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The Snake Plissken Chronicles
"Freedom Isn't Free"
Escape from New York #2 (BOOM Studios)
Writer: Christopher Sebela
Artist: Diego Barreto
Colorist: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Cover A: Declan Shalvey
January 2015 |
Snake is imprisoned in the Brig in Florida.
Story Summary
The Twins decide not to execute Snake, instead taking him to the
new capital of the Free Republic of Florida, Jacksonville, and
asking him to lead their army in an invasion of the U.S. Snake
declines the invitation and makes a break for it, but is finally
knocked unconscious by the Twins' grandmother, Meemaw.
Snake wakes up in the Brig, a prison made up of four
welded-together submarines at the bottom of the ocean. He
formulates an escape and brings most of the inmates with him,
though most are killed by the F.R.F. boats patrolling the
surface. One of the surviving inmates, Erick, leads Snake to his
home, a ramshackle village in the swamp called Mangrove Park.
But the prison escape brings the F.R.F. soldiers to the village,
eventually forcing Snake to surrender to save what's left of the
inhabitants and he is taken into custody once again.
CONTINUED IN ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #3
Notes from the Snake Plissken chronology
This issue begins on the afternoon of Saturday, October 25, 1997
and ends on the evening of Sunday the 26th.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue
Romulus and Remus (the Twins)
Snake Plissken
Meemaw
Erick
Jasmine
Morrell
Rip
Father Wallace
President Harker (mentioned only)
Vice President Sutter
(mentioned only)
Caleb
Mr. Lindsay (mentioned only, deceased)
Didja Know?
The issues of this series do not have published individual
titles assigned to them. I assigned the title
"Freedom Isn't Free" to this issue based
on a line of Snake's dialog in it.
Didja Notice?
The "Join, or Die" snake image from last issue's inside front
cover is repeated here, but is now missing the "P." for
Pennsylvania for some reason. The "P" remains missing for the
rest of the series.
Inexplicably, Snake is wearing the countdown timer on his left
wrist again (it was gone by the end of last issue,
"Public Enemy No. 1").
On page 1, Remus tells Snake, "Meemaw says smoking is bad for
you."
"Meemaw" is a slang term for "grandmother".
It's not entirely clear, but apparently Romulus' gun on page 1
was really just a disguised lighter to light a cigarette for
Snake, and the Twins forego executing him...for now.
The Twins drive Snake to their new capital of Florida,
Jacksonville.
They remark that it's closer to the water than the former
capital,
Tallahassee.
Snake remarks that he was in Tallahassee once, back in 1988.
On page 3, Remus tells Snake that he and his brother are
13-and-a-half years old.
Also on page 3, Romulus remarks on the left over nukes Cuba had
after "that thing with the Russians back in the 60s." He is
referring to the
Cuban Missile Crisis (as previously commented on in the study of
"Public Enemy No. 1").
On page 4, Snake tells the Twins, "Freedom isn't free, kids."
The American idiom "Freedom Is Not Free" is a phrase inlaid in the
Korean War Veterans Memorial, Washington D.C., denoting respect
to the soldiers who fight, and maybe die, to protect the
freedoms of democracy.
On page 5, panel 2, an insulated mug printed with the words "The
Sunshine State" goes flying as Snake makes his break out of the
building.
"The Sunshine State" is the official nickname of the state of
Florida.
On page 6, Jasmine sees Snake and doesn't believe it's him,
saying, "Look how short he is..." In Escape from L.A.,
the recurring gag dialog that is said by people who meet Snake
is "I thought you'd be taller."
In the Brig on page 7, Snake asks if anyone's got a smoke and
most of his prisonmates shove cigarette packs at him. The packs
are unlabeled, but the designs look like they're based on real
brands, notably Marlboro and Lucky Strike.
Page 9 reveals that while Snake's been in Florida, impeachment
hearings have started against President Harker in the U.S. due
to the Hartford Summit debacle, and the Vice President (Sutter,
as revealed in "Collared") is now in
charge there. Snake, of course, is largely responsible for the
debacle, as seen in
Escape from New York.
On page 14, Caleb tells Snake he fought in Siberia at the same
time Snake did and even saw him once on the F.O.B.
"F.O.B." stands for Forward Operating Base.
After their escape from the Brig, Erick takes Snake to his home,
a village of ramshackle huts in the middle of the swamps called
Mangrove Park. This appears to be a fictitious location, though
not too much different from some actual swamp towns in Florida.
Though most of the F.R.F soldiers carry M16 rifles, one man on
page 18 carries what appears to be some model of Minigun, a
large, electrically-driven Gatling gun (similar to the
M134 Minigun famously used by Jesse
Ventura in Predator and by Arnold Schwarzenegger in
Terminator 2: Judgment Day).
Overwhelmed by the attack of the F.R.F. soldiers against
Mangrove Park and to protect what's left of its inhabitants,
Snake raises his hands in the air and says "Uncle" to the
troops. "Uncle" is a term used mostly in the U.S. and Canada as
an expression of surrender.
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Snake Plissken Chronicles Episode Studies