Tron 2.0 (comics)

***Tron 2.0*** was the name of a cancelled 2004 comic book miniseries produced by 88 MPH Studios and Disney Publishing Worldwide. Intended to be the sequel to the the 2003 video game of the same name developed by Monolith Productions,*Tron 2.0* continued the adventures of Jet Bradley and Mercury following the events of the first game. *Tron 2.0* was written by Andrew Dabb, and featured artwork by Gabe Bridwell, Blond, Serge LaPointe, and Chuck Gibson.

## Official Description

"*88 MPH Studios, Inc. and Disney Publishing Worldwide today announced the introduction of a new Tron comic book series based on the groundbreaking 1982 cult movie. The first four-part mini-series will be available in comic book stores in the United States and Canada this winter. The series comes on the heels of the new Tron state-of-the-art computer game, Tron 2.0, to be released this August through Buena Vista Games. 88 MPH Studios will be responsible for developing comic books based on both the original movie and the new game. The Tron comic book will follow the adventures of Jet Bradley, son of the movie's Alan Bradley, as he explores the Tron universe and comes to terms with living a dual life. In the real world, he's just a normal 20-year-old; in the digital world, he's a hero. Along the way, Jet will fight rogue programs, deadly viruses and other cyber-threats. This first comic mini-series will be based on the Tron 2.0 computer game universe, which is set 20 years after the movie and promises intense action and breathtaking adventures in a digital world. The second series, to be launched in Spring 2004, will go back 20 years in the past to explore the original Tron universe. Each full color, standard 22-page comic will be released on a monthly basis.*"
—Official Website
## Publication History

### Acquisition of *Tron* License

During the production of *Tron 2.0*, 88 MPH Studio head and editor, Sebastian Clavet, got in touch with Buena Vista Interactive in the hopes of acquiring the license. Once a creative direction was agreed upon by both parties, 88 MPH Studios began production on the comic. According to Clavet, Buena Vista Interactive was involved in the development of the stories for the comic, and they worked very little with Monolith Productions on the project.

### Announcement

June 25, 2003, a month following the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo, 88 MPH Studios and Disney Publishing Worldwide officially announced there would be a comic book sequel to *Tron 2.0*.

July 4, 2003, 88 MPH Studios announced the creative team for the *Tron 2.0* comic. The comic would be written by Andrew Dabb, who worked on the publication's *Ghostbusters* series, and feature art by Gabe Bridwell, who previously worked with Image Comics and Heavy Metal Magazine. Inking and coloring duties fell to Blond, who worked on the 2002 Image Comics series for *He-Man and the Masters of the Universe*, Serge LaPointe, and Chuck Gibson.

In a November 2003 *Newsarama* interview with Andrew Dabb and Gabe Bridwell, they expressed an interest in personifying the world of a gamer's fantasy in the *Tron 2.0* comic. Dabb believed the *Tron 2.0* would offer readers the spectacle that most comic books could not given the property. Because comic books of the time were pushing for more realistic depictions of their worlds and topical issues, Dabb believed that *Tron* as a property had more common with the Jack Kirby and Golden Age-era of DC Comics. Dabb believed the world of *Tron* was the personification of making fantasy a reality. Bridwell discussed how Jet's appearance in the digital world would be an idealized version of himself, almost superhero-like in nature.

### Format

*Tron 2.0* was intended to be a four issue miniseries that would release on a monthly basis, from February 2004 to May of the same year. The narrative of the comic book would focus on the Jet Bradley's recently adopted "double life" since visiting the digital world. In the digital world Jet would be lauded as a hero and fight to stop viruses and combative programs who mean to do harm to the system, and reunite with Mercury. In the real world, he would live his life as normal 20-year old programmer.

The name of the miniseries was "Derezzed", set a few months after the events of *Tron 2.0*. Jet would continue to visit the digital world, exploring the digital world and competing on the Game Grid. During that time, a program he befriended is murdered. Reuniting with Mercury, his guide and mentor, the two work together to uncover the circumstances behind his friend's murder, which takes them deeper into the seedier parts of the digital world. Jet is faced with the choice of continuing to pretend his new reality is just a game, or taking the dangers of the digital world seriously.

The miniseries would introduce two new characters; Tek, a "Viking"-type program, and Odorus, a program who can track programs using his sense of smell. Additionally, the final two issues of the series would explore what happened to the likes of Yori, Tron, Dumont, Lora Baines, and Kevin Flynn.

### Cancellation

January 2004, seven months after the comic's June 2003 announcement, *Tron 2.0* was cancelled by 88 MPH Studios. In a February 2004 interview with *Dynamic Forces*, 88 MPH Studios Editor Sebastian Clavet stated that production of the comic experienced issues with the approval process of Disney's licensing firm. Despite agreeing to the contract, Clavet attempted to raise concerns about the difficult approval process before eventually deciding to bow out of the deal and drop the *Tron* license altogether.

November 28, 2004, Andrew Dabb expressed (on his now defunct website) that the reason for the cancellation was a result of a communication breakdown and claimed that "both sides were at fault". According to Dabb, the approval process required that Bridwell's artwork for every panel be approved by a Disney art team based in Italy. Whenever the team in Italy disagreed with how a character was positioned in a panel, or how something was drawn, Bridwell was required to rework the entire page.

After the project collapsed, Dabb and Bridwell were informed that cover art intended for the cancelled comic, was used as a basis for the Game Boy Advance release of *Tron 2.0: Killer App*. Bridwell was not credited for his work.

Later, in an October 2006 interview with Newsarama's Neil Kleid, writer Andrew Dabb stated that Disney's "hands-on" approach wasn't something 88 MPH Studios, a new company at the time of acquiring the license, was prepared for, and that Disney wasn't going to risk the mistakes that came with that inexperience.

For a short time, line art and official artwork for the comic was available on the websites for 88 MPH Studios, Blond, Gabe Bidwell, and Serge LaPointe. However, as of January 2019, their websites have been updated to remove the artwork, or become defunct altogether.

## Characters

### Users

* Jet Bradley
* Alan Bradley
* Kevin Flynn
* Lora Baines

### Programs

* Mercury
* Tek
* Odorus
* Sark
* Tron
* Yori
* Dumont

## Gallery

### Promotional

Official Promotional Poster for *Tron 2.0*Promotional Poster for *Tron 2.0* (featuring the release date of the comic)Promotional Poster for *Tron 2.0* (featuring the release date of the comic)Textless Poster artwork by Gabe Bridwell (colors by Blond)Textless Poster artwork by Gabe Bridwell (colors by Blond)Official Artwork by Serge LaPointeOfficial *Tron 2.0* Wallpaper from 88 MPH website
### Cover Art

Tron 2.0 Issue #1 Cover ArtTron 2.0 Issue #2 Cover ArtTron 2.0 Issue #3 Cover Art

### Concept Art

Line art by Serge LaPointeLine art by Gabe BridwellICP Pinup by Gabe BridwellMercury Pinup by Gabe BridwellJet Bradley Pinup by Gabe BridwellJet Bradley by Gabe Bridwell from the 2004 Wizard World East convention in PhiladelphiaCovert art by Gabe Bridwell (Inked by Deviantart user kriegsammler)Cover art by Gabe Bridwell
## Notes

1. ↑ **Andrew Dabb:** "There are plenty of comics you can buy if you want to get a grim and gritty take on superheroes. Tron isn’t about how Joe Hero washes the blood from his tights after a day of dispensing vigilante justice. It’s about a guy given a free pass into a world where fantasies are real. It’s about recreating a sense of wonder that, unfortunately, a lot of comics have tossed aside."
2. ↑ **Clavet:**"I blame myself because I took a bigger bite than I could chew. I did not know, first hand, that Disney's approval process was so different than what I had already experienced with other companies. There was just no way for me to know that information for sure beforehand. It's like buying a car, sure you can read about the specs in the pamphlet but you don't truly know how the car reacts until you try it. So with all respect to Disney Publishing, they didn't do anything wrong. I signed a contract with them and agreed to follow their approval process (which on paper was similar to any other company's), but when time had came to experience it I was suddenly faced with a load of work I could not sustain."
3. ↑ **Andrew Dabb:** "One of the big sticking points was the approval process the art went through. Namely, every panel Gabe drew had to be approved by a Disney art team based in Italy. An art team that, it quickly became apparent, didn’t much like the way we envisioned the world of TRON. This lead to them requesting a lot of changes, and while some of these were legitimate, others seemed extremely arbitrary. For example, asking that a character be shifted ten degrees in one direction or another, a change that has zero effect on the story, but forced Gabe to re-draw an entire page. And there were many more along the same lines, small things that had little real effect on the book, but added up to a lot of extra work for Gabe."

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 CULT CLASSIC TRON RETURNS AS A COMIC BOOK SERIES - 88 MPH Studios.com
2. ↑ Tron 2.0 Comic Announced
3. ↑ Tron comic hits shelves
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tron 2.0 Comic Book Interview - 04 August 2003
5. ↑ Interview on Tron 2.0 comics
6. ↑ Tron 2.0 Hands-On Preview
7. ↑ 88 MPH Studios, Disney Publishing Worldwide announce Tron comic series - Newsarama.com
8. ↑ Greetings, programs! 'Tron' rides its way to comics this Winter
9. ↑ Gabe Bridwell: *Tron 2.0*
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 TALKING TRON: 88MPH's NEW TAKE ON DISNEY'S TRON - Newsarama - November 23, 2003
11. ↑ Re: Tron comic series CANCELLED!
12. ↑ The comic book Tron 2.0 disappears
13. ↑ WAITING FOR TOMMY: SEBASTIEN CLAVET - WTF Edition on February 12, 2004
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Return Of Tron - Andrew Dabb
15. ↑ Writers on Writing: Andrew Dabb - Newsarama
16. ↑ 88 MPH Studios: TRON
17. ↑ Blond: Digital Colorist - Portfolio
18. ↑ Gabe Bridwell: Projects - TRON
19. ↑ Serge LaPointe - Gallery
20. ↑ Tron 2.0 - Artist: Gabe Bridwell