Title: Preacher: Book 1
Author(s) Name(s): Garth Ennis
Published in: July, 2009
Why You Might Like This Book: Read this book if you enjoy
- bold satire,
- an anti-theist perspective,
- questioning blind faith and social norms,
- fast-paced action and adventure, and
- dark supernatural fiction.
Who Should Avoid This Book: Avoid this book if you are triggered by or dislike
- violence, assault, murder, and torture,
- a lot of cussing and frequent use of vulgar language,
- blasphemy or dark comedy, or
- grief and loss.
Preacher is a dark fantasy, supernatural action comic book series published under the Vertigo series by DC Comics, written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Steve Dillon. To begin with, the illustrations are really good and there is a lot of foul language (consider yourself warned)! Reverend Jesse Custer is a preacher at the church in the small town of Annville. He was a man of crime in the past, he is a skilled fighter trained in combat to fight against many people at once, and he has a dark past in Angelville that he does not talk about, but he left that life when he developed his faith and moved to Annville to become a preacher. One day, a supernatural, divine power called “Genesis”, an entity that is born of both goodness and evil, attacks his church, on that day when almost every resident of Annville had surprisingly shown up to the church, killing everyone there except for Jesse, who is the sole survivor of that explosion. Genesis was seeking a human being to bond with and it chose Jesse because he was the perfect balance of good and evil. This attack gives Jesse superpowers, mainly “the Word of God”, which compels any listener to obey whatever Jesse commands them to do, making him just as powerful or even more powerful than God himself.
Tulip O’Hare is Jesse Custer’s ex-girlfriend, a hitwoman skilled with using guns. The two used to engage in illegal activities together; she was his partner in crime. They were in a relationship for a year and a half, until Jesse decided to change his nature and his ways, so he left her and the town to move to Annville. Cassidy, on the other hand, is a hard-drinking, weird, Irish guy who is highly sarcastic, carefree, and cusses a lot. Tulip accidentally meets him while she escapes from a group of people who target her and Cassidy gives her a ride, she drives them to Annville while escaping from those who are after her, only to find the place filled with dead bodies, and she is surprised to see Jesse, her ex-boyfriend there. As Tulip and Cassidy watch, Jesse is able to control several cops who are about to shoot him by just using his words. Instead of killing him, they follow his orders and drop their guns.
The three of them – Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy walk into a bar and they start talking about all that has happened. Jesse explains to them that he himself is not aware of what is happening to him, that he feels like something else has gotten into his head and is taking over him. Tulip does not want to cut it off with him without knowing why he left her earlier, Cassidy realizes that Jesse is extremely powerful, so the two of them stick by Jesse’s side. During a fight outside the bar, where some locals try to bully Jesse and they start fighting, Jesse and Tu;ip witness Cassidy biting and sucking the blood out of a man’s neck, which is when he tells them that he is not a mortal human being but a vampire. That should explain his weird behaviour of not showing up under the sun, lying on the back of his truck, covered completely, during the day time, wearing dark sun glasses to cover his eyes throughout the day, and so on.
In parallel, there is the Saint of Killers, a supernatural entity who is immortal and unstoppable, someone filled with hate, who replaced the Angel of Death, is tasked by Heaven to kill Jesse Custer. The cops, Jesse, and Jesse’s friends are aware of his superpowers, but Jesse can still use his Word of God power to get him to reveal who sent him. It is understood then that the angels sent him, as an angel from Adephi himself appears before all of them and admits the truth. Jesse knows that the angel is keeping a secret from him, so when he forces the angel to reveal that, Jesse learns that when Genesis was born, God left Heaven and never went back. the angel explains that this is why they wanted to get ahold of Genesis again because the entity is as powerful as God himself, that God himself seemed to be scared of it, and they cannot afford to have the Genesis out in the world because the person who hosts the powerful entity could misuse their powers and also find out the truth that God left Heaven. This is when Jesse vows to use his power, saying he will do whatever it takes to go find God and confront God to get Him to explain his actions and his irresponsible nature.
There are plenty of other important characters as well, including a cop named Root, his son whose face gets disfigured badly when he attempted to shoot himself and is now called “arseface” for how ugly he looks, Jesse’s imaginary friend from his childhood days who gives him advice, a couple of cops working to find a criminal, a serial-killer nicknamed Reaver-Cleaver, Jesse’s own parents and others he grew up with, and so on.
Preacher is a very interesting story featuring a strong, supernatural anti-hero, questioning the ideas of faith, morality, and divinity. This is a unique story, as it is not just about vigilantes fighting against evil forces using superpowers, like it happens in most superhero comics, but about a man who balances in himself a mix of good and evil, struggling with faith, questioning God. This unique idea in the world of comic books, a kind of deconstructive satire by Garth Ennis and the brilliant art work in these comic books are what made Preacher quite popular. The graphic novel is built around many themes like standing up for yourself, being a good-hearted person in a world full of evil people, why it is important to judge people by their character and not be fooled by appearances, why it is important to have self-control and not abuse your power even if and when you can, dark past, trust, courage, self-doubt, manipulation, friendship, and love.
Through this book, the author raises many questions about morality, belief, faith, and justice, showing how characters, both supernatural and human, who are supposedly good hide a lot of bad traits, and how characters who receive hate in the eyes of society can be good at heart. This is one of those books that got both very good reviews and a lot of fans and also a lot of criticism for blasphemy, perversion, vulgar language, misogyny, homophobia, and violence. For those who can ignore the negative aspects, there is a lot of creativity and dark fiction to be appreciated. Those who are religious might find this book deeply disturbing. This means that how this book is rated is very subjective!
If you like dark fantasy and anti-hero stories but you would prefer something far less intense and far less violent, then you might enjoy the novel Vicious.
