A New York Ghostbuster in King Arthur’s Court
The first issue of IDW Publishing’s Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression found the Ghostbusters team scattered across time and space. With Dr. Venkman secured from the old west, he, and the mysterious hot blond now find themselves in the time of King Arthur ready to bring a big can of whoop-ass to the ghost dragons of ye’ olde age.
You really can’t go wrong by telling Ghostbusters tales in comic book form. The medium lends itself perfectly to serve up the gigantic special effects that would be cost prohibitive in the movies. And when an issue features a flying Ecto-10, exploding Proto-Packs, and flaming ghost dragons all set in medieval times, one can understand that a dramatic story such as this one could only be told in the pages of “them funny booksâ€.
And it is the visuals that are so striking. Even with the same artist onboard, it feels like a totally different issue. The first issue featured a lot of purples, blues, and browns, while the second installment features a color palette that leans more toward the green and red side of the spectrum. I’m not sure if it is intentional or not, but it worked in making me dig through the stack of comics to see if the last issue was also done by Ilias Kyriazis. Once again, don’t expect any of the characters to resemble their big screen counterparts – which might be kind of good thing, as Ray Stanz isn’t boarding on the portly here, but he is sporting a time appropriate amount of facial hair.
As one might expect from a tale set in King Arthur’s Court, the big battle occurs between Arthur and his half-sister Morgan Le Faye, with the good guys winning in the end. The set up and fight is pretty cut and dried, and nothing readers won’t see coming. Even Venkman’s sudden desire to side with the enemy telegraphs to the reader that he has a trick up his sleeve. The only surprise for this reader was the sudden turn of events about half way through the issue regarding the hot blond from the future that seems to be the catalyst for getting the team back together. It’s not clear if she is a force of good, or one of the baddies, as one of her comments about time-travel seems out of place. It really wouldn’t surprise me if this story ended up taking place in a virtual reality world, or a shared dream experience. There are still plenty of issues to go as the trio speed off to find the next lost member of the party.
The story continues to move at a solid pace. There haven’t been any dull moments in any of the issues, although one might argue some of the dialogue is unnecessary, while others would contend it is necessary to continue character development. Unfortunately, because this installment is essentially following the same premise of the first, the series could very easily fall into a repeating pattern that continues to spiral downward toward a conclusion that won’t sit well with readers. I’m hoping that isn’t the case, but after reading this issue, it is one that concerns me.
As mentioned at the top of this review, the art seems strikingly different from the first, but it is solid, and paired with a story that moves along at an almost too fast of a pace, IDW Publishing ends up with another solid showing, as Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggressions #2 earns 3.5 out of 5 Stars.