"Ghostbusters Annual 2018" Comic Review

Proving once again that ridiculous plots can be ridiculously fun, this year's Ghostbusters  Annual sets the scene for an upcoming multiverse event that promises even more nostalgia and cool neon light effects.

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Miners working beneath New York uncover a strange artifact, which releases a ghost familiar to fans of the Real  Ghostbusters cartoon as Sam Hain. The 'Busters get involved, as they do, and Kylie figures out that the pumpkin-headed ghost is connected in a vague way to old Irish tradition. ("Sam Hain" is a mispronunciation of samhain, which sounds kind of like "saw-win," the pagan Celtic predecessor to Halloween. Burnham caught this and has the characters note it in the comic--another reason I love his writing.)

The 'Busters are able to beat the big bad this time around by guessing his name, and this is the one part that really doesn't make any sense, even in the superficial, fun way I've come to expect from IDW. Kylie figures that the ghost's real name is Connla. In case you're not familiar, this is the name of the son of Cu Chulainn, the great Irish hero. Cu Chulainn slew Connla in a duel. It was very sad, and also very odd, given that Connla was supposed to be around six years old at the time. Anyway, the connections between the ghost the 'Busters fight and Connla is razor thin, based entirely on the fact that the ghost is "quick to fight," and happens to wear a ring. (In the story of Connla, he wears a ring that his father had given as a gift to his mother, the warrior-woman Aoife.) As a folklorist who's worked with Irish material, I might be unfairly picking this apart, but the fact remains: it doesn't make a shred of sense.

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For all that, this is, once again, a fun book, with the best of Burnham's witticisms, Schoening's expressive, cartoony character designs, and Delgado's blazing colors. It also ends on a high note, with Egon enlisting the aid of every other set of 'Busters from the multiverse to clean up Samhain's army of ghosts. I'm looking forward to seeing what the upcoming multiverse event is all about, especially if the Real  Ghostbusters and Extreme  Ghostbusters crews get more screen time.