The Batman & Scooby-Doo! Mysteries #8 review

It’s a typical day in Gotham as a museum guide shows tourists around the Finger Memorial Museum.

Yep, a typical day in Gotham. Which also means the good citizens have nothing to fear, as brave guardians abound.

Of course, Shaggy and Scooby are soon reunited with Daphne, Freddy, Velma, Batman and Robin because they’ve got a mystery to solve – who the heck is this?

Here we have another terrifically entertaining teaming of Mystery Inc and the Dynamic Duo. The villain, delightfully, turns out to be a very obscure character from Batman’s Sixties New Look period, but he wasn’t my favourite surprise. That would be Ally Babble, ‘the human walking-talkie, the man which was vaccinated with a phonograph needle’, who appeared twice in the Forties and never again. Well, outside of reprints and an article I once wrote for a series about super-obscure DC types.

Well, he’s back, courtesy of writer Sholly Fisch, who likely encountered him in the same Seventies Batman #257 100-page Super-Spectacular I bought as a kid. And I love Ally Babble, he’s a hoot. With any luck this will be the start of a renaissance for the Bill Finger-created character, and he’ll be joining the new Justice League Unlimited!

Ah yes, Bill Finger, the man whose stories gave us most of the famed giant props which made Golden Age Batman and Robin stories so memorable. There are plenty of them here, making for a number of fun set-pieces, all wonderfully drawn by Erich Owen, who uses the giant typewriter, pinball machine and more as an excuse to play with perspective. Brilliantly.

While the background to the story is all Batman, the Mystery Inc gang aren’t underserved, with plenty of clever detection and gags galore.

Owen’s full-colour art is a treat, I’d love to see DC give him a series, and if we could have Fisch writing, so much the better. The vibrancy of the finished art, the dynamism of the action… more people should be exposed to Owen’s talents. DC Scooby veteran Saida Temofonte does her usual fine job with the lettering, with Ally Babble’s acres of chat hopefully earning her a bonus. There are some superb sound effects but they sit so well on the art that I’m assuming Erich Owen did them – apologies if I’m wrong. And credit, too, to editor Kristy Quinn for overseeing such a wonderful series, month after month.

If you could do with a little more cheer in your day, buy this comic, read it on DC Infinite, have someone buy you a collection as a gift. You won’t be sorry.