Ghostbusters: Past, Present and Future #1

One of the richest men in the world is annually tormented by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. Unwilling to change his wicked ways (because he loves being filthy stinkin' rich), the modern day Scrooge hires the Ghostbusters for their most lucrative bust ever! With a chance to net $4 million dollars, Ray, Peter, Egon and Winston will work Christmas Eve to capture these iconic ghosts. However, none of the Ghostbusters have clue just how dangerous these holiday spirits truly are!

I really enjoyed this take on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I don't think I can have enough of that holiday trope. It's just so fun getting to see how characters celebrated Christmas in the past and I like seeing what the holidays could be like. But I do feel that writer Rob Williams (Project Superpowers) and artist Diego Jourdan (Astro Boy The Movie: Official Movie Prequel) missed a big opportunity for some fun Easter eggs.

Bill Murray, who played the ever so snarky Peter Venkman in the Ghostbuster films, also played Frank Cross in the 1988 Richard Donner holiday classic Scrooged. So peppering in some cameos from one of two of the characters from that movie would have been hysterically brilliant. Sadly, it just doesn't happen.

Alas, I feel like IDW wasn't allowed to utilize the likenesses of the actors in the films. There's one panel that occurs in the Christmas future where an older Venkman looked like an elderly Bill Murray. Other than that, you really can't tell the difference between Ray and Peter as the both look alike. This makes me wonder if that's why Egon wears these weird goggles that allow him to look at things on the ghost spectrum throughout this entire book. Without that differentiating eye wear, maybe readers would have had real trouble figuring out which plain looking white guy Ghsotbuster is which. 

There's a bit of a mystery here. As I was reading this book, my mind kinda touched on a solution to that mystery, but I dismissed it. So when the twist pops up, I was quite surprised. And maybe kicking myself a little for being so close and yet so far... At least the answer to the mystery wasn't Gozer!

A very festive story. A great use of a very common holiday plotline. Some missing chances to pay tribute to other holiday classics. The artwork of the 3 main Caucasian characters was bland and kinda cookie-cutter. But the amazing writing and the great representations of the spooks saved the day here!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Project Superpowers #0 (2018)

There are some things you just don't pass up. A new release comic book for only 10 cents is one of those things. 

This is the latest series from Dynamite Entertainment based on a number of forgotten superheroes from long defunct comic book publishers of the 1940s and 50s. However, this is also first one without Alex Ross at the helm.

Being a huge Alex Ross fan, you would think that I would be all over the Project Superpowers books. But I just didn't for one reason or another. I think the biggest reason is that I felt that Project Superpowers was too much like Marvel's The Twelve in that a bunch of forgotten heroes are revived in the modern day. 

Maybe I hitched my wagon to the wrong cart. But I liked The Twelve. I have no regrets.

This teaser into the new Project Superpowers series, this time helmed by Suicide Squad's Rob Williams sees a once thought dead hero returning to warn an ally of an impending doom. This introductory issue does it's job quite well. It acts as a small teaser of the story to come while offering a lot of vital backstory. 

This book also did it's job in at least one other way. While I don't think I am going to go for the rest of this series, I am interested in finding the first and maybe second series by Alex Ross. So, there's a bit of a win there. 

My LCS had 3-4 more of these 10 cent beauties. I would imagine that a lot of stores have some issues still on hand. Not because this wasn't a good read. It was. But it's like I say to start this review- you can't pass up a 10 cent comic. So I expect that many stores ordered big on this. 

A very good introductory read. While it may not make you want to invest in the current series, it will make you want to dive more into the back issues which has since been collected as hard covers and trades.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.