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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com
Tron: Ghost in the Machine (Part 5) "Ghost in the Machine" Part 5
Tron #5
Slave Labor Graphics
Data Entry: Landry Walker and Eric Jones
Pixels: Michael Shoyket and Guru-eFX
Cover by Louie De Martinis

Jet-red tortures Jet-blue with virtual reality hallucinations.

 

Story Summary

 

The backup copy of Jet (whom I call Jet-red), conscripted by the MCP, tortures Jet-blue with virtual reality hallucinations, so much so that we're left wondering which parts are the true reality of Jet's story. Did Jet kill his father Alan? Did Jet-red kill him? Did Lora communicate with Alan from the Electronic World? Did Alan kill Lora? Is Jet actually the son of Flynn, not Alan? Is Mercury still alive? Is Ma3a?

 

Finally Jet-blue has had enough, frees himself from his double's torture and, with a touch, derezzes him. Then he announces to the air around him, "Clarence...I'm coming for you," and vanishes in a puff of butterflies.

 

In a room elsewhere, a man in green-circuited armor, smoking a cigar, is lounging in an easy chair with the white rabbit costume worn half-way unzipped on his body. He is watching a television screen which has just shown him the scene of Jet's threat. "Oh, hell," he says.

 

TO BE CONTINUED IN TRON #6.

 

Didja Know?

 

A large part of this issue is made up of Jet-blue's hallucinations, induced by Jet-red, so there are fewer "solid" story facts on which to comment this time around.

 

Didja Notice?

 

The cover of this issue appears to be a photograph of the actual Tron arcade game console (with images superimposed on the screens).

The Rorschach inkblots seen in the psychiatrist's office this issue do not match with those seen in "Ghost in the Machine" Part 1. But it's not entirely inexcusable considering the psychiatric session here turns out to be a figment of Jet's imagination.

When Jet-blue derezzes Jet-red, his armor circuitry turns yellow and goes back to the Tron 2.0 style (from the Tron movie style it's had for the last few issues).

On the last page of the story, "Clarence" has just seen Jet's threat on a television screen, and now the screen appears to be showing the end credits of a movie (or possibly a video game) of Tron: The Ghost in the Machine. Notice also that a video game console is sitting on the floor, with the game case for Tron 2.0 sitting on top of it. He also appears to have been eating a bowl of Deadly Disks cereal; a picture of a classic identity disk is on the front of the cereal box.

 

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