
I cannot wait for Spider-Man: Homecoming. It’s gonna be amazing.
As for this Scooby Doo comic… let me see if I can get in on it…
Seems pointless. At least there isn’t, as mentioned by others, Scrappy.
Oh for feck’s sake, GUNS!???? No, no, no, just NO. That will ruin what’s left of the concept even more than when “they” started introducing non-rational “solutions” to the mysteries. Absolutely idiotic.
:shrugs:
The artwork in the OP is meh, albeit I note Daphne and Fred are even more sexualized than previously.
The great thing about comic books is how often they try to break stereotypes by reinforcing different ones.
This makes me think of a meme I saw on a friend’s fb wall the other day… b&w photo of Cesar Romero in Joker make up and Eartha Kitt in her cat woman outfit. “A Latino as Joker and a black woman as cat woman! Can’t wait to see the internet’s reaction!”
Eartha Kitt being cast as catwoman back in the 60s was a big deal at the time, but I doubt there was the kind of controversy like there is now crying over ‘diversity’ in comics.
Patricia @ 6:
Yes, it was, but it was also overwhelmingly positive. Eartha Kitt was enormously popular, and most people thought she was perfect to play Catwoman.