by Michael J. Foy

Snake Plissken is back! From BOOM Studios, the people that brought us the great ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ series, comes another Carpenter inspired comic. Just like the former, this new comic acts as a direct sequel to the original 1981 film of the same name. While Big Trouble is notable for it’s action/comedy, Escape is notable for its action/drama. I went into this first issue with some high expectations, no matter how much I tried to quell them, and the results? Let’s head back to New York Maximum Security Penitentiary and find out!

And yes my friends, there will be spoilers!

Picking up exactly where the film ends, with Snake destroying the tape (which contained information on Nuclear fusion) the President was set to present at the Hartford summit, Snake is immediately public enemy number one yet again. Now humiliated by the man who saved him, the President wants Plissken’s head, but Snake quickly escapes via helicopter, but soon crashes into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. (Where the United States Police Force is quickly forgotten about)

From the film itself, we learn very little about the outside world. We do know that Plissken was a former Lt. in the special forces and a decorated war hero during some kind of Cold War battle/WWIII against the Soviet Union and China. At some point, he turned against his country, which has grown to resemble little of the free world we know and love. With the crime rate rising four hundred percent by 1988, the United States Police Force is formed in 1991 to regain control, bringing about a kind of police state. The world of Escape is set in this future world of 1997, where things have only gotten worse.

Snake hitches a ride with a group in an RV who are they’re on there way to Florida in search of freedom. Six years earlier, Florida seeded from the union. They buried nukes, which they acquired from Cuba, along the entire border with the rest of the U.S. Calling themselves the Free Republic of Florida, the country is run by the two thirteen year old twins who are supposed to have some kind of telepathy. It’s a wild idea that fits well with the themes of social collapse.

The artwork is solid overall and fits well to the tone of the original film. Snake had a slightly less Kurt Russell resemblance when compared to the Big Trouble comic, but still looks very much like the Snake we know and love. Coloring is also interesting, colorful but with a washed out look at times. The action is pretty smooth and there is plenty of it!

Unfortunately, I do have a few issues with the comic thus far. Through the entire first issue, Snake seems to run and jump as if he wasn’t just shot in the thigh with an arrow less than 24 hours ago. In the film, he has a purple scarf tied to his thigh and it remains there for the duration, as does a noticeable limp. Why not keep this going and show him kicking butt despite this injury?

One of the other issues is the lack of pursuit by the United States Police Force. If they are indeed still after Plissken, then why do they give up so quickly? Snake seems to drive down the entire coast without any issues, no roadblocks, no police presence of any kind. According to the film, and hinted at in the comic itself, is that crime has become such a problem that the United States has become a police state. There is little to no indication of this presented here and I hope it’s better addressed in future issues. I’m curious to see what the rest of the U.S. looks like.

Overall Escape from New York number one is pretty good, but not great. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the rest of the series to see where this story will go and how much it will expand the universe at hand. The information given to us in the films is very limited and Escape from L.A. ignored all opportunities to expand on the outside world in favor of just making the same movie again; so the comic is already ahead of the game. Head on over to BOOM-Studios.com and pick up issue number one today, It’s certainly worth a read!

Score: 3 ½ Snake Skins Out of 5