Ghostbusters #3 put out by IDW Publishing came out this week and was the first in the series I finally sat down and read. Initially I was a little stand-offish about the book because I love Ghostbusters the movies and the game that came out a couple of years ago was a hidden gem. The book surprised me and brought in a good story that ties in with the movies some of us grew up on. This isn’t another reboot of the same story from the 80’s and trying to capture the nostalgia from then.
Seeing the newspaper clipping of the terror bear (like the terror dogs from the first movie coming from a statue) and hearing the report two guys sitting in a bar playing pool is where we start out. One of them starts up the conversation if they could get the plans for the nuclear backpacks or if he was accepted for his franchise application. Either way he wants to be part of the action that is exclusive to the Ghostbusters. The Ghostbusters is on the road changing a tire heading back to the shop from a case. When they get to the shop “Wally” is waiting for them to complain about them not getting to the terror bear attack outside Wall Street (the one thing wall street and occupy agree on terror bear =bad).
They get stuck in Queens which leads to the arguing and yelling between Peter and Wally (classic Ghostbusters here) over why the city even uses the Ghostbusters and the business. Two days later this starts progressing in two ways: one being in Ray working on a new jumbo trap and two; Spate Catalog start growing a page. Before they can review it more the alarm goes off. The Guys are off to Time Square where the terror bear is attacking. Egon testing a new high power pack and is trying it on the bear and knocks it out. As Ray is retrieving the jumbo trap to capture the bear he gets sucked into the back window to the other dimension. There he meets an entity of Gozer not the gatekeeper or the key master but a new one.
They get stuck in Queens which leads to the arguing and yelling between Peter and Wally (classic Ghostbusters here) over why the city even uses the Ghostbusters and the business. Two days later this starts progressing in two ways: one being in Ray working on a new jumbo trap and two; Spate Catalog start growing a page. Before they can review it more the alarm goes off. The Guys are off to Time Square where the terror bear is attacking. Egon testing a new high power pack and is trying it on the bear and knocks it out. As Ray is retrieving the jumbo trap to capture the bear he gets sucked into the back window to the other dimension. There he meets an entity of Gozer not the gatekeeper or the key master but a new one.
The book is written well with subtleties and make a good story but one thing that lack is Peter’s sarcasm which he is known for doesn’t show through much. The book stays with the scientific approach which has been evident in the movies. I enjoyed the story and that they use the first movie but in way of reference to move on to a new story and not a rehash of it. It does though keep the character one-dimensional to the parameters that were set from previous but are relatable.
The art seems Saturday morning cartoon style I was kind of hoping a more realistic style. The style work for the story and the hint of ghost in every few page to show they are everywhere is good. I do like that the A-Team van driving by yelling “you suck” while the tire was being changed was a different touch. The bear looks good but at first glance looks more robotic that ghost terror. I detail on Idulnas though is very well done and shows his power and thrive for no failure. And the other dimension looks like another dimension and not of this earth but not completely out of touch of realism. I enjoyed how it looked as the book moved on.I would recommend a read on this book because it shows a turning point and bring in the flow of the story to the conflict and the climax. It’s a good issue and worth read if you haven’t read the first two. I started out thinking I’m not too sure how this is going to turn out to lets read more.
Score: 4/5