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"Ghost in the Machine" Part 1
Tron #1
Slave Labor Graphics
Data Entry: Landry Walker and Eric Jones
Pixels: Louie De Martinis
Cover by
Louie De Martinis |
After his experiences in the Electronic World, Jet, like Flynn
before him, has become troubled and quit ENCOM, leaving his
former life behind in favor of seclusion from digital technology.
Story Summary
6 months after the events of Tron 2.0,
we find that Jet Bradley has become troubled by his memories of
his time in the Electronic World and decides to quit his job at
ENCOM.
Meanwhile, we see the initialization of several procedures by
ENCOM's computer system. One of the files, JET.EXE comes up as
not found. The system then initiates a decompression of the file
from backup and installs it. In the Electronic World, Jet, or a
copy of him, appears.
Back in the real world, Jet appears to be living in the former
apartment of Flynn, above the abandoned arcade. His father,
Alan, is trying to talk him out of quitting his job at ENCOM,
telling him he needs to get over what he experienced during the
events of Tron 2.0. Jet
refuses and Alan finally convinces him to at least see the
psychiatrist Flynn had once seen for similar reasons.
At his first session with the psychiatrist, Jet reveals that he
has frequent nightmares about watching himself in the Electronic
World with someone else controlling his actions. He also seems
to feel the weight of being a participant in the
creation/destruction of entire universes and lives as a User of
programs in the Electronic World.
Later, Alan receives a mysterious phone call in his office at
ENCOM while the night watchmen witness Jet enter the facility
over a video monitor.
Jet arrives home and gets a phone call from his father, but the
call is quickly lost. Then the police show up to ask him some
questions. Jet is suspicious and flees in a stolen cop car. He
looks up a report on the dashboard computer and finds that his
father has been reported murdered. He drives to ENCOM and Ma3a
shows him video recorded that evening that shows Jet himself
shooting his father in his office. The police arrive and Jet has
Ma3a activate the digitization process just in time to escape
into the Electronic World. He is greeted by a female soldier who
tells the new conscript to get on his feet, there is a war to
fight.
TO BE
CONTINUED
IN TRON #2.
Didja Know?
Ghost in the Machine is a sequel to the storyline
of the Tron 2.0
video game.
The mini-series' title, Ghost in the Machine, is a term used
by British philospher Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) to describe
Rene Descartes' (1596-1650) philosophy of mind-body dualism,
that the mind is separate from the phyiscal body.
The first page of the comic delivers a nice recap of the
early days of ENCOM, the events of Tron,
and the events of Tron 2.0
in text format.
Didja Notice?
On page 3, the ENCOM system installs SECURITY.DLL and SHOST.EXE.
Then it installs MCRY73.EXE; this name is likely an abbreviation of
Mercury, a female program who assisted Jet in
Tron 2.0. The system is then unable to find JET.EXE, so
it decompresses a backup copy of the file and installs a copy of Jet
back into the Electronic World. Notice also that it appears that the
circuitry of the Jet copy is beginning to turn from blue to red as
he looks around him.
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Pages 6 and 14 seem to show that Jet
is now living in Flynn's old
apartment above the abandoned
Flynn's Arcade. |
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Alan's discussion with Jet on page 7
indicates that the events of
Tron 2.0 took place 6 months previous. Since page 18
states a current date of April 2006,
this indicates
Tron 2.0 takes place around November 2005 (even though the
game was released in 2003). |
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Alan asks Jet go see a psychiatrist,
the same one whom Flynn started
seeing after returning from the
Electronic World. On page 8, we see
that the doctor has three Rorschach
inkblots framed on the wall of his
office. I may be wrong since I'm not
a psychiatrist and have never been
to one, but isn't it a bit odd to
have such obvious psychological
tropes as decorations in a
psychiatrist's office? I mean,
wouldn't the doctor want to put the
patients at ease when they enter as
opposed to reminding them where they
are and what they are there for?
Note: the three inkblots seen here
are not part of the ten blots
normally seen in a standard
Rorschach test. |
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Psychiatrist's office |
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Standard Rorschach Psychodiagnostic
Plates |
During Jet's first psychiatric session, we learn that one of the
things that is troubling him (and why he is now avoiding all forms
of digital technology) is that he now realizes that he has played a
part in creating a universe. And he dwells on what happens when he
turns a computer off? Or when he reformats a hard drive? Is he
destroying an entire universe?
On page 12, some night watchmen at ENCOM see Jet enter the building.
Shortly after, Alan is allegedly found murdered. Notice that Jet's
entrance to the building is seen only on digital video camera and we
later have only the police reports to indicate that Alan has been
murdered and that Jet was seen armed. This computerized second-hand
evidence suggests that someone or something in the system may be
setting up a false scenario.
On page 13, we see a computer screen go through the steps of
searching for a customer account number assigned to Jet Bradley. The
account then has its payment history deleted and is marked "PAST
DUE" and customer terminated. The phrase "END OF LINE" appears at
the bottom, hinting that perhaps the MCP is back in town?
Page 16 indicates that Jet's address (and thus the address of
Flynn's Arcade) is 1423 Yuba Avenue. Although it was never
confirmed in continuity, it was rumored (before the release of
Legacy) that the real world
portions of Tron take place in San Francisco, CA. There is
no Yuba Avenue in San Francisco, but Yuba County is nearby. On page
17, Jet flees in a stolen police car down I-80; this is a real
California interstate that has its western terminus in San
Francisco. Jet then exits the freeway at University Avenue and
drives to ENCOM to search for his father; this would seem to place
ENCOM somewhere near the
University of California Berkeley. (In the
canon timeline however, Legacy
reveals that the city is the fictional Center City.)
Page 18 indicates that the date of Alan's alleged murder is April
19, 2006.
Page 20 suggests that Jet was shot by the police just before the
digitization beam fired and digitized him. If he reintegrates back
into the real world later, will he be dead or injured from a gunshot
wound?
The Electronic World knows the User Alan Bradley as Alan1. But there
are a couple of references to an Alan2: when the system initiates an
installation of the Jet.exe backup it initiates ALAN2 SUBSET
JET.0023785.EXE and when Jet initiates the digitization process on
page 20 he tells Ma3a, "Target Alan2. Authorization JET092792." In
Tron 2.0, Ma3a at first refers to Jet as Alan2 because,
in her mind, he is a later version of Alan1.
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