Review: Ghostbusters #6

Get ready, fanboys, because I’m going to do to your precious little Ghostbusters series what drugs can do to an aging pop star.

But first I have to make an admission.  As someone who is passionate for the Ghostbusters, I have a hard time understanding two things: 1) Why does IDW let such an incompetent writing team handle this book?  2) Why do fanboys defend this shit?  Do you not understand what good comics are?  As Plato said, break out of the cave and walk into the light…

Issue 6 picks up with the guys trapped in the amusement park in Schenectady.  As it turns out, the attacking spirit is that of a Manitou.  Dubbed a less-than-politically correct “Indian Curse”, the Manitou attacks the guys with animated stuffed animals from one of the boardwalk games and other sundry items from the park.

When the Ghostbusters confront the revenant, they extricate it from the boy it had possessed.  The only problem is that it ends up possessing Peter because his soul is set on greed and personal gain.

First, the good.  The artwork conveys an eerie yet comic air.  It fits perfect for this comic.  I love the styling that mixes an anime feel for the humans while making the spectral creatures akin to the old horror EC Comics.  I loved the art on page ten when the stuffed animals become charged with the Manitou’s power and their eyes glow to reflect that.  Very cool and atmospheric.  And pay special attention to Peck’s “Paranormal Contracts Oversight Commission” dossier at the end of the book for some truly spine-chilling images.

Now, the bad.  I have read three issues of this comic and I have seen the same mistake in all three.  The pacing is shit.  The book opens with Kylie researching what trapped the Ghostbusters.  The narration plods on and on.  You never start a comic with something as boring as a woman reading through a book.  Read more comics and you will see that a good story shows the main heroes in some distress that they will work themselves out of in the course of the book.  And end with a cliffhanger.  This issue ends with a good cliffhanger, but everything up to that point lacks.

To make it worse, page seven has a narration box that reads, “Five minutes of explanation later…”.  In the most metafictional of ways the narrator adds proof to my argument that there is way too much talking, explication, and bad jokes and way too little of the guys getting down and dirty with some spooky stuff that would make your shit turn white.

Here’s an example of one of those stupid jokes that bombs:  On page seven Ray explains that a similar haunting happened at Woodstock.  Peter asks what happened at Woodstock.  Ray responds, “Rock and Roll History.”  Want another?  Okay.  The Ghostbusters take down a defensive possessed monkey statue.  One of the guys off panel says, “Looks like we broke another statue.”  Peter responds, “Yeah, We should probably stop making ghosts outta busts, huh?”  This is cripplingly bad humor.

Go ahead and get pissed at me for this review.  But you need to understand that your venom for my review comes from the same source as my anger at the horrible execution of such an awesome license.  We want this book to be scary, funny, and exciting like the movie that began our love for the Ghostbusters.  I say it can be done way better than this slop.

Score: 1/5

IDW Comics
$3.99
Release Date: 2/15/12
Writer: Erik Burnham
Art: Dan Schoening
Colors: Luis Antonio Delgado
Letters: Neil Uyetake

Comments

[The Angry Rookie]

Ok...
You think the writing team is incompetent ?
It looks like you love that much the franchise that you haven't heard about IDW's previous GB comics (the other side, Displaced Agression).
You know what we "fanboys" like in this book ?
The humour of the films is there, the characterization is just perfect, the art & the colors are fantastic. But what "we" like the most is to have on board creators that trully love & respect our beloved franchise.
I have to admit that the plots are a bit lame but the rest is so good.

I suggest you to stop reading this comic & go buy Liefeld's new stuff, you'll love it for sure !

[The Angry Rookie]

Feel free to delete my comment as you did for Tom Waltz.

[Dustin Cabeal]

The Angry Rookie,

Trust me, no one was more disappointed that Tom's comment was deleted. I spent the better part of my day last week trying to figure out who had deleted it and why. It was an accident on that persons part as they were trying to delete their own comment and well it was an unfortunate mistake. The rest of my day was spent trying to find a way to repost the comment which is an option Blogger does not have. I reached out to Tom to repost and he said that he spoke his peace and that it wasn't worth it to repost it.

It's clear that you don't follow the site very close, which is okay and welcome. If you did you would know that there is no love for Liefeld here, but if you're referring to his Extreme line of books they are actually quite good and have nothing to do with him other than giving him a check for someone else doing all the work. (Typical Liefeld)

Thanks for using a real profile to post under and hopefully you'll check out the rest of the site. I'm glad that you're enjoying Ghostbusters and really at the end of the day that's all that matters. What Carl dislikes you may love, and what he loves you may dislike. It's the nature of comics and what keeps them fun.

Thanks,

Dustin