Scooby Apocalypse is a monthly comic book series, published by DC Comics, which began in May 2016. It re-imagines the characters from the Scooby-Doo franchise, particularly the 1969 animated television series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, setting them in a post-apocalyptic world.
The comic was conceived by a DC Comics co-publisher and artist, Jim Lee, as part of a major reboot using Hanna-Barbera characters to create a new Hanna-Barbera comic-book universe. Lee worked on the first issue's cover and several more after that before interior artist Howard Porter took over.
The series ended in April 2019.
Premise "Those meddling kids" and their Mystery Machine are at the center of a well-meaning experiment gone wrong and they will need to bring all of their mystery solving skills to bear (along with plenty of Scooby Snacks) to find a cure for a world full of mutated creatures infected by a nanite virus that enhances their fears, terrors, and baser instincts.Beedle, Tim (January 28, 2016). "Hanna-Barbera Beyond: Flintstones, Scooby and More Are Getting Comic Book Reimaginings". DC Comics. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
Plot
In the Nevada Desert, Daphne Blake, host of "Daphne Blake's Mysterious Mysteries" on the Knitting Channel, and Fred Jones, Daphne's best friend and cameraman, are waiting to meet up with a contact for their latest scoop: Doctor Velma Dinkley, who is one of the chief scientists in a private research facility known as the Complex. When Velma goes to meet the two from an underground entrance, Velma is accidentally attacked by Fred. Scooby-Doo, a subject prototype in the Complex's Smart Dog program, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, his trainer, are attending the Blazing Man Festival nearby, when Scooby is alerted to Velma's attack. Scooby and Shaggy go track Velma, and meet up with her, Daphne, and Fred. Velma decides to explain to Daphne why she called her to Nevada, and brings everyone into the Complex.
Velma explains that the people who founded the Complex (known as the Four) were working on a top-secret project known as Elysium. The project involved dispersing self-replicating nanites around the world. These nanites would "Transform Humanity", and help rid humans of their primal urges, such as violence and greed, and thereby creating a more peaceful world, one that would work toward the betterment of humanity overall. Velma, however, learned that the Four modified the nanites' code so that they would be able to control the humans, which is why she decided to reveal the truth.
While in the Complex's Safe Room, an alarm goes off, alerting Velma that the nanites have been activated on their own, when only the Four can activate them when they are all together in the Complex. After leaving the Safe Room, the group learn that the nanites have transformed the majority of the Complex's employees into monster-like creatures (nicknamed Beasties), killing and eating humans who have not transformed. After seeing what has happened, the group decides to flee. Shaggy remembers one scientist was working on an armored van designed for an apocalypse-like scenario, dubbed the Mystery Machine, which the group uses to flee the Complex.
While driving away from the Complex, Scooby and Shaggy notice the Blazing Man festival has been completely overrun with Beasties, meaning that the nanite plague was not just contained in one area, as hoped by Velma. The group finds a retail store, and use it for food and supplies, but while there, a horde of Beasties come by. Scooby is able to distract most of them, but Fred is attacked by one of the Beasties, breaking his leg. The group quickly stock up and head to a hospital nearby in order to fix Fred's leg. While there, Velma notices that some people who had some technology embedded in them were not affected by the plague. The group is able to get Fred's leg fixed up, while Velma is able to get a laptop to hack into the Complex's network and access its files.
Somewhere in California, the group is resting up, while Velma decides to run away, leaving a note that says "I'm sorry" on her laptop, which is open to her notes on Project Elysium. In her notes, Velma reveals that the Four were actually the Five. The Four were her four brothers, each who had been successful in their own field: Military, Politics, Science, and Business. Velma had also excelled in Science, gaining several doctorates in various fields, but was a social outcast. When the Complex was in process of being built, they had invited her into joining them, and turning the Four into the Five. Velma was the one who came up with Project Elysium and made it a reality. When Velma had released the final set of nanites in Paris, she discovered the truth about the Four going behind her back and changing the goals of Project Elysium, and decided to contact Daphne in the hopes of releasing her story, as her brothers' influence would be able to detect and shut down the story if it was coming from the mainstream media. Although her brothers modified her work, Velma blames herself for the plague. After discovering her notes, the group is able to track Velma down. Daphne, who had suspected Velma of hiding something from the beginning, forgives her.
With the group reunited, Velma suggests heading north to Dinkley Tower in Seattle, Washington, where her brother, Rufus Dinkley, resides. Velma knows that the Complex had several facilities, and that Dinkley Tower (or better yet, Rufus) may have the locations for the other facilities, in hopes of developing a cure. Meanwhile, Scooby is revealed to not be the only Smart Dog that survived the Complex. The pack of Smart Dogs, led by a small dog named Scrappy Doo, have been mostly ignored by the Beasties, but their cerebral implants have been malfunctioning. Scrappy's implants seems to be working the most, but he knows that his are deteriorating. In order for the pack to survive, they need to keep the human intellect they have gained, which means they need to find Velma to fix their implants. Scrappy realizes that he needs to become stronger if he and his pack want to live, so he activates some experimental nanotechnology embedded in his body, dramatically increasing his size and strength, and allowing him to walk on only his hind legs. While Scrappy and his pack track Velma, he finds a boy named Cliffy, who lost an arm and his family to the Beasties. Scrappy decides to bring Cliffy along with them.
As the group approaches Seattle and Dinkley Tower, they notice that for some reason, there have been almost no Beasties in sight. Velma believes that due to the nanites, the Beasties are working as a hive mind, and are migrating to some location. As they get closer, they notice that several cars on the road to Seattle have been abandoned, making it nearly impossible to drive there. Fred, still with an injured leg, is forced to stay in the Mystery Machine, while the rest head to Dinkley tower. As they approach, they see a wall of Beasties covering one side of the tower, appearing as a shrine to someone or something. Meanwhile, Rufus and his wife, Daisy, have been surviving in Dinkley Tower. Rufus' mind and memory has been slowly deteriorating, although he does not realize it, and when Daisy tries to point something out, he hits her. Rufus had two scientists, and tried to force them to figure out how to control the Beasties, but when they are not able to, he got enraged and beat them to death.
While Velma confronts her brother, Fred calls Shaggy, as he notices the Beasties have built a giant statue shaped like Rufus, and are climbing up the Tower. While Daisy believes that they should be safe thanks to the Tower's security system, Rufus reveals that he disabled it, as he believes the Beasties are here to worship him. The group, realizing that he has gone crazy, leaves the Tower, with Daisy joining them. As they escape, Rufus is last seen taken by the Beasties and placed into the statue, burned alive.
As the group move through Washington, Scooby tells Velma that he can hear a signal that's directing the Beasties to some location. As they follow the Beasties, they encounter Scrappy Doo and his pack, who tells them that he wants to kill Scooby and get Velma to fix his (and the pack's) implants, but Scrappy, Velma, Scooby Doo, and Cliffy encounter a group of Beasties, who attempt to attack them. Scrappy stays behind to defend them, as the others head back to the rest of the group and the Mystery Machine. While Scrappy survives, his pack does not. Scrappy finds out that the Beasties are coming together to form one giant being, controlled by a Beast with a rather intelligent mind. The being attempts to walk, but with a lack of structure, it fails. After hearing Velma's thoughts, the Mind Beast wants to add Velma to the giant, but Scrappy goes in to destroy the Mind Beast, with Scooby following behind. Scrappy defeats the Mind Beast, but the Beasties come back to consciousness. Shaggy is saved by Scrappy Doo, who gives the group time to escape. While they succeed in escaping, Scrappy is never found, upsetting Cliffy.
Sometime around Christmas Eve in Wisconsin, the group head to a place known as the Athena Center, which housed the Complex's cloud servers and backup data. Velma tries to gain information from the servers in hopes of finding a cure, but finds that it is hopeless for her to be able to do so.
As the group travels around the U.S. in order to survive the apocalypse, they find a mall in Albany, New York. Velma sees the mall and believes that it is the perfect place to start a survivor's camp/fortress. Using the city's sewers, they are able to get in, and find that every few hours, Beasties from two stores opposite of each other in the mall (CJ Nickel and MEARS) come out and fight each other, leaving a pile of Beast corpses in the mall. The group decides to shelter in the upper levels of the mall. As they do so, Daisy sets bombs near the stairs and escalators to prevent the Beasties from inside the mall from reaching them, while the group barricades the other entrances and exits, protecting them from the Beasties outside.
While the group waits for the warring Beastie factions to dwindle in size, Cliffy notices that every time they fight, both sides always have a large amount of Beasties that never seems to be shrinking. Velma comes to a conclusion that the Beasties may be breeding. Daphne and Fred decide to go to one of the stores, CJ Nickel, to check. Before they do so, Fred asks Daphne to marry him, and Daphne says yes, as they enter. The two go in and find a room full of eggs, where the Beasties are growing. Daphne shoots at the eggs, killing nearly all of them. When they look outside the room, they find that the matured Beasties are all dead, likely due to a psychic link between the children and the parents. One egg hatches however, and the beast mortally wounds Fred before Daphne can kill it. Daphne goes back to the group, and they mourn Fred's death.
Six months later, the Hudson Mall has been turned into Jonestown, a shelter for the humans who survived the nanite plague, named after Fred. Velma is currently the leader of Jonestown, and has been dating Shaggy for some time. Daisy has become a mother of sorts to Cliffy. Daphne, meanwhile, has become distant and vengeful since Fred's death (six months prior, when the group went back to CJ Nickel after Fred's death, his body was found missing, and was presumed to have been taken by the Beasties). Scrappy Doo is revealed to have survived, and his implants are now functioning again. Scrappy becomes a citizen of Jonestown, and joins Daphne on her hunts.