Every Ghostbuster ever to team up in new IDW miniseries

[JD]

IDW has announced that they will be releasing a new miniseries, Crossing Over, which will see every Ghostbuster ever teaming up. This will include the original team, the Real Ghostbusters versions, the Extreme Ghostbusters, the Answer the Call Team (from the 2016 reboot), the characters from the vide games, and the characters original to IDW's comics. IDW have already done crossovers between their versions of the original team and the Real Ghostbusters, and the original team and the Answer the Call team, but as far as I know this will be the first time all of these characters have appeared together.

 

[Christopher]

I've only read about the IDW Ghostbusters comics, but I'd had the impression that their version was sort of a blend of the movie and Real Ghostbusters versions, perhaps even intended as a continuation of both. I hadn't realized they treated them as separate realities. And didn't they add Extreme's Kylie as a character in the comics some time ago?

And are they treating RGB and EGB as separate realities? EGB presented itself as a direct sequel to RGB, but it had some discrepancies, like reusing types of monster that the original team fought but treating it like a first encounter, resetting the Egon-Janine relationship to the "Egon is clueless" stage, and downgrading Slimer's verbal abilities considerably.

 

[JD]

The Ghostbusters wiki has the movies, comics and video games as one universe, and Real and Extreme in another together.

 

[Christopher]

The Ghostbusters wiki has the movies, comics and video games as one universe, and Real and Extreme in another together.

Yeah, well, as we know from Memory Beta, wikis sometimes mash together continuities that don't really belong together. So that's not definitive.

And of course, continuity isn't always as clear-cut as a lot of fans like to pretend. Like I said, EGB purported to be in continuity with RGB, but it contradicted it in a number of substantial ways. Hardly the first time a sequel or revival retconned the original while pretending to be consistent with it. If anything, I'd say that's more the rule than the exception.

 

[JD]

Oh, I understand that about wikis, but it's the only source of information on the Ghostbusters canon that I know of. It will be interesting to see how the comic addresses those issues, but I'm just starting on the GB comics, so it'll be a while before I get it.
EDIT:

I didn't realize Kylie in the IDW Comics was a alternate version of an Extreme character.
I was looking around on the wiki some more, and apparently they did have the Extreme team in at least one issue of Get Real, the IDW/RGB crossover.

 

[Christopher]

I didn't realize Kylie in the IDW Comics was a alternate version of an Extreme character.

Oh, yeah, Kylie was my favorite EGB character, and one of the first roles that made me aware of voice-acting legend Tara Strong, back when she was still Tara Charendoff.

 

[JD]

From what I've seen of the IDW comics and read on the wiki, this version works at an occult bookstore that Ray opens, and eventually ends up on a new Ghostbusters team after the guys go missing. She first pops up in #5 of the first IDW series, which I have as part of the second collected edtion, but haven't gotten around to reading yet.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, that sounds similar. Kylie was a Goth girl who was very much into the occult and spiritualism because she hoped it would let her make contact with her late grandmother. Which was a bit surprising, I think, since Real Ghostbusters was generally under censor pressure to avoid acknowledging that ghosts had anything to do with dead people.

 

[Nightowl1701]

The short version: When our heroes crossed the streams in the original movie, straight into Gozer's multidimensional portal... "For a split second, we were connected to every reality at once. Every thought we ever had, the core of our beings... they were seeded into the subconscious of the multiverse. Our concepts, our methods..."

So as it stands now, the various realities are:

- Classic Ghostbusters Universe: The first two movies and 'Ghostbusters: The Video Game' happened here, followed by the various IDW comics. It's roughly about ten years now since the first movie, 1994-ish. A spinoff team, the Chicago Ghostbusters (led by the 'Rookie' of the video game, Bryan Welsh) exists in this universe.

- Real Ghostbusters Universe: A slightly alternate version of the characters and first movie happened here, followed by the cartoon series (So call it late 1980's). Their version of Ghostbusters II / TRG & Slimer doesn't seem to have happened for them yet, at least not relative to the Classic Universe (or is that yet another alternate universe?). A variant of the next universe may yet come to pass here...

- Extreme Ghostbusters Universe: Again, a slightly alternate version of the first movie, followed by a slightly alternate Real Ghostbusters, leads to this late 1990s universe where Egon and Janine mentor a new group of Ghostbusters. One of the team here, Kylie Griffin, exists in the Classic Universe.

- Sanctum of Slime Universe: The first two movies happened here, with the latter leading to the creation of a new team of cadets (in a 2011 video game) unrelated to the other universes. The leader of this team, Alan Crendall, is the nephew of GBII's Janosz Poha.

- Answer the Call Universe: The newest and most distantly related of the Ghostbuster teams, an all-girl group (plus one dumb British guy) in a 2010's NYC where the original team never came to be (and apparently don't exist as individuals either, save in sharing their faces with some other people). One of the team here, Jillian Holtzmann, also exists in the Classic Universe as an Twin Peaks/X-Files kind of FBI agent.

One of the comics hints that both Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling (with a GB tribute episode) and Filmation's Ghostbusters (70's live-action/80's animation) exists in the GB multiverse somewhere as well. Even further out in the weeds are various console video game versions, a version from the Japanese anime series Tokyo ESP, and even a universe based on Dan Aykroyd's 1983 first draft of 'Ghost Smashers'.

 

[Christopher]

Hm. Well, I tend to consider the real Ghostbusters reality to be, well, The Real Ghostbusters, because it explicitly established the Murray/Aykroyd/Ramis movie as a dramatization of the RGB team's first adventure. Though I guess the comics' multiverse theory probably accounts for that too, like how the Jay Garrick Flash's real adventures on Earth-Two were comic books by Gardner Fox on Earth-One.

I'm reminded a bit of the relationship of the various Godzilla continuities from Toho. All seven continuities over the first half-century of the franchise had the original 1954 movie in common but otherwise went in their own directions, although the last two brought back in elements from a few other films in the original continuity. And several of them interpreted the events of the first film or the nature of Godzilla in different ways, and one or two of them altered its ending. And the newest continuity is a complete reboot starting from scratch.

 

[B.J.]

Interesting!

One of the comics hints that both Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling (with a GB tribute episode) and Filmation's Ghostbusters (70's live-action/80's animation) exists in the GB multiverse somewhere as well. Even further out in the weeds are various console video game versions, a version from the Japanese anime series Tokyo ESP, and even a universe based on Dan Aykroyd's 1983 first draft of 'Ghost Smashers'.

Okay, now you have my attention with that Filmation GB mention. I didn't see that in the linked article, where did you hear that?

 

[Timby]

even a universe based on Dan Aykroyd's 1983 first draft of 'Ghost Smashers'.

There aren't enough drugs on the planet to make that script make sense.

 

[JD]

The short version: When our heroes crossed the streams in the original movie, straight into Gozer's multidimensional portal... "For a split second, we were connected to every reality at once. Every thought we ever had, the core of our beings... they were seeded into the subconscious of the multiverse. Our concepts, our methods..."

So as it stands now, the various realities are:

- Classic Ghostbusters Universe: The first two movies and 'Ghostbusters: The Video Game' happened here, followed by the various IDW comics. It's roughly about ten years now since the first movie, 1994-ish. A spinoff team, the Chicago Ghostbusters (led by the 'Rookie' of the video game, Bryan Welsh) exists in this universe.

- Real Ghostbusters Universe: A slightly alternate version of the characters and first movie happened here, followed by the cartoon series (So call it late 1980's). Their version of Ghostbusters II / TRG & Slimer doesn't seem to have happened for them yet, at least not relative to the Classic Universe (or is that yet another alternate universe?). A variant of the next universe may yet come to pass here...

- Extreme Ghostbusters Universe: Again, a slightly alternate version of the first movie, followed by a slightly alternate Real Ghostbusters, leads to this late 1990s universe where Egon and Janine mentor a new group of Ghostbusters. One of the team here, Kylie Griffin, exists in the Classic Universe.

- Sanctum of Slime Universe: The first two movies happened here, with the latter leading to the creation of a new team of cadets (in a 2011 video game) unrelated to the other universes. The leader of this team, Alan Crendall, is the nephew of GBII's Janosz Poha.

- Answer the Call Universe: The newest and most distantly related of the Ghostbuster teams, an all-girl group (plus one dumb British guy) in a 2010's NYC where the original team never came to be (and apparently don't exist as individuals either, save in sharing their faces with some other people). One of the team here, Jillian Holtzmann, also exists in the Classic Universe as an Twin Peaks/X-Files kind of FBI agent.

One of the comics hints that both Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling (with a GB tribute episode) and Filmation's Ghostbusters (70's live-action/80's animation) exists in the GB multiverse somewhere as well. Even further out in the weeds are various console video game versions, a version from the Japanese anime series Tokyo ESP, and even a universe based on Dan Aykroyd's 1983 first draft of 'Ghost Smashers'.

Ah, thanks. I didn't realize it was such a complex multiverse.

 

[Phoenix219]

Even the fan film is canon to the original movies, as it was referenced as an Easter Egg during the Official Video Game.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ghostbusters+game+easter+egg+nephew+ed&safe=off&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=VEOTy1Du6hp8fM%3A%2CYsTeP6h5RshTSM%2C_&usg=__jhjX0cEhtZAUOgTQ0VqQRy0jtZI=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjByPH4ip3YAhWORN8KHTVLAmIQ9QEIPzAD&biw=1360&bih=622#imgrc=VEOTy1Du6hp8fM:

https://www.vgfacts.com/forums/thread-1514.html

 

[Turtletrekker]

Reminds me of Spider-Verse. Sounds fun.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Okay, now you have my attention with that Filmation GB mention. I didn't see that in the linked article, where did you hear that?

This panel from the comic Get Real shows one of the GB's enemies hunting through the multiverse for them. The Ghost Smashers (Michael Keaton, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi) are top row along with Hulk Hogan and friends, with the Filmation GhostBusters right under them.

 

[Christopher]

This panel from the comic Get Real shows one of the GB's enemies hunting through the multiverse for them. The Ghost Smashers (Michael Keaton, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi) are top row along with Hulk Hogan and friends, with the Filmation Busters right under them.

Only the animated Filmation ones, though, not the original Storch/Tucker Ghost Busters from the '70s live-action show. The animated show was theoretically a sequel to the live-action show, but I imagine they could be treated as alternate universes as much as any of the others.

It also looks like they have several different renderings of the core Ghostbuster team, including two different RGB designs -- I suppose the more cartoony ones are from the Slimer! shorts in later seasons. And that one right under the Filmation team looks almost anime-styled.

Anyway, just because a comic book story puts cameos in a "multiverse" panel as an in-joke, that doesn't automatically mean that every universe is absolutely true canon. Sometimes an Easter egg like that is just a sight gag. And even if one adaptation does pretend there's a multiverse including other adaptations, that doesn't mean other adaptations will follow suit. I mean, the 2003 and 2012 Ninja Turtles animated series both did episodes establishing the 1987 cartoon and the original comics as parallel universes, but they did so in mutually incompatible ways, and the '12 series's alternate-universe episodes never acknowledged the '03 series.