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.