2018 Year In Review

2018 has been quite an interesting year for Scooby-Doo. From a brand new live-action movie to several crossover films, Scooby has definitely prospered and flourished this year. In this article, I'll break down the top 10 biggest things (in my opinion) that happened in the Scooby franchise this year.

10. Eight New Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Comics
It looked like the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You comic series was going to make its 100th issue milestone this year. However, in April, the comic series was demoted to a bimonthly slot, which brought the total up to only 96 issues. If the current trend continues, the series would reach its 100th issue in August 2019, right before the franchise's 50th anniversary.

9. Eleven New Scooby-Doo! Team Up Comics
This year, eleven new issues of Scooby-Doo! Team Up were released, bringing the total number of comics up to #44. One less issue than normal was released this year, due to the December issue landing too close to Christmas. This year's team ups included Birds of Prey, Yogi & Boo Boo Bear with Ranger Smith, Angel Ape with the Inferior Five and Stanley and His Monster, Supergirl, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt, The Justice Society of America, Swamp Thing, Penelope Pitstop, Congorilla with Sam Simeon and Detective Chimp, Doom Patrol and Dastardly & Muttley with Yankee Doodle Pigeon.

8. Twelve New Scooby Apocalypse Comics
Scooby Apocalypse played a daring move this year when they chose to kill off one of the series' major characters, Fred. 12 new comics were released this year, bringing the T-rated series up to a grand total of 32 issues. 

7. The Girl Ghouls Return in OK K.O. Crossover
While this might not be a huge event for some, I personally was almost in a state of shock when I saw the announcement that the girl ghouls from Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School were making a reappearance on television for the first time in 30 years. The girl ghouls are such underappreciated characters in my opinion, and for another television series to take a group of one-off characters from a movie 30 years ago is huge. Though I honestly didn't like the crossover overly much, I was still incredibly happy that they made it. That's why this takes the #7 spot on this list. 

6. Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and the Bold
On January 9, 2018, Batman crossed over with Scooby-Doo for the fourth time in the franchise history in a feature-length DTV movie. Batman had previously crossed over with the series in "The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair" and "The Caped Crusader Caper" of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, as well as once in "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases" of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Several other DC superheroes and Batman villains also appeared in the film.

5. Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost
In the second crossover of the year, Scooby teamed up with celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Giada de Laurentiis and Marcus Samuelsson in Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost. In my opinion, this turned out to be one of the best crossovers in recent franchise history. I love how they worked the history from the American Revolution into the story, and the guest stars didn't overshadow Fred, Daphne and Velma at all unlike some previous crossover films had done.

4. Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! Concludes in the US
After a nearly 3 year run, Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! finally concluded in the US after almost every country had already finished airing the series in 2017. Episodes 42-52 (American Goth - Professor Huh Part 6 3/4) aired in an overnight slot on the Boomerang television network on March 8 - March 18, 2018. To make matters even more difficult, the timeslots were continuously changed even in the overnight slot, with episodes having no consistent day-to-day time of airing even overnight.

3. Almost Every Episode Added to the Boomerang Streaming Service
Going off of #4, the remaining Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! episodes were added to the service on September 26, 2018. Even more exciting, almost every episode from the entire franchise was added to the Boomerang streaming service that same day. Every episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, The Scooby-Doo Show, Laff-a-Lympics, Scooby and Scrappy-Doo, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated was added to the service on this same day. The only episodes not added were nine of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, due to copyright issues. These are the same nine episodes which are not available on "The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies" DVD. Hopefully, at some point, these copyright issues will be resolved!

Nonetheless, this is a huge event for Scooby fans. Never before have fans had access to nearly every episode of Scooby-Doo all in a single place. Now, if we could just get them to add some of the missing DTV movies and specials, we'd be set! :D

2. Daphne & Velma
I'm sure this is probably a hugely unpopular opinion, but I absolutely adored this summer's release of Daphne & Velma. This was a really fun, quirky little film that was just an all around feel-good movie. Though there were some feminist undertones, they weren't obtrusive to the plot at all IMO. The film also arguably had a central message related to optimism and empowerment, which is an awesome message for anyone to take away from something. I'm really hoping we'll see a sequel to this someday!

1. Scoobynatural
While my #2 was probably somewhat more controversial, this crossover was probably at the top of everyone's lists! Scoobynatural was such a neat crossover that was probably one of the few dark and mature things we've seen from the franchise since Zombie Island. Even as someone who had never watched the show before the crossover, I felt there was a genuine connection between the two shows in this episode. Sam, Dean and Castiel being zapped into such a classic episode ("A Night of Fright is No Delight") was such a perfect idea for a crossover, and I'm so glad we got to see this happen. Now here's hoping that next year's 13 Ghosts and Zombie Island  revival films are just as good!