When The Newsboy Legion Became The Scooby Gang...

...and the Scooby Gang became the NewsGIRL Legion!

A little history.  Not too deep but what follows won't make sense without it.

DC Comics' Newsboy Legion was a group of orphan kids who lived on the streets of Suicide Slum and made their living selling newspapers.  They debuted in the 1940s and have hung around the DC Universe in forms ranging from pesky kids to semi-heroes ever since.  They showed up in an episode of Justice League alongside a collection of non-powered heroes who tasked them with saving civilians but other than that have never leapt from the pages of the comics...until now.  Sorta.

One version of the Newsboy Legion.

 

 

I don't think many people need a history lesson to know this group:

 

Yeah, missing a couple of pieces...explaining in a moment.



The Scooby Gang, famous the world over, has been around for ages.  They happen to fall under the control of the same media giant that controls DC Comics and all the movies and cartoons based on them.  They've even published crossover comics, had the Gang meet Batman in a couple of animated movies and now they're interacting with other heroes in the currently airing Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? cartoon.  Four of the girls from Young Justice even made a cameo in a Scooby movie a while back...

Wonder Girl, Artemis, Zatanna and Miss Martian root for Scooby!

 

With all this cross pollination, I shouldn't have been surprised at what happened in episode 17 of season 3 of Young Justice.  But damn, I was totally gobsmacked!  It blew my tiny little fanboy mind.

 

Final bit of history.  For those not familiar, Young Justice is an animated show about superheroes.  It started out with a team comprised of Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Miss Martian and Superboy.  Basically a gang of sidekicks that the grown up heroes tasked with covert missions that needed a subtler touch than Superman or Batman could bring to the table.  Over three seasons, the team and the show's concept has evolved, expanded and extended its reach.  Honestly it's the BEST animated superhero show ever made and easily sits in the top five of all time superhero projects on television, PERIOD.  One aspect of season 3 sees a breakout of a team of younger heroes known as The Outsiders, intended to play a role in saving kids in danger from the season's big bad and play well in social media.  Okay, that's all the history you need to understand the coolness of what happened in the episode I'm talking about.

 

The episode is titled "First Impression" and that name has a connotation for the main story but it also has a neat double meaning as we meet a few familiar faces wrapped in some new threads.  And a new brand.

 

An alien attack on Brooklyn, Maine begins by taking a potshot at a police cruiser driven by a Sheriff who looks awfully familiar to anyone who is a fan of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated cartoon from 2010.  He protects a young lady in a smart outfit from harm and then the word goes out and the team of heroes known as The Outsiders shows up.  We meet a spectacled young lady with a huge vocabulary and finally a blonde girl in a familiar looking outfit. 

 

Tommi Tompkins, Antonia "Big Words" Rodrigues and Gaby Gabrielli

While there's no gluton or talking dog in sight, they still look...familiar.

 

Tommi Tompkins' dad also looks an awful lot like Fred Jones' not-Dad from Mystery Incorporated too.  Both characters happen to be the Mayor of their respective towns too.  Mayor Tompkins is the one who calls the three "The Newsgirl Legion."

'Cuz all cartoon Sheriffs and Mayors look alike.

There's even a scene where three "aliens" are unmasked and turn out to be normal humans.  As they're being hauled off to jail, one even says that "We would've scored, big time, if you heroes hadn't gotten in our way!" 

Meddling kids.

So, basically an all girl version of the Scooby gang!  Not only a new version of the Newsboy Legion, something that has needed updating for a LONG time, but with a nice pop culture spin that might bring some different fans to the table.  I'm really hoping that they introduce a Shaggy and Scooby analogue at some point.  Hell, break the Newsgirl Legion out as its own thing.  I'd watch!

Not convinced? 

You are now.  Young Justice Dooby-Doo!