Credits
| Role |
Name |
| Writer |
Erik Burnham |
| Penciler |
Kyle Hotz |
| Colorist |
Dan Brown |
| Letterer |
Chris Mowry |
| Editor |
Tom Waltz |
| Cover A |
John K. Snyder III, Jason Wright |
| Cover B |
Kyle Hotz, Dan Brown |
Plot
The Ghostbusters rush to implement a plan that may solve both their poltergeist plague and their zombie problem simultaneously. The real threat, however, is that the vampire agent Britt has orchestrated the infection of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, not simply to cause chaos, but to weaken Stay Puft enough to extract an essence of Gozer. Meanwhile, a newly freed and furious Stay Puft threatens to destroy the city even before the zombie crisis is resolved.
Summary
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, who escaped the Containment Unit along with the canine poltergeists in Issue #1, has marched up to West 57th Street. Britt coordinates 37 zombies to attack Stay Puft on a massive scale, infecting it with the Necrotic Slime virus in order to weaken it. Her actual goal is to capture an essence of Gozer, which resides within Stay Puft.
Egon Spengler proposes a plan using rock-paper-scissors logic: the poltergeists are compelled to enter soulless zombie bodies, and the Necrotic Slime covering Stay Puft is functionally a zombie. If the team releases all of their trapped poltergeists onto the Necrotic Stay Puft, the poltergeists should inoculate the infected mass. Peter Venkman refers to the bloated, infected Stay Puft as "Humpty Dumpty." Egon argues against crossing the streams as a solution.
The plan works, but imperfectly: Stay Puft splits off from its Necrotic portion, producing two distinct entities. Egon speculates the dominant entity will reabsorb the other, though the victor would still carry residual Necrotic Slime. The team releases all trapped poltergeists onto the Necrotic Stay Puft. The combination of the poltergeists, Necrotic Slime, and the trace of Gozer's essence proves uniquely disruptive; the Necrotic Stay Puft implodes safely, and the original Stay Puft disperses.
Winston Zeddemore draws on the Twinkie analogy from the first film to frame the scale of the problem. Ray Stantz references the concept of Bokor, practitioners of voodoo who work both light and dark magic, to explain the zombie-poltergeist interaction. Britt, now exposed, calls the team "private sector types," echoing language from the original film. The issue closes with Peter suggesting the team stock up on garlic, acknowledging that Britt is now their next problem.
Cast
Characters
The Necrotic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
The Necrotic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (also called Zombie Stay Puft) is a portion of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man infected by the Infestation virus after 37 zombies attacked it on West 57th Street under Britt's direction. The entity served as a vehicle through which Britt intended to access Gozer's essence. It was neutralized by the simultaneous release of all the Ghostbusters' captured poltergeists. Writer Erik Burnham has confirmed that IDW editor Chris Ryall specifically requested a Zombie Stay Puft for this miniseries.
