History ComicBook / ThePrivateEye

A sci-fi noir detective comic set [[AmbiguousTimePeriod somewhere near the 2060s]] written by Creator/BrianKVaughan and drawn by Marcos Martin. Nominally a Public Notary, the enigmatic P.I. is discreet, professional, and unmatched in finding what his clients want. He's also deeply private and ProperlyParanoid, given that being an [[PrivateDetective "Unlicensed Investigator"]] in the modern day is a serious crime worthy of getting you thrown in jail for quite a while. Then one day a dame walks in with a simple job: dig up her sordid past so she can test if she covered her tracks properly or not.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TwoFaced Ironically he's very trustworthy]]]]

A Sci-fi Noir Detective comic set [[AmbiguousTimePeriod somewhere near the 2060s]] written by Creator/BrianKVaughan and drawn by Marcos Martin. Nominally a Public Notary, the enigmatic P.I. is discreet, professional, and unmatched in finding what his clients want. He's also deeply private and ProperlyParanoid, given that being an "Unlicensed Investigator" in the modern day is a serious crime worthy of getting you thrown in jail for quite a while. Then one day a dame walks in with a simple job: dig up her sordid past so she can test if she covered her tracks properly or not.

Only it turns out, her past catches up with her before he can even begin. Now with her [[AlwaysIdenticalTwins twin sister]] and former client demanding revenge, P.I. finds himself roped into a conspiracy of French Assassins, Billionaire Moguls, and BrattyHalfPint getaway drivers. Armed only with his [[InvisibilityCloak Dreamcoat hoodie]], a retro camera, and a ton of experience in the sordid underbelly of California, he'll have his hands full surviving, let alone digging into why his client was murdered.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: What P.I. is described as. He's explicitly mixed race as well, as his grandfather is white as the driven snow while his mother is shown to be a darker shade of brown and known by various stereotypically American Black pseudynyms
* BigBrotherIsWatching: Reportedly illegal, to the point that Librarians are treated to even harsher restrictions than modern doctors are with HIPAA. Recording people's searches in a way anyone can access is expressly illegal and has been ruled on multiple times to be a violation of the Fourth Amendment. [[spoiler: Despite this, the federal government plans to hijack the BigBad's plan at the end of the series, with one investigator offering that it's a NecessaryEvil to fight terrorism while Raveena quotes Thomas Jefferson regarding Liberty and Safety.]]
* BilingualDialogue: the BigBad speaks to his assassins in English while they only speak to him in French. Despite this neither has any problems understanding each other.
* BulletproofVest: everybody in The Press wears them, from the cameramen to the investigators themselves. Notably saves a few different characters from dying.
* ComicallySmallBribe: P.I. generally gets what he wants through bribes, however he suspects that one of his contacts refusing to divulge information he asks for is a result of this. Whether its true or not is ambiguous, as the person takes a moral stance on supporting privacy but is a long time client and contact of ''P.I.'', so clearly they aren't that obsessed with privacy.

* DeadHandShot: used for the driver after P.I. and Raveena escape the car crash. [[spoiler: The driver survives]]
* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite hiring P.I. to track down his [[HighSchoolSweethearts high school sweetheart]], one of P.I.'s clients refuses to abuse his position as a Librarian to violate someone's privacy
* FutureSlang: Private Investigators are now synonymous with Paparazzi due to society's obsession with privacy. The police are now considered synonymous with the Press, even being referred to as "The Fourth Estate". Nyms now refer to the names people choose to describe themselves with once they become adults, and are known to change frequently. Televisions have gone the way of Kleenex, with all models now being produced by the company Teevee.
* {{UsefulNotes/Furry}}: apparently common, though still something of a social faux pas in the new modern society. P.I.'s first client appears to be one, entering his office wearing a hologram Tiger head.
* GasMaskMooks: the BigBad's pair of French Assassins
* GratuitousFrench: The French Assassins almost exclusively speak french. Notably they speak french even to characters they need to interrogate who tell them they can't understand french. A point made more glaring given that they demonstrably ''can'' speak English.
* HolographicDisguise: A rare case of ImpossiblyCoolClothes in the new modern society. Everyone values their privacy, with adults generally hiding their identities behind a variety of masks, but the most wealthy individuals can afford fully programmable holograms to give them whatever appearance and voice modulation they want.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Everyone who complains that P.I.'s job involves violating people's constitutional privacy for his job are also former or current employees or clients of his.
* IHaveYourWife: Used by the bad guys on P.I. as a measure of stopping him from furthering his investigation. Unfortunately for them they never actually get a chance to ''tell'' him this, ruining its effectiveness somewhat
* InvisibilityCloak: P.I.'s Dreamcoat hoodie, which appears to basically project the surfaces on the opposite sides of itself to give the illusion of transparency. An investigator chasing after him refers to it as "old school camouflage" implying there are legitimate invisibility cloaks in universe.

* NewMediaAreEvil: played both ways. P.I. opposes the "modern" new media, claiming he doesn't even know how to turn a Teevee on, let alone operate it, and uses an "outdated" digital camera with an illegal zoom lense for most of his work. However, the BigBad's end goal is [[spoiler: a return to the Information Age, reestablishing the internet and connecting everyone via their Teevees with the ability to spy on one another in their most private moments. Several characters point out this is a bad idea that they claim crippled society and resulted in a number of problems.]]
* PropagandaMachine: Derisively what "The Press" are acknowledged to be in universe, hiding the details of their investigations while telling the public what they want to hear.
* ProperlyParanoid: Society as a whole after the Internet's deepest secrets were leaked, called "The Flood". P.I. notably takes this UpToEleven, not owning basically any modern technology with his most sci fi gear being called "old school" in universe.
* SinisterSurveillance: Played with. P.I.'s job is theoretically the only version of this left after spying any kind was outlawed in the name of people's privacy. This is seen as a necessary evil in universe, with many decrying P.I. for violating others' privacy while simultaneously enlisting his services to violate people's privacy in the name of honesty.[[spoiler: the BigBad's ultimate goal is a version of this, reinstating the internet but hooking it up to everyone's TV and adding cameras to allow everyone to spy on everyone else, destroying their privacy entirely and replicating the leak at the end of the Information Age that saw everyone's data ever being leaked to the public.]]
* TechnologyMarchesOn: A major running gag and eventual plot point. P.I.'s grandfather is likely a millennial, as he's the only person who knows what a Zune is in the comic, and has an array of outdated chargers to power up ipads, ipods, zunes, and a plethora of other old technology that the bad guys all use because they're literally "dead technology" with the end of the Internet.
* TheOneThatGotAway: the source of one of P.I.'s clients, tracking down his old high school sweetheart in a world without any kind of social media or phone books.
* TheWallAroundTheWorld: the government's response to Climate Change was to build a massive wall to hold the rising tide at bay. Then the internet broke and, as the BigBad declares, America became insular and shut off from the needs and suffering of the rest of the world.
* TwoFaced: deliberately invoked by P.I.'s Dreamcoat Hoodie, which features a charicature of a Rictus Grin on the back of it, playing into the nature of everyone hiding their identity in the new modern day.
* VisualPun: Raveena's sister wears a tiger hologram mask, but when her past catches up to her she tries to tell the BigBad she didn't tell anyone anything and tries to ask him to leave after he breaks into her house. Despite knowing how dangerous he is she lets him get in close and makes no effort to defend herself. She's ultimately a PaperTiger.

* VisualPun: Raveena's sister wears a tiger hologram mask, but when her past catches up to her she tries to tell the BigBad she didn't tell anyone anything and tries to ask him to leave after he breaks into her house. Despite knowing how dangerous he is she lets him get in close and makes no effort to defend herself. She's ultimately a PaperTiger.
* YourCheatingHeart: The other major source of P.I.'s work, tracking and photographing people cheating on their spouses

* Hypocrite: Everyone who complains that P.I.'s job involves violating people's constitutional privacy for his job are also former or current employees or clients of his.
* IHaveYourWife: used by the bad guys on both P.I. as a measure of stopping him from furthering his investigation. Unfortunately for them they never actually get a chance to ''tell'' him this, ruining its effectiveness somewhat

* SinisterSurveillance: Played with. P.I.'s job is theoretically the only version of this left after spying any kind was outlawed in the name of people's privacy. This is seen as a necessary evil in universe, with many decrying P.I. for violating others' privacy while simultaneously enlisting his services to violate people's privacy in the name of honsety.[[Spoiler: the BigBad's ultimate goal is a version of this, reinstating the internet but hooking it up to everyone's TV and adding cameras to allow everyone to spy on everyone else, destroying their privacy entirely and replicating the leak at the end of the Information Age that saw everyone's data ever being leaked to the public.]]