Digitek (subtitled "A Shock to the System" on interior credits), is a limited series published by the Marvel UK imprint of Marvel Comics. The series is written by John Tomlinson and Andy Lanning, with painted art by Dermot Power.
Jonathan Bryant was a project leader for the Nakasoni Corporation, a front company for Mys-Tech, working with "protosilicon" technology recovered from an alien world.
When a rival attempts to steal Psi-Key, their experimental protosilicon computer, compromising it with a virus, Jonathan is injured and transformed, with Psi-Key downloading part of itself into his mind and completely rebuilding his body.
As Digitek, he becomes a superhero - and his first task is to recover Psi-Key. Unfortunately, the virus is still affecting the computer, and it’s now transformed three of the thieves as well - in a similar, but far more sinister, way.
The first issue was released 27 October 1992.
Tropes included in Digitek:
- All There in the Manual: Marvel's Civil War: Battle Damage Report data book, published fifteen years after the Digitek series, provides a little more information in a text profile for him.
- Jonathan is originally from the Midlands town of Sutton Coldfield, part of Birmingham.
- It also provides a list of his powers, confirming a few things that were only implied by the original story.
- An Arm and a Leg: The Bacillicons have a tendency to lose hands.
- Byte's hand is all that remains after Digitek kills him with a Portal Cut.
- A shot from Deathlok costs Kay a hand, although she's able to regenerate it.
- Digitek takes Purge’s hand off with a katana.
- Arm Cannon: As part of their Shapeshifting powers, Digitek and the three Bacillicons can all reshape their arms into energy cannons.
- Bad Boss: Greville, who locks the surviving mercenaries in a room with the corrupted Psi-Key to see what happens.
- Big Bad: Purge, leader of the Bacillicons. Greville initially sets events in motion, but he loses control as soon as his hireling Paxton is converted to Purge (and eventually falls prey to some level of Grand Theft Me when Purge physically merges them in a Fusion Dance).
- Body Uploading: Digitek and the Bacillicons can upload and download themselves from the electronic Infospace. They can also bring others with them.
- The Bus Came Back: After his series ends, Digitek doesn't appear again for a long time, but eventually makes a cameo appearance in the final arc of Captain Britain and MI13, then another in the Revolutionary War event.
- Combo Platter Powers: Downplayed, as there is some logic behind them, but there are quite a few. Digitek and the Bacillicons all seem to get a general physical boost (strength, durability, endurance and reflexes). They then get a second bundle of powers from their electrical, computerised nature (travelling through Infospace and interfacing with machinery) and flexible physical/energy form (including shapeshifting, manifesting weapons and regeneration).
- Continuity Nod: The first issue contains a mission report from Colonel Liger of the Warheads’ Kether Troop. As well as the Psi-Key background, it mentions that Draft, one of his squad, is becoming unstable. Draft's subsequent Ax-Crazy breakdown happened in the first issue of Warheads.
- Create Your Own Hero: If the mercenaries hadn't shot Jonathan Bryant and broken the glass around Psi-Key, they wouldn’t have created Digitek.
- Cut the Juice: Digitek pulls the plug on Marx's phone just as the Bacillicons are using it for a Telephone Teleport. Kay barely survives, whereas Byte's killed off with a Portal Cut.
- Energy Beings: It's implied that Digitek becomes one at the very end of the series, as Bryant's body is recovered and buried. Averted prior to that, despite the Shapeshifting, Body Uploading and reliance on electricity. When Purge/Greville is finaly killed, the Mys-Tech team notes that the remains are those of two human bodies.
- Fusion Dance: Greville and Purge eventually become one composite being. There are elements of Grand Theft Me, as Greville had no choice about the merger, but the post-merge personality is a combination of both.
- The Ghost: Mys-Tech board member Tyburn writes the introductory notes for the last two issues, and some of the characters seem to directly or indirectly work for her, but she never actually appears.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Mys-Tech, who initially obtained the protosilicon, and who send in a clean-up team after Purge and Digitek's final confrontation. The last two issues open with notes from one of their board members, Tyburn, but they're not directly part of the story.
- Killed Off for Real: Greville, Purge, Byte and Kay all seem to be dead by the end of the story, and as of April 2022, none have been resurrected by other Marvel comics since.
- The Needless: Although he no longer needs to eat, drink or breathe, he absorbs electrical power at regular intervals.
- Portal Cut: Byte's Telephone Teleport ends badly after Digitek pulls the plug. One severed hand makes it back into the physical world, but the rest of him's torn apart.
- Purple Is Powerful: His body is colored purple and he's very powerful.
- Speech Bubbles: The Bacillicons get a different style of speech bubble, reflecting their artificial nature. After their Fusion Dance, Greville/Purge speaks in asymmetric bubbles that reflect both aspects of their nature.
- Technopath: His computer-like mind has enhanced cognitive abilities and can communicate with cybernetics. His mental link to Psi-Key allows them both increased regeneration upon contact.
- Telephone Teleport: Digitek and the Bacillicons can step into Infospace or return to the real world via devices such as phones and pagers. They can also take others with them. This does carry the risk of a Portal Cut if the device is disconnected at the right moment, though - as Byte discovers the hard way.
- That Man Is Dead: After his transformation, Purge is insistent that he's not Paxton. Paxton no longer functions. Greville eventually registers that Purge does not react well to his old name, so stops using it.
- Sentient Phlebotinum: Psi-Key
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Digitek and the Bacillicons can reshape limbs into weapons or redesign their whole body. At various points they choose forms that are practically vehicles, so that allies can ride them.
- Wolverine Claws: Kay manifests some at one point, although she generally uses other Blade Below the Shoulder variants.
