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Preacher
Due to a colossal screw-up in heaven, cowboy-drunkard-preacher Jesse Custer has merged with an entity that could give God a run for His money. Hunted by the legendary Saint of Killers and the mysterious organization known as the Grail, Jesse, his vampire buddy Cassidy and his hitman girlfriend Tulip are going to hunt down God and give him what-for.
Somewhere along the line—probably after his successful run on Hellblazer—Garth Ennis started believing his own hype and stopped being edited. Now, his raw work is still better than Frank whoreswhoreswhores Miller and more comprehensible than Grant Morrison, but it generally tends to fall back on his favorite standbys to fill pages. And those standbys are profanity, ludicrously bloody violence, and gay rape.
There are a bunch of shining moments in this: There’s a twisted, abused asshole given incredible cosmic powers who doesn’t really abuse them and remains a likeable protagonist. There’s some heartwarming British-style dudes being bros. There are several attempts (of debatable success) to acknowledge and dig out of ingrained misogyny. There are a lot of interesting theological ideas that he obviously had for Hellblazer but couldn’t use for one reason or another. There’s a lot of clever unpacking of things like therapy and “political correctness”, where characters go on stereotypical rants about them but the reactions to those rants make it clear Ennis doesn’t believe them. Oh, and there’s a storyline where the vampire character meets a group of goths. (It doesn’t go well.)
But there’s also a likely-deliberate attempt to hit every sensitive subject in as over-the-top a way as possible: Religion (obviously). Rape. Date rape. Gay rape. Statutory rape. Cannibalism. Domestic abuse. Child abuse. Animal abuse. The Vietnam war. The troubles in Ireland. Prostitution. Suicide. Nuclear disasters. Alcoholism. Drug abuse. Bestiality. Incest. Physically-deformed children. Terrorism. The Klan. Nazis. Dismemberment. Racism. ‘Murka Fuck Yeah. And pretty much every kind of physical and mental trauma you can imagine.
And it has a recurring character named Arseface. Seriously.
It’s interesting reading it all in a row, since the original comic ran for six years. There are obviously bits and storylines that Ennis inserted after certain characters become popular, and others that he pretty much had to have planned from the beginning. The perception of a main character is radically changed mid-series, and though the development seems feasible, the execution is spotty. And while the finale resolves things moderately well, it also leaves a couple of gigantic hanging threads.
Overall: After having it on the shelf for years, I’m glad I finally read it to get a sense of what the fuss was about, but I don’t think I’d re-read it, and I think Ennis does better when someone reels him in a little. (He did a bunch of really fabulous Midnighter comics, for example; and the seminal run on Hellblazer.) And if you’ve ever been concerned about a “trigger warning”, this comic is NOT for you.
Somewhere along the line—probably after his successful run on Hellblazer—Garth Ennis started believing his own hype and stopped being edited. Now, his raw work is still better than Frank whoreswhoreswhores Miller and more comprehensible than Grant Morrison, but it generally tends to fall back on his favorite standbys to fill pages. And those standbys are profanity, ludicrously bloody violence, and gay rape.
There are a bunch of shining moments in this: There’s a twisted, abused asshole given incredible cosmic powers who doesn’t really abuse them and remains a likeable protagonist. There’s some heartwarming British-style dudes being bros. There are several attempts (of debatable success) to acknowledge and dig out of ingrained misogyny. There are a lot of interesting theological ideas that he obviously had for Hellblazer but couldn’t use for one reason or another. There’s a lot of clever unpacking of things like therapy and “political correctness”, where characters go on stereotypical rants about them but the reactions to those rants make it clear Ennis doesn’t believe them. Oh, and there’s a storyline where the vampire character meets a group of goths. (It doesn’t go well.)
But there’s also a likely-deliberate attempt to hit every sensitive subject in as over-the-top a way as possible: Religion (obviously). Rape. Date rape. Gay rape. Statutory rape. Cannibalism. Domestic abuse. Child abuse. Animal abuse. The Vietnam war. The troubles in Ireland. Prostitution. Suicide. Nuclear disasters. Alcoholism. Drug abuse. Bestiality. Incest. Physically-deformed children. Terrorism. The Klan. Nazis. Dismemberment. Racism. ‘Murka Fuck Yeah. And pretty much every kind of physical and mental trauma you can imagine.
And it has a recurring character named Arseface. Seriously.
It’s interesting reading it all in a row, since the original comic ran for six years. There are obviously bits and storylines that Ennis inserted after certain characters become popular, and others that he pretty much had to have planned from the beginning. The perception of a main character is radically changed mid-series, and though the development seems feasible, the execution is spotty. And while the finale resolves things moderately well, it also leaves a couple of gigantic hanging threads.
Overall: After having it on the shelf for years, I’m glad I finally read it to get a sense of what the fuss was about, but I don’t think I’d re-read it, and I think Ennis does better when someone reels him in a little. (He did a bunch of really fabulous Midnighter comics, for example; and the seminal run on Hellblazer.) And if you’ve ever been concerned about a “trigger warning”, this comic is NOT for you.