The Good
The overall story of the Ghostbusters having to capture the ghosts of Martians in a cornfield. It's a cool concept, and more than anything writer Erik Burnham, who has done a fantastic job on the GHOSTBUSTER on-going series, keeps the issue fun and he has a fantastic grasp on these characters, which he shouldn't have a problem with since he does write the on-going.
Awesome opening to this issue. I loved the Orson Welles reading War of the Worlds tie-in, probably because I'm a huge Orson Welles fan. I loved seeing how the Martians, who also received this transmission, reacted to this radio broadcast as well. This moment sets the scene for the whole issue.
Mars Attacks Chew! Mars Attacks Madman! I loved these variant covers. It was cool to see the artists from those books take on these covers.
The Bad
I feel like the idea of this book was much better than the book itself. On paper (in solicits), this seemed like a super cool idea, smashing these two concepts together. However, on paper, it really didn't work for me. The scenes where the Ghostbusters were actually going after the Martian aliens were cool, but the rest of the issue just didn't grab me.
This would have worked much better as a a mini-series rather than a single issue. This issue was oddly paced and I felt if it was slowed down, it would have been a much more enjoyable read. We see where the Martians came from, where the Ghostbusters "came from," and then right into the short story of the Ghostbusters hunt down the ghosts of the Martians. Way too much packed into one book.
The inks were a bit heavy on the faces, and many times, it didn't match the light source. This mainly happens in the third act of the book, where the Ghostbusters are on the farm, which is weird since the inking looked all right earlier in the book.
The Verdict
While the idea of Mars Attacks Ghostbusters is extremely cool, it just doesn't work too well on paper, especially in this one-shot format. I enjoyed the opening here, and Burnham's writing was fun, but the pacing was a too quick, and I think this book would have worked a whole lot better in a 3 issue mini-series in order to slow down the pacing a bit, and to give this story a real sense of danger. I also had a problem with the inking in the last act of the book. It got a bit too heavy on the faces of some of the guys, and in a few cases, it didn't match the light source.
Overall, I do not recommend this issue.
However, I do highly recommend Burnham's GHOSTBUSTERS series.
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