3 out of 5

These issues read like Saturday morning cartoons, which is, I assume exactly for what they’re aiming.  A ‘mini-series’ (dunno how many issues), I picked up these issues because I was enjoying Fisch’s ‘Peabody and Sherman’ comic and because Dario Brizuela, of old and new Turtles, was on art.  Similar to ‘Sherman’, SDTU is fun, and readable, but doesn’t really do anything to shake up its core concept.  Each issue (I presume) features a Batman-themed team-up with Scooby Doo-y characters, issue one Bats and Robin, issue two Bat-hound, and issue three – which I skipped – Bat-mite.  Cue a caper, solve a caper, and it’s harmless with some yuks and light detective skills along the way.  Brizuela does a nice shift back to his more clean-lined style from Tales of the TMNT days (his current Turtles work is very sketchy, I guess to aim it toward the slightly older Turtles crowd…?) and Fisch seems to better understand how to match his artist’s skills, keeping away from the frenetic sequences in Turtles that Bizzy (yup, sorry) seems to rush through.  Adding to the cartoon vibe, Heroic Age’s colors are a kick, using pleasant but poppy blends to cover for the frequently bland backgrounds.

Not to knock my boys, but I would actually recommend this over the Turtles book, since it’s a bit more low-key and thus not trying as hard as some of those issues, and the kookiness of the Batman mash-up is a good tone balancer, making it preferred over ‘Peabody’ as well.