Frank Sobotka: The Wire's union man

The Wire's Frank Sobotka

By Tristan Pagan

The Wire is a crime drama about the drug trade in Baltimore and the war on drugs failing to stop it. It is about systems and the people crushed by them.

Season 2 of The Wire is considered the black sheep of the show. The first season was critically acclaimed for its great characters and showing more nuance than your average cop shows. So it is jarring when the second season decides to focus on the failing Baltimore docks. This is also what makes the show so great. 

There are many tragic characters in the show, but we are gonna talk about one of my favorite characters: union man and human trafficker Frank Sobotka. The story of Frank Sobotka adds so much depth to this fictional Baltimore. He shows why people get into the drug trade. When we first meet Frank, he comes off as a caring union man. Partying with his workers at the bar and flirting with the shore cop Beadie. This is before both us the audience and Beadie find the thirteen dead girls in one of the cargo ships. 

You see, the docks are dying. Companies do not want to work with Batimore due to the crime and the politicians refuse to do anything to fix it. It has been slowly declining the past thirty years and is on its last legs. Frank is desperate to save his docks that he has turned to help smuggle drugs, guns, and women for the international criminal organization The Greeks. He is using the money they pay him to pay his workers and lobby politicians to revitalise the docks. This shows that people turning to selling drugs and crime is usually more of a class and economic issue than them just being bad people. This is a core theme of every season, but is expanded in Season 2. 

In any other era in American history, Frank would be respected and his power and influence would be strengthened greatly. Now after the government has negated the docks and basically killed the union, he is forced to work with criminals he hates. Another thing that makes this tragic is he really does care about all the union staff. One of my favorite scenes is when a dock worker comes in telling him that he has not been getting enough work to get by and is late on getting paid. Frank tells him to take the day off and gives him money to go to the bar. The bartender pays the dock worker when he gets there and describes Frank as a “good man” to Frank’s son. When the police start investigating him for drugs they say the money was hard to track because he uses none of it to enrich himself and they had to trace it back to anonymous political donations. He is also genuinely disturbed to find the 13 girls in the cargo ship and offended when the police imply he did it on purpose. 

This is not to say he is a flawless man by any means. He is so busy running the union, he basically missed his son Ziggy growing up. This would later contribute to his downfall. He manages to evade the investigation into the human trafficking for a while. It all comes crashing down after his son Ziggy shoots two members of the Greeks. After this, Frank loses everything he cares about. The police take all his money and start arresting the Greeks. Ziggy signs a confession and in one of the most tragic scenes in the series his lawyer tells him the lawmakers have cut all ties with him days before they were going to vote on a bill to bring more cargo to the docks. The picture above is the face Frank makes when his lawyer tells him that. The face of a man who just spent years working towards something, only to see it vanish in an instant. He is convinced by Beadie to help the police in agreement of giving Ziggy a lighter sentence. After his confession, his nephew Nick tells Frank that the Greeks have offered to get Ziggy out of jail scott free. All they want is his loyalty. Frank begrudgingly agrees. Seconds before he arrives, the Greeks are informed he has talked to the police and decide to kill him. What makes it worse is that in the next episode it is revealed that Frank had self-defense wounds. He went out fighting.

Frank is a great character. He is a working man in an automated world. He cares too much for his union, and that leads to his downfall. His death is not just the death of the docks, but the death of Baltimore’s working class.

Stupid Questions People Ask Me

Q: Why do you cut off your hair?

A: Because long hair gets in my face and it a lot of work to take care of plus I'm lazy.

Q: Why don't you wear makeup?

A: Because I don't want to look like a clown.

Q: Why do you wear baggy clothes if it makes you look more like a boy?

A: Because they are more comfortable.

Q: Why are you so loud all the time?

A: Because I want to be heard.

Q: Why are you so rude?

A: Because I was born without a filter. I say what I'm thinking whether it's rude or not.

Q: Are you happy with who you are?

A: Why do you care? Are you my therapist?

My name is Becca I am who I am and I can't change that so I might as well get comfortable with that now I will never change myself to please others and I will always try to be my best self I know I could do better to keep my mouth shut when I'm thinking something rude I won't make promises that say I am never going to say something that may or may not opened someone cause then I'd have to never talk all I am saying I am going to be me which when people say to be you it's actually really good advice cause there is no one I would rather be.

-Becca Holloway

Me Vs. You

I don't listen to most directions

I do listen to my friends and how they feel

I am pretty good at being a good friend

But I'm not always a good friend

It really depends on what you feel a good friend does

I tell the truth

I ALWAYS have an opinion

I try not to be rude but sometimes I come off that way

I'm good at advice

But not so good at listening to yours

I like to be bold and bright but that's not what I am on the outside

You're the center of attention always in the spotlight

Yet no one really cares

I draw and paint

You post pictures and dance

I sing for crowds but I'm only part of the show

You're the center cause you got the solo

I'm different I know but I wouldn't change cause at least I'm not shallow

-By Becca Holloway

Whatever happened to that one bat guy?

 “He died saving the city… No, that is not true. He died saving me.  I said I am not worth it. He said everyone’s worth it.” - Clayface, Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

A review by Tristan Pagan

Time magazine’s top 100 books of all time included only one comic book. It was Watchmen. Placed on a receptacle 18 along with some respectable books you read in high school, books beloved by your favorite stuffy academic. Watchmen was included because it is considered one of the greatest comic books of all time. Watchmen is great, but I can't help but feel like it was included not because it is the greatest comic of all time but because it is on the cool kids’ list of comic books. It deconstructs the tropes and cliches of comic books and just says, “If superheroes were real, they would sssuucck.”

It's not like other comics. It's mature and dark.

But Watchmen is a bad representation of the medium. Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader is a better deconstruction of comics than Watchmen. The book centers around the funeral of Batman. The story takes an anthology perspective as we read each character's account of how Batman died. Their stories vary widely, showing how Batman has many different aspects. You ask some people who Batman is, and you will get answers varying from an anti-hero, a detective, or a sad man in a bat costume.

This story represents the many generations of characters. Batman has outlived generations of people. He was around pre-World War II. His comics have been broken down by eras that correspond with big changes in the comic industry. Although everyone's stories vary wildly, there are some common aspects. They are all about Batman dying because he is unable to let go of his crusade against crime. Batman’s war is against crime when you get down to it. Batman’s goal of cleaning up Gotham will never really work. With each criminal he locks up, there will always be more tomorrow. It is a war of attrition and he is losing. But all of these stories all show the good side of Batman. Robin tells the story of the man he looked up to, showing Batman as a symbol of hope and good. He died fighting a T-Rex or something. That part represents the golden-age Batman, who was absurd.

Clayface's story and my favorite story is about a page long and is made up entirely of the quote in the beginning of the article. This shows Batman’s inner humanity. The reason he never kills is because he holds human life very dear. Human life is inherently good and worth protecting at all costs. He will lay down his life if it means saving one person. Even if it is a clay monster. WHTTCC is the greatest comic book of all time not because it deconstructs the medium. It does that. But it shows why this medium is so long-lasting. Watchmen tells us why superheroes are bad. WHTTCC shows us why superheroes are worth aspiring to.