Scooby-Doo Team-Up #5 Featuring Wonder Woman

I’m not going to argue that all superhero comics should be for kids, although I think the majority of them work best if they are all-age-friendly. However, I do think it’s a shame that certain heroes that kids love aren’t able to be read by them in current comics, given the emphasis on violence and blood and depravity.

One of the most obvious in that category is Wonder Woman, the superpowered princess from an island of Amazons. Little girls love her, but they can’t find comics with her in them. Until now. This issue of Scooby-Doo Team-Up features the gang going to Paradise Island, where Daphne and Velma learn to ride Kangas and train to be Amazons. They’ve all been invited to help Wonder Woman solve a mystery involving attacks by mystical monsters, although Shaggy and Fred have to stay on the Invisible Jet, since men can’t touch the island without the women losing “their power and immortality.”

I have no idea how writer Sholly Fisch and artist Dario Brizuela knew this would work, but it does. The image of Wonder Woman used is similar to her Super Friends appearance, although simplified into almost an Adventures-style animated look. The reference gags, although unnecessary to the story, continue to tickle me, as in this panel where Scooby is sent off by the boys to find out what the girls are up to.

Yes, that’s the most infamous line from the Wonder Woman TV show theme song, done in that bizarre Scooby dialect. On the next page, it’s even better, as he comes across the women fighting a minotaur and bursts out with “Rufferin’ Raphro!”

The story incorporates the best of both properties, with the kids solving the mystery (kind of by accident, as is typical), Daphne and Velma praised for their skills and bravery, and lots of adventuring by the Amazing Amazon. There are a lot of good lessons and surprising twists as everyone works together. It’s a pleasure to see the world’s best-known super-heroine presented in a way everyone can enjoy.