The First Ghostbusters Team Was Technically Created By Janine Melnitz

The Ghostbusters’ long-time secretary Janine Melnitz may be a fan favorite character, but the expanded lore reveals she is also responsible for founding and running her own team centuries before the original heroes. Armed only with a proton pack, she collaborated with the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci in creating a new, yet effective team of Ghostbusters.

In Scott Lobell and Ilias Kryiazis’ Ghostbusters: Displaced Agression, the famous paranormal investigators face a powerful enemy, the demon warlord Koza’Rai, who has a personal grudge against the Ghostbusters for destroying his son Gozer. Realizing that he couldn’t trust death to keep the Ghostbusters from interfering with his plans to conquer humanity, he separated them by scattering the members throughout history. Although the Ghostbusters would eventually be reunited, a back-up story in Ghostbusters Displaced: Aggression #4 reveals their secretary Janine Melnitz (played by Annie Potts in the films) suffered a similar fate.

In the story by Ilias Kryiazis with artwork by Michael Dialynas, Janine’s attempt at a last stand against Koza’Rai following the Ghostbusters disappearance and the destruction of the Firehouse saw her stranded in 1780s Versailles. Although Janine’s appearance and story raise eyebrows, the French royalty take her claim about catching ghosts seriously, tasking her with ridding the palace of a particularly pesky poltergeist. Armed with a proton pack but no ghost trap, Janine engaged the ghost but sought to parlay with it instead, learning it was the spirit of famous Italian inventor and artist Leonardo Da Vinci. Unable to rest due to the promise to his friend King Francis to serve and improve the lives of the French, Janine strikes an alliance with Leonardo into a collaboration that serves both their interests… and thus a new branch of the Ghostbusters is born.

While the Ghostbusters aren’t afraid of living with ghost mascots, Janine’s collaboration with Leonardo da Vinci proved to benefit them both beyond anything Slimer may have contributed over the years. While Janine possessed the knowledge and experience of working with the original Ghostbusters, she was no Ray Stantz or Egon Spengler, a role that da Vinci’s spirit would fill regarding creating new Ghostbusting technology. While da Vinci would improve on the original design for the proton packs and create a new variation of the ghost trap, Janine acted as the spokesperson, leader, and voice of reason for her Ghostbusters, combining Peter Veknman and Winston Zeddemore’s contribution to the team. Her alliance with Da Vinci not only satisfied his “unfinished business” but also allowed her to recruit three others to act as the newest Ghostbusters as Koza’Rai’s enslavement of humanity throughout time and space meant a plethora of spirits would keep them very busy.

In the end, it would appear that few adversaries could match this newest Ghostbusters team as Janine and Leonardo summarize some of their biggest challenges, suggesting that they might even becoming better than the original Ghostbusters. While fighting a Level Six slime entity, the 18th century Ghostbusters discover the creature had swallowed the original Ghostbusters who had traveled back in time to finally bring Janine home. Although this story was in IDW’s early forray into the Ghostbusters franchise, cameos of other characters from the Displaced Aggression storyline suggest it is canon within the Ghostbusters multiverse. Although she started out as a secretary, Janine Melnitz has proven herself capable of creating and maintaining a successful Ghostbusters team, her participation in the field further cementing her worthiness of the promotion she requests at the end.

NEXT: Ghostbusters/Transformers Crossover Revealed Gozer Destroyed Cybertron

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