[Meeting…] Kylie Griffin

For many years, Dan Aykroid and Harrold Ramis (creators and stars of The Ghostbusters) tried to carry out the project Ghostbusters 3, but after countless script changes, problems with the production companies and refusals by one of his colleagues (Bill Murray) to participate in the project, it was canceled and replaced by a new one that would start everything from scratch and with a new group of Ghostbusters made up exclusively of women.

The fact that it was the umpteenth remake of something from the 80s and that none of the original characters were going to appear in the film caused great discomfort, which was aggravated by the death of Harrold Ramis (Egon Splenger), which made it impossible to see the four Ghostbusters (Egon, Ray, Peter and Winston) together again in flesh and blood, both now and in the future.

For some reason, there are many people who consider that the criticism this film has received is due exclusively to the fact that the protagonists are women, something that makes no sense, mainly due to the existence of characters like Kylie Griffin.

The new generation of Ghostbusters

After the end of the Ghostbusters animated series, supernatural activity disappeared and the four heroes (Peter Venkman, Ray Stanz, Winston Zeddemore and Egon Spengler) decide to retire.

However, in the basement of the Ghostbusters headquarters there is still the spirit containment unit and it would be negligent to leave it abandoned because if someone tampered with it all the trapped ghosts could be released, so Egon Spengler decided to stay in the headquarters to continue his experiments, something that he would combine with his job as a professor of paranormal topics.

It will be at the university where Egon reunites with his old classmate Janine Melnitz and also where he will meet his few students: Kylie Griffin (an intelligent but lonely girl, very interested in the paranormal) Eduardo Rivera (who does not believe in ghosts and signs up for class only because he thinks it will be easy to pass) Garret Miller (a paralyzed boy with an euphoric and provocative character, more interested in hunting ghosts than anything else) and Roland Jackson (a very calm boy and responsible, whose passion is mechanics).

The reappearance of ghosts in New York will make Egon goes hunting alone and gets badly injured, which forces the creation of an improvised new team with its students, who will be the protagonists of this new series, called Extreme Ghostbusters (also known as Ghostbusters The Next Generation either Return of the Ghostbusters).

The "first" Ghostbusters

Kylie Griffin could be considered the first Ghostbusters, although to do so we would have to ignore Janine Melnitz, the Ghostbusters' secretary, who on occasion had to put on overalls and use a proton cannon to save the day.

As I mentioned, Kylie is one of Egon's students so she is interested in everything related to ghosts and magical or supernatural elements, to the point of making her do something crazy, like stealing some of the Ghostbusters equipment to try to communicate with her late great-grandmother.

Kylie's relationship with the supernatural comes from when she was a child, Well, it was then that he had an encounter with the Grundel.

The Grundel is a ghost who looks for naughty and restless children and tries to convince them to open the door or window of their house to go play together in a world where there are no adults or responsibilities. If the child accepts the Grundel's request and lets him pass, the ghost will control him and make him do increasingly bad things, which will gradually cause the child to become another Grundel.

One ominous night, the Grundel knocked on Kylie's window and told her to come play with him, the little girl did not fall into his trap, so the ghost continued searching the nearby houses. Finally it was a boy named Jack, who turned out to be Kylie's only friend, who opened the window for her and she began to fall under the influence of the ghost.

In the following days Jack began to behave strangely, until one day, while playing with Kylie, he disappeared to go with the Grundel. No one could find Jack and of course no one believed Kylie's story.

The original Ghostbusters hunted the Grundel and all the children under his influence returned to their normal selves, except for Jack, who never returned.

That fact and other more mundane ones surely caused Kylie's individualistic personality and reserved character, who lives alone with her cat (Pagano). It is not until she is “forced” to collaborate with the new Ghostbusters that she begins to develop a certain taste for teamwork, in addition to showing some leadership skills.

Kylie Griffin in the comics

A few years ago IDW Publishing started a collection of comics The Ghostbusters where (just as he did with his collection of Ninja Turtles) would take the original concept as a base but would add characters and elements from the television series, so it was a matter of time before one of the Extreme Ghostbusters appeared in the comics.

The one chosen was Kylie, although this time she was not Egon's student but the manager of Ray's paranormal objects library. As it could not be otherwise, the moment comes when all help is little and Kylie has to collaborate by hunting ghosts.

At a specific moment, Egon, Ray, Peter and Winston are kidnapped by ghosts, So a new group has to be created to rescue them and keep the specters at bay.

Janine Melnitz and Kilye Griffin would put on work clothes again, forming a new team that would be completed by Melanie Ortiz (an FBI agent who witnessed the kidnapping of Peter Venkman) and Ron Alexander (a criminal very skilled with new technology).

Curiously, in one of the following comics (Ghostbusters Get Real), los Cazafantasmas de IDW conocían a los Cazafantasmas de la primera serie de dibujos animados y en esa misma historia veríamos el regreso de la Kylie Griffin original y los Extreme Ghostbusters (aunque de manera muy breve).

Conclusion and Recommendations

El éxito de la serie Extreme Ghostbusters fue muy inferior al de la serie de animación original o al de las películas, de manera que esa segunda generación de Cazafantasmas quedó casi en el olvido.

Sin embargo gracias a los cómics de IDW, Kylie Griffin ha regresado como personaje de apoyo con un papel algo distinto al original, pero que encaja igualmente con lo que podíamos esperar de ella (de estudiante de lo paranormal a bibliotecaria y vendedora de libros y objetos relacionados con lo paranormal).

Su importancia en los cómics ha ido en aumento hasta llegar a ser una Cazafantasmas en activo y debido a que la serie aun continúa, no sabemos qué tienen pensado los guionistas para el futuro, aunque al parecer están decididos a darle algo de protagonismo a los olvidados Extreme Ghostbusters, porque en algunos cómics ha aparecido también Eduardo.

En cualquier caso, cada vez que escucho hablar de la nueva película de Cazafantasmas y sus nuevas protagonistas, no puedo evitar pensar que Kylie y Janine deberían aparecer en ella, al fin y al cabo fueron las primeras Cazafantasmas.

Las recomendaciones sobre este personaje se limitan a la serie de televisión Extreme Ghostbusters y los cómics de los Ghostbusters de IDW.