Publication date: January 28, 2015
Written by: Erik Burnham, Tom Waltz
Art by: Dan Schoening
Colors by: Luis Antonio Delgado
Letters by: Neil Uyetake
Edits by: Bobby Curnow
“The Long Goodbye”
Summary:
At the Firehouse, Ray, Kylie and Janine are busy working
on the EMP device in Egon’s lab upstairs, while Egon and Donatello are busy
putting together the transdimensional portal in the basement. Suddenly, the proximity alarm goes off as
Chi-You’s possessed thralls attack the Firehouse.
Peter and Winston head down to the first floor with their
proton packs (where Janine is already fending the thralls off) while Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael strap on their proton
tasers and follow. Ray, Kylie and April
put the finishing touches on the EMP, but before they can activate it they’re subdued
by Chi-You. The still recovering Casey
hobbles out of bed and reaches the EMP device, activating it. The electromagnetic pulse frees all the human
thralls from Chi-You’s possession, but also blows the power grid on the
containment unit (which is being used to power the teleporter). Egon and Don scramble to fix it before
everything blows up.
Peter and Winston respond to Egon’s lab and ensnare
Chi-You (who is weakened without his thralls) in their proton streams. Leo then throws a ghost trap, but rather than
be caught, Chi-You decides to possess Winston.
He transforms him into a giant minotaur with a proton pack-powered axe
and smashes his way through the Firehouse.
While Leo and Raph keep Chi-You distracted, Peter sends
Mikey down to the Ecto-1 to get a slime blower out of the trunk. Mikey returns and douses Chi-You with mood
slime to counteract the possession. Leo
pulls Winston free and Peter deploys the ghost trap which successfully captures
Chi-You. Downstairs, Egon and Don have rerouted
the power with only seconds to spare.
Later, the Ghostbusters and the Turtles gather in the
basement to bid farewell. Egon reminds
them that if they linger any longer, they may begin to dimensionally dissolve
and then there’s no telling where they’ll end up when they go through the
portal. Winston gives Leo his Marine officer's stripes as a token of thanks and after goodbyes are made, the Turtles, April
and Casey go through the portal and arrive in the lair where Splinter awaits.
Back in the Firehouse, Winston decides that Chi-You is
too dangerous to keep in the containment unit.
He has Egon punch up some distant coordinates on the teleporter and
tosses the trap in. Chi-You’s trap finds
itself in Proxima Centauri, 4.2 light years from Earth, floating helplessly
through space. However, he can now sense
the presence of his siblings and decides to just bide his time until he can
free himself once more.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT/Ghostbusters #3. For the Turtles, their story will continue in
TMNT (IDW) #41.
*For the Ghostbusters, their story will continue in Ghostbusters: Get Real #1.
*For the Ghostbusters, their story will continue in Ghostbusters: Get Real #1.
*This issue was originally published with 4 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Schoening and Delgado, Subscription Cover by Robert
Atkins and Simon Gough, Hot Topic Exclusive by Adam Gorham, and Hastings
Exclusive by Brent Peeples and Delgado.
Review:
The TMNT/Ghostbusters crossover miniseries wasn’t what I’d
call especially imaginative, no. It followed
all the clichés and checkpoints of every crossover scenario. But was it bad? Not at all.
Yes, it is extremely familiar and anybody who has read enough crossovers
will predict the story beats many pages in advance. But it was fun and lively and very
entertaining.
While the continuity is steeped in IDW’s TMNT comic, the
Ghostbusters don’t play second fiddle to the Green Machine. This was a very evenly distributed crossover
where both sides got their fair opportunities to shine and contribute. A LOT of characters were involved (a cast of
12 is pretty big when they only have 4 issues to spread out over) but no one
was treated like dead weight. Even Casey
got his one little moment to do something besides be a punching bag in this
issue. While it’s kind of sad that “pushing
a button” is the most badass thing IDW Casey has accomplished in the past two
years, well… It’s something.
As hectic as this conclusion was, not one of the
characters vanished from the pages for no reason and even Egon and Donnie,
relegated to tech guys in the basement, got to enjoy their share of
suspense. When the group gets pulled in
different directions, you know that those cast members are off DOING
something. They simply don’t disappear
because the writer couldn’t think of anything for them to do at the moment (a
serious problem with books that work with large ensemble casts).
While it did suffer all the tropes of a crossover story,
I can forgive much of that because there are certain things readers WANT to see
in a crossover story, even if they’re predictable. We got all those great interactions and the
story was never dull. It often
ping-ponged back and forth a bit too much with the characters running out,
fighting Chi-You, going back to the Firehouse, running out, and so on. THAT element of the structure did get on my
nerves a little, yes. But I loved seeing
the Turtles and the Ghostbusters chat and fight alongside each other and
compare the weirdness of their respective universes. It was good fun.
And although it may seem like an “unnecessary”
miniseries, if all you care about is what a story contributes to the larger
tapestry of the narrative, it wasn’t without its contributions to the IDW TMNT
mythology. It got the teleporter working
and that’s already coming in handy during the “Attack on Technodrome” arc
(published concurrently with this miniseries).
More than that, it gave us Chi-You, extending the supernatural family beyond
just Kitsune and the Rat King. While he’s
still incarcerated by the end of this miniseries, the fact that he can now
sense his kin indicates he’s back in his own universe, albeit very far from
Earth. I’m sure he’ll show up again.
As for the Ghostbusters, they now have a working
interdimensional teleporter. I’m sure
they can find something fun to do with that.
Of course, that all hinges on whether IDW ever gives us more
Ghostbusters comics. I haven’t heard if
they have any immediate plans, but I hope they don’t wait too long. If the license lapses and another publisher
picks it up, Burnham’s continuity might be as good as dead. (UPDATE: They've got plans!)
On a small note, I loved how Schoening adapted the style
of Cory Smith for those panels where the Turtles returned to their
universe. While it’s still distinctly
Schoening’s work, you can tell he was going for the aesthetic cues laid down by
Smith. It was a neat little thing and
also bookends the mini nicely on a visual level (since Smith actually drew the
Turtles in their own universe at the start of this mini).
So yeah, while the TMNT/Ghostbusters crossover was
predictable, it was a lot of fun and there isn’t really anything wrong with
that.
Grade: B+ (as in, “By the way, which character is Melissa
McCarthy going to play in the new all-female Ghostbusters movie? Slimer or Stay-Puft?”)
