Ray is very sad. His coworkers and Slimer ask him what's wrong, and he replies that his favourite comic book is being cancelled. The others try to tell him that he is being dramatic, but that makes him angry. Meanwhile, the cartoonist is busily drawing the last issue, only for the drawings to come to life and protest what he's making them do. After an argument, one illustration, the eponymous Captain Steel, turns fully-coloured, jumps out of the comic, and flies around the room. He then grows to full size and flies out the window.
The cartoonist, Glenn Wolfman, calls the Ghostbusters and tells them of the situation, while Captain Steel tries two jewel thieves arrested. However, the police chief threatens to arrest him, since he has no proof that the two men are criminals. Steel flies off and, when Peter zaps him with a proton pack, thinks the Ghostbusters are supervillains. Ray tries to explain that they're on Steel's side, but Steel thinks Ray is lying and zaps the business ends of their proton packs with laser vision, then ties them up with a railing he stole.
Meanwhile, Steel's nemesis, Dr. Destructo, also leaves the comic, and when Captain Steel picks the tied-up Ghostbusters up and carries them into the sky, Destructo sends a laser out which sends them falling. Luckily, Egon manages to blast away the railing and has them shoot into the water and cross the streams, which makes a blast of water that sends them down safely.
The comic book characters fight, ending in Captain Steel being buried in rocks. Ray thinks he's dead, but he digs himself out. Dr. Destructo flies to the firehouse and declares Janine his prisoner, and that night, the Ghostbusters decide to track him down. They go home, only to find that the firehouse is surrounded by a force field. They try blasting through, but it doesn't work, so Captain Steel tries first punching, then lasering, through, but that doesn't work either. Egon decides to "neutralise" the force field, getting the knowhow from Glenn Wolfman. Meanwhile, Dr. Destructo is building a machine that he uses to turn everyone into zombies.
Wolfman agrees to think up a solution, but only if Steel returns to the comic. Steel agrees, so Wolfman invents a weapon and Steel makes it real. Destructo prepares to switch the containment unit off, but Janine warns him he'd be setting the ghosts free, yet he thinks she's lying. The Ghostbusters and Steele burst through the force field and show up just before Destructo can switch the power off, then Ray sucks Destructo into the containment unit. Then, Glenn Wolfman decides to keep writing Captain Steel due to the publicity, and to write another series with the Ghostbusters in it.
This episode provides examples of
- Brought Down to Normal: Conversed — Glenn Wolfman writes a superhero and supervillain as losing their powers to protest them coming to life.
- Crying Wolf: Apparently, the reason Captain Steel doesn't believe Ray when he says he and his friends are on his side is because other villains have said that and it turned out to be a lie.
- Disney Death: When Captain Steel is buried in rocks, Ray initially thinks he's dead.
- Dissonant Serenity: Janine is only annoyed when Dr. Destructo declares her his prisoner.
- Distressed Dude: After Captain Steel drops all four of the Ghostbusters, they almost fall to their deaths.
- Evil Laugh: Dr. Destructo laughs evilly when he tries to kill Captain Steel.
- Flight: Captain Steel and Dr. Destructo can both fly.
- Flying Brick: Captain Steel can fly and bend metal.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Dr. Destructo is obsessed with getting rid of Captain Steel and wants to take over Earth and wears glasses.
- Godzilla Threshold: Egon admits he didn't know that crossing the streams would save them from the fall, but since they were in danger of dying, he thought he might as well give it a try.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At one point, the cartoonist alludes to the theme tune by saying, "Who am I gonna call? Ghostbusters".
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The villain is named Dr. Destructo.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: There is a villain named Dr. Destructo.
- Mythology Gag: Several references to the original movie are made:
- When Ray is sad, Winston wonders if Gozer (the movie's Big Bad) is coming back.
- Later, Egon tells the others to "cross the streams" (i.e. make the blasts from the proton packs overlap), which is the Dangerous Forbidden Technique mentioned in the movie.
- Peter remembers the last time the power was disconnected, which also happened in the movie.
- Pun: When Ray overreacts to his favourite comic being cancelled, Peter walks off and claims it's "to find Ray's marbles".
- Say My Name: Ray shouts, "Captain Steel!", when he gets buried in rocks.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Captain Steel wears a cape.
- Theme Music Power-Up: The main theme starts playing as the Ghostbusters face up to Dr. Destructo.
- Tulpa: Captain Steel and Dr. Destructo were made up by Glenn Wolfman, but came to life.
