Scooby-Doo 50th Anniversary Giant #1

A wonderful mix of all-new and classic DC mysteries starring Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. Gang. 

My love for Scooby has been rekindled  over the years thanks to Scooby-Doo Team-Up. Unfortunately, it was cancelled just as Cartoon Network and Boomerang announced an all-new team-up cartoon series. I'm hoping that the popularity of that series might bring back SDTU. 

The Scooby-Doo Team-Up duo of Sholly Fisch and Dario Brizuela usher in Scooby's birthday/anniversary in 2 of the 3 all-new stories. I loved the mash-up of voice actors names in the first story. But that second tale was quite predictable. 

In my heart of hearts, I hoped for a team-up story. My favorite of all the Scooby TV shows was The New Scooby-Doo Movies in which stars from the 1970s and way before that meet up with those meddling kids and their dog to solve mysteries that more often than not were fronts for crime. Dick Van Dyke, Mama Cass, Laurel and Hardy, The Harlem Globetrotters and of course, Batman & Robin were just a handful of celebs who joined forces with Scooby and friends. 

While we didn't get a Batman & Robin style superhero team-up (which episodes inspired SDTU), one of the reprinted stories was indeed a crossover. This one adventure has Shaggy finding a Hawaiian tiki while getting ready for a garage sale. It turns out to be the very tiki that cursed the Brady Bunch all those years ago. And the professor who seeks it, played by Vincent Price, returns to purchase it fair and square, along with a fashionable lamp...

One character that I was quite glad not to see was Scrappy Doo. The cousin Oliver of the Mystery gang; if I never encounter that annoying pup again in my life, it will be too soon! 

Sadly, for this 50th anniversary special, one member of the team was notably missing- The Mystery Machine. That flower-powered trusty ole' van didn't appear in one single panel- new or classic! Shame, DC! SHAME!

I would have liked one or two classic pre-DC stories in this anniversary special. Or even a fun reprinting of Laff-A-Lympics in which Shaggy and Scoob star. But I guess, I will just have to try and find those in my hunts of bargain bins and comic conventions nation wide someday.

A fun but slightly incomplete celebration of Scooby-Dooby-Doo!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

All-New X-Men, Volume 4: All-Different (Marvel NOW!)

Let's start with the cons, as we can cover that fast. In previous reviews of books in this series as well as Uncanny X-Men, I've been eagerly anticipating the team-up between the original X-Men and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Already, I've read Uncanny X-Men volume 3 where the team has been whisked away to the furthest reaches of the universe and then volume 4 where the team has returned. So, I thought this volume of All-New X-Men would tell me that missing story.

(HEAD SLAP) I forgot, I hadn't got to the point when the original X-Men joined up with old Cyclops' team.  Issues 16 and 17 are reprinted in the Battle of the Atom trades, so, the conflict that leads the original X-Men to leave the Jean Grey school isn't covered in these books.

No worries, the Guardians are coming.

Now let's get to the good stuff.

2013 was the 50th Anniversary of Uncanny X-Men #1, so this volume is jammed pack with anniversary special events. First, the time stranded mutants face an enemy heir of their eventual replacements- The Giant-sized X-Men. When the clone of Wolverine, X-23 is rescued by a group religious zealots with hi-tech armor by the original team, they all come face to face with the son of William Stryker and learn who is the mysterious benefactors of his legacy of hate.

God Loves, Man Kills was a ground-breaking graphic novel published in the 1980s. It introduced William Stryker to the Marvel Universe and changed the scope of mutant persecution from people who were different from to branded them spawns of Satan. It's a philosophy that's carried over in such X-Men storylines such as Age of Apocalypse, Onslaught, and more.

Then, it's a reprint of X-Men: Gold. Many of the writers, artists, and inkers from the 50-year history of the X-Men join forces to pay homage to some of the most popular incarnations of the team. The main story is written by the man who literally brought the team back from the dead, Chris Claremont, in a story that pits the 80s X-Men up against a Sentinel android factory. X-Men co-creator, and comics legend Stan Lee (along with the late Jack Kirby) crafts a lighthearted tale starring the original team. The Simonson's craft a prequel to Giant-Sized X-Men #1 starring Banshee and Starfire on the streets of Memphis.

All of these stories were really well crafted. But it was the final story that bummed me out a little bit. In the short story closer by Fabian Nicieza, Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr are about to celebrate a new day in mutant- human relations when Magneto begins to claim he's having trouble remembering little details.  We soon find out that this utopia is actually a psychically induced rouse by Professor X to neutralize his longtime foe. I didn't like this story because 1) I'm not sure if it's canon or an imaginary tale and 2) it just seems out of character for Prof. X.

Aside from this lousy tale, volume 4 was excellent. I loved the story. The addition of X-23 was clever and throws a nice twist into the Cyclops- Jean Grey- Beast love triangle. And the art was fantastic with an uncanny cover gallery that included some 50th anniversary cover variants.

So, I didn't get my X-Men Guardians team-up. But what I did receive was another great volume by Brian Michael Bendis full of 50 years of the mutant legacy  not of a professor but of a Man and a King.

Worth Consuming.