The story
It certainly gets off to an alright start, setting the scene and tone appropriately and giving us a bust within the first five pages so we're now already had a taste for the style of action we'll probably see for the rest of the miniseries and (hopefully) any further endeavors of the IDW Ghostbusters title.
It's a solid read for 22 pages, it doesn't leave you feeling there wasn't enough pacing and it doesn't leave you feeling like more could have been included before the end of the first issue, and the story pulls in a dramatic, but expected cliffhanger at the end of the first act. The cliffanger isn't any less shocking thanks to the scene preceeding it which was a lot more graphic then I expected it to be. The series so far isn't pulling any punches. It's hard not to draw parallels with The Real Ghostbusters. Like Fritz observed in his review, this could easily slip into one of the existing stories either the show or comics NOW published had crafted. That isn't neccesarily a bad thing, although I admit that spectral gangsters mostly haven't really been of much interest to me.
So as the story goes, so far, so good… but we'll have to see how things stand once the other three issues have been released and the story is complete. I certainly know that Keith Champagne set me off a lot with his comments about The Real Ghostbusters, and I also can see why people felt that in terms of story, Legion was richer, for as badly as the company was handled, the comic was well written… and by people who loved the property, whereas it could be seen that all this is is a quick cash in. with all the other Ghostbusters merchandise.
The Dialogue
I personally feel the script hasn't been as developed in some areas as maybe it deserved. The Ghostbusters' dialogue in the first scene at the bust feels ropey in places… and at points, even out of character.
1) Venkman saying “Gosh” - This is something which probably sounds more appropriate from Stantz rather than Peter.
2) Egon and Ray on Peter's possession - Like Fritz observed, even dicounting cartoon continuity, possession isn't exactly new territory for them. And seeing as this is specifically set after Ghostbusters II with obvious references to the villains of both films, it kinda contradicts continuity.
After this point it gets better, so it almost seems like the dialogue from the first scene was almost a first draft that was never reworked.
The only other bit that got a tad confusing was at one point (Gildir also commented on this particular issue) Bugsy and Al Capone seemed to refer to the same ghost and yet with the dialogue is set up, almost seem to call him by two different names. A set of caption boxes would've easily sorted this out, and would provide a bit of help for those not quite so familiar with American Gangster history (althought it was a nice touch that Bugsy Seigel exhibits woulds that reflect the injuries he sustained when he got whacked) seeing as the scene only works if the reader is aware of each of the gangsters, of whom only Bugsy and Capone were names I knew.
I'm hoping we'll see Janine before the series conclusion, because at this rate she's about the only person who can drag their bodies back into the Firehouse.
Aside from those issues, the rest of the story seems adequately written… there are good references to fictional texts that serve as research for the Ghostbusters and, once again as Fritz pointed out, the bit about Venkman “screaming like a girl” was great, more of that please.
The Art
It's taken me a while to adapt to the style after Legion, and whilst it is not my favourite I've grown to accept it for what it is. Peter and Winston look good and channel enough of their respective actors… and whilst Ray is depicted maybe a tad younger then he should be, his is also alright, and in some panels even channels Dan more than the other Ghostbusters. As for Egon… I'm still not a huge fan of his spikey hair, but facially he's fine.
The equipment isn't as ‘on-model’ as I'd like, taking a number of liberties with the elements of them… but they look like what they're supposed to look like at any rate, and it also seems liberties have also been taken with Ecto-1, which actually seems a tad bare as it's missing some of the more familiar elements on the roof. It also appears to have taken visual cues from Ecto-1 as it'll appear in the game, which I personally don't have a problem with. I just hope a bit more time is spent on the car in future issues to give it a tad more TLC.
There are some notable elements suggesting things were rushed, like has been pointed out the walls of the Firehouse are pretty bare, and considering that New York itself was a character in the films… it's disappointing to see it represented in some panels as a swirling mass of light. I can see what was trying to be achieved, but it also seemed like it was cutting corners.
On the subject of the Firehouse, there's what appears to have been a rather sloppy mistake… when Ecto-1's entering the station, rather than being swung open, the barn doors are lifting up as if that panel had been drawn and Nguyen had started to put in the shutter that Hook & Ladder 8 has, only to realise his mistake… and I'm sure this could've been corrected rather easily.
Hopefully these'll be one-time occurences once everything's moving along smoothly, however I do feel a little cheated by IDW through their use of cover artwork to promote the series (and the fact they got other artists to pencil the covers)… I feel that they should've either had Tom pencil the covers as well as the interiors, or have the cover artist do the series so that there'd not only be consistancy, but also so there wouldn't be issues of misrepresentation.
The Characterisation
Not too much to note, they're pretty much in character for the whole story (with the exeption of the noted first scene) so no major issues there. I quite like the idea that Winston may have now become a doctor, if that wasn't some sort of strange joke on Ray's part. Hopefully it'll mean Winston will be given some long deserved respect and coverage in this new series…
Whilst not perfect, it has a lot of potential and it could become a good enough series and achieve the dreams the 88MPH series wished to achieve. Either way it'll be great to have a on-going Ghostbusters comic series again, and as it could then continue on after the game has come out and be a continued piece of merchandise long after the rest of the stuff has been finished, it could be a nice way of bringing new material to the franchise for a few more years. I just hope that it doesn't go the Army of Darkness route, and release several four-issue stories that usually had a gap of a month or two between each subsequent release. Make it a proper on-going Ghostbusters comic series, please!