John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles

Escape From New York's antihero is back, giving new life to that recurring ''I thought you were dead'' quip. Snake's print incarnation, while welcome, could be livelier. The first issue dispatches him to Atlantic City for a plot to swipe the late JFK's limo from a casino display. Kind of a comedown from taking a bite out of the Big Rotten Apple -- but writer William O'Neill and artist Tone Rodriguez do show promise with a bit that has Snake paying one of those damn omnipresent Jersey tolls by tossing a grenade in the basket. (Can you blame him?)