Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Mars Attacks The Real Ghostbusters
IDW Comics
Burham, Holder & Colwell
Mars Attacks rolls on as it confronts the real Ghostbusters in this issue. The comic book is a decent read and rises a little bit above Mars Attacks Popeye but isn't quite as interesting as the Mars Attacks Kiss book. While entertaining, it doesn't exactly lend itself to readers that are unfamiliar with the Ghostbusters beyond the film incarnations. Hopefully those reading Ghostbusters will find this comic book true to those characters and get more out of this issue than I did.
Mars happens to attack during the famous fake radio broadcast of 1938 that the Earth was being invaded from outer space. This part of the comic book was so clever. I thought weaving in the idea that the Martians were monitoring the air waves during this fake attack to be brilliant. The book really started off with a bang in this regard.
Fast forward to present times and the Ghostbusters are called on to the scene were the real Martian shuttle crashed back in 1938 during the fake attack. The Ghostbusters do their thing and there is plenty of banter, action and explosions as the Ghostbusters take on the Martians.
The book loses steam when the Ghostbusters enter the comic book. Only being exposed to the film version of the characters I had a very difficult time reconciling these characters with the faces and voices from the movies. I was unable to get a feel for these character's personalities, but oddly I was able to understand and embrace the attitudes of the Martians. I just had too much disconnection from the Ghostbusters in this book.
The artwork is good, especially when dealing with the settings and landscape. I had a difficult time telling two of the Ghostbusters apart and as a result I missed some of the scene changes when the fighting starts. I thought the coloring was very good as it had a nice mix of bright and drab tones depending on the characters and setting. Overall, the art was fairly good.
Mars Attacks Ghostbusters is a book that has a quirky feeling to it that makes it a fun read. I'm sure that is what the creators were going for and they succeeded. I would have liked to see more character definition or at least something that mimicked the characters from the film but the space is limited, so it's understandable that they missed the mark. This is just regular old fun.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
