Plot
As tensions rise within the Spengler family and over the new Ghostbusting business, Phoebe Spengler confronts the entity behind the supernatural attacks on the team: Madame Malveaux.4 Outmatched in a direct confrontation, Phoebe escapes by fleeing through the city sewers, emerging at the Laugh Riot Comedy Club, where she encounters the Laugh Riot Ghosts. Meanwhile, Ray Stantz reflects on the family's recent battles and what it means for their mission.
Cast
Entities
- Madame Malveaux: the series antagonist, revealed in full this issue. She invokes the Ghostbusters' past defeat of Vigo the Carpathian to underscore her own threat.4 Phoebe nicknames her "Maleficent" after the villain of Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959). Her name is also spelled "Malveaux" across the series.
- Cockroach Acolytes: supernatural servants under Madame Malveaux's command, present throughout the series.
- Laugh Riot Ghosts: a group of ghosts encountered by Phoebe at the Laugh Riot Comedy Club after her escape through the sewers.
- Green Slime Ghost: a recurring entity from earlier in the series.
Equipment and Vehicles
Standard Ghostbusters equipment featured in this issue includes the Proton Pack and Particle Thrower, Ecto Goggles, the Ghost Trap, a Remote Trap Vehicle, and the PKE Meter. Ecto-1 (the Ectomobile) also appears.4 Environmental elements referenced include Green Super Slime and Psychomagnotheric Slime (Mood Slime), the latter mentioned by Phoebe in dialogue on page 3.
Locations
- New York City: the primary setting for the series
- Laugh Riot Comedy Club: the venue Phoebe reaches after escaping through the sewers
- The Firehouse: the Ghostbusters' base of operations
Continuity and Callbacks
This issue contains detailed callbacks to earlier Ghostbusters media and to the preceding issues in the series.4
Within the issue, page by page:
- Page 2: Madame Malveaux references the Ghostbusters' defeat of Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters II.
- Page 3: Phoebe mentions Mood Slime; she calls Madame Malveaux "Maleficent"; she alludes to Egon Spengler.
- Page 6: Trevor alludes to his encounter with the siren ghost from issue #2.
- Page 9: Phoebe makes a joke about zombies.
- Page 11: Phoebe jokes about the Knights of the Round Table.
- Page 12: Callie's line "Ghostbusting is easy, comedy is hard" is a play on director Peter Bogdanovich's remark "Drama is easy, comedy's hard."
- Page 13: Ray Stantz mentions Gary and Callie's battle with the bird ghost and Trevor's first siren ghost encounter from issue #2. Ray is wearing the outfit he wore in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Chapter 11.
- Page 15: Phoebe alludes to Egon and mentions Winston Zeddemore and Peter Venkman; Ray recalls using Psychomagnotheric Slime to defeat Vigo in Ghostbusters II; Phoebe references the team's use of the Statue of Liberty in Ghostbusters II and uses the film-monster term "kaiju."
- Page 17: Callie references the ghost battle from issue #1 and the family's lack of teamwork; Phoebe jokes about Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
Referenced in later issues:
- Issue #4, page 7: Gary refers to Madame Malveaux as "Maleficent," echoing Phoebe's nickname from this issue.5
- Issue #4, page 12: Gary alludes to an incident involving Trevor that originates in this issue.5
- Ghostbusters: Dead Man's Chest #1, page 13: Gary mentions the microwave being broken again, a detail Trevor noted in this issue.6
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
