Comic Book / Scooby Apocalypse

Scooby Apocalypse is a comic adaptation of Scooby-Doo, published by DC Comics as part of their Hanna-Barbera Beyond initiative. The premise was conceived by DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee, while the series itself was written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis (of Justice League International fame). The sole ongoing series within the Beyond initiative, the comic ran from May 2016 to April 2019 and lasted 36 issues.

After getting a mysterious tip about a supposedly huge story, Daphne Blake of the eponymous low-rated cable show Daphne Blake's Mysterious Mysteries and her cameraman Fred Jones head out to the Nevada Desert to make contact with their informant. This whistleblower turns out to be Velma Dinkley, one of the chief scientists at a secret military base known as "The Complex", and with the base's resident dog trainer Norville "Shaggy" Rogers and smartdog prototype #246012 (nicknamed Scooby-Doo) in tow — they just happened to stumble upon the meeting while sneaking out to a local festival — the five enter the even more secretive depths of the compound, where Velma lets them all know some troubling news.

It turns out that she was the lead scientist assisting a group of visionaries, known as The Four, that released nanites that have self-replicated and now reside in every human being on the planet. The original plan was to use these robots to remove humanity's negative impulses like greed and violence in hopes of creating a better, more peaceful society. A plan that has since changed to turning all of mankind into their docile servants. Unfortunately, as Velma explains all this, things go From Bad to Worse. The safe zone the gang is in goes into lockdown, meaning only one thing: somehow, it seems like the nanites have been activated early, despite none of the evil cabal even being on site that day. And when they leave the bunker to assess the damage, what they find aren't loads of drooling, suggestible humans, but instead an apocalyptic world full of monsters who are hungry for human meat. Now among the few humans left in the world, these meddling adults and their talking dog have no choice but to work together to survive, piece together the mystery of what just happened, and hopefully find a way to turn everyone back to normal.

Scooby Apocalypse was also home to two serialized backup series: Secret Squirrel in issues #16-29 and Atom Ant from issues #30-36, each starring far more arrogant and self-absorbed incarnations of their titular characters. The former comic follows Secret Squirrel as he works to learn who is stealing the minds (grey matter and all) of the world's greatest thinkers, with the help of a former flame from MI6 and his old buddy Morocco. The latter sees Atom Ant try out for a spot as a Justice League member while under the delusion that it's just a formality and they want him as the leader, infuriating all of DC Comics' biggest superheroes in the process.

---

The Scooby Apocalypse comic provides examples of:

• 555: Thaumatrope Mining Co. has the phone number 555-7234.
• Abandoned Hospital: The gang comes across one in Issue #8 which may or may not be alive.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Albany's are big enough not only for adults to walk around comfortably in, but also for entire villages of homeless people.
• Action Survivor: Everyone qualifies for this.
• Action Girl: Daphne is by far the best human fighter in the series and is almost always the first to volunteer for a mission.
• Adaptation Species Change: This comic's version of the Wily Wolf is a human instead of the actual wolf he was portrayed as in the original Secret Squirrel cartoon.
• Adaptational Badass: EVERYONE. Even Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy Doo gain many levels as they try to survive this apocalypse.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Just like in the live action movie, Scrappy-Doo is an antagonist. However, more recent issues place him firmly into Anti-Hero territory, and in issue 18 he makes a Heroic Sacrifice to save the gang.
  • This comic's version of Penny is revealed to be a double agent working for Hy-Spy.
• After the End: Not technically after, but during the end, as the gang finds themselves at the beginning of everything.
• All Just a Dream: Issue #10, where it seems that Velma has gone renegade and become queen of the monsters is revealed at the end to primarily have been a fever dream Velma was having.
• Alliterative Name: Henry Hudson Mall.
• Amicable Exes: Fred and Daphne in this incarnation, though Fred still has feelings for her.
• Anti-Climax: Secret Squirrel's self-proclaimed arch-enemy Le Loup Astucieux a.k.a. the Wily Wolf spends a few chapters preparing for an eventual confrontation between them. When it finally happens, he's so perplexed by Secret not remembering him Agent Bea easily knocks him down.
• Assimilation Plot: In Issue #16, the monster known as the Amalgamind intends to absorb all creatures (monsters and otherwise) into a Hive Mind it controls.
• Ate His Gun:
  • Hugo, one of the Four, is revealed in Issue #12 to have done this after the apocalypse began.
  • A post-Despair Event Horizon Daphne almost does this in Issue #30, before being interrupted by Monster!Fred.
• The Atoner: Velma is this, for her part in the experiment that led to the monsters being unleashed. Doubly so, when we find out that the whole thing was actually her idea.
• Babies Ever After: The final panel shows the protagonists celebrating the birth of Shaggy and Velma's son.
• Big Bad Ensemble: On the one hand, there's the Four, whose experiments led to the monster apocalypse. On the other, there's Scrappy Doo, who's after Velma for his own reasons. By the end of the series, Scrappy has had a Heel–Face Turn, while the surviving members of the Four have allied with the protagonists against the series' True Final Boss, the Nanite King, which wants to wipe out all humans and monsters alike.
• Big Bad Wannabe Rufus Dinkley whose god complex makes him believe he can find a way to control the monsters.
• Bittersweet Ending: The nanites are destroyed and humanity is cured, but Fred ultimately dies because the nanites were the only thing keeping him alive. Despite this, civilization is slowly rebuilding, and Velma eventually gives birth to a son named after the late Fred.
• Body of Bodies: The Wham Shot of Issue #15 shows that the migrating herd of monsters is fusing together into one giant monster-shaped pile. The following issue reveals this is being organized by a psychic monster called the Amaglamind.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Fred tries to borrow Oliver Hardy's catchphrase but, as Daphne points out, makes the usual mistake of saying "another fine mess" instead of "another nice mess".
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Secret Squirrel has so many enemies he genuinely doesn't remember meeting the Wily Wolf before their final confrontation.
• Cain and Abel: The Four are Velma's brothers, and twisted her experiments for their own ends.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: No matter the horrible situation they find themselves in, the gang still find time for casual chit-chat.
• Chainmail Bikini: Velma wears one in Issue #10.
• Character Catchphrase: The characters all have their usual catchphrases, which they tend to poke fun at each other for using.
  Daisy: "Zoinks"? What does that mean?
  Shaggy: Well, Daisy, "Zoinks" is kinda like... I mean it's... uh—
  Velma: Perhaps I can explain: "Zoinks" is a rather infantile expression of astonishment that Shaggy resorts to in times of stress.
  Daphne: Said the woman whose own favourite expression is "Jinkies!"
  Velma: I wouldn't cast aspersions, Ms. Blake, since I've heard you use the word "Jeepers" on numerous occasions.
• Cool Car: The Mystery Machine is a prototype secret side-project of Shaggy's friend, Dr. Krebs, one of the scientists working at Project Elysium. It's a massive, six-wheeled, all-terrain "van" the size of a tank. It's so heavily armoured it can crash through hordes of monsters and a reinforced steel blastdoor with no damage. The Mystery Machine is also well stocked with medical supplies and an arsenal of prototype firearms.
• The Conspiracy: The Four have all the trappings of one, using their powerful ranks in society (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, a popular Senator, a chief member of the intelligence community, and a giant in the business world) to build the Complex and set up Project Elysium.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: In Issue #9, Shaggy made "spam, cheese, spinach an' anchovy omelets". Velma, who had just thrown up from learning what the Four planned to do with her scientific expertise, throws up again upon being offered one of Shaggy's omelets.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Rufus, one of the Four, is a top-tier businessman, who financed the experiments at the Complex. Post-apocalypse, he's holing himself up in his penthouse, forcing the scientists he's holding captive to work non-stop to find a way to not reverse the monster transformations but to control the monsters. And he's shown killing the ones who complain about the pressure he's putting on them.
• Covert Group with Mundane Front: The Athena facility, the Complex's data backup facility, is hidden within a paper mill. Lampshaded by Shaggy commenting on the oddity of it, with Velma pointing out it can't exactly be advertised as a secret facility.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: In Issue #21, Shaggy is worried about homeless people living in the sewers who have been turned into monsters. Velma tells him that's ridiculous, but he turns out to be right.
• Crapsack World: After all the humans sans Mystery Inc. (and a lucky few others) begin to mutate due to a top secret project Gone Horribly Wrong.
• Crazy-Prepared: Dr. Krebs. He had long feared an apocalypse situation, so he created the Mystery Machine and the arsenal of powerful sci-fi guns he stashed inside it. He intended to eventually masproduce all of that and have them issued to families around the country. He never got the chance, but without the Mystery Machine and everything inside of it, the heroes would never have survived as long as they did.
• Darker and Edgier: Oh you better believe it, even surpassing the last darker forerunner in the franchise, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
• Dead Guy Junior: Shaggy and Velma name their son Fredrick Rufus, after the deceased Fred and Rufus.
• Dead Person Conversation: In Issue #25, Daphne spends the whole episode talking to Fred, who at the end of the issue is revealed to have been killed while fighting the monsters inside one of the mall stores. It appears to be a hallucination, but the last panel suggests it was actually his ghost.
• Death by Adaptation: The comic makes the bold move of killing off one of the established members of Mystery, Inc. by having this continuity's incarnation of Fred Jones die in the 25th issue. While he is revived as a nanite zombie a few issues later, he subsequently gives his life to stop the remaining nanites at the end of the series and remains dead afterwards.
• Denial of Animality: Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole deny being a squirrel and a mole. Justified as it's eventually revealed they're under hypnosis to believe they're humans.
• Denser and Wackier: While it's also pretty dark, the series does have some more absurd moments compared to recent incarnations of Scooby-Doo.
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: When Velma arrives via a well-hidden entrance in an attempt to expose Project Elysium, Fred mistakes her for an attacker and knocks her out.
• Driven to Suicide: Revealed to be the fate of Hugo, who is shown to have shot himself in issue #12.
• Dude, Not Funny!: When Shaggy thinks Scooby is in mourning because the chili dogs are rotten, Fred asks if a dog eating dogs is cannibalism and Shaggy replies with "Not funny, Dude". Fred later says the same thing word by word when Shaggy asks what's between him and Daphne other than Fred being a "serial proposer" but Shaggy argues that "Actually, it is".
• Dying Declaration of Love: Fred in the last issue to Daphne.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the running and death, in the end the heroes manage to destroy the nanites, reverting all the monsters (except for a few immune to the cure) back to humans, and then using the Complex's resources to start rebuilding civilization.
• Easily Forgiven: An unusual two-way variant.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Complex, where Velma and Shaggy work at the start of the series and where the monster plague was created, is a massive underground facility.
• Elite Four: Velma's brothers, known as "The Four", are the four most powerful people in the world.
• Enemy Mine: In the final issues of the series, the gang reluctantly join forces with the surviving members of the Four and Monster!Fred against the Nanite King.
• The Evils of Free Will: The Four altered the nanites to remove free will so that they could take over the world (as Rufus puts it, people are animals who need leadership). But that just caused the nanites to mutate and cause the monster transformations instead.
• Expy: The Nanite King looks like a regal version of the Phantom Virus, the main antagonist of Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase.
• A Father to His Men: Scrappy to his pack; he's genuinely upset when they're killed by the monsters.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The gang becomes this. Later, Scooby and Scrappy as well.
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: The intelligent, technology-enabled dogs that Scrappy-Doo leads start to lose their intelligence not long after leaving their compound since their technology is defective. Scrappy is aware that eventually, he will lose his intelligence too.
• Foreshadowing: Several issues feature the gang passing through towns that have been totally deserted, even by the monsters. This turns out to be because the Amalgamind is gathering them to itself.
• Funny Background Event: Several panels in some issues have mice in the background, foreground, or fringes, and who are doing cartoon-style reactions to the situations that the Gang are facing against.
• Gender Flip: Doctor O is a woman in this continuity.
• Gilligan Cut: In Issue #17, Fred mentions to Daisy that he and Daphne dated exactly once. When Daisy asks how it went, we get a panel showing the two of them in bed, with Daphne screaming about how it was a mistake. Then it cuts back to Fred, who changes the subject.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Downplayed. In her backstory, Velma believed her natural tendency to isolate herself would help her handle a long research mission on the South Pole. Her subsequent nervous breakdown is part of why it was easy for her brothers to manipulate her.
  Velma: I spent four years like that— studying the coldness of space, the light of distant stars. And everything was fine. Until it wasn't.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: The nanites that Velma and the other scientists involved in Project Elysium spread around the world were meant to, upon activation, remove all negative human emotions, bringing about world peace. But then the Four tampered with the nanites for their own purposes, leading to them transforming most people into monsters.
  • Gone Horribly Right: The Nanite King, the ultimate evolution of the nanites' Hive Mind, sees its genocidal rampage as the ultimate expression of the nanites' original goal — according to its Insane Troll Logic, once everyone is dead, the world will finally be at the peace that Project Elysium was hoping for.
• Groin Attack:
  • Velma delivers one to Rufus for his part in unleashing the monsters.
  • Daphne delivers one to Monster!Fred when he tries seducing her.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Fred ends up taking a fatal strike for Daphne in issue #25.
  • The monster version of Fred animated by the rogue nanites allows him/itself to be used as a conduit for a virus that destroys the Nanite King and all the other nanites, saving the world at the cost of Fred's revived life.
• Hidden Depths: Daisy, Rufus' wife, is introduced as a vapid airhead, but this turns out to just be because he's keeping her drugged. Once her head clears, she turns out to be very insightful. In fact, it's later revealed that she has multiple advanced degrees and used to teach at NYU.
• Hive Mind:
  • The explanation that Velma ultimately comes up with for how the monsters are managing to organize and work together is that they've somehow developed one of these.
  • It ultimately turns out that the nanites are operating like this. It ends up splitting into two factions, between those that want to evolve humanity (and which take Fred's reanimated body as a host) and those that want to finish wiping out humanity (which manifest as the Nanite King).
• Hive Queen: Certain monsters are able to exert this sort of influence over the others:
  • The Amalgamind is able to use its psychic powers to force its will onto all creatures over a vast area, forcing them to come together and create a Body of Bodies for it.
  • Monster!Fred is able to use the nanites in his body to control those in all monsters in a close proximity.
  • The ending of Issue #33 reveals that existence of the Nanite King, a being composed of nanites, which is able to control vast numbers of monsters.
• How We Got Here: Issue #18 uses a series of flashbacks to fill in the gap between Issue #17's cliffhanger ending and this issue's start.
• Hypocritical Humor: Shaggy wondering what kinda name "Rufus" is. As Velma points out, "An odd question coming from you, Norville". He later learns one of her other brothers is named "Cheeves" and asks what her parents were smoking. She tells Norville she "wouldn't cast aspersions" and he takes her point.
• Ironic Echo: In Issue #24, Daphne says the only certainty is uncertainty. When Velma says it back to her, Daphne says "touche".
• Ironic Name: Velma considers "Rufus" as a too lovely name for a bully like her brother.
• Irony: Daphne considers it ironic that Fred, who wanted to "make comedies as good as those old classics" he revered, would misquote Oliver Hardy.^note He says "here's another fine mess you've gotten us into" and Daphne points out that the actual line includes "nice" instead of "fine".
• It Can Think:
  • Velma discovers that the alterations to the nanites have somehow caused them to gain sentience.
  • The monsters start out as totally mindless, rampaging beasts. In later issues, however, they start showing signs of increased communication and organization.
• It Has Been an Honor: Scrappy Doo says this in the final issue, just before the last showdown.
• I Owe You My Life: Issue #33 reveals that Scrappy survived his seeming Heroic Sacrifice back in Issue #18 because Quentin found him and patched him up. Because of this, Scrappy is utterly loyal to the man.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Daphne and Velma in this incarnation.
• Karmic Death: Rufus lets the monsters, who he's deluded himself into believing are loyal to him, into his tower to kill the gang. Instead, they grab him and burn him alive in a giant effigy of himself. Subverted when it later turns out he survived, albeit barely.
• Mad Scientist: Velma is a benevolent example.
• Mercy Kill: Scrappy does this to a starving puppy he finds in an abandoned pet store, since even if he nurses it back to health, it'd have to become a monster to survive, and he sees that as a Fate Worse than Death.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: Secret Squirrel says "Surreptitious" is his middle name. Double Q disagrees.
  Double Q: And for the record: I happen to know your middle name is Otis.
  Secret Squirrel: True. But you have no idea what my first name is, do you?
• Morality Pet: Scrappy gets one in a young boy named Cliffy that he takes under his protection.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Scrappy's new transformation form can bring the live-action Scooby-Doo film to mind.
  • Daphne is still working in the news industry, which she was doing in the '00's movies.
  • Blake Bubble Bath being the source of the Blake Family's wealth is an allusion to The New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show episode "No Thanks, Masked Manx".
  • One page from Issue #3 has billboards from companies that featured in past incarnations of the franchise. Creationex Corp., Stu Pendous Toys, Magnus Shipping Co., Thaumatrope Mining Co., La Tres Haute TV, Sly Co., Optical Lens Co., and a van that looks like the original Mystery Machine. There's also a partially covered sign that may read House of Rope.
  • Daphne once mentions her sister, Thalia. The Daphne Blake character was originally based on a sitcom character named Thalia Menninger.
  • In Issue #9, Scrappy stands next to a sign reading "Puppy Power", his catchphrase in the Scooby-Doo cartoons.
  • Issue #12 has Rufus T. Dinkley mentioning a Dr. Cassidy Williams.
  • Secret Squirrel is told to see a Ms. Blanc. In the original Secret Squirrel cartoon, he was voiced by Mel Blanc.
  • The survivor community in the Albany mall is named Jonestown in memory of Fred. This one may be just a stretch, but a Fred Jones was in charge of the gang's hometown in Mystery Incorporated.
  • Velma's only friend at school was a girl named Madelyn Wu. Madelyn is the name of her sister in Abracadabra Doo.
  • The 23rd issue has Shaggy mention having a brother-in-law named Wilfred. Wilfred was the name of the man who married Shaggy's sister Maggie in The New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show episode "Wedding Bell Boos".
  • The Complex Beta where the finale takes place is within a "Takamoto Web Design" front company, named after Scooby-Doo character-designer and producer Iwao Takamoto.
• Never Found the Body:
  • Scrappy isn't actually shown dying during his Heroic Sacrifice in Issue #18, and no body is ever found. The end of Issue #26 reveals that he's still alive.
  • Fred's body disappears after he's killed by one of the mall monsters. Daphne thinks that it was eaten, but it's later revealed that he actually somehow became a monster himself and wandered off.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Rufus is an obvious parody of Donald Trump.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Monster!Fred, upon capturing Daphne, makes her have dinner with him. She's not amused by the concept.
• Not Quite Dead: Despite last being seen tied to a pyre and being burned, Rufus is later shown to have somehow survived, albeit completely covered in burn scars and seemingly having suffered brain damage.
• No Social Skills: Velma. Being neglected and put down by her father all her life didn't help.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Scrappy says this of him and Daphne, noting that they're both hardened fighters who'll do anything to survive.
• Odd Friendship: Daphne and Scrappy develop one based on their shared loner and Blood Knight tendencies.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: In Issue #14, Scrappy finally tracks down the gang, and has his pack attack Scooby while he goes after Velma, but tells them not to kill him, as he wants the pleasure himself.
• Only in It for the Money: Rufus' only reason to work with his siblings in Project Elysium.
• One-Winged Angel: Scrappy has unique experimental implants in him that altered him into a superstrong Beast Man with extra-long razor-sharp nails. The one drawback is he can't eat regular dogfood anymore.
• Operation: [Blank]: Project Elysium, which was meant to pacify the human race but instead turned them into monsters.
• Origins Episode:
  • Issue #17 fleshes out Daphne and Fred's backstories.
  • Issue #27 reveals the origin of Secret Squirrel, Morocco Mole and Doctor O. Basil Dinkley experimented on animals for a government project called "Operation: Evolve" where animals would be able to become spies so no humans would have to risk their lives on those missions again. Because the first test subjects went through an identity crisis wondering if they're humans or animals, Secret and Morocco were hypnotized into believing they're humans. Doctor O was also hypnotized but managed to break free. She eventually tries to tell them the truth but they don't believe her.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Rufus sees himself as above everyone, but is especially demeaning to women.
• Post-Apocalyptic Dog: There's various examples. Scooby-Doo, Scrappy Doo and another bunch of dogs that escaped the secret laboratory.
• Pragmatic Hero: Bea just hits the Wily Wolf from behind while he's distracted accusing Secret Squirrel of pretending he doesn't remember him.
• Precision F-Strike: Cliffy calls a monster a "son of a bitch" before killing it in Issue #23.
• Ray Gun: Freddy, for the shopping centre run during the early post-apocalypse, used a BFG energy gun, in contrast to futuristic and extra-powerful but otherwise normal ballistic assault rifles that was standard to Mystery Inc.'s arsenal.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Quentin is the remaining member of the Four and it was his team that rescued the survivors of the mall destruction and took them to Complex B. He was also the one to rescue Scrappy and repair his failing implants. In contrast, Velma was abusive to her aides when she was in charge of the mall survivors and Rufus was just homocidal to his scientists. It's also under his charge that resources from the Complex go towards rebuilding the country.
• Relationship Upgrade: Shaggy and Velma hook up during the six month Time Skip between Issues #25 and #26.
• The Resenter: The reason Scrappy hates Scooby so much — they both suffered the Complex's experiments, but while Scrappy was turned into a monster, Scooby came through relatively unscathed.
• The Reveal:
  • Issue #30 ends with the revelation that Scrappy is working with a mysterious figure in a lab.
  • Issue #31 expands on this by revealing that this figure is Velma's brother Quentin, who saved Scrappy's life when he was left for dead. And he's also in possession of Rufus (who's not only alive, but now a monster).
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Secret Squirrel asks if he's ever let the secret service down, his boss recalls a few incidents until Secret points out "It was a rhetorical question!".
• Running Gag: Le Loup Astucieux saying "The Wily Wolf" isn't an exact translation but it's close enough.
• Scars Are Forever: During her encounter with zombie Fred, Daphne is clawed deeply in the face by a monster and the scars remain.
• Ship Tease: Despite initially having only his obsessive crush on Daphne, Fred later develops some serious chemistry with Daisy.
• Shoot the Dog: Played very straight: Scrappy-Doo finds a dog nearly starved to death in a cage, and decides to kill it since even if he fed it there would be no way it could survive in the harsh new world.
• Shout-Out:
  • Shaggy mentions Grey's Anatomy several times in Issue #8.
  • Daphne and Shaggy reference Elmer Fudd in this dialogue from Issue #8.
  Daphne: Be very, very quiet.
  Shaggy: Why? Are we hunting wabbits?
  • A monster version of Magilla Gorilla appears in Issue #10.
  • Rufus's death in Issue #13 is very much right out of The Wicker Man (1973).
  • In Issue #14, Shaggy compares Velma's sudden apparent badassitude to Sarah Conner.
  • Issue #18 and #19 feature a girl named Carrie with psychic powers.
  • Scrappy hasn't seen his friend Huck "since the power went down". Scrappy describes Huck as a "decent conversationalist" but says he'll "never understand where he got that southern drawl from".
  • In Issue #25, Fred says "Well, Daphne, here's another fine mess you've gotten us into" and Daphne points out that the true line has "nice" instead of "fine" and "people misquote that line all the time".
  • Issue #28 has Shaggy calling Velma "Charlie Brown" and asking "Lucy steal the football again?".
• Signed Up for the Dental: Shaggy brings up the Complex's dental plan as one of the reasons he agreed to work there.
• The Siege: The gang spends several issues trapped in a "Mall-Mart" surrounded by monsters.
• Skewed Priorities: In Issue #26, Secret Squirrel is about to be brain drained and his main concern is the fact Double Q's real name is "Irving".
• The Sociopath: Rufus is utterly self-absorbed, beats around his wife for speaking out of turn, kills people for disobeying him (and it doesn't even seem to register with him), has a serious case of I Reject Your Reality (he states that he's always right even when he's wrong), and has a God complex (as evidenced by how he's convinced himself that the monsters rampaging outside his building obviously are there to worship him). Plus, there's the fact that his first reaction to his sister showing up is to try and shoot her.
• Spiteful Spit: Daphne spits in Monster!Fred's face in Issue #32 when he's holding her prisoner and is trying to convince her to join him.
• Suddenly Speaking: Scooby could already talk, in his usual slurred and clipped form, but Issue #10 sees him talk in complete sentences before ending on the reveal that the entire issue was Velma having a fever dream. He would actually get the ability to talk properly in Issue #30, when a power surge through his cybernetic implants boosts the power of the prototype chipset, in addition to granting him an intelligence boost.
• Super Window Jump: Daphne pulls one of these to get away from Monster!Fred in Issue #32.
• Talking to Themself: The Nanite King, being a representation of a Hive Mind, manifests a second head so it can have conversations with itself.
• There Was a Door: In Issue #32, Scrappy comes bursting through the mall's skylight. An annoyed Scooby comments that they have several doors he could have used.
• This Is Reality: While arguing about why anyone would want to turn most of humanity into vicious monsters, Velma remarks that "This isn't a comic book!" Oh, the irony...
• Time Skip:
  • While most issues follow closer after the one before them, Issue #21 jumps two months from the end of Issue 20.
  • Issue #26 starts six months after the end of Issue #25.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Issues #18 and #19 have the gang stumble on the town of Halcyon, Montana, which is somehow completely unaffected by the nanite plague and the monsters, which naturally raises a few red flags. It eventually turns out that the town is actually empty except for one little girl who became a powerful psychic capable of creating lifelike illusions.
• Trash the Set: The Henry Hudson Mall, which serves as the primary setting of the back half of the series' run, is attacked by a horde of monsters led by the Nanite King in Issue #34, and sustains enough damage that the whole building ends up collapsing.
• Trumplica: One of Velma's brothers Rufus T. Dinkley is deliberately portrayed as a Donald Trump Expy; he is a fat business man with several trophy-wives that he has a history of being abusive to, a large tower with his name on it that he lives in, has a very low opinion of those he claims to represent (his Might Makes Right philosophy why he helped alter the nanites into a mind-control conspiracy) and has a narcissistic streak that grows into a god-complex after the monster-plague begins, constantly claiming that he is always right whether or not he changes his mind a moment later and reacts violently to contradictions.
• Tuckerization: Two guards, Mr. Colton and Mr. Barry, are named for Jon Colton Barry, the creator of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!.
• Unfortunate Names: The survivor community which the gang creates in the Albany mall they fortify is called "Jonestown" in memoriam of Fred. Shaggy points out the negative connotations, but Velma (who admits she somehow never heard of the massacre) states that in a post-apocalyptic world, it doesn't matter.
• [Verb] This!: Issue #23 has this exchange:
  Monster: Suck on your bones!
  Cliffy: Suck on this, you son of a bitch!
• Visionary Villain:
  • The Four altered the nanites in order to eliminate The Evils of Free Will, so that they could rule over a humanity reduced to mindless sheep. Needless to say, they lost control of the situation quickly.
  • The Nanite King, having come to the conclusion that humanity is hopelessly flawed, intends to use the monsters to wipe out all surviving humans, and then kill all the monsters too, leaving nothing but basic plant and animal life to inherit the Earth.
• We Can Rule Together:
  • Rufus tries to convince Velma to join him into controlling the monsters and ruling the world. She responds by kicking his ass.
  • Monster!Fred likewise tries to convince Daphne to join him in ruling the monsters.
  • The Nanite King, who regards Velma as the nanites "Mother" as she created them, offers her the opportunity of joining them and surviving the final destruction of humanity.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Project Elysium was originally conceived by Velma as a means to bring about world peace. No one anticipated it turning the majority of humans into monsters.
• Wham Line: From Issue #31, when Velma explains to Shaggy why she's been so temperamental lately:
  Velma: I'm pregnant.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: By the end of the series, only three of the Four have been accounted for.
• Writing Around Trademarks:
  • The gang spends several issues trapped inside a store called Mall-Mart (Wall-Mart).
  • The Henry Hudson mall in Albany features the rival department stores "Mears" (Sears) and "CJ Nickel" (JC Penny).
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Nanite King intends on wiping out all of its monster minions once its done using them to Kill All Humans, seeing them as just tools to be used and then disposed.
• You're Insane!: After Rufus expresses his belief that the monsters are loyal to him and he can use them to control the world, Velma tells him he's crazy.

---