If you were to think of the antagonist for the Ghostbusters, you would most likely go to Gozer and that would make sense considering Gozer was the first big bad that the GB boys faced off against in the original movie and Gozer was brought back to the Afterlife reboot.
However, that is the movies, now if you were to ask who the big bad for The Real Ghostbusters is, the answer would probably be Samhain.
Samhain appeared in multiple Halloween episodes of The Real Ghostbusters and typically proved to be the most formidable foe that the boys would go up against. It took everything they had to stop him and during the first battle with Samhain, they just barely won. They were able to put up a great fight against him and keep him locked up in the containment unit but he’d find ways to break free as his powers grow stronger the closer it gets to the spooky holiday.
Besides returning to the animated series, Samhain would make appearances in the tie-in comic book series put by Now Comics and today I am going to take a look at one of these comics as it details much of what I said.
Cover
The cover does a good job of showing what a threat Samhain is with him holding Slimer hostage (again) with one hand flaming as though he is ready to torch the spud as the Ghostbusters look on fear as to what will happen to their friend.
The Plot
As I mentioned it is getting close to Halloween and strange things are happening in NYC and the boys are out on a mission in their zepplin. Since when did the RGB get a zeppelin, that seems like a TMNT thing. It is soon attacked by a horde of gargoyles.
This alerts the Ghostbusters to the return of Samhain and things aren’t going so well at the firehouse as something is happening in the containment unit That is when Samhain breaks free in a rather striking panel.
The powerful being would soon take Janine and Louis hostage and let me just say that the comic did Louis no favors.
I can’t exactly pinpoint what it is as every other RGB character looks good on the page but Louis just seems to not have translated well. Well still looks better than Seymour in the Little Shop comic adaption.
When the GB boys return to New York, it has become a ghostly nightmare seeing as the Statue of Liberty has turned into a ghostly figure that looks like something out of The Purge movies.
Samhain wants to plunge the world into eternal darkness and I can respect that motivation as it’s bold and it’s different than just taking over the world. Insert outdated meme here or better yet, don’t do that. Old Pumpkinhead is out for revenge against the GB after being captured twice by them and that’s legit. I do appreciate how this goes into the actual history of Samhain but it is a bit too wordy for a comic at points where my eyes gloss over during his villain monologue.
There are too many going all over the city for the GB to deal with at once when they are saved by a warlock character that apparently appeared in an earlier comic in this run. They find the encouragement from this character to take down Samhain learning that he has grown stronger since the last two times the Ghostbusters have faced off against him.
The boys are willing to do whatever it takes and it is a nice shot seeing them revved up ready to save their friends as they start to blast the ghosts away.
With some help from the warlock and exposure, they can defeat Samhain and capture him back in the containment unit where he’ll stay for a long time.
Samhain is locked back up in the containment unit and it seems the other spirits aren’t as afraid as they find him more annoying as they tell him to knock it off when he again swears vengeance against the Ghostbusters.
My Final Thoughts
This was a fun comic overall and a good outing for Samhain, one of the best Ghostbusters villains. This is one I’d recommend you check out if you enjoyed his appearances on the tv show.
About Author
Samhain was definitely a great ‘Big Bad’ for The Real Ghostbusters, and it’s not surprising he made return appearances not just in the show, but in the comics as well.
Yeah agreed
I really need to get into the Real Ghostbusters at some point. Stuff like Samhain being involved looks pretty cool.
It’s a fun cartoon.
Honestly while I understand Samhain being iconic, he’s not the first major villain I really think of regarding the animated series’ big bads. I’m more likely to think of the Grundel or the Boogeyman. That being said, this really looks like an engaging adventure pitting the team against the spirit of Halloween. The art style is a near perfect match for the series.
Totes fair on that front as they are also both iconic. Yeah, the art style lines up nicely with the cartoon.