Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold, on Cartoon Network

Batman has many nicknames: the Caped Crusader, Dark Knight, and World’s Greatest Detective. Mystery Incorporated also has a few: the Scooby Gang and those “meddling kids.” Frankly, Batman kind of likes the last one. They get along fairly well—maybe because this isn’t their first meeting. The characters had crossover team-ups in “The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair” and “The Caped Crusader Caper,” two installments of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, which was really just another Scooby TV series, even though it pretended its episodes were movies. Their most recent on-screen collaboration really is a movie—that even had a theatrical premiere before releasing direct-to-DVD. Having laid the groundwork for the Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries comic book that launched in 2021 (and still regularly revives with special issues), Jake Castorna’s Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold airs this coming Saturday on the Cartoon Network.

Mystery Incorporated’s unmasking successes finally convinced Batman to recruit them for the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City. They simply had to pass a test he arranged with the help of Martian Manhunter and Detective Chimp. Honestly, the real mystery is why Warner Animation hasn’t used Detective Chimp more often. (His guest appearance in Wonder Woman #16 was a delight.) Then, they gang also must sleuth their way to the meeting, where they also meet the Question, Plastic Man, and Black Canary. As it happens, Fred Jones is totally gob smacked by her, which should put to rest a lot of rumors. For the record, the ascot does not help his cause.

Naturally, they want to help solve Batman’s only unsolved case, which coincidentally might be related to Gotham’s latest break-in. It seems the spectral Crimson Cloak’s theft of radioactive isotopes might be related to the unstable teleportation device from Batman’s notoriously open case. It turns out he saved the wrong lab assistant. The innocent one remains missing in the ether, but the other has been remanded to Arkham Asylum, under the name The Riddler. So off to Arkham they go, even though bad things always happen there.

Obviously, there are a lot of jokes in Scooby: The Brave and the Bold. It is a Scooby-Doo movie. However, it features the voices of Diedrich Bader and horror legend Jeffrey Combs as Batman and the Question, neither of whom get the credit they deserve for their DC animated work. Indeed, Bader’s Batman hits the right sardonic notes, indicating he is in on the jokes, at least to the extent he is constitutionally capable of acknowledging humor.

Arguably, the one character who suffers from Paul Giacoppo’s screenplay treatment is Aquaman, who comes off looking and sounding like a clumsy, obtuse meathead. Plastic Man is the same Plastic Man from the 1979 Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show. On the other hand, Black Canary and the Question should have seen their fandom stock rise from their appearances in this film.

DC Showcase: Blue Beetle

Please forget the Blue Beetle movie from two years ago. It wasn’t simply bad. It disrespected the original characters co-created by Steve Ditko and the beliefs they expressed for years. Remember, in addition to many of the characters DC acquired from Charleton Comics (including Blue Beetle), Ditko also created Marvel’s Spider-Man and the explicitly Objectivist and very independent Mr. A. Instead of the stridently anti-capitalist live action betrayal, watch the cheeky DC Showcase animated short film Blue Beetle, directed by Milo Neuman, which salutes many of Dikto’s signature characters, making it appropriate viewing today, the birthday (11/2) of the Hall of Fame comics writer and artist.

The characters are now part of the DC Universe[s], but their roots are in Charleton. Yet, the animation deliberately evokes the vibe of the groovy, goofy 1970s Spider-Man cartoons. Somehow, the Squid Gang (Blue Beetle’s frequent AIM or Hydra-like nemesis) successfully getaway with a massive Hope-ish gemstone, despite Blue Beetle’s best efforts.

This is the real Blue Beetle: Ted Kord, Charleton/DC’s version of a mecha-suited Tony Stark. Screenwriters Jeremy Adams & Jennifer Keene make him tech-smart, but dumb in most other respects. Fortunately, he teams up with The Question—the real Question, Vic Sage (and not the current Question of the recent All Along the Watchtower limited comic series), who quickly traces the Squids back to mad scientist Dr. Spectro.

Alarmingly, Dr. Spectro has applied his cutting-edge mind-control technology to Captain Atom and Nightshade, two additional former Charleton superheroes created by Ditko. It is particularly satisfying to see Captain Atom’s heroic resistance, considering his struggles in the limited series Justice League: The Atom Project (which overlaps with All Along the Watchtower).

This DC Showcase short is devilishly sly and delightfully silly, but perhaps the best part is its spot-on presentation of the Question’s uncompromising philosophic honesty. Indeed, the character and his intellectually rigorous dialogue are well served by David Kaye’s incisive voiceover performance. Clearly, Neuman and company have affection for the character and appreciate the philosophy that makes him who he is.