Ghostbusters 101 #4 Comic Review

The Ghostbusters of two dimensions set out to identify the cause of the dimensional, er, flux that’s brought the two teams together in the first place. The PKE readings lead them to Ellis Island, where they take on a bunch of ghosts in a fun crossover battle that finally sees Holtzmann trading quips with Venkman.

There isn’t a huge amount of forward motion here, but it doesn’t really matter because we finally get to see both sets of ‘Busters in action, and it’s a treat for franchise fans. Holtzmann does her dumb whip-gun thing that you may remember from the 2016 film, which kind of vaporizes the ghosts. (Thankfully she doesn’t lick anything this time around.) And in a development I found suuuper satisfying, Ray chastises her for it because she’s just “atomizing” the ghosts, which is only temporary and can (and does) result in lots of minor specters rejoining into one super-ghost. Ray>Holtzmann. Game, set, match.

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(Seriously, if they don’t trap ghosts, they’re not Ghostbusters. That would make them Ghostsmashers, and if you’ve followed the IDW series, you know how things ended for that rival group. Glad we finally addressed this, everybody.)

Burnham’s writing really does save this for me—nobody else could make me tolerate the 2016 ‘Busters, but he continues to make it work with aplomb. Schoening’s art is great as ever, very satisfyingly cartoony and with great facial expressions, and with Delgado’s awesome colors and light effects are back in full force during the uber-ghost battle.

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I’m enjoying the 101 arc very much, like all of the IDW ‘Busters stories. It will be nice when the universes are back in their normal configuration, but for now it’s a fun romp that has something for Ghostbusters fans of every generation.