New York 1947 is the fourth album and third one-shot story in the Alternate History comic book series Block 109, published in 2011.
December 1947. The major US cities have been nuked by Nazi Germany two years prior, with the exception of New York City, which was instead conventionally carpet-bombed then used as testing ground for a gruesome biological warfare experiment. A German commando of six men is sent into the ruins of Manhattan for a very special, very secret and very dangerous operation.
Contains examples of:
- After the End: The story takes place in New York after it has been bombed with a Synthetic Plague by the Germans, and after most of the other US cities have been nuked.
- Ax-Crazy: Ritter enters a murderous rage against his own remaining men once the Psycho Serum is in full effect.
- Bald of Evil: Ritter is bald, a Bad Boss to begin with, and eventually goes Ax-Crazy.
- The Berserker: Ritter, who's already a Blood Knight, becomes even fiercer in combat under the effects of the Psycho Serum.
- Dwindling Party: Only one survives in the end.
- Empowered Badass Normal: The Super Serum is tested on Ritter to impressive effects, but it gives him increasingly painful headaches, and he ultimately becomes crazy and uncontrollable.
- Flesh-Eating Zombie: The mutants have nothing else to eat in the ruins of New York, after all...
- Guns Akimbo: Ritter goes akimbo with two guns in combat.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Ritter gets increasingly short-tempered due to the serum.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The survivors in Manhattan had to rely on this. And it was even worse when some of them became mutants.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Plissken accidentally slips and impales himself on a sharp steel bar.
- In the Hood: Alice, on the album's cover.
- Invaded States of America: Nuked States of America, actually. New York was spared from nuclear fire and used as an experiment field by the Nazis in order to test The Virus on its surviving population.
- Leave No Witnesses: Zytek's orders to the Professor. The Professor himself is victim of this in the end.
- Monumental Damage: While New York hasn't shared the nuclear fate of the other major US, it was still carpet-bombed and not a single skyscraper has been left intact. There's a large vertical chunk of the Empire State Building that's missing, and the Statue of Liberty has collapsed, with only a stump left on its pedestal.
- Mutants: The Virus basically created a new species of mutated humans. The strongest and biggest of said mutants ended up practicing selection to create more of their kind.
- Neck Snap: Ritter does this to a giant mutated human. The Super Serum made him strong enough to fight such creatures with his bare hands.
- One-Man Army: Ritter is a killing machine, even before the effects of the Psycho Serum start showing.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is based on New York 1997, the French title of Escape from New York. Not to mention the setting itself (a mostly derelict Manhattan), the collapsed Statue of Liberty on the album's cover. And then there's Herr Plissken.
- Alice is a nod to Milla Jovovich's eponymous role the Resident Evil Film Series. Both dress in red.
- The giant mutated humans look like Tyrants.
- Suicide Mission: The more the crew encounters mutants, the more they find out the mission is suicidal.
- Tagalong Reporter: Plissken is a tagalong photographer for the expedition.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: Kurt is a expert lockpicker and thief in which he was initially hired by Zytek to steal Heydrich, which got him in the suicide mission.
- Tragic Keepsake: The main reason Zytek sent a commando in New York? Finding photos of his dead wife and daughter, who perished in New York, as explained in Block 109.
- Transhuman Treachery: Ritter, once the Psycho Serum's effects send him on a murderous spree against his own commando.
- Unstoppable Rage: The Psycho Serum's effects on Ritter include this.
- The Virus: Germans tested a new form of chemical warfare that ended up creating plague zombies.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Plissken dies first, very shortly after the commando has been introduced.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: It turns out the thing the team faced so many dangers to retrieve and got reduced to one man trying to was photos of Zytek's dead wife and child. It is of immeasurable sentimental value to him.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Professor is sedated and taken away to be killed on Zytek's orders.
