Batman brings justice to Facebook.
Batman: Digital Justice is a graphic novel written by Pepe Moreno, published in 1990 by DC Comics, which follows the attempts of Legacy Character James Gordon (the Commissioner's grandson) to become the new Batman for a new era.
The story takes place "sometime into the next century" in a Cyberpunk Gotham City which is being overrun once again by crime, aided by several high-ranking officials. The police force's robotic lapdogs, the so-called "servo enforcers", are going berserk and killing random citizens, ostensibly in the course of duty; but Jim Gordon becomes suspicious when he is unable to verify their internal memory logs nor even to positively identify any of the victims, and suspects that someone with high-level computer access is using the servos as private assassins. In an attempt to get him off the case, his superiors put him on bodyguard duty for arrogant superstar Gata, but Gordon will not be distracted. However, as the investigation continues, Gordon's partner Lena is murdered, and Gordon himself narrowly escapes a similar fate.
Gordon, skirting the Despair Event Horizon, happens upon a crumbling statue — of Gotham's 20th Century hero Batman. He subsequently finds an old costume among his grandfather's personal effects... and the Batman is reborn. Unfortunately, one of his oldest and most deadly foes has also resurfaced, and will stop at nothing short of the utter and complete destruction of Batman.
Batman: Digital Justice is also particularly noteworthy for being written and illustrated entirely using computer-generated images, à la the movie TRON. While not the first all-digital comic (that honor goes to the 1985 series Shatter), Digital Justice was a radical departure from the dot-matrix look of its predecessor, utilizing then-advanced graphics and even 3-D modelling techniques to create a pseudo-photorealistic look.
Batman: Digital Justice provides examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The servo-enforcers. Subverted in that they're being controlled by the Joker virus.
- Alternate Continuity: One where The Joker designs an A.I. that turns Gotham into a cyberpunk dystopia.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the end of their struggle, both Batcom and the Joker Virus somehow come together into an harmonious fusion of good and evil that transcends reality, leaving the future Gotham free from the phantoms of its past.
- Attention Whore: Gata. In fact, she's so jealous of the media attention being given to Batman that she sets herself up as his adversary Catwoman specifically to capitalize.
- Bat Deduction: Oddly enough, not from Batman himself but from the kid who eventually becomes Robin: "What's the matter, you think we don't know you're the Batman?" This one is actually plausible, since Gordon is sporting nasty bruises the morning after one of Batman's exploits.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: As soon as the Law Man, an eldery cyborg bound to a life support machine, is found by Batman, he seemingly kills himself to keep from being arrested. His last words are of encouragement for Batman to hold on to his dreams.
- Big Bad: The Joker Virus rules over Gotham City and is the main antagonist of the story.
- Big Good: After attempting to uphold Batman's legend, Gordon is saved and assisted by Batcom, an A.I. designed by Bruce Wayne.
- Bookends: The story begins and ends on a shot of a cybernetic cityscape and a videogame screen reading "Game Over". A possible interpretation is that the story was a videogame the whole time.
- Cleavage Window:
- Gata usually wears a latex bodysuit which exposes her nether regions, these being covered by very small pieces of colored tape.
- A lot of women tend to go quasi-topless, in fact.
- Computers Speak Binary: Turns up in conversation a couple of times, if not in trope-form itself.Batman: You get him?
Robin: Can a CPU add one and zero? - Cool Ship: The Batcraft lets Batman and Robin operate while avoiding the Joker's surveillance.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Downplayed; the Mayor of Gotham is shown to have "bio-cybernetic" implants, but these don't figure into the actual plot.
- Cyberpunk: The story takes place in a futuristic but dystopic Gotham where Gordon must defeat a conspiracy made between politicians, criminal organizations, the media and corrupt law enforcement.
- Cyber Punk Is Techno: You can practically hear that thudding techno beat whenever Gata appears on the page.
- Da Chief: Captain Grover is Gordon's superior at the police department and makes him Gata's bodyguard to keep him from getting involved in the rampaging servos incident.
- Dating Catwoman: Atypically for this trope, Gordon never gets any closer to her (romantically speaking) than "There's something about her..." or "I am your friend" while doing a "Shut Up" Kiss. Of course, putting Batman and Catwoman together without invoking this trope would be... wrong.
- Death Equals Redemption: The Mayor makes amends to Gata with her dying gasp, revealing she was a mother figure to her all along.
- Despair Event Horizon: Lena's death sends Gordon nearly over the edge until he happens upon a statue of Batman and learns of the hero's ties to his grandfather. Although Everything Is Online and protected by rigid security access, he could still use his experience as a cop to wage a one-man war on crime in disguise without getting caught in short order.
- Digital Avatar: The Joker created a virus in his image who took over society in the years following his death. Batman then designed his own A.I. as a countermeasure.
- Dirty Cop: Captain Grover turns a blind eye to the corruption in Gotham and is swiftly executed when he attempts to make amends.
- Disconnected by Death: Captain Grover is shocked to death by a phone trapped by The Joker when he attempts to warn Gordon about the incoming squad of killer servos.
- Everything Is Online: Everything in the setting is online and under constant corrupt surveillance. Except for one small computer in the Batcave.
- Evil Gloating: As the Joker Virus gloats about how he can reshape the world, the Batcom remarks he has been sabotaging all of Joker's utility programs at the same time.
- Flying Car: Flying police cars are shown, as well as the Thememobile Batcraft.
- Foreshadowing: The identity of the virus that plagues Gotham is made obvious by a familiar disembodied smile appearing on multiple screens to taunt Gordon.
- Future Slang: "Batteries running low... really need that day off."
- Gorn: There are scenes of brutal violence early in the story, but this is toned down afterwards.
- Legacy Character: Batman, Robin and Catwoman all become this.
- Lightning Lash Catwoman uses a whip, just like her predecessor and it's electrified for good measure.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Gata is a clone of the Mayor.
- Meaningful Name: "Gata" is Spanish for "female cat"note . Or, to put it another way, a "cat woman".
- Near-Villain Victory: The Joker manages to cripple Batcom by deleting the memory of the trauma that defines the hero, but as a last resort Batcom gets Alfred to activate a backup from the only system that the Joker couldn't reach.
- No Kill like Overkill: There are multiple scenes of the servo-enforcers tearing people to pieces, or even microwaving them into puddles, to make identifying the bodies difficult.
- Not Enough to Bury: The servo enforcers' victims. Gordon invokes the trope by name at one point.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The Law Man claims both him and Batman are twisting the law to suit their own needs, to which Batman retorts he cares not for the law but rather only its spirit of Justice.
- Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Mob Lord, the Media Man, the Law Man and the Mayor conspire with the Joker Virus to rule Gotham.
- Posthumous Character: Both Bruce Wayne and The Joker are long dead by the time of this story, but their influence is felt in the form of the A.I.s they have created.
- Redemption Equals Death: Captain Grover wouldn't stay corrupt, so The Joker killed him for attempting to warn Gordon about the servos sent after him.
- Robot Maid: A robot butler named after Alfred exists in the abandoned Wayne mansion and plays a key role in the very end of the story.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: After realizing how helpless he is as an police officer, Gordon takes the mantle of Batman to try and break the status quo imposed by those in power.
- Shadow Dictator: The Joker Virus rules over Gotham with the aid of some conspirators, even as it's uncharacteristic of The Joker to settle for ruling a Wretched Hive from the shadows when he could be turning it into a full-fledged World of Chaos instead.
- Shout-Out:
- A full-page spread is devoted to a re-creation of a Time Magazine cover.
- Also: "He's gone! ... De-rezzed!"
- Another one from TRON: Whenever the city is viewed from high above, it is rendered as a giant circuit board, not unlike TRON's opening scene.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: When Catwoman is manipulated into fighting Gordon to the death, he embraces and kisses her to get her to stop.
- Slasher Smile: Even after revealing his full appearance, The Joker frequently manifests as a disembodied smile laughing at people from screens.
- Spin-Offspring: Jim Gordon is the grandson of Commissioner James Gordon.
- Tech Marches On: 3 1/4" floppy disks are shown to be in common usage. On one occasion it's appropriate, since the computer depicted is supposed to be ancient.
- Title Drop:
- Done in the opening narration, about the only hope against the dystopia the story is set in:"A new kind of hero, a program of "clean" code and pure memory, a program written by a legendary Crime Fighter... A Digital Hero, one that can restore digital truth and... Digital Justice."
- Batcom's boast against the conspirators:"Mark me well. I am the end of all things for you... The face of your judge and jury... The last face you will ever see in this world... The Face of justice! True justice! Digital Justice!"
- Done in the opening narration, about the only hope against the dystopia the story is set in:
- The Virus: One written by the madman himself is the main villain of the story.
- We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: the video variety, and averted at that; we see quite a few instances of the digital media using computer trickery to "edit reality".
