Luke Owen reviews The New Ghostbusters #4…
They’re BACK! The original boys in gray have escaped captivity, but their captors—the demonic entities know as the Collectors—aren’t going to just let the Ghostbusters get away with a jailbreak! It’ll take all the wits at the disposal of both teams to keep Ray, Peter, Winston and Egon in one piece and on this dimensional plane!
I said in the review for The New Ghostbusters #3 that I was sad that this new line-up was coming to an end all too soon and having now finished the final pages of The New Ghostbusters #4, I really can’t quite believe it’s all over. Well, kind of over anyway.
In the last issue, we saw the original Ghostbusters return from their purgatory plane of existence to find The New Ghostbusters investigating Janosz Poha who has been now possessed. Now the two teams combine their forces to survive the forces of the Collectors – ghosts who are hell bent on getting their targets, and seemingly can’t be trapped.
The usual level of Burham and Schoening brilliance is on show here and the whole issue is brilliantly put together – but I just can’t believe that it all appears to be over after just 4 issues. Now granted, this could just be me having a premature reaction as we are to find out the fate of The New Ghostbusters next issue, but don’t you think it would have been better to have had a good solid year of them rather than just four flimsy issues? I feel like they’ve barely done anything. The drama of the original Ghostbusters being missing while this team learnt the ropes had so much potential, but we’ll never get to see it.
But, on the more positive side of things, this is a particularly brilliant issue of Ghostbusters. The action is superb, the writing is top notch and the artwork fits the story perfectly. It’s one of the best comics we’ve seen from this series in quite some time and highlights just how great it can be. The interaction with all the characters is just awesome and it’s wonderful to see the two teams working together – even if it is a few months early.
Eric Burnham left a comment on my review of The New Ghostbusters #2 saying he had big plans for this series, so perhaps I’m just overreacting. It’s the fanboy way after all.
Regardless of my problems with the story’s pacing, The New Ghosbusters #4 is a really, really good read. I can’t wait to see where they take the characters now they’re both working in the same city – so I guess in a way Burnham has done his job. I can’t hate on him for that.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published May 21, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
