Page for characters that are specific to the IDW comic book Ghostbusters.
For the characters who first appeared in the 1980s films, see Ghostbusters (Film Series).
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Heroes
Kylie Griffin
- Badass Bookworm: She spends her free time going through Ray's books, and can kick ass along with everyone else.
- Canon Immigrant: Kylie is originally from Extreme Ghostbusters, though here she has a completely different backstory and hair design.
- Deadpan Snarker: Which is why she gets along with Peter so well.
- Perky Goth: Dresses in dark and somewhat antiquated clothes, but is positive and upbeat.
Melanie Ortiz
- Cool Big Sis: Has moments of this with Kylie.
- Expy: In her original appearance Ortiz was basically Dana Scully, and her partner was Mulder. However she is not The Scully, she believes in the ghosts just fine.
- Unfazed Everyman: Among the newer Ghostbusters at least.
Ron Alexander
- Aesop Amnesia: Didn't quite learn his lesson about stealing tech designs from Egon the first time, since his theft and attempted exploitation of transdimensional portal tech ends up kickstarting the Crossing Over event.
- Boxed Crook: Following his arrest, he's effectively turned into this when the New Ghostbusters need someone to fix the packs.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Ron is based, visually, on 1980s Chevy Chase. (Though given the art style, he also bears a resemblance to Inspector Gadget.)
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Seems to be the end result whenever he attempts to improve or exploit technology designed by Egon. His "improved" proton packs nearly destroy Manhattan, and his monkeying with portal technology start a chain of events that risks dimensional collapse from the Containment Unit melting down.
- Child Hater: Throws a chair at a student during an elementary school appearance.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Subjected to one by Egon, who makes Ron and Holtzmann read a subliminal code that prevents them from ever thinking about interdimensional travel technology again. By interrupting their thoughts with The Chicken Dance.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Ron may be an amoral con man, but he still built his own proton packs, and more impressively modified the design. He later built an interdimensional portal, as well.
- Jerkass: Arguably the biggest dick of the cast, at least on par with original Peck. Absolutely no one gets along with him.
- Not Me This Time: The Crossing Over event plays with this. The main conflict- missing spectral mass from the Containment Unit- isn't his fault at all (Tiamat's the responsible party), but it comes out that he and Jillian Holtzmann are responsible for tinkering with the portal technology and subsequent hole in their respective realities that allowed Tiamat the opening to access the containment grid.
- Token Evil Teammate: The only Ghostbuster that could be considered evil. Even Peter has a shred of decency.
Jenny Moran
Then she died. She got better, sort of.
- Badass Bureaucrat: Was this during her time with PCOC, doing her best to help the Ghostbusters from within the government apparatus, while ensuring the good taxpayers of New York got the most bang for their buck. Case in point: during an international paranormal emergency she used $400k of government cash to charter-fly the Ghostbusters around the world, and saved $30k by pooling the trips with those of some honeymooners from Long Island.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's Ray's girlfriend and a sweet and helpful person who helps out on busts and keeps Peck off the team's backs... who's also unafraid of strapping on a proton pack and openly defying the Big Bad. Becoming a Class 4 entity has only amplified this by giving her access to paranormal powers.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Given her relationship with Ray, the fact that her appearance is based on Donna Dixon, retired actress and Dan Aykroyd's then-real life spouse, is actually rather sweet. Bonus points for a dream sequence of Ray's that saw him and Jenny take on the roles played by Aykroyd and Dixon in Spies Like Us. Of course Jake then had to spoil the whole dream...
- Cute Ghost Girl: Ray certainly seems to think so. Of course, being a spirit in the Ghostbusters universe, she's not limited to 'cute' forms.
- Friendly Ghost: Is currently this. As mentioned already, she's friendly because she's that kind of person. Piss her off and you get the...
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Can turn these on and off at will. Surprisingly intimidating. She can also break out the...
- One-Winged Angel: Being a ghost does come with perks. She seems to have mastered a degree of shapeshifting, at one point terrifying the ever-living snot out of some students by morphing into a screaming banshee with the head of a gigantic naked mole rat.
- Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the Crossing Over miniseries, she voluntarily enters the Containment Unit to prevent it from melting down.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Tried this and failed: when the Ghostbusters were outclassed by the spirit of a powerful sorceror, Jenny decided the best solution was to read a spell from the very tome said sorcerer needed for his evil plot, one she understood might summon an even more powerful entity. It didn't work... in fact it sent her and the rest of the team (bar the spiritually immune Winston) straight to Hell.
- The Power of Love: Seems to be why she hasn't crossed over to the other side: not even death will keep her apart from Ray.
- Thrill Seeker: During her introductory arc, Jenny ended up flying shotgun with Ray on a tiny autogyro, soaring over New York, which was slowly being consumned by a giant ghost. Her only reaction? "I love this plan!"
- Voice of the Legion: Seems to be the only part of her 'ghostly' nature she can't hide when in corporeal human form: all of her dialog is rendered in the jagged white-on-black typeface that is used for ghosts within the comics.
Optimus Prime
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed, as Prime is still A Father to His Men like always, but he's considerably more patient with his crew's foibles than others would be. To a point.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed, as he's still Optimus Prime, but he's notably more annoyed at some tendencies his crew has. Notably, when Ectotron confirms he's shortening his name, Prime is actually relieved.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: He's a giant robot who can turn into a truck, and carries a mystical talisman inside his chest containing the collective wisdom of the ancients of his people, yet he's a little hesitant to believe in the presence of ghosts. He even lampshades this when he sees the ghosts of Megatron, Shockwave, and Soundwave in front of him and how he shouldn't have had such doubts.
- Arch-Enemy: To Megatron, like always.
- Big Badass Rig: His Earth mode is a 1984 Freightliner cabover truck, which he later paints in the Ghostbusters' colors.
- Big Good: Of the Autobots.
- Canon Welding: Hails from the Transformers franchise and is made one of numerous iterations of himself from throughout the multiverse, specifically one who exists in the Ghostbusters reality.
- Cool Versus Awesome: A giant robot who can turn into a truck fighting ghosts of his old enemies. Awesome should be Prime's middle name.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has shades of this, notably when Wheeljack suggests not going to help Ectotron for being a little "nuts". Prime gently reminds him that people thought the same of the engineer... while the panel is focused on Grimlock, his own creation.
- A Father to His Men: Aside from being mildly annoyed at his crew's antics, he couldn't be more determined to help them when needed.
- Forgot Flanders Could Do That: Prime's been Flanderized since Season 3 of the cartoon, to the point every Prime since then has almost always been The Stoic. This Prime is not only annoyed at a few of his teammates antics, he cracks a joke (though he does note that Earth seems to be rubbing off on him).
- Generic Graffiti: Some hoodlums cover him in it when he waits outside the firehouse. Luckily, he can change his paint scheme to hide it.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When he encounters the ghostly Decepticons, he quickly connects his proton pack to his ax to take them on.
- Not So Above It All: Aside from the aforementioned relief he got at hearing Ecotron is shortening his name, he actually cracks a joke to Peter while discussing size changing amongst the Cybertronian race. Peter thought Prime was funny.
- Palette Swap: He changes his more familiar red and blue colors to white black to better match the Ghostbusters. Justified due to him getting covered in graffiti.
- Sixth Ranger: To the OG Ghostbusters and Ectotron.
Ectotron
- Break the Haughty: One robotic foot on Earth, and the ego inside Ectotron's processors gets knocked down hard. Unlike a certain jerkass by the name of Sentinel Prime, he learns from this and emerges a better bot.
- But Now I Must Go: He remains a Ghostbuster, but he decides to leave Earth for the time being so he can find out what happened to the other Decepticons and see if he can help them. Or, as Peter refers to it, an "expansion" of their business.
- Butt-Monkey: Not only do the other Autobots barely tolerate him, his time on Earth leads him to tripping over himself, having his ego knocked down a few pegs, and getting possessed by a ghostly Megatron.
- Canon Immigrant: He's a Transformers character designed for their Collaborative crossover line. In his case, he's part of a joint celebration of the two franchise's thirtieth anniversary.
- Character Development: His time on Earth helps to humble the scientist into a more collaborative bot.
- Cool Car: He takes the form of ECTO-1—while the real one's trashed in a ditch.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: It's clear that, in spite of his skills, he's just barely tolerated on The Ark due to his condescending attitude. Even Optimus Prime has his limits with the guy. Fortunately, Earth proves to be a humbling experience for him.
- The Glomp: He gives a big old hug to Prime when the Autobot leader approves his mission to help the Decepticons possibly be restored to corporal form.
- Grand Theft Me: Megatron briefly possesses him until the Ghostbuster give him a mouthful of mood slime.
- The Klutz: Being an Autobot in a human world isn't all that helpful for his size. He causes damage to the firehouse and the warehouse by tripping over himself trying not to squish anyone.
- Overly Long Name: Ectronymus Diamatron is a bit of a mouthful, as pointed out by Janine. She convinces him to shorten it (much to Prime's relief).
- Seen It All: On the receiving end of it. The other Ghostbusters don't bat an eye at his presence, as they've been in the business long enough not to be shocked by an alien robot who turns into their car suddenly showing up.
- Small Name, Big Ego: His insistence on being referred to by his Overly Long Name, combined with his prowess as a theoretical physicist (not to mention his unpopularity with his teammates), give him an ego that could rival Starscream. Fortunately, he grows out of this.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: He insists the other Autobots call him Ectronymus Diamatron, as he worked hard to obtain that title, but his time with the Ghostbusters leads him to stop this.
Villains
Tiamat
- "When I first came back to this plane of existence, it was mostly curiosity. The same worms that once worshiped us could suddenly rip holes in the fabric of the universe... and beat you soundly. I wanted to play with them."
Tiamat is the sister of Gozer and the one to originally banish him from Earth. When Gozer is defeated by the Ghostbusters, Tiamat takes an interest in the planet and the Ghostbusters and invades Earth for fun.
- Always Someone Better: To Gozer. Not only was she able to fight him head on and win, she was toying with him the whole time.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Fortunately for the Earth, it was never her intention to destroy it. She just wanted to mess with Gozer for a bit. Once she's had her fun, she leaves.
- Big Bad: Of the second story arc of the IDW comic and the Crossing Over miniseries.
- Cruel Mercy: Rather than simply destroying her victims, she likes to watch them live with their suffering. When Winston offers himself as a sacrifice to save Ray, Tiamat accepts, but then changes her mind when she realizes his Heroic Sacrifice would send him to Heaven, so she decides to take Winston's fiance as the sacrifice instead. However, instead of killing her, Tiamat removes all memories of their relationship from Winston's fiance AND EVERYBODY ELSE, so Winston is the ONLY person who remembers.Winston: Giving up my friends, my family, my WIFE? That's a sacrifice, all right.
Tiamat: But it's not yours. If you want to banish me, you must live to face the consequences. I insist you choose another sacrifice. - Exact Words: After taking Winston's marriage as a worthy sacrifice, she pledges to permanently leave the Ghostbusters' plane of existence. Unfortunately, all of the dimension-hopping adventures the boys have been on lately gives her an interesting loophole...
- For the Evulz: Tiamat doesn't have any real motive, she just wants to ruin the Ghostbusters' lives and mess with reality for fun.
- Humanoid Abomination: She's a tremendously powerful Dimension Lord and takes the form of a snakelike humanoid, is related to Gozer and is his superior when it comes to power, and possesses an extremely warped mindset that makes her both capricious and inimical.
- Hope Spot: Gives one to Gozer. When Gozer possessed Ray, he thought he could beat Tiamat by opening the containment grid and using the ghosts inside to increase his power. However, Tiamat had manipulated Ray's memories so Gozer wouldn't realize the containment grid had security measures that could detect if a Ghostbuster was possessed and deny them access. Tiamat did this just so Gozer could have a brief hope of winning, then complete despair in the face of defeat.I do truly love the feeling you people get when hope is snatched away. It's like nothing else.
- It Amused Me: About the only consistent motivation for anything she does.
- Jerkass God: She isn't one for playing nice with her subjects, and when she feels like hurting someone to pass the time, is downright vicious.
- Mad God: Which works somewhat in the Ghostbusters' favor, since simply destroying the Earth would end any way of causing more chaos.
- Manipulative Bastard: For such a chaotic god Tiamat is good at messing with people's emotions, especially her brother's.
- Engineered most of the events of the Crossing Over miniseries in order to generate fear and chaos across the dimensions.Real!Egon: It's [Tiamat] been following us!Prime!Egon: Worse - it's been influencing our situation.Tiamat: Of course! I want you to continue visiting other worlds, throwing ghosts and demons and things you can't even classify yet into fits of panic. Chase them. Upset the order of their environments. Leave chaos in your wake and increase my power - OR BE DESTROYED!
- Engineered most of the events of the Crossing Over miniseries in order to generate fear and chaos across the dimensions.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Is brought down to size by Rachel Unglighter's magic, socked in the face by Winston with the Proton Glove, has the vast majority of her power scattered to the dimensional winds by numerous modified Trapgates, and is finally captured in a conventional trap and left in the Limbo Dimension to rot. One can only hope that it sticks...
- Nonhumans Lack Attributes: Her humanoid form is a snake woman wearing nothing but her scales, but she has no visible nipples or genitals.
- Snake People: She's basically a cluster of snakes in humanoid form.
- Villain Respect: The Ghostbusters cross NINE proton streams fighting against her in her home dimension. Although she survives, she's still surprised and calls it "an attack worthy of a Goddess".
Others
Roger Baugh
- Canon Immigrant: A very interesting possible example, given that he looks exactly like Egon in Extreme Ghostbusters.
- Nice Guy: To contrast Egon, Roger is friendly and sociable.
- Identical Stranger: He doesn't look exactly like Egon, but he looks enough like Egon. In fact, he looks like Egon in Extreme Ghostbusters. This is even referenced when Janine mistakes a parallel version of Egonnote FOR Roger!
- Put on a Bus: Accepted a teaching job in San Francisco and asked Janine to go with him, but Janine wouldn't leave... New York.
- Replacement Goldfish: It's painfully obvious to everyone that Janine is dating Roger because she can't date Egon.
- Satellite Love Interest: Only exists as a boyfriend to Janine.
