Unbelievable Beast (story)

This article is about the story. For the monster, look here.

This needs a stretch. (Feel free to remove when satisfied of completion.) Needed: Synopsis.

Unbelievable Beast (story)
Description
Publisher	DC Comics
Date published	September 2004
Part of	Scooby-Doo #88
# of pages	10
Writer	John Rozum
Penciler	Joe Staton
Inker	Scott McRae
Colorer	Heroic Age
Letterer	Nick J. Napolitano
Editor	Joan Hilty
Chronology
Previous story	Unfair Play at the Fair
Next story	The Shadow Knows

Unbelievable Beast is the first of three stories in Scooby-Doo #88, by DC Comics. It was followed by The Shadow Knows and The Crossword Clue.

Premise

Dexter, Velma's cousin, is arrested by the police for vandalizing the school, but his story does not check out since he blames it on a unbelievably strange monster. He calls his cousin and Mystery Inc. comes out to investigate the strange story.

Synopsis

Insert details here.

Characters

Main characters:

• Mystery Inc.
  • Scooby-Doo
  • Shaggy Rogers
  • Fred Jones
  • Daphne Blake
  • Velma Dinkley

Supporting characters:

• Dexter Dinkley ^{(only appearance)}
• Principal Donnelley ^{(only appearance)}
• Smitty ^{(only appearance)}

Villains:

• Unbelievable Beast ^{(only appearance)(no lines)(Kevin Carr's disguise)}
• Kevin "Bumper" Carr ^{(only appearance)}

Other characters:

• Police officers ^{(only appearance)(miscellaneous speaking)}
• Mr. Carr ^{(only appearance)}

Locations

• Police station
• School
• Hardware store

Objects

• TBA

Vehicles

• Mystery Machine
• Police cars

Suspects

Suspect	Motive/reason
Principal Donnelley	He seemed a little too sure about Dexter's guilt.
Smitty	He was the only other person at the school at night.
Kevin "Bumper" Carr	The hammer and the spray paint that the beast used came from his father's store.

Culprits

Culprit	Motive/reason
Kevin "Bumper" Carr as the Unbelievable Beast	To vandalize the school and blame Dexter for it.

Notes/trivia

• TBA

Coloring mistakes

• None known.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

• None known.

Reception

DC seems to be dumbing down Scooby-Doo, and that just misses the point. Kids became involved with Scooby-Doo because of the fairplay mysteries that were often kind of creepy and the friendship shared by Freddie, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scoob.

I do not ask for the complexity of say Raymond Chandler in Scooby-Doo mysteries, but I do want a puzzle that does not insult my intelligence. Kids would like that too. John Rozum has written some awesome issues of Scooby-Doo, but this latest collection of stories represents his worst.

The first tale visits Velma's cousin Dexter who has been framed for vandalism. Unfortunately, the clues given are telegraphed and really do not highlight the detective skills of Mystery Inc. Inspector Clouseau could have solved this one. There is some mild cogitation regarding the reason why the criminal in question would choose such an outlandish costume, but it's not really enough.