Fritz Babbles About Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression #4

I wish I could say that the conclusion of Displaced Aggression was the bestest thing ever, but I can't. The art was stunning, the plot was suitably dark and intense, and the ending made sense (something that couldn't be said of the previous miniseries' literal Deus Ex Machina). I guess I just couldn't get over three little problems.

1. It wasn't a surprise that, with the neccessity of dealing with Koza'Rai, the three other Ghostbusters being back together, and the Janine backup strip (more on this in a minute, as you can imagine), it was still a little disappointing to see Winston crowded out of “his” spotlight issue.

That being said, at least he played a very important part: he got to save the other Ghostbusters butts. They would have been up shit creek without a paddle if Winston hadn't been left behind–this arguably turns out to be Koza'Rai's biggest underestimation.

2. You know, when I write stuff like this, from my review of GBDA#1…

And now a new villain…just happens to be Gozer's father.
I guess next they'll bring back Gozo, Son of Gozer, and Horg the Gozarian, Gozer's Scottish redneck uncle from the Marvel UK books. All they need then is a skanky Mary Sue Cousin (since Gozer already has two dogs) to complete the set.

Oh crap, did I just guess Rachel's real origin? (lol)

…I mean it as a joke at the expense of the silly stuff that Marvel UK put out back in the day, and at Dan DiDio's fetish for bringing back even the stupidest crap from the Silver Age.

I DIDN'T THINK I'D BE RIGHT!!!

Well, okay, she's not Gozer's skanky cousin. She's it's half-sister, and half-human. But still…the pantheon of unneccessary Gozarian family members grows.

That being said, I found myself surprisingly touched by her final fate. She did seem to have some genuine feeling for Venkman, and disgust at the rest of the Gozarians' ways; granted, heroically sacrificing yourself at the end is a very Mary Sueish twist, but it's handled well.

3. >sigh<

I so wanted to enjoy the backup feature.

Janine's one of my favorite characters, when handled well. Aykroyd and Ramis in GB1, JMS, Richard Mueller, James Van Hise, Andrew Dabb. When written well, she's a strong, capable, ascerbic, delightfully eccentric woman who holds her own in a world of ghosts, demons, and four guys with their own eccentricities and, in some cases, massive egos.

When written badly (Len Jansen and Chuck Menville after JMS left; Aykroyd and Ramis, sadly, in GB2) she's either a chipper milquetoast or a blase ho-bag. I think I saw a little too much of the bad Janine here.

The concept was fine–she gets zapped away by Koza'Rai, and forms her own Ghostbusters team in pre-Revolution France (She speaks French?). The fact that she didn't fold up and wilt, and took charge of her own bad situation with just as much resolve as any of the male cast members had previously, was very much applauded by me. And I liked the art, personally–it brought a bit of a Mad Magazine, satirical tone to it all. It's not a story meant to be taken too seriously.

But it still fell a bit flat to me. I know the absolute nadir was the panel of Janine and the guy with the skeevy handlebar mustache, implying they'd just finished something that the French might call La Amour or Flagrante Delecto or something like that. After the trauma of watching the character be basically whored out to Louis Tully in GB2, just to give Rick Moranis some more scenes and justify his presence in the movie, I just can't find Ho!Janine very funny (even with the small silver lining that Monseur Pirate is comparing his alleged prowess to Egon, and not Louis)

Now for some good news:

I actually liked Koza'Rai as a villain. He was big, scary-looking, dangerous…and he talked funny. His broken, mangled English was a nice, surreal touch; this is Ghostbusters, after all, and every villain needs something to laugh at, if only for a second. Gozer, after all, appeared in the form of a silly cartoon character. Vigo had a mincing henchman and split ends. Koza'Rai's chatspeak fit into those traditions.

And I admit, Egon's simple, honest greeting to Janine at the end did warm my heart, and almost made up for some of the previous pages. Good grief, he's even sorta smiling…

In the final analysis, Displaced Aggression still comes out several levels ahead of The Other Side It wasn't perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.

I agree Fritzy, they need to stop milking the Gozer thing and spread out to other regions… like Vigo's long-lost kitten!

Seriously though, t'was a good story, excellent even, with a few little things here and there that didn't sit right, but all around a very positive read.

Agreed with Jay and Fritz on this, They really need to move pass this Gozer stage for a main villan of anything related to Ghostbusters. They had so many other choices of charactors they could have taken the chance with. I'm starting to think that when any writter stumbles upon this franchise they instantly go for Gozer or a Gozer relative because they're iffy bringing something new to the table and prehaps us, the fans will snap or never accept anything new? No idea on the answer but I feel it's more of a “safe” method around the story for them if anything. Of course I don't mean to offend any of the writters, as I was very impressed with this series and loved the art that came with it. Just my two cents on the subject

I got the final issue on Christmas Eve, so I've had December 24th and 25th to mull over Displaced Aggression #4.

(Nothing really new compared to what's already been said):

And I have to say, that was a really good story.

Obviously, it was not difficult to surpass The Other Side, as I've extolled on enough. Even with a few minor quibbles, the store still ended in a wholly satisfying fashion, and the arc as a whole made up for the lack of busting in the predessor. All four issues had plenty of ghostbusting action going on.

The inclusion of Stonehenge was an interesting point, taking a structure of great symbolism and esoteric value and turning it into a item of great concern for the Ghostbusters… a nice twist on a landmark that is usually benevolent.

I concur with remarks that Winston seemed to have been crowded out a bit in the final issue… but that what scenes he got were good ones.

And despite Rachel remaining a Mary Sue in all interpretations of the term, as Fritz noted, it was somewhat touching how she made such a significant sacrifice to help save the world and the Ghostbusters.

The idea of a demon marrying, and later being divorced by her mother was a bit odd, but hey, it was inventive.

And Koza'rai, despite being uninventively Gozer's father, again as Fritz noted he was more interesting then he could've been, he could've easily been a poor Gozer clone.

Seeing the small adaptation of the finale of the first movie was a nice touch.

Janine's epilogue also proved to be a fun read, the art isn't the sort of thing I'm usually into, but it worked. A fun tale, which as Fritz noted chose to use a Janine who took charge of a bad situation… and ending on a good note with the guys arrive to pick her up and take her home.


Can't wait for the next miniseries.

Actually speaking of next miniseries, I was looking at Ghostbusters on Deviantart and came across a few peices done by Mr. Valhertz. What got my intrest is that his work peices are titled under “IDW Submission” Or “IDW GB Concept”. He even did up a few pages to show his skill and talents. Great stuff! Very detailed and his charactor sheets are something pure amazing to behold. Maybe a new miniseries with him as the artist?

The ending made it a better story overall. Everythings explained and was good enough. The girl being a part of the Gozer family was very clever and you feel for for when she vanishes slowly. I agree Winston was given too small a role overall. The Janine story was decent but again when did Janine have such knowledge about the GB tech?

Well, the detailed reviews have been done, so I'll keep mine short: This was so much better than TOS! Leaps and Bounds better. (Not as good as Legion but that's another rabbit hole.) I was actually excited to see how this one would end. I thought it ended well and actually did feel some emotion for Rachel.

To be honest, I didn't care for the Janine story - the art nor the story. Why was she sent off to a different time zone anyway? It's not like she was a great threat by herself, and she wasn't even used to help defeat 'Ra.

I finally got caught up.

Displaced Agression #3 was one I thought I wasn't going to like at first because it started off looking a little too silly for my liking. But, it got better when Egon was revealed to be The Great Defender. His babbling about basically nothing and the Wizard of Oz reference were funny. Glad we finally got to see a little of Winston in this issue. I understand why they chose to leave one Ghostbuster behind in the story, but I still would like to have seen all four get their own mini stories leading into the finale.

B- for this one.

Displaced Agression #4 was head and shoulders above the finale of The Other Side. I didn't like the way Koza'Rai spoke. I get the notion, but I found that a little annoying after he had a few lines. Rachel being revealed to be a relative of Gozer was the thing I liked least. I knew something was coming in the way of revealing who she was, but that little bit didn't sit well with me. I did like the idea of a portal pulling Demons to Earth and humans to Hell, and it all wrapped up well enough. I didn't care much for the Janine story, but appreciated the sentiment.

Solid B here.

I finally managed to get all my issues before the Christmas break. Both the mini-series and the one-shot were leagues above ‘The Other Side’. The humour and little touches worked, like Ray's reaction to the city they find Egon in.

One thing I would the creators of the books to do (echoing what others have said already) is come up with original villains/ghosts to battle. It's one of the things I enjoyed about the cartoon, almost always a new ghost/threat encountered. Jay's idea of the Vigo's kitten is interesting.

IDW released their list of books for April, no new Ghostbusters related books that month.
http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/1001/20/idwapril.htm