Luke Owen reviews Ghostbusters #12…
The end of the year is a hectic time for most businesses, and the Ghostbusters are no exception. Beset from all sides by a surge in spectral activity over this particularly busy season, they’re looking forward to a little bit of a break once the new year hits. But recent supernatural symptoms shown by the City that Doesn’t Sleep are coming to a head, and the Bogeyman has arrived to take the city’s future!
2014 marks the 30th anniversary of the Ivan Reitman comedy classic and IDW’s Ghostbusters comic series is gearing up to celebrate with the return of Gozer in Mass Hysteria. However, before we get there we have the final part of Happy Horror Days in which our heroes do battle with the bogeyman.
It’s fair to say that Happy Horror Days has been very hit and miss in what still remains to be the best run of Ghostbusters comics in quite some time, but Ghostbusters #12 is easily the best of the bunch. As told through the eyes of Ortiz as she reports back to her superior, Ghostbusters #12 zips along while never feeling over-stuffed. Erik Burnham crams a lot of story into this issue but the flashback motiff allows for him to skip over certain sections without confusing a reader. While he claims to not clued in on the history of The Real Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters #12 does feel like an homage to the season one episode The Boogieman Cometh which is a nice touch for those fans of the show.
As always, Dan Shoening’s artwork is superb as he captures the characteristics of the Ghostbusters without copying their likenesses and his Bogeyman villain is very creepy. There are also some good nods for hardcore Ghostbusters fans like the aforementioned Boogieman as well as Vigo from Ghostbusters II. Like Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, it’s light and airy but still retaining an ‘adult’ tone.
And while Ghostbusters #12 is a good read and the best of the Happy Horror Days series, the real highlight is the short story at the end which acts as a prelude to Mass Hysteria. Taking story elements from the most recent video game, we see Rookie and Ron Alexander going to a Gozer exhibition being held in Chicago only for things to start going bump in the night. These shorts have always been entertaining as the interplay between Rookie and Ron is pretty funny, but this is the first short in a while that feels relevant. Like a good post-credit sequence, it tees up the upcoming Mass Hysteria really well – and it’s looking like it will be a lot of fun.
It could even be real wrath of God type stuff. The kind where cats and dogs live together.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published February 1, 2014. Updated November 8, 2019.
