Captain
Steel Saves the Day
Writers:
Michael Reaves and Steve Perry
Directors:
Luc Bihan, Bernard Deyries, and Bruno-Rene Huchez
Main
Cast:
- Lorenzo
Music as Peter Venkman
- Frank
Welker as Raymond Stantz
- Maurice
LaMarche as Egon Spengler
- Arsenio
Hall as Winston Zeddemore
- Laura
Summer as Janine Melnitz
- Frank
Welker as Slimer
(Rating
5 of 5)
Summary: At the
firehouse Ray is in a near panic, when asked by his coworkers what’s wrong Ray tells
them that his favorite comic Captain
Steel is being cancelled. The rest
of the Ghostbusters walk away leaving Ray to sulk in private.
 |
| Heartbroken Ray |
Later
that day at the comic book company the writer of Captain Steel, Len Wolfman, is having an issue with his characters
coming to life and talking to him through the panels. Both Captain Steel and his archnemesis Dr.
Destructo want more control over their own lives. Wolfman threatens to draw a meteorite that
will turn them into mere mortals.
Captain Steel however comes of the page before he can compete drawing
it. He then flies off to defend New York
City.
 |
| Comic being cancelled. |
The
Ghostbusters are called in and they are somewhat skeptical of his story. Ray thinks they should have refused the
call. The Ghostbusters have dealt with
weirder things so they head to find the missing comic book character.
 |
| Wishes his characters would stay in the comics. |
Finding
him wasn’t difficult the Captain wasn’t looking to stay hidden. His first act is to stop a couple of jewel
thieves but they get away when the Captain was explaining himself to the
police. Wondering where the
supervillains are he mistakes the Ghostbusters for them when Peter fires on
him. Ray tries to reason with Captain
Steel but the ties them up with a metal bar in classic superhero style. As he is flying them to the police station
Egon thinks this maybe a good thing because the police know who they are. However Dr. Destructo also escaped from the
comic book page and attacked Captain Steel causing the Ghostbusters to fall.
 |
| Captain Steel escapes! |
The
Ghostbusters save themselves by crossing the streams and aiming at the surface;
this forces water up to meet them and breaks their fall. After Captain Steel digs himself out of
debris the Ghostbusters reintroduce themselves and Ray shows Captain Steel his
fan club card. They agree to work
together. Ray suggests that Captain Steel change to his civilian identity of
a newspaper reporter and he does.
 |
| Off to become a superhero in the real world. |
They
end up tracking Dr. Destructo to their own firehouse where he has captured
Janine and plans to use the energy from the Containment Unit to power his world
mind control device. He has created a force field around the firehouse.
Changing back into his superhero clothes, Captain Steel, tries and fails
to break down the force field. The
Ghostbusters also try with proton streams and fail. Egon gets and idea and the go see Wolfman
again and he agrees to help so long as Captain Steel and Dr. Destructo go back
to the comics. Captain Steel agrees and
Wolfman draws a weapon that can take down the force field.
 |
| Dr. Destructo, Captain Steel's Lex Luthor is out as well. |
When
they get through they encounter Dr. Destructo in the room with the Containment Unit. While he is going on about his evil plan, Ray rigs the Containment Unit to suck
in Dr. Destructo. The day is then won and Captain Steel goes back to comic form with news that his comics have been
renewed.
 |
| Ray meets his hero! |
My Take: While I
was watching The Real Ghostbusters I
was also a becoming a big fan of the Christopher Reeve Superman films. As a teenager I was sucked into the whole
Death of Superman saga and became a permanent collector with the series Reign of Supermen. It is interesting
around the same time The Real
Ghostbusters were airing John Byrne was relaunching the Superman titles
after Crisis on Infinite Earths, that
relaunch set the stage for the stories that later gained my fandom. (It use to be DC would do a massive relaunch
with a major character once every three or four decades, nowadays they do it
once every three or four years.) MarvWolfman and
Len Wein were clearly the inspiration for
the Wolfman character who writes Captain Steel.
 |
| Captain Steel observes Ray's credentials. |
Now for
my stray observations:
·
I feel for Ray.
Losing a good title is never awesome.
·
I love how Ray is so star-struck throughout this
episode with Captain Steel and his creator.
·
Some Ghostbusters doubted Wolfman’s story. Why?
It’s not the first time a creator’s fictional characters came to life.
·
Captain Steel has a mild manner reporter “Clark
Kent” personality as a secret identity, and Dr. Destrcto is clearly a copy of
the late Seventies/early Eighties Lex Luthor.
·
In his cape pouch. (Answering Peter’s question.)
·
Why wouldn’t the Ghostbusters want their own
comic? They could use the likeness
royalties.
Any comic book reader should
enjoy this episode.
[1]
Listed original air dates for entire syndicated season may not be correct.
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