Sometimes the dead don’t stay dead or weird psychic energy coalesces as a big problem. Things get strange, they don’t look good, and who are you going to call? The Ghostbusters take an ages old concept of exorcising troublesome spirits and modernize with technological tools and talent. They’ve spread their concepts across the multiverse but how did that come to pass? Let’s find out!
When three Columbia University professors, Doctors Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Peter Venkman, lose their funding and are promptly fired due to their paranormal research being seen as worthless. The three are able to take their latest discovery, ectoplasmic evidence, Spengler and Stantz are able to invent equipment that can actually capture and hold ghosts. The three men go into business as the Ghostbusters, professional ghost hunters who will collect any troublesome spirit entities. They would hire a secretary, Janine Melnitz, who became an essential member of the team keeping their work in order. Soon, they find they require hiring more employees and get Winston Zeddemore to help them. Psychokinetic activity was growing exponentially in New York City and they were trying to figure out why.
Turns out that in the early 20th century, an occultist architect named Ivo Shandor who was the worshipper of a deadly godlike being, Gozer the Gozerian. Using his studies in both the occult and architecture, Shandor would build a skyscraper that was a perfect conduit for psychokinetic energy and along with having a cult perform rites to Gozer, they would eventually summon the entity to New York City… decades later. Thankfully the Ghostbusters were able to fight off the rise in ghosts and the eventual return of Gozer. This event would have pan-dimensional repercussions, just as Gozer was attempting to break into the Ghostbusters world, the Ghostbusters imprinted their ideals onto the multiverse as they kicked Gozer out and shut the dimensional door.
Now there were multiple realities where the spark of invention on how to capture and contain ghosts, their name and logo, were spread through out, each one being ever so different. Some were similar to the Ghostbusters own home reality but perhaps they looked and sounded different, while others would have entire different people become the first Ghostbusters of their own reality. Others still would belong to alternate timelines where the Ghostbusters were now a legacy organization with generations of new Ghostbusters being trained by older members.
While Gozer may have been the reason for a rise in paranormal activity at the time, it was soon found that the world wasn’t lacking in ghosts just because there wasn’t a lone god of destruction needing them for entry. More and more ghosts were becoming a problem not just in New York but in other major cities as well. Eventually hiring a new member, this rookie would go on to start the Chicago branch of the company. There would even be imitators of the Ghostbusters brand and this would lead to hiring these people into the organization proper. Getting more and more involved with the weird goings on in the world meant the Ghostbusters would come across agencies who were often ill equipped for these tasks, such as the FBI, and gain a connection with them, getting government liaisons.
The multiverse was also not done with the Ghostbusters as they’d find themselves often teaming up with other versions of themselves or other Ghostbusters from other places and times. They would even team up with some teenaged mutant ninja turtles and transforming alien robots. These crossovers would become more and more frequent as the paranormal threats were often seeking new methods themselves to deal with the Ghostbusters. There had always been those capable of finding and banishing ghosts but proton packs and ghost traps made the process incredibly fast. The supernatural dimensions were in an uproar having this new threat able to deal with them in a variety of realities. Thankfully, if there’s someone able to piece together the tools, gather up the talent and not be afraid of any ghosts, the Ghostbusters will form to stop them.
There you have it! The Ghostbusters have been around for nearly forty years. They’ve had many cartoons, video games, even a reboot or two under their belts. The comics by IDW have been going since 2008 and built their own universe with a cast of characters that go beyond the movies and games and make it their own. The Ghostbusters from the films and cartoons have been able to crossover to help one another thanks to the in-world inventions of Stantz and Spengler, so who knows what will happen next? See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters 101
Ghostbusters Crossing Over
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters
Transformers/Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters International
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
