Scooby-Doo visits Batman: Year One in new team-up title

(Image credit: Dario Brizuela/Franco Riesco (DC))

Batman and Scooby-Doo have a long history of team-ups, and they'll be reviving that partnership in a new digital-first DC series titled Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries. The 24-chapter in-continuity series (because it's all in-continuity now) will be written by Ivan Cohen and Sholly Fisch, with art by Dario Brizuela and Randy Elliott.

Batman #407 page (Image credit: David Mazzuchelli (DC))

Brizuela's cover to the first issue of Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries pays homage to a page from Batman #407, the final chapter of the seminal 'Batman: Year One' arc, by writer Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.

And although Batman and Scooby-Doo are the only ones mentioned in the title, the whole gang's here - the Mystery Gang, we mean. Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, and Fred will all appear (no word about Scrappy-Doo, however).

"In the kick-off story by Ivan Cohen and Dario Brizuela - an adventure when Batman discovers his original purple gloves have gone missing - Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo travel back in time to Batman's Year One era to solve the case! Will this time-traveling heist have a happy ending?" reads DC's description of chapter one.

That mention of Batman's "original purple gloves" refers to the oft-forgotten purple gloves the Dark Knight originally wore in his early '30s and '40s appearances. They've been having somewhat of a comeback, with the 1939 version of Batman (and those purple gloves) appearing recently in Detective Comics #1027 which served as a lead-in to the Generations: Shattered and Forged specials.

In the second chapter of Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Sholly Fisch and Randy Elliott follow the mystery of a haunted Batcave.

Batman &amp; Scooby-Doo Mysteries #1 cover — Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #1 cover (Image credit: Dario Brizuela/Franco Riesco (DC))

"Even if the ghost turns out to be a fake, that still doesn't solve the real mystery: How did someone get into the Batcave to stage the phony phantom — and does that mean Batman's enemies have cracked the secret of his true identity?!" reads the DC description.

The long history of Batman/Scooby-Doo team-ups began in a 1972 episode of the cartoon The New Scooby-Doo Movies. They've subsequently reunited in episodes of the cartoon Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and various issues of the Scooby-Doo! Team-Up comic which ran for 50 issues from 2013 to 2019.

Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries chapter 1 (of 24) goes on sale digitally March 27, with printed two-chapter chunks going on sale beginning April 13.

DC's digital-first line is growing by leaps and bounds, but to read them you need to get the best application. Check out Newsarama's list of the best digital comics readers for Android and iOS devices.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)