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PostPosted: December 28th, 2013, 8:18 pm 
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Fritz Babbles About Ghostbusters #26 (V2#10)

I'm trying to get caught up--it's weird, you know, to be writing the comments about the post-Halloween issue just after Christmas.

The second part of "Happy Horror Days" opens with some discussion of pre-Hispanic Mexico and its death celebrations, which were co-opted into the Christian celebrations of All Saint's Day. You can bet this is going to be important, as we shift scene to a little girl in Brooklyn. The cute little girl with a creepy little doll that starts to talk to her in a Gothic negative color font--either she's going to be the next Jeff Dunham, or the doll is going to be the next Chuckie.

A few days later, we find aforementioned co-opted death celebration--El Dia De Los Muertos ("Day of the Dead")--in progress in one of the Hispanic sections of New York City, much to the delight of one Melanie Ortiz, as it reminds her of the celebrations further south, where she hails from (probably somewhere within a state or two of New Mexico, where she was introduced way back in, er, Ghostbusters #11. This, you see, is why I hate all the random renumbering that publishers get boners for in this day and age). Heck, we even see the other Hispanic Ghostbuster, at least in another universe, Eduardo Rivera, in one shot. (Spoiler: We'll be seeing more of him next issue)

We also meet a disgruntled relative of a captured ghost who's trying to give Egon and Ray a hard time; Mel threatens to arrest him. We get that the guy is a bit annoyed that his cousin got busted, but as Ray and Egon point out, if he wasn't bothering anybody he wouldn't have been zapped and trapped. As Venkman put it once, more or less, "We're businessmen, not vigilantes". Benign spirits basically get left alone.

The giant skeleton woman with the scythe that pops up just about then...probably not a benign spirit, as Egon drolly notes.

The good news: Venkman, Winston, and Kylie are on a job just a few blocks away. The bad news: Egon, Ray, and Mel are currently unarmed. Egon's even out of ghost bombs. (Janine: "Typical") So Mel takes it upon herself to distract the skeleton woman until the others show up and blast it...at which time they suddenly have two giant skeleton women with sharp pointy cutlery.

Gonna be one of those days, isn't it?

Kylie manages to trap one, but it's sister lets it loose; Egon grabs a mini-slime blower and splushes them, which seems to work better. The six Ghostbusters surmise that one of the local altars drew in something that didn't want to leave. Well, heck, as you probably figured, it's the little girl and her possessed dolly, who is now Achmed the Dead Terrorist's Mexican sister; Mel and Ray manage to free the girl and her Mom from the ghost before it can suck them into another dimension by dropping a trap into the portal. Seems to do the trick.

But through the triumph there's a chilling thought: what if something is starting to target children? This sounds like a problem it will take at least two more issues to solve.

Another good issue. Gives some good scenes to Melanie Ortiz, who by virtue of being the newest Ghostbuster in real-world terms also has the least developed backstory to draw on (I'd never want to call her the "least developed" after all, huh huh huh huh huh). It's funny how she gets aggravated at Ray and especially Egon at times--their wandering off mentally has to remind her of some of her least favorite moments dealing with her obsessive former FBI partner, Fox Mulder Jim Savage.

The backup is a little flashback to some time before the previous issue, as Wally Wick pulls a favor to get Mel assigned to New York. I wonder what Venkman would think if he knew Peck basically used a variation of his "We can just put that right back in there" trick to do it.

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PostPosted: December 29th, 2013, 9:46 am 
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Overall, I'm glad to know that Eduardo was included in one shot as you mention, Fritz. It does get me thinking. Potentially, a lot of thought is going into the character here. We know from EGB that Eduardo is proud of his Hispanic heritage. This is never explicitly stated, but beautifully implied. It seems that the comic book medium is more comfortable with, or perhaps has more freedom for, going into references to characters' specific backgrounds and cultures. For these reasons, I think it's a nice touch to have Eduardo there, and a lovely storyline to do overall.

Now, I don't know very much about the Day of the Dead celebrations, or Hispanic culture, so please forgive me if I say anything stupid. I wonder how much Eduardo believes in ghosts, or any kind of afterlife, at this point. I never want to be accused of saying that the EGB continuity should or must take priority, only I can't help considering it; in the cartoon, he doesn't believe in ghosts until he sees Slimer. All this has made me speculate about why Eduardo decided to attend the celebrations, how much he believes in and - very interesting - whether he has any dead of his own in this continuity. If Erik Burnham hasn't seen "Rage", then he absolutely must!

I've seen the introductory pages explaining the Day of the Dead, and in one of these I noticed a slightly Carlos-looking cop, but I really mustn't read too much into that. Still, if he did come into the series, then the whole conflict with Eduardo could really be explored where the cartoon series didn't have time and/or didn't want to get into anything too sensitive. This seems like a good opportunity, but as it isn't The Eduardo Show (which is too bad, really), perhaps I'd better not hope too hard. :mrgreen:

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