The Real Ghostbusters are back and, as usual, they’re up to their necks in trouble and ectoplasm as angry spooks raise merry hell around New York City.

This time around they have bigger problems than usual in the shape of a giant God, a ‘primordial entity’ called Proteus whose supernatural powers rival even those of the mighty Gozer. When the Real Gs try to stop the big angry P from using Ecto1 like a bowling pin, they’re transported into an alternative dimension to find themselves sharing a not-unfamiliar-looking firehouse with the ‘actual’ Ghostbusters we know and love from the live-action movie. The trick is getting themselves back to their own dimension, which might come quicker than they expected because Proteus has conjured forth a three-headed devil hound to track them down. Luckily, because there are numerous possible dimensions with very different versions of the Ghostbusters in each one, the devil dog has quite a job on its paws.

For some bizarre reason (but who cares?) Proteus seems to have some paranormal bee in his bonnet about capturing the Real Ghostbusters before they can capture him, which means the Real Ghostbusters and the… ahem… ‘real’ Ghostbusters must team up to defeat Proteus before he reaches them first. The result is some pretty smart Three Doctors style repartee between our two teams of look-a-like heroes, especially between the two Peter Venkman’s who, true to form, try hard to out-smartmouth each other (and it’s good to see that the ‘live action’ Venkman at least partially resembles Bill Murray). In fact, the characterisations in Erik Burnham’s fast moving script are spot-on – even if some of the gags are a little weak – and Dan Schoening’s artwork is very good indeed, even if Proteus himself looks like an over-the-hill He-Man missing his sword of Grayskull.

There’s the usual comforting technobabble about ‘exigent manifestations’ and ‘free-roaming vapours’ and a nice nod towards the sadly missed Harold Ramis, but because Proteus is essentially a pretty whiney supervillain the supposedly explosive showdown at the end of the story just limps to the finish line. Although, if we’re honest, didn’t Ghostbusters 2 have the same problem?

Set proton packs to fun and don’t step on Slimer.

GHOSTBUSTERS: GET REAL / WRITER: ERIK BURNHAM / ARTIST: DAN SCHOENING / PUBLISHER: IDW PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 17TH