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 Post subject: IDW Ghostbusters #7
PostPosted: March 27th, 2012, 11:04 am 
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Fritz Babbles About Ghostbusters #7:

I think I need to post this before I go any further:

Dr. Peter Venkman

Brains 2 Parapsychology 5
Muscles 2 Brawl 5
Moves 3 Seduce 6
Cool 6 Bluff 9

Goal: Sex

That's Venkman's write up in the old GBI game system (It was very crunch-lite). That sheet is sorta invalid in second edition, where Seduce became a Cool specialty, but I'm getting off subject here...

I got this game for Christmas in 1986, about the same time I'd become addicted to a cartoon called The Real Ghostbusters. It went a long way to "solidifying" how I thought of Peter Venkman. Not actually especially bright (2 is an average score in the GBI system), but man, look at that Cool score. When it comes to fast talking, and keeping his wits in a bad situation, he's unbeatable.

Basically, I think Venkman not only rolled lots of 5 and 6s on his dice this issue, he probably blew--and then earned--lots of Brownie Points.

Venkman's so easy to play as a libertine buffoon--I know, I've done it a time or three myself--that we forget he's also got incredible social skills. He's lazy, not stupid.

There's a lot going on in the outside world--Winston, Ray, and Egon are still trying to get the Whittingtons, DiTillio, Madame LaFarge, Leda, the Carter kids, and more injokes I'll leave to mrmichaelt to point out, to safety, meaning outside Ghost World and into the slightly less unsafe environment environment of Schenectady (Schenectady Schenectady heh hehhehheh heh...)--as in the landscape of Venkman's mind, he and the Manitou are having an epic showdown.

Venkman, meanwhile, is invited into his old Weaver Hall office (complete with "Venkman Burn In Hell" graffiti on the door) for a chat by the Manitou. The critter is wondering why Venkman isn't scared, since, you know, the Manitou is about to eat his soul and his friends are about to die blah blah blah. Venkman tries to talk sports; it isn't really the Manitou's thing, but it does provoke him to conjure up the Umpire from "Night Game" to attack the other Ghostbusters.

The Manitou sneers. It thinks it knows why Venkman isn't scared: it pulls the "You've lost what you care about most anyway, right?" card and conjurs up the image of a woman playing a cello. "I can't make it more obvious who this is, you know...IDW doesn't have the right to use Dana Barrett in their stories, even though I can't see why not since it's not like they have Bill Murray's likeness rights either." To which Venkman responds "Intellectual properties lawyers can be a low species of life". Okay, the last two sentences aren't in the story, but the next part is:

Venkman tells the Manitou he's figured it out: he has to be freaked out before the critter can get about to the "devouring his soul" part. It pulled every trick in the book--the familiar locations, the old lost love ploy, even card tricks...and Venkman didn't crack. Cool 6 was just too much for it.

The Manitou freaks, doffing it's zombie Venkman form and revealing itself as a giant brain bug. About this same time, the Ghostbusters have scored a proton hit on the possessed body, causing the Manitou to declare that "WBOO, the Big Boo, is on the air!" as it manifests the form of "The Unreal Shriek Squeal" from "Station Identification". Of course, just about then Venkman shakes off the brain bug, and the other Ghostbusters pull the plug on it by trapping it for real this time.

As an epilogue, Janine (wearing a more conservative outfit she wore a few times in the show, most notably for this case "Doctor, Doctor"--several characters from that episode make cameos) visits Venkman in the hospital. We find out as an aftereffect of the possession, he's actually in better shape than before...aside from the whole cracked ribs, broken arm, and appendectomy thing...and got to rub Peck's "physical requirements" thing in his face. Janine turns to leave as Venkman opens his gift from Ray...a stuffed monkey from the Theme Park From Hell. She gets a satisfied smirk as he starts screaming invective.

It's one more time I wish this was a cartoon. I mean, sheesh, Lorenzo Music would have earned his paycheck on this one. Imagine him voicing not only Venkman in the inner world, the Manitou while it was doppleganging (I bet that's not a real word) Venkman's form, and the possessed Venkman in the outside world. Usually it was Frank Welker or Maurice LaMarche doing most of the talking to themselves. (Dave Coulier handle this script? Bwahahahahah...shyeah, right).

I gotta get my little nit picks in.

Mrmichaelt, Kingpin, and others agree it appears that, in the tiny type on Venkman's wrist band, his Date of Birth is listed as "11/21/..." something. Which doesn't make much sense, as that's Harold Ramis's birthday. Bill Murray's is 9/21. I would have been deliriously happy in the unlikely event the RGB-derived birthdate of October 24th was used.

(What it's worth: Bill Murray was born on September 21, 1950. The GBI game suggested he was born sometime in 1954. A date of October 25, 1956 has been attributed to RGB Venkman, but it's source may be fan-based; it does match the mention of Venkman being a Scorpio in "Mean Green Teen Machine", though--and admittedly, November 21 also matches that, but, again, it's Ramis's birthday, and RGB/EGB Egon's birthday as established by "Back In The Saddle". I used a combination of the GBI and RGB dates for a birthdate of October 25, 1954 in the Original Timeline.)

The Portable Ecto Containment Unit vehicle is neat looking. I'm just not sold on naming it "ECTO-2". For the last twenty-plus years, ECTO-2 has referred to either the Ghostbusters mini-helicopter, which was pretty cool, or as a trivia note for the original name of ECTO-1A (possibly changed as to not contradict the cartoon ECTO-2). I'd really prefer if IDW used the name, to have it be for something closer to the earlier. Call this neat new vehicle "ECTO-3" (because the ECTO-3 toy, a go-cart with paddles, was super lame; and the cartoon ECTO-3, a motorized unicycle with a sidecar for Slimer, was even lamer). Or even "ECTO-9" because it's the next one after ECTO-8 from the Video Game.

(I mean, hey, Now turned on a dime when they referred to their own ECTO-3, but by the time it actually appeared two months later they were calling it ECTO-4--which is the second coolest Ghostbuster vehicle after the ECTO-1 itself)

Back next month, for the beginning of the Rogerpocalypse.

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 Post subject: Re: IDW Ghostbusters #7
PostPosted: March 27th, 2012, 12:45 pm 
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I am extremely amused by Venkman's stats.

On the topic of the review...Dang Peter, you're one smooth dude. And now I need to kick my comic book guy, because the jerk never subscribed me to the comic after I requested it. Walked in a couple weeks ago and he just look up, says "no Ghostbusters stuff left" and goes back to what he's doing. That's it, to the internet, forget this 'buy local so there's a comic book store in town' thing! Insert frothing rage here, etc etc.

Also...the unicycle reduced me to tears of laughter, so it was good for that at least. A motorized unicycle. Really people. Really. A mini bike would have been more effective with a less steep learning curve. Maybe stilts or a pogo stick would have come up next. Because, you know, it might be useful in some alternative universe.

I should write a story about a pogo stick saving their butts just for kicks...

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 Post subject: Re: IDW Ghostbusters #7
PostPosted: April 1st, 2012, 1:00 am 
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from the looks of it. one could say it just ecto PECU was thought up befor the ecto 2 but was to much to make at the time. so then went with the ecto 2 we all now and love. Now that they have the city contracts. it might be something they are rethinking.

i will say when i first say it it made me thing of the GBWC. and the rustbuckt from ben 10.

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