Gonna have to agree and say it’s the best GB IDW’s done yet. This one hit all the right notes, with the right blend of comedy and “horror.” A few of Peter’s one-liners were rather lame, but knowing from experience writing a consistently funny wiseass is no easy task for 22-pages. The artwork is LEAGUES better than THE OTHER SIDE, but I’m not a fan of the heavy inking done to it. Gives it a sloppy and gritty appearance (I prefer nice, clean lines with heavy shading for effect when needed), but fortunately not so much as to diminish from the overall enjoyment. I liked the way they used their new ghost threat in conjunction with the zombies, although they have yet to meet mastermind Britt yet. This has officially surpassed Trek as the best Infestation mini, and hopefully will finish as strong as it started. Though, one thing you have to wonder is how did Stay Puft get into the containment unit since this is the movie-verse and he done got blowed up. I eagerly await the answers in #2.
Today, I bought Ghostbusters: Infestation #1 Covers A, B, and RI A. Great story so far. Overall among all IDW ones, it comes in as my second favorite. Erik Burnham captured the voices of the characters very well. You could tell it was written by a fan. The Janine-Peter-Egon scene was a win in my book.
It was neat seeing a few movie references; Peter referring to spores, referring to trying to drill a hole in his head, and stripping off the slimed uniforms. But among all the references, what was the “MacDougall” one about? The will o’ the wisp convo had me laughing but poor dude. Peter’s Black Slime nickname was a neat callback to The Video Game, if that was the intention.
Neat idea that zombies can serve as biological containment units and the Egonspeak, “ionized necrotic matter.” Another interesting concept were the canine poltergeists, differing from the types that appeared in RGB, they did bring up a great plot point about the Containment Unit and its viability in keeping all entities incarcerated.
All that splattered marshmallow had to go somewhere. 
I orignally had planned to only read the Ghostbusters issues to Infestation. But last minute decided to read the whole thing, I must say that I have found the stories to very entertaining. My only complaint is that the stories are too short and that the proble could have been further explored. I’d have to say that GI Joe is my least favorite of the run thus far. Star Trek managed to capture the feel of the original series quite well I think, Transformers seemed to run from continuity already established in previous Transformers comics. But definantly the best is the Ghostbusters issue and I too anxiously await the next issue.
Some answers…
MacDougall refers to Duncan MacDougall, who theorized that the soul had weight (21 grams.) He did some interesting experiments in that area.
As to Stay Puft in containment? Well, I do have a “movie-ish” explanation for that that I didn’t have the space to pop into this script, so I let it lie. Reactions thus far have ranged from happy (considering it as an RGB reference) to really, really angry (couple of folks don’t like any blending of the various iterations, actual or accidental.)
For what it’s worth, the cartoon never expalined how Stay Puft was in the ECU either. There’s been a few fan theories (I came up with one myself) but never anything “official”.
Ignore the latter. 
I’m writing a more comprehensive review I hope to have up tommorow.
Thanks, I remember there was a movie of the same name based on that theory a few years back. Makes total sense now!
I thought it was the best and most efficient theory. Without Gozer, its jolly and child-like just like its namesake character.
But if I were allowed to throw in my two cents, I’d add the City & County probably ignored Egon’s instructions on proper disposal (sound familiar?) and gathered all the destructor residue and left it all sitting at one of NY’s garbage dumps where it re-congealed. The City & County panics and calls the Ghostbusters for help. The notion of using multiple traps to trap him, which only happened in “Cry Uncle,” was a neat strategy, I think the RGB used only once more in the “Ain’t NASA-sarily So” episode. But I digress. :sigh:
Ordered my Infestation yesterday now that Ive got some extra cash, can’t wait for it to get here!
A very solid product. The story was good and left me wanting more. The art is good, and the characters are very well done.
I too would be very interested to hear the theory behind Stay-Puft being in the containment unit. And the dork in me would like to know the back story to the new poltergiests that the GBs are having so much trouble containing.
I haven’t read any of the other series yet - I’m waiting to just pick them up as trade-paperbacks, but it fits really well in the GB universe.
I still personally wish that IDW wouldn’t rely on alternate covers to sell their products, but not enough that I don’t have the 2 regulars and the blank RI. Has anyone seen one of the RI-B covers for sale?
I promise, if I ever get to do GB again, I’ll put Mr. Stay Puft back in and explain exactly how it works. (;
Being of the mindset that Ghostbusters is Ghostbusters and Real Ghostbusters is Real Ghostbusters the idea of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (or whats left of him) being kept in containment is one of the few cross cannon ideas that I agree with. You could make the argument that any and all ectoplasmic material works on the same logic as the mood slime or other various types of slime featured in the GB universes, in that they’re all rechargeable PKE batteries and that even something that has been rendered inert (like the remains of stay puft) would over time suck up all the ambient PKE around it until as RGB-gon said “literally got up and walked away”.
I don’t think it’d be kept in the ECU proper, considering its just a holding cell for PKE, but probably in some type of PKE proof sarcophagus until there was a safe way to dispose of the material.
I haven’t gotten to read the book yet Erik, but congrats on having the best of the Infestation bunch apparently.
Fritz Babbles about Ghostbusters: Infestation #1
(Two days later than I’d hoped. Oops)
“I hate zombies. They have lousy teeth”
–Buster the Ghost
First, a note that I have not read any of the other Infestation books. So consider this pretty much a review of the work on it’s own merits as a Ghostbusters story.
The Good:
[spoiler]Great interplay between the Ghostbusters. I especially enjoyed the banter between Ray and Venkman about the former’s mathmatical…quirks. It wasn’t something touched on in the cartoons or GB2, but Ray does make a couple of number flubs in the first movie (the wrong chapter of Revelations, the wrong year of the Tunguska Blast) so yeah, having the guy be a math klutz and leaving the numbers to Egon is a fun little quirk to the character. Well done for bringing that out.
The artwork is well done and fits the story well. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s almost a little bit of a classic EC horror comic feel to it; considering that EC also founded Mad Magazine, a mix of EC horror and Mad Magazine is just about perfect for the Ghostbusters dealing with a zombie invasion.
The Proton Pistol is a nice nod (whether intentional or not) to Extreme Ghostbusters and other places that used a version of that concept (A pistol-sized proton gun is seen in Now’s RGB#7, but it’s insinuated it doesn’t have much payload because of it’s size). More such nods, please–push the envelope of what Sony will let you get away with.
Janine is one of my favorite characters in the property, and seeing as how she was so badly abused by it in the post-JMS RGB and in GB2, I’m a little sensative to seeing how she’s going to be used. She barely appeared in IDW’s earliest stuff (two pages in “The Other Side” and a side story in “Displaced Aggression”) but between last falls Samhain special and this story, I’m pleased to see her come out of the woodwork a little bit. Yeah, she’s not a Ghostbuster. But she’s also the most visible employee of the company who isn’t a Ghostbuster, and has a strong connection to one of the four Ghostbusters (meaning Egon), so a little face time every once in a while is more than justified. She gets to banter with Venkman, do some cool stuff that helps shed some light on the zombie situation, and I loved how Egon didn’t pry himself away from his own experiments until she started screaming at him, compared to his dismissive tone at Venkman’s attempts to do so.
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man escapes from the Containment Unit. “Ghosts escaping the ECU” is a story idea that has to be handled gingerly to be effective–since ghosts not getting out is pretty much the point of the thing–but still…it was the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man escaping the Containment Unit. Meaning that he somehow got put in there in the first place. The cartoon never explained how they had Stay Puft in their ECU either–all the fan theories are just that, theories–but at the end of the day, it’s both a neat call-back to the cartoon a lot of us loved a lot (honestly, I probably wouldn’t be in the fandom without it) and brings this beloved iconic character back into play (which is, I’m sure, the whole reason the cartoon did the same thing). The only thing missing was Slimer hanging around the firehouse and ■■■■■■■ off Venkman, and the cover for #2 gives me a smidgen of hope in that direction (lol).
Ray kept his ecto-goggles on most of the story. It minimized the usual artistic bugaboo of “Which one is that, Ray or Venkman?” which seems to be a struggle. I won’t go into the rest of that rant right now, you’ve all heard it before, but at least it didn’t happen much this issue.[/spoiler]
The Bad: (Please note how much shorter this section is 
)
[spoiler]The Proton Pistol didn’t really have any effect on the story. I suppose it could be putting a Chekhov’s gun on the wall for Part 2, though. And actually, considering that Winston is the biggest, strongest Ghostbuster, he’s probably the one who have the least need for a smaller weapon. You give the little gun to a wimp like Egon (lol).
I’m gonna admit, some of the stuff about the zombies “processing” PKE and poltergeists that couldn’t be contained didn’t quite gel for me, but it’s probably because I think too hard about such things. It led to some cool/gross/funny stuff, though, and I guess that’s what’s important.
Janine is one of my favorite characters in the property, and seeing as how she was so badly abused by it in the post-JMS RGB and in GB2, I’m a little sensative to seeing how she’s going to be used. I guess it’s part of my own amateur writer bias, but having her call Venkman by his first name grates on my nerves. She tended to call him “Dr. Venkman” in the first movie and scripts written or supervised by J. Micheal Straczynski. Gad, that’s such a tiny nitpick, but I can’t help myself. Especially when it could be another intentional nod to the cartoons (mostly post-JMS).[/spoiler]
The Ugly:
Zombies, lousy teeth and all, blowing up all over the place. And I really could have done without the mental image of Peter Venkman going commando. (lol)
To address the bad (I can’t help myself!)
[spoiler]Winston got the proton pistol because, out of the four, I figured him for the best shot, so he’d get the “precision” blaster. I also reasoned that’d be what he’d use on something that looked human. Logic and rational thinking might not totally apply there. (; Similar to using a handgun to shoot someone instead of a bazooka.
The processing is… yeah, but I was asked to make ghosts integral, which is harder than it sounds when you also need a zombie menace. (: I know I’m guilty of presuming some things in issue #2 as well, but there was a lot to get to! Totally my fault.
As for Janine and Pete, again, that’s me. I think there’s only so long you can work for (or with) a smartass before familiarity takes over. Lets me save referring to him as “Dr. Venkman” for when she’s making a point, and establishes that it’s a ways into their working relationship. If it helps, I did go back and forth on it before deciding. (:
I know there’s ONE thing in issue #2 that didn’t quite come out as clear as I’d hoped in the art – again, my fault, I asked for a ton from Kyle there! – so I’m copping to it early. lol.
Thanks for the comments![/spoiler]
Again, this is why I love it that now the fans and creative team can interact and clarifications can be given on things that the fans wished to know more on.
Just one more week to go 'til Ghostbusters: Infestation #2.
Newsarama posted a preview of #2. It’s the first couple pages.
It appears to be exposition explaining the plot at hand and Britt’s orders. Looks great so far!
Havent gotten a comic in so long now, what are they burning you for nowadays?
This one will be $3.99, which is a sadly common price point. Some Marvel and most DCs are currently $2.99.
<Insert old guy rant remembering when he bought comics at the drug store for 50 cents>
I broke out in the biggest grin I’ve had for a while upon seeing what was on page 3 of the preview. 
Agreed.
[spoiler]Let the movie purist complaints begin.
As a bonus, maybe Sebastien Clavet will log onto GBCentral and accuse IDW of ripping off 88MPH again.
:lol:[/spoiler]
The Containment Unit? (I’m sorry, I didn’t read those older comics.)