Written by: Christopher Sebela
Art by: Diego Barreto
Publisher: BOOM!
Sigh…
Escape From New York…
I love Escape From New York. It’s awesome. The character of Snake Plissken is awesome. I mean, c’mon, Kurt Russell in an eye patch. The only thing even approaching that level of cool is Kurt Russel in a tank top with an Asian print on it. Sadly, this first issue of Escape From New York doesn’t feel much like the source material.
Christopher Sebela picks up directly from where the film left off, with Snake switching out the tape the President is going to play during his address, and Snake wandering off from the military base. From there, some contrived events lead him to Florida, which has ceded from the rest of the country. This may only be the first issue, but it simply feels like the creative team doesn’t really know quite what to do with Snake outside of the very specific situations he’s been presented in on film. He was obviously a rather subdued character in the films, but Russell managed to impart him with very distinct personality beats. Here he just feels like a complete void, moving from panel to panel in a somewhat zombified manner (maybe he actually IS dead). The wandering nature of the book is also giving things a chopped up, disjointed feeling. At one point, we go from a waitress speaking the “I thought you were dead” line (without any indication as to why she knows who he is) to Snake standing outside the motor home of the next group of characters he hops on board with. At another point, Snake seems to be having a conversation with someone despite the fact that he’s sleeping, then with a complete lack of any indication that time has passed, the characters he’s conversing with are off somewhere else doing something that startles him awake.
In addition, the art makes many sections almost indecipherable. There’s a helicopter dogfight early on in the book, and I honestly have no idea what was supposed to have occurred during it. This general theme, of the art making the action incredibly confusing, is present throughout the book; things just always feel at least somewhat confusing.
I was really looking forward to this series. I hope it improves. This first issue is truly disappointing though.
