Review – Ghostbusters International #11 (IDW Publishing)

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Story: Erik Burnham
Artwork: Dan Schoening,
Release Date: 30th November 2016

[WARNING – Review Contains Minor Spoilers]

Well this is it, folks – the Ghostbusters are going to Hell. No this isn’t the fabled Hellbent Ghostbusters script. Our heroes have been to Italy, Ireland, Paris, Puerto Rico, Iceland and now to round it off they are accidentally getting sent to hell (and I’m sure Peck would love to leave them there).

The team have the Raouskinna spell book that Loftur wants in exchange for Egon. However as with every big bad, it shouldn’t come as a massive surprise that he gets greedy and betrays them, trying to just take the book without returning everyone’s favourite scientific genius. Jenny, part time Ghostbuster and liaison with the city tries to read out a spell and sends all of them, except Winston, to Hell. There they meet the Devil, find out why Loftur wanted the book (it’s a similar reason to Jack from The Happy Horror Days arc) and the faerie queen calls in the favour from Venkman.

On first reading I was a little underwhelmed to be honest, especially given that after such an incredibly strong build-up the Ghostbusters themselves didn’t seem to do much to affect the story in the end. However, after reading it a few more time I’m, starting to think it might have been a stroke of genius. After all this time, the IDW ‘Busters team seem nigh-on unstoppable. They always come out on top due to their talents and abilities, but this time they were completely out of their depth and only survived (for the most part) due to luck and circumstance. If they had to actually fight in this issue they would have lost without a shadow of doubt.

Therein lies the genius of this creative team, once again making this series one of the best licenced books of all time. Eric, Dan and Luis knew the Ghostbusters were getting too good so found a way to stick the boot into both their ego and the readers, while still retaining the status quo and not harming the world they had previously created.

While this issue reads as a good endpoint for the series, thankfully it isn’t, and almost feels like a kind of soft reset for the book. The guys are back to being your normal everyday paranormal investigators and eliminators, which will allow the next volume to start with a clean slate with a whole world built behind it. Fantastic stuff, yet again.

Rating: 4/5.

If you want to find out more about Ghostbusters International, make sure to check out our interview with Erik Burnham and Dan Schoening by CLICKING HERE.

PREVIEW ARTWORK
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