After it was announced that we were getting a legit Ghostbusters 3 I was so excited that I announced publicly that I would begin collecting the Ghostbusters comics. 

My first book was Ghostbusters 20/20 and the enthusiasm went about as limp as your grandfather is right now. 

I saw the announcement that the Ghostbusters would be teaming up with Transformers and my eyebrows perked up once again. It's a weird Idea but considering that the Ghostbusters have teamed up with most of the licensed characters across the IDW line, I guess we shouldn't be surprised. 

I'm happy to report in this inconsequential blog that the comic is really good. It respects the source material from both franchises and weaves the material into something that's easy for new readers or casuals like myself. 

The comic opens with a pretty obvious homage to the original Ghostbusters movie with the Decepticons squaring off against Gozer. This time taking the form of a Transformer. The Autobots have already left the planet at this time so Megatron and his forces are ironically the best hope for Cybertron.

Gozer tells the Decepticons to choose the form of their destructor. Starscream, standing in for Ray Stanz chooses a giant version of himself and the planet is subsequently destroyed. 

Pretty bleak huh?

The Book picks up thousands of years later with the Ghostbusters on a routine bust. The job gets stranger when one of the ghosts that they encounter turns out to be a Decepticon. 

This was a fun read and the kind of material I was expecting when I said I was gonna start reading the comics. It even got me to look past the art style which for years now has the biggest barrier for me in picking up a Ghostbusters comic. 

I've never liked the designs chosen for the Ghostbusters in the IDW canon, but the linework and colors from  Dan Schoening and Luis Antonio Delgado mesh well. Also to be noted is that the colors for the issue are absolutely amazing, no matter what's being penciled. The scenes are bright, spooky in places and by the end, you'll believe that the characters are from the same universe. 

The humor is great and the personalities are spot on. The Decepticons versus Gozer will probably go down as one of the funniest moments of the year for me. It highlights the thought and care that Erik has put into the integration of the two franchises. 

My only gripe is that the Transformers do not formally meet the Ghostbusters until the very last page of this issue. It doesn't lessen the quality of the book but it's another example of decompressed storytelling or in this instance, writing for the trade. A few more pages, a cliffhanger and I would have had no complaints with the issue at all. It's still a solid start and I cannot wait for the next issue.