We open #6 with Kylie researching the current...difficulty, and being Kylie she comes up with answers. Some jerk messed with something he shouldn't have almost four hundred years ago, and now there's a Manitou running loose and it's our heroes job to clean up this mess.
By the way, Manitou is something from real folklore. Look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitou See? There's all sorts of neat stuff like that just waiting to be used. It's so much better than being lazy and going "Well, let's come up with some more relatives for Gozer..."
I also daresay, compared to the EGB version, IDW Kylie seems to dress just a tad more girly and "stereotypical" Goth. I certainly don't remember EGB Kylie wearing the lace fingerless gloves, but I'm sure if I'm wrong about that mrmichealt or Harry Bardwell will dig up some screencaps to prove it
Not a complaint, just a comment--since technically IDW Kylie is not EGB Kylie, but a parallel dimension counterpart, they don't have to be exactly alike (And they already aren't, because Egon would certainly remember "Oh yes...you're that girl that worked at Ray's bookstore a few years ago." Heck, IDW Kylie would have to be older; she probably has to be at least sixteen to get a work permit, and EGB Kylie wouldn't be 16 until early 1995. I realize the IDW timeline is a little vague, but I don't think we've gone that far into the future from GBVG.)
Anyway, back in Schenectady (Schenectady Schenectady heh hehhehheh heh...) the Ghostbusters process the info from Kylie; Ray declares it a "Code Regan", a reference to "The Exorcist".
Venkman asks if they could blast a possessed person; Egon says it could, with a weak enough stream, and them reminds Venkman how they did it to free him from Wot in "Mrs. Roger's N..." Oh, wait, damn, that didn't happen in this universe, but the idea sounds similar enough to please me. So the Ghostbusters decide to split up (because, of course, they can do more damage that way).
We get a cut scene back in New York, with Jake Kong, the guy previously seen musing starting his own paranormal investigation company (I know he had a real name, but I'm not going to bother to look it up right now) getting a Mysteeerious Package from some dude named Harry. I guess the plan is proceeding. Wonder what he'll call it? Ghosts R Us? Wait! I know! Ghost Busters! There's no way anybody could confuse the two then!
So Ray and Venkman have gone one direction, and Venkman, never one to not let a crisis pass him by, grabs Ray and tugs on his ears as Winston and Egon aren't here to stop him. He's been bothered all day by Egon's groupies last issue, and drags the truth out of Ray: Egon's writing a book. A book using a computer program designed to create patterns to stimulate the brain. Excerpts of the book have already appeared, and thus the fangirls.
On the one hand, Egon's dicked around with people's emotional responses before ("Let's take away the puppy") But it still doesn't quite add up. What are we missing?
...
...
Holy crap. Almost like Egon's setting something in a place where someone who "reads a lot" might see it?
Fritz's Snarky Comments On #5 wrote:Janine growls at Venkman and Peck while they're having their pissing match, and Winston quietly notes to Ray that she's been really "aggressive" lately.
Ray pulls a Sgt. Shultz and "Knows nothing".
Right Ray. "I know nothing." We see women who don't even know Egon being "stimulated" by his computerized writing...what's that sucker gonna do to someone who knows him and already has an established history of being "stimulated" by him without computer programs?
Oh Roger, if you weren't being written in solely as a spoiler for my favorite fictional couple ever, I would almost feel sorry for you now. Almost.
Er, Anyway, just about then Ray and Venkman are attacked by Stay Puft plushies, stuffed monkeys in beanies, and more in-jokes that mrmichealt has undoubtedly already listed. After blasting the evil plushies (perhaps that's redundant) the two Ghostbusters are attacked by a giant monkey statue, and they blow it up just as quick. Ray remarks how many statues they've had to fight lately...
Venkman: Yeah. We should probably stop making ghosts out of busts.
Ray throws a rock at him, but he deserved it. I'd accuse Venkman of reading "Pearls Before Swine" again, but that strip didn't start until 2002.
We turn to Egon and Winston, who are having a much more professional conversation, as Winston doesn't care about Egon's love life. They intend to follow the PKE flow to the source, but the animated horses from the carousel wish to say "Neigh!" to that idea. (Ah, damnit, now I'm doing it). A few proton beams later, and the stampede isn't going anywhere near a college. (Yes, I'm a Louis Black fan, why do you ask?)
The Ghostbusters regroup and find the possessed Scotty Whittington. They try to talk to the manitou, and Winston has a cunning plan: try to lure the entity out, offering himself as a new host, but have Ray trap the ghost in transit. The manitou thinks about it, but decides he doesn't like Winston's "taste"...he's too selfless and compassionate (why, the manitou must skim DC Comics, because when it looks at Winston he glows compassionate indigo and everything). Egon and Ray are too motivated by desire for knowledge (Would that be green? We don't see it's lanternscan of them) colored by a "bland" lust (One of them lusting after only one Brooklyn redhead, maybe?). But Venkman...boo-yah! Greed and want! Look at that bright orange glow (Well, actually it looked more yellow to me, but maybe Venkman was scared out of his gourd at that moment...)
The entity leaves Scotty, and Egon opens a trap...
When the smoke clears, Scotty's teeth ache (See? He really did turn part zombie while possessed!!!) but he's otherwise fine. Mom, Dad, and Uncle DiTillio are gonna be thrilled. All's well that ends well, time to go home and rub this in Peck's...
Oops. Guess that trap didn't work after all. Venkman's looking a bit green and zombielike in that last panel...
You know I'll be here for the exciting conclusion, in just one month!
Speaking of Gozer relatives, Tristan Jones' backup feature details another pre-Burnham character, Rachel Unglighter from "Displaced Aggression". It's quite an interesting fleshing out of the character, who pretty much Sued up the place during her appearance. What's fascinating to me, as a big fan of the old Now Comics run, Jones took a character from a story that reminded me just a little of "Tobin and the Maze of Time", and gave her a backstory that reminds me of Shannon Phillips from "The Father Thing Trilogy", up to and including the "And afterwards, all trace of demonic power was gone". If I wasn't so sick of stuff with Gozarian connections, I'd suggest bringing in Felix Ashton as a scheming wizard who looks something like
this. (One of James Van Hise's missed opportunities, I'd say.)
- By tobycj