After what seems like an eternity, issue #5 of TRON: The Ghost in the Machine from SLG Publishing is finally being released on Wednesday March 19th, 2008 Wednesday March 26th, 2008.

UPDATE #1: Diamond Comics' upcoming releases list was in error, and TRON #5 was not released today (March 19th). After checking the list again, it's now scheduled for next week. Apologies for the error, but this is the first time I've ever seen Diamond make a mistake on the release date of a title.

Actually, it has been an eternity as far as most TRON fans are concerned. Issue #4 came out in July of last year. And it, too, had taken a very long time to be released. Still, I'm just glad a TRON comic is being published at all.

It's also been an eternity since I did my last review of the comic, with issue #3 back in January of last year.  The reason for that has been twofold.

1. I've been extremely busy for quite some time, and I think the lack of updates to this site (compared to the early days when the site was first created) has been evident.
   
   


2. With the large gap between issue #3 and issue #4: I didn't feel it would be fair to review that issue without reading the first three again, and having the storyline freshly imprinted on my memory. And now with issue #5, there's been another large gap. So when issue #5 finally comes out, I'm going to read all five issues back-to-back and then do reviews of #4 and #5 in quick succession.

Since SLG's license with Disney expires in August of this year, we can be certain that #6 — the final issue — will be out by then. So, at most, there will be a five month gap between #5 and #6. Hopefully by then I'll still remember all the story threads, since five months isn't as far off as seven (#4) or eight (#5) months.

UPDATE #2: Landry Walker (co-writer of the comic) was gracious enough to send me an advance copy of issue #5 in PDF form. Thank you, Landry!

All I'm going to say about this issue, is two things:

• This is the best issue since #1, by far. In my humble opinion, of course. Issue #5 is not to be missed. It starts resolving many of the questions that have been brought up in the story, so far.


• A certain familiar character makes their first appearance in the comic. Well, sort-of! I'll let you guess who. :)