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The Snake Plissken Chronicles
"Siberia Bob"
Escape from New York #5 (BOOM Studios)
Writer: Christopher Sebela
Artist: Diego Barreto
Colorist: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Cover A: Mike Henderson
April 2015 |
Snake is sent back to Siberia!
Story Summary
Picking up from last issue, Snake is
plummeting from a plane over Siberia, with his hands cuffed
behind his back. As he falls, Snake twists his arms so that he
dislocates his left shoulder, allowing him to bring his arms
over his head to the front. This allows him to pull the ripcord
on the parachute that was strapped to him and survive the fall.
Landing in the snow, Snake sees a battle
nearby between Russian and U.S. forces and heads in the opposite
direction. As he begins his journey, his mind flashes back to
various moments during his last mission in Siberia when he was a
member of the U.S. Army. But, in the here-and-now, he encounters
a trio of bears, who attack him. Snake is able to use the
powerful jaws of one of the beasts to sever the chain of his
handcuffs, then a U.S. soldier clad in a strange suit of spiked
armor anthat even covers his head chases off the bears. The man
removes a glove to shake hands with Snake and it appears to be
badly scarred, probably burned, suggesting his whole body may be
that way. When Snake refuses to join the U.S. forces in the
battle, the man clonks him on the head with a tree branch,
knocking him out.
Snake awakens next to a U.S. troop truck
and is compelled to assist the men in a shootout with Russian
soldiers. The armored man is there as well.
A few hours later, Snake is ensconced with
the U.S. 81st Battalion at a temporary base camp. Suddenly, the
Russians attack it in a trio of large motorized balls bristling
with guns. Snake jumps on a snowmobile and takes them out in a
game of follow-the-leader. After this, the battalion heads to
the main base, where General Mellon tells them that
Russia is about to make a push for Alaska across the Bering
Strait and it's up to them to stop it.
Meanwhile, the armored man seems to have a
personal grudge against Snake, revealing that Snake was dropped
into Siberia so that he could kill Snake himself.
CONTINUED IN ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
#6
Notes from the Snake Plissken chronology
It's not clear when the previous issue ("Don't Let a Snake into the House")
ended, but judging from the last known date there and the early
morning lighting conditions at the beginning of this issue, it
seems to be early on Saturday, November 1, 1997 and continuing
on into that day.
Didja Know?
The issues of this series do not have published individual
titles assigned to them. I assigned the title
"Siberia Bob" to this issue based on the alias of "Bob"
Snake uses here to avoid giving his real identity.
Characters appearing in this
issue
Snake Plissken (aka Bob)
Bob Hauk (the armored man, identity not
revealed until
"Snake on a Train")
Colonel Johnson (mentioned only)
Special Forces Major King
General Mellon
Officer Schmidt
Officer Moore
President Sutter
Didja Notice?
On page 1, it appears that Snake is able to dislocate his left
shoulder, allowing him to bring his handcuffed hands over his
head from his back to his front. Luckily for him, or otherwise
he wouldn't have been able to pull the ripcord on his parachute!
Did his captives know that before they tossed him out of the
plane at the end of
"Don't Let a Snake into the House"?
On page 3, the U.S. forces are carrying M16 rifles and the
Russian forces Kalashnikov rifles. These are, more-or-less,
the correct weapons for soldiers of each country.
On pages 3-5, Snake is attacked by a pack of three adult
bears. Bears do not tend to travel (or attack) in packs.
On page 8, a Russian soldier says, "Siberia is ours," and a
U.S. soldier responds while firing his machine gun at him,
"Not yet, Ivan." "Ivan" is a name
occasionally used as a generic for a male Russian by
foreigners.
On page 10, a U.S. soldier tells Snake, "Wasn't for you,
we'd be dead as Dillinger." The phrase "dead
as Dillinger" is a reference to John Dillinger, an infamous
gangster and bank robber during the Depression who was
killed by FBI agents during a shootout in Chicago on July
22, 1934.
On page 10, the American soldiers ask Snake who he is and he
responds, "Call me Bob." This may be intended by the writer
as a way to account for why a
USPF
Duty Sergeant refers to him
as "S.D. 'Bob' Plissken" later in Escape from L.A.,
whereas his file, as read by Hauk earlier in
Escape from New York,
refers to him simply as "S.D. Plissken". Seemingly, "Bob" is
just an alias he chooses to use here (possibly in honor of
Fresno Bob, with whom he and Harold Hellman partnered for a
bank robbery in Kansas City as mentioned in
Escape from New York).
On page 11, the U.S. forces have retired to a base camp made
up mostly of Quonset huts. Quonset
huts were introduced by the U.S. Navy during WWII as a
lightweight, easy to ship and assemble building for housing
offices, barracks, latrines, and medical facilities. Surplus
huts were also sold throughout the U.S. after the war and
can still be seen in many parts of the country.
In panel 4 of page 11, Snake is seen to pour a mini bottle
of vodka into his coffee at the base camp. The bottle has a
red star on it, a red star being traditionally indicative of
communist ideology, like the government of the Soviet Union.
On page 12, the major throws her beer bottle in anger and
some of the shattered glass lands in Snake's coffee mug (though the art keeps it subtle). This is why Snake pours his
coffee out on the floor on page 13 and tells the major she
owes him a coffee.
On page 13, panel 5, there is a box of Trixx sitting next to
the coffee maker. This is probably a play on
Trix
brand breakfast cereal, though another parody name of the
same cereal, called Drix, was seen in
"Collared".
On page 20, the General tells the assembled troops that
Russia is about to make a push for Alaska across the Bering
Strait. The Bering Strait connects the
Pacific and Arctic Oceans and is only about 50 wide at its
narrowest point between Siberia and Alaska, just as the
general states.
The airplanes seen flying at the bottom of page 20 look to
be Air Force One (the aircraft that carries the President)
and couple of U.S. fighter jet escorts (possibly F-16s). The
U.S. government generally has two planes in service designated
for official use as Air Force One, which would explain how
the new President, Sutter, is able to be flying in it now,
even though Air Force One crashed in New York City and was
destroyed just days ago in
Escape from New York.
It was revealed that the former president (Harker) was being
impeached in
"Freedom Isn't Free".
The general reveals that the former president's men made an
attempt on the new president's life and the former president
is now in federal custody on charges of treason.
On page 21, the general tells the U.S. troops they will be
moving on Krasnoyarsk at 0500.
Krasnoyarsk
is the third largest city in otherwise sparsely populated
Siberia.
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Snake Plissken Chronicles Episode Studies
