Part of me wanted to cringe when I saw this re-launch; half of it was because it was another adaptation from the 80’s and the other half because it was following the look and attitudes of the movies rather than the comics. Surprisingly it was actually pretty good and worth picking up. Sure it didn’t knock it out of the park like TMNT did, but it’s a far better adaptation then other companies are doing that’s for sure.
Ordinarily I would walk you through the story, but what is going to stand out to everyone that picks this book up is the art. The art is not my cup of tea. It’s trying to do a cartoony version of the movies and frankly I’m not a fan of it. The exaggerated features are distracting and make the world look fake and unrealistic. The thing about Ghostbusters is that even though it’s dealing with the supernatural and has comedic moments, it’s still grounded in the real world and that’s why it works. By having cartoonish art; it breaks that, especially since the story has a very serious tone. Dan Schoening is a good artist, but he was not the right choice for this book which is why I’m curious to see how it’s received by others.
As for the story, it begins with a dream sequence which I really hate. We’re inside the mind of Ray and all of the Ghostbusters are on a talk show hosted by Ja’nine. The dream is use to recap the personalities and backgrounds of each of the Busters and although it’s effective, anyone that’s watched either of the movies, played the video game, read the previous comics or watched the countless cartoon versions, will find themselves waiting until this chunk of story finally ends. The dream ends with Ray talking to the ghost of John Belushi dress as a Blues Brother. I’m sure someone is excited by this; frankly I found it to be in poor taste.
After the extended opening, were taken to the present in which the Busters are business as usual. They’re still considered heroes, but business is kind of slow because people don’t want to pay them anymore. The actual interesting part of this story came in the mini-story at the end of the issue that saw the return of a character from the first movie. I really liked the angle that it added to the story and that’s what hooked me for the next issue.
If you like Ghostbusters and can overlook the art then pick this puppy up. If you’re kind of tired of 80’s adaptations regardless of who’s doing them, the feel free to pass. The story is decent, but so far it hasn’t shown that it’s going to revolutionize the Ghostbusters and frankly anything that it does will just be erased by the next company to take a stab at the series. The books getting a pretty low score, but that’s not just due to the issues I took with the book it's because this isn’t a very strong adaptation it’s hard to say that it’s for everyone. Ghostbusters is already a niche series; add the fact that it’s in comic form with cartoon images and it’s difficult to say that this is for everyone.
Score: 2/5