Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Erik Burnham
Artwork: Dan Schoening
Colours: Luis Antonio Delgado
Lettering: Tom B. Long
Release Date: 26th June 2019
When I think of the two iconic ‘80s franchises that IDW Publishing have done the most with over the last 10 years, it’s not a surprise that Ghostbusters and Transformers are what instantly come to mind.
With a 10-year epic just finished up in the IDW Transformers universe and Ghostbusters fresh off celebrating its 35th anniversary, this feels like an appropriate time to bring two of IDW’s heaviest hitters together. But how exactly do you go about crossing over a war between robots and four blue-collar guys busting ghosts?
Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine. After all, IDW have done crazier stuff.
The story starts as one that you already know. The Autobots flee Cybertron looking for an escape from the war, except before the Decepticons can follow our heroes, a Transformers version of Gozer the Gozerian (the iconic villain of the original Ghostbusters movie) appears to destroy Cybertron. And that’s just in the first five pages.
Okay, so I could go on about every cool moment in this first issue (and there’s pretty much one on every page) but honestly the best way to experience this story so far is to know absolutely nothing beyond what you can see below because, as expected, this creative team have delivered yet another brilliant piece of work.
Erik Burnham, while leaning more on comedy this issue, absolutely hits it out of the park. With the Ghostbusters part of the story that should surprise absolutely nobody, as he’s been writing these characters longer than almost anyone, but the Transformers (including the new addition to their ranks) all feel all as if they’ve been lifted straight from the ‘80s cartoon.
Oh, and speaking of the ‘80s cartoon…
Dan Schoening returns with Luis Antonio Delgado as the art and colour team who are up to any challenge, and this time they get to show off one of their greatest skills. They somehow manage to transfer the ‘80s TV grain and look of the classic animation onto the printed pages, making this comic look like lost frames from G1. Actually, that kind of sums up the whole book in a nutshell. It probably shouldn’t work, but somehow, because of the talent on board, it absolutely does.
Honestly it’s a great start, with plenty of callbacks and references, and a scene featuring Starscream that you’ll (probably) be talking about for the rest of time. A funny opening salvo then, and hopefully a sign of great things to come for this mini-series.
Rating: 4/5.
[PREVIEW ARTWORK]
The writer of this piece was: Jonathan Mullen
Jonathan Tweets from @JonathanDMullen
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