After having a mystery of epic proportions land in their lap, the Lone Gunmen make the drive to New York City in hopes of getting some answers from the Ghostbusters. And so begins IDW’s newest multi-title crossover.

Here’s the official word from IDW:

The Conspiracy continues! The Lone Gunmen investigate their first lead, the Ghostbusters. Are they frauds and charlatans, bilking unwitting clients out of money? Or do they have special insight into the afterlife? And how are they connected to the plague that’s poised to wipe out humanity?

Crossovers are a tricky business, especially for comic geeks that survived the ‘90s with its relentless ploys to get readers to buy more books. If executed properly, of course, the payoff can be huge — it exposes fans to new titles, and can read like a sampler platter of everybody’s favorite characters. Most frequently, however, crossovers disappoint. There’s just too many constituents to please, and too many personalities to manage. Against this backdrop, writer Erik Burnham deserves some credit for crafting an issue that gives a nice snapshot of how the Ghostbusters and the Lone Gunmen might actually interact, even if the plot of this particular meeting is paper thin. Yes, there’s a handful of fun scenes, but there’s certainly not enough here to make this issue feel essential to the larger story being built.  The characters get together, share some jokes and offer the reader a few (and I mean a few) clues as to the larger mystery that’s operating here.

The art, by Salvador Navarro is tons of fun — highly detailed and with nicely staged panels. The pressure of depicting the Lone Gunmen accurately clearly weighed on Navarro, however; their faces are both highly realistic and rigid compared to the Ghostbusters. But overall some lovely art.

It’ll be interesting to see how IDW juggles the next few issues of this crossover: the Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Crow are radically different titles and it seems the only thing they’ll have in common (at least for now) is that they’ll get a visit from our favorite geeks.

3.5/5