Biopolitical Narrative and Biopower in a Futuristic World: An Analysis of the Comic Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team

Abstract

This study aims to analyze biopolitical and biopower narratives in a futuristic world through the representation of the cyberpunk and biopunk subgenres in the plot of the comic Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team (2020–2021), published by Dark Horse Comics. A qualitative approach in the form of textual content analysis using narrative structure methods was employed to examine Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team (issues 1–4). The study focuses on two main objectives: first, to identify cyberpunk and biopunk elements in the comic’s visual narrative; and second, to analyze the operation of biopolitics and biopower through the relationship between technology, the human body, and corporate power. The primary theoretical framework used is Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and biopower, along with a comparative perspective drawn from the Malay-Islamic worldview through the thought of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, particularly his concept of adab, in order to highlight differences between Western and Malay-Islamic worldviews. The findings show that Trauma Team International commodifies human life through a tiered insurance system, thereby determining who is entitled to live or left to die based on economic logic. In addition, the bodies and emotions of workers are controlled through discipline, surveillance, and corporate protocols, reflecting the operation of biopower in a posthuman society. The analysis also finds that cyberpunk and biopunk elements in this comic do not merely construct a futuristic setting, but function to expose crises of humanity, social inequality, and the dominance of technological capitalism. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that comics are a visual narrative medium capable of serving as a space for critique of modern power through the depiction of a dystopian world shaped by capitalist logic, while also opening discussions on humanity caught between a Western perspective grounded in biopolitics and biopower and a Malay-Islamic worldview emphasizing the concept of adab and human dignity.

Keywords: Cyberpunk, Biopunk, Biopolitics, Biopower, Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team, Visual Narrative.