Ghostbusters: The Other Side #4 – Review

Keith Champagne (writer), Tom Nguyen (pencils), Moose Baumann (colors)

The Story: The Ghostbusters are running out of time. If they don’t get through the pipeline and back into their own bodies soon they’ll be trapped in Purgatory forever!

What’s Good: It’s over.

What’s Not So Good: Telling a Ghostbusters story with Heaven and Hell involved is fine. The fact that there are ghosts almost requires there to be a higher power from another plane of existence. So when Peter met the angels, it forces you to say, “fine, I’ll bite.” But Heaven and Hell suddenly being a fixture of the story in the last few panels of the last book, with no setup is just bad. It’s lazy writing, desperately trying to add scope to a small uninteresting story. Speaking of the writing, is there a reason we didn’t see the boys get their bodies back? Could it be that there was no clever way to get them back in there without divine intervention? Who can say? I would just think that the audience would get to see that since that was their goal for most of the series. On the plus side, being in Purgatory gives Venkman a new affinity for deep dish… sigh.

Conclusion: To say I didn’t like this story is a bit of an understatement. My level of disappointed nerd-rage is hard to put into words. I would say for Ghostbusters fans this is about as close to nuking the fridge as you can get. The story had potential but things went downhill at an alarming rate. Stay away Ghostbusters fans, it looked good from afar but up close it’s far from good.

Grade: F

-Ben Berger

Ghostbusters: The Other Side #3 – Review

Keith Champagne (writer), Tom Nguyen (pencils), Jon Alderink (inks), Moose Baumann (colors), Chris Mowry (letters), Fabio Mantovani (cover)

The Story: The Ghostbusters are still stuck in Purgatory, trying to find a way to get their souls back into their bullet-riddled bodies on Earth. While they plan their escape, The Ghost Mafia looks for a way to eliminate the GB’s forever!

What’s Good? The fate of Peter Venkman is revealed, but more importantly, the series is ending soon.

What’s Not So Good? The reintroduction of Venkman has been lackluster at best. It makes sense that his soul would be in Purgatory since his body was stolen. But what’s the point of having arguably the most popular Ghostbuster barely involved in a Ghostbusters story? Bill Murray made the character work in the films, as many of Venkman’s lines wouldn’t have been as funny without his delivery. But he was never a walking pun, which is what’s been shoved down our throats since his return to the story. I’m all for puns if they’re funny, but there’s too many “eye-rollers” here. Sadly, the artwork remains incredibly bland. I think it would be fine on any other title, but the ghost designs are too void of any sort of Ghostbusters flair.

Conclusion: Ghostbusters 2 may not have been a worthy successor to the original in the eyes of many fans, but at least it felt like Ghostbusters. This series is sorta like a Paul W.S. Anderson movie. At first you’re excited, “Oh boy, one of my favorite games/comics is getting adapted.” Then you see it, and there’s no Chris Redfield, making it inaccurate and the opposite of what you’d want.

From the art to the writing to the premise, this story falls short. Ghostbusters is my favorite movie, so I may be the wrong person to read and review this. Still, I’ll always want another good Ghostbusters story. I need to learn to cut my losses earlier. If you’re a hardcore fan of the films, this isn’t for you. If not, there may be a silver lining for you, but I wouldn’t bet on that either.

Grade D-

-Ben Berger

Comic-Con 2008: Complete Progamming schedule

The full programming schedule is available now. I noticed a high increment in game related panels compared to previous years. Many people will not like this as it doesn’t have any relation from the comics.

Friday is Star Wars day. Artists scheduled for panels include Paul Dini, Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Robert Kirkman, Eric Larsen, Jim Butcher, Kevin Smith, Frank Miller and Brad Meltzer among others.

Media & games related panels include Watchmen, Stargate, Prince of Persia, Star Wars, Spaced, Resident Evil: Degeneration, Ghostbusters, The Wolfman, American Dad, The Spirit, World of Warcraft, The Venture Brothers, 24, Robot Chicken, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, Eureka and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along among a lot more of other panels.

A highly recommended panel is the Kevin Smith one. I don’t even like his movies, but his panels are hilarious.

Check the full list for Friday here.

For Saturday there is lots of panels to pick from: Ralph Bakshi, Joe Hill, Ben Templesmith, Steve Niles, David Mack, Dean Koontz, J. Michael Straczynski and media events for Futurama, The Simpson, Heroes, Dollhouse, Terminator Salvation, Battlestar Galactica, Pushing Daisies, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Fringe and Starship Troopers 3.

The full list of panels for Saturday is here.