Production
Reaves later said he wrote the entire episode himself, and that the shared writing credit with Steve Perry was a mistake on DiC's part.3
Len Wolfman, the comic's creator in the story, is an homage to comic book writers Len Wein and Marv Wolfman.
The plot device of Wolfman drafting a comet that bathed Earth in strange radiation to strip his characters of their powers references two 1980s films: Night of the Comet (1984) and Maximum Overdrive (1986).
Episode characters and entities
Per the episode template, one-off characters and items introduced in this episode are covered here rather than on separate stub pages.
Captain Steel is the fictional superhero at the center of the episode and Ray's childhood idol. He is loosely based on Superman: he wears a caped costume, possesses super strength and heat vision, and his alter ego is exposed by nothing more than a change of clothes and a pair of glasses. His home city in the comics is Delta City. Captain Steel is a non-living entity, which means the Containment Unit's pull cannot trap him against his will the way it does ordinary ghosts. He reappears on the series when the shapeshifting entity in The Copycat takes his form.
Dr. Destructo is Captain Steel's archenemy and the episode's primary threat. He is a mad scientist who escaped Wolfman's pages alongside Steel. Voiced by Peter Cullen, Destructo wears golden robotic armor, echoing the contemporary depiction of Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor. His scheme after reaching the real world is to use a weapon called the Mental Neutralizer to reduce every person on Earth to a mindless zombie. To power the device he targets the Ghostbusters' Firehouse, where the Containment Unit's power grid supplies the energy he needs. Because activating the Neutralizer through the Containment Unit's grid would have caused the unit to explode, the stakes extend beyond a conventional ghost capture. Destructo is captured when Ray opens the Containment Unit grid behind him; lacking Steel's super strength, Destructo is sucked in like any other ghost.
Len Wolfman is the fictional creator of the Captain Steel comic. His name combines those of real-world comic writers Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. He appears in the IDW comic Ghostbusters Issue #7 in a non-canon cameo as one of the hostages of the Hungry Manitou. He is voiced by Maurice LaMarche, who also voices Egon Spengler in the regular cast.
The Mental Neutralizer is Dr. Destructo's doomsday weapon, designed to reduce all of humanity to mindless slaves. It requires a large power source and is never activated during the episode.
The Quasitronic Nuclear Inverter is a device Len Wolfman draws specifically to help the Ghostbusters breach Destructo's force field. Because the force field runs on nucleonic energy and Wolfman understands Destructo's technology better than anyone, Egon asks him to invent a counter on paper. Captain Steel steps into the panel and pulls the device off the page into the real world. Egon uses it to punch a hole in the field, after which Steel shatters the weakened barrier. The Inverter makes a non-canon cameo in IDW's Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #3.
Cast
The regular voice cast includes Lorenzo Music as Peter Venkman, Frank Welker as both Ray Stantz and Slimer, Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler, Arsenio Hall as Winston Zeddemore, and Laura Summer as Janine Melnitz. Guest voices were provided by Peter Cullen as Dr. Destructo and Mike Gomez.
Plot
Ray learns that his favorite comic book, Captain Steel, is being cancelled the following month and is crushed, comparing the loss to losing "Moby Dick." The rest of the team rushes in expecting a major emergency. When Winston guesses that Gozer has returned and Egon guesses the Containment Unit has been destroyed, both nods to the first film, Peter storms off in frustration. Ray explains that Captain Steel was his hero and one of the reasons he became a Ghostbuster.
The team is soon called to the office of the comic's creator, Len Wolfman. Ray brings 50 comics for him to sign. Wolfman had been drawing his final Captain Steel issue when the characters came to life and demanded more control over their fates. Wolfman tried to write them out by drawing in a comet whose radiation reduced Steel and Dr. Destructo to ordinary people. Captain Steel refused that ending, jumped off the page into the real world, and flew off to protect New York City. Some of the Ghostbusters are skeptical of Wolfman's account.
For his first act, Captain Steel apprehends two jewelry store robbers, but when he drops them at the police station with no evidence, the thieves slip away during his argument with the desk officer (who mentions the Macy's Parade as an example of New York crowd control). The Ghostbusters catch up with the Captain, and when Peter tries to zap him, Steel mistakes them for supervillains. He disarms them with his heat vision, bends a steel pole around the group, and flies off carrying them. Dr. Destructo, who also escaped the comic, blasts Steel and makes him drop the team. To save themselves from the fall, the Ghostbusters aim their throwers at the water below and cross the streams, creating a plume of water that cushions their landing.
Destructo tricks Steel and buries him under rubble. After Steel digs out, Ray wins his trust by producing his membership card to the Official Captain Steel Junior Crimestoppers Club, and the two sides finally join forces to hunt down Destructo.
Destructo has seized the Ghostbusters' own Firehouse, intending to use its power grid to fuel his Mental Neutralizer, and surrounds the building with a nucleonic force field that neither the Proton Packs nor Steel's strength and heat vision can breach. Reasoning that any technology Destructo built had to originate in his creator's mind, Egon proposes asking Len Wolfman for help. Wolfman draws the Quasitronic Nuclear Inverter, and Captain Steel pulls it off the page, agreeing to return to Wolfman's panels once the crisis is over. Egon uses the device to punch a hole in the field, and Steel shatters the rest.
The team confronts Destructo near the Containment Unit. Ray slips behind him and hits a control panel button, opening the grid and pulling Destructo in. Captain Steel, also a non-living entity, uses his super strength to resist the pull, but Destructo has no such powers and is trapped like a conventional ghost. The publicity from a real Captain Steel flying over New York generates enough interest to keep the comic in print, so Steel agrees to return to the page, and Wolfman promises to write him a new villain. Wolfman then asks the Ghostbusters if they would star in a comic of their own. Ray is thrilled, but the others leave in a hurry.
Notes and trivia
Several gags reference other comics and films. Captain Steel's disguise prompts Peter to note that he only changed clothes and put on glasses, a nod to Superman's Clark Kent, and Ray quotes the classic "Look, up in the sky!" line from the same source. When Steel tells Destructo "You can have Delta City, I'll take Manhattan!", the line echoes "Manhattan," the 1925 Rodgers and Hart song from the revue Garrick Gaieties. Dr. Destructo references the Comics Code, the comic industry's self-regulation body. Peter jokes that they will be busting the Tooth Fairy next; later in the same season the team befriends a former Tooth Fairy named Buster in They Call Me MISTER Slimer.
Captain Steel appears once more on the series as a form taken by the Copycat in the episode The Copycat. The Captain Steel Comics series also appears in non-canon cameo in Ghostbusters Issue #5 (a copy visible in the sidewalk sale outside Ray's Occult Books).
The episode aired between Ragnarok and Roll and They Call Me MISTER Slimer.
Animation errors
Two animation errors appear in this episode. Ray's proton gun is colored red while the team is seated at Len Wolfman's desk. Before Captain Steel changes into his civilian disguise, two copies of Ray appear in the same shot while Winston is missing.
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
