It seems every week some monster decides to hop on the old nostalgia train and crush everything from my childhood “reboot” a franchise nobody really wanted a remake of in the first place. Be it “Ghostbusters,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” or even The Hamburglar, it seems just about everything from the past is now doomed to a creepy, unwanted revival.
Next up is one of my favorite cartoons of all time, “Scooby-Doo.” DC Comics, apparently not content with its war on primary colors and “no jokes” policy with the “Batman V Superman” film, has decided to give “Scooby-Doo” the gritty remake we never wanted, but has determined its the one we deserve. Behold, the new, dark and disturbing “Scooby-Doo!” (via Entertainment Weekly)
Look at it. No, those are not tears of joy running down your face. Those are tears of sadness.
Fred has tattoos and looks like every guy who is one drink away from getting into a bar fight. Shaggy looks like the personification of every hipster to walk the earth and will give you long-winded speeches on artisan bread, indie bands you will never care about and how 8-tracks are making a comeback. Daphne is holding a weapon straight out of “Starship Troopers” and reminds me of Ripley from “Alien” which would be awesome if this wasn’t “Scooby-Doo.” I don’t mind Velma’s new image, because she pretty much looks the same but now holds a game controller for some reason. Scooby has some weird thing over his eye, but again, looks pretty much the same.
Ugh.
“I’m a huge Scooby Doo fan, as I think most people are,” veteran artist Jim Lee told EW, probably with an evil cackle in his voice. “I mean, look at these iconic series and they were cultural touchstones for everyone. All my kids know of Scooby Doo from the various cartoons and live action movies, and we’re in a period where you have people my age that are spending their days thinking about cartoon and sci-fi action movies. It’s a multigenerational obsession at this point, and we just thought it would just be really interesting to take the cartoon version of these characters and see where they would be if we took what existed in the very first iteration of the cartoon and moved it into this day and age.”
Sometimes, I really wonder about people who think these sorts of things are good ideas.
The JOE-DOWN 