The Hacker Files

The Hacker Files
Cover to Hacker Files #2, artist Tom Sutton
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	monthly
Format	mini-series
Publication date	August 1992 - July 1993
Number of issues	12
Main character(s)	Jack Marshall Barbara Gordon Sarge Steel
Creative team as of August 1992
Writer(s)	Lewis Shiner
Penciller(s)	Tom Sutton
Inker(s)	Mark Buckingham
Creator(s)	Lewis Shiner, Tom Sutton

The Hacker Files is a twelve issue DC Comics mini-series published from August 1992 to July 1993. It was written by Lewis Shiner and illustrated by Tom Sutton.

The series written by cyberpunk novelist Lewis Shiner is notable for the first appearance of a post Suicide Squad Barbara Gordon (Oracle), as well as the introduction of Digitronix computers, a brand which continued to show up in the DCU for years afterwards.

In issue #1 Lewis Shiner states that he based the series and its main character Jack Marshall on an unpublished novel called Red Weather in which he detailed the experiences of a young programmer named Jack Marshall who worked for a Texas based computer company named Warrex, manufacturers of the short lived Centurion computer. 123

Jack Marshall (Hacker) is a freelance systems analyst from Raleigh, North Carolina. Fascinated with computers ever since he was a child, he grew up alongside the industry and eventually ended up working at Digitronix World Industries (DTX), a small company in Dallas, Texas. Maverick company president Donny Travis worked alongside Marshall to invent the Digitronix Desktop PC.

The Digitronix PC's success and profits caused rapid growth in the company, and a new senior Vice President named Walter Sutcliffe denied Marshall any profit sharing from his invention, because said profit sharing was based on a handshake agreement between Marshall and Donny Travis. Sutcliffe was one of five middle managers Donny Travis brought in from CompuTech. According to Jack, CompuTech went under due to incompetent middle management. Marshall attempted to steal his own codebase for a new updated version of Digitronix' proprietary operating system DROS (Digitronix Resident Operating System) but was caught and summarily terminated. But since he is the only one who truly understands DROS, he is brought in by the United States government, specifically Sarge Steel as a freelance troubleshooter whenever there is a problem.

The first Story arc SoftWar dealt with a virus infecting the Digitronix computers used by the Pentagon, it had somehow spread over the internet and infected Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency), Securenet (connects to bombers and missiles) and Milnet. Jack compiles an anti-virus and recounts his history with Digitronix after a confrontation with Sutcliffe. He's able to cure the virus everywhere except Cheyenne Mountain Complex which isolated itself the moment a virus was detected. The virus takes over the Cheyenne Mountain system and uses it to begin deploying ICBMs. Jack uncovers a traitor in Cheyenne Mountain who dies while trying to escape, he later stops General Wade Eiling from accidentally launching a nuclear strike on Russia and prevents World War III.