The New Ghostbusters #1
Written by: Erik Burnham
Art by: Dan Schoening
Published by: IDW Comics
Burnham and Schoenig continue to create their new and, yes, exciting take on the New Ghostbusters mythology as Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston remain trapped and the new GB team are managed by Walter Peck and another familiar but no less loathesome character from Ghostbusters history…
Yes, after the establishment of Janine, Melanie, Kylie and Ron last month, the series hits the ground running once more as the team meet up with Jack Hardemayer – familiar to Ghostbusters II fans – who, under the instruction of Walter Peck’s PCOC, quickly gets them doing press shots and wearing, well the girls anyway, sexy, colourful and wholely unsuitable outfits.
No sooner has the dust settled than the new team are called out to bust a ghost that is familiar to one of the team. Meanwhile, in the other dimension, Egon and the original team make headway and work out just where they are and start to work on a way out…
I must say, two issues in and I’m hooked. I love these characters as Ghostbusters. Despite the fact that Ron and Melanie are new creations from the mind of Burnham they feel right here and like they belong in this world. The comic too is a clever statement on the way female comic characters are always made to wear sexy little outfits and never are we made to consider the fact that not only is it really sexist, but entirely stupid… Burnham does a great job of putting his point across here and Schoening’s art is, as always, fantastic fun, dynamic and full of little gags and in-jokes.
While some may gripe that this is traditional Ghostbusters-lite, it’s hard to argue that it is still very in-universe and preserves the clever wit of the movies and is laced with mythology-building asides and nods.
While I still have a slight issue with Burnham’s loose take on the established canon – A point I address with him in our podcast this week, here – i still love what’s happening here and while I’m still in a hurry to get the old team back, I’m not in THAT big a hurry anymore.
Roll on #3
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
Nerd Comments