"The Greatest Snake Plissken in the Multiverse" Big Trouble in Little China/Escape from New York #5 (BOOM! Studios) Writer: Greg Pak Artist: Daniel Bayliss Colors: Triona Farrell Letters: Simon Bowland Subscription Cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli, colors by June Chung February 2017

Hauk presents the magic guitar to the lead guitarist of the United States Police Force Band.

Story Summary

Hauk briefs the President on the recent developments and presents Blind Apple Mary's magic guitar to Sergeant Clarence O'Reilly, lead guitarist of the United States Police Force Band. Blind Apple Mary has revealed to Jack, Snake and their crew that she unknowingly killed people who had cheated her various ways with her playing, so they all become anxious at what Hauk and the military might be planning to do with it.

The crew soon winds up in a fight against the last remaining of Lo Pan's alternate Snakes, a female Snake, but during the fight a gigantic U.S. military tank powered by O'Reilly and the magic guitar arrives and blasts Lo Pan, taking out a large portion of farmland in the process. Snake tries to warn Hauk and the President over one of their soldiers' radio headsets that the guitar power is too powerful and will split the whole continent in half, but when the President hears Snake's voice he orders O'Reilly to fire at him. O'Reilly obeys, setting off another tremendous blast.

Meanwhile, Jack makes an arrangement with Lo Pan and the sorcerer to use the last power of the ancient Chinese scroll to reach through time and space to summon the greatest Snake Plissken in the multiverse, a gigantic fire-breathing dragon.

CONTINUED IN BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA/ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #6

Notes from the Jack Burton and Snake Plissken chronologies

This issue opens in 2001.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue

George

President John Harker

David Lo Pan (spirit form)

Bob Hauk

Blind Apple Mary

Jack Burton

Helene Chow

Bobby Liu

Snake Plissken

Sergeant Clarence O'Reilly

female Snake Plissken from Earth 563

the greatest Snake Plissken in the multiverse

Didja Know?

This was a 6-issue mini-series published by BOOM! Studios that features a cross-over story of the characters of Jack Burton and Snake Plissken, both portrayed by actor Kurt Russell in the John Carpenter films Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York (and Escape from L.A.), respectively.

This issue did not have an individual title. I have given it the title of "The Greatest Snake Plissken in the Multiverse" based on a story element at the end of the issue.

Didja Notice?

The subscription cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli for this issue depicts the Three Storms attacking the Pork-Chop Express while Jack and Snake defend themselves from the cab. No such scene occurs in the issue and the Three Storms do not appear at all.

Page 1 reveals that the King of Jersey is massing nuclear materials in Pennsylvania in preparation for an invasion of eastern Ohio.

The President seen here appears to be the same one Snake rescued in Escape from New York.

On page 2, the briefing on Snake Plissken for the President somehow has a slide of Snake during his battle in the ring against Slag at Grand Central Station in Escape from New York. Considering the primitive and unfriendly conditions in penal colony New York, how did anyone get a photo of the event?

Page 3 changes the scene from a presidential bunker to Lake Buffalo, described as 200 miles south. This would imply that the U.S. President is currently hiding out somewhere in Canada.

On page 4, Hauk tells the President that Blind Apple Mary is 79 years old. But according to what we learned in "Standing at the Crossroad", she is only 76. Of course, women are known to lie about their age, so maybe Hauk's right!

On page 5, Hauk shows the President some film footage of Blind Apple Mary playing a gig in Beaumont, Texas, 1953.

On page 6, Blind Apple Mary describes playing an E Seven so hard she broke three strings. E Seven is a deep chord played on a guitar.

Page 9 reveals that the female Snake Plissken is from Earth 563. In this issue, she is seen carrying the same kind of Uzi pistol with silencer and scope that Snake himself has been carrying.

On page 18, Bobby says to Jack, "We thought you were dead!", an obvious callback to people thinking Snake was dead in Escape from New York.

On pages 20-21, Lo Pan summons the so-called "greatest Snake Plissken in the multiverse", a gigantic fire-breathing dragon.