Skip to main content

Garth Ennis' PREACHER!!!

Well, I've been reading this on and off for about 4 months, but last week, I hunkered down and finished off the series. Yes, the critically acclaimed Preacher. The series was originally released 1995 under the Vertigo imprint (probably my favourite publisher I'd say). It was written by Garth Ennis with the artwork by Steve Dillon.

The story follows a southern preacher named Jesse Custer who becomes possessed by a spirit called Genesis; an ungodly creation through the mating of an angel and demon. Because the being is composed of pure good and pure evil, there is a fear that it's stronger than even God himself. Upon it's conception, I guess God was pissed and just left Heaven. Jesse is joined by his assassin girlfriend, Tulip, and an Irishman vampire, Cassidy, who embark on a journey across America to find God. Of course, being the most powerful man on Earth, many people are also after Jesse for their own nefarious purposes.

What Ennis does good in this series is developing the three main characters. We're given a lot of insight into their characters as well as their histories. The characters are very rich and varied. I think the problem I had with this series is the plot. As you read the series, there's a sense that it's building up to this huge event, but at the end there is no real payoff. Stuff kinda happens and becomes quite anti-climatic. I think what hurt was that there wasn't really an adversary to Jesse Custer that was an equal. There were some bad guys, but you always knew that Jesse would kick their butts which defeats the point of a conflict.

I guess because of the nature of the story, sometimes as a Christian, it felt offensive. Not the WHAT-THE-FUCK-type of offensiveness, but more of a WHY-WOULD-YOU-DO-THAT-type of offensiveness. Mostly it's due to Jesse's "fuck you, God" attitude and his trying to intimidate God that threw me off. But I wasn't offended enough to stop reading it, so maybe it's just a minor concern.

The way that the story plays out is very cinematic and not too over the top for a comic book. Ennis himself has stated that this could easily become a movie or a TV series of some sort. And for the past 10 years, that's what studios have been trying to do. One of the biggest proponents for this project is Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) who was trying to create the series for HBO. The deal unfortunately fell through late last year because they found the material too dark and religiously controversial... I thought anything goes on HBO?

Now that I'm done Preacher, I started reading the ongoing Wolverine Origins series. It's okay so far. One crazy thing is that the artist on that series is also Steve Dillon. What the heck were the chances? I'm reading two series back to back by the same artist and completely unintentionally.

That's it for now. Until next time. Later geeks!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE ARTIST!!!!!!!

The Artist is director Michael Hazanavicius ode to the silent films of yesteryear. Not only focus on a silent movie actor and movie making, but it in itself is also a silent movie. The movie follows a silent movie actor named George Valentin through the rise and fall of his career. At the start of the film, we see George as this superstar celebrity; he loves the glitz and glamour of being a famous actor and soaks in all the attention he can get. He loves having his photos taken and being adorned on the front pages of newspapers. He is THAT kind of celebrity. At the premiere event of his latest movie, he bumps into one Peppy Miller – a young woman with big ambitions and dreams in Hollywoodland. The lives of the two intersect and an attraction immediately blossoms. The romance could only go so far as Valentin is a (happily?) married man. George’s superstardom reaches its height at a precarious time. And as the 1920s are ushered out, so are silent movies. The new decade brings w...
1 comment
Read more

The League of Denial (2013)

The topic of concussions in sports is a dialogue that’s been growing the past number of years.  Do a search on ‘concussions’ and ‘football’ and you’ll get several thousand hits on the controversy that’s surrounded the sport.  It’s a challenging topic as the research is all relatively new, and the topic itself challenges the mentality and philosophy adopted by football loving Americans.  Now, I’m not a fan of football or NFL but when I saw this book lying at the local bookstore, my interest was piqued.  Although I’m not a fan of football, those that know me know that I’m an unabashed fan of prowrestling.  Talks about concussions are also quite a hot topic even within the prowrestling sub-culture.  Earlier this year, one of the hottest wrestlers of the current era, Daniel Bryan, retired early at the age of 34 due to a history of concussion related issues.  Interestingly, he was not permitted to return to the ring due to the disapproval by WWE’s medic...
1 comment
Read more

Finally, the Xbox 360!!

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I received an Xbox 360 for Christmas from my dad. A great present it was! I've had 3 weeks to enjoy it so I guess I can give you my impressions of it now. First the controller. In truth, I haven't felt a controller this comfortable in my gaming life before. As a child who grew up on the 8-bit generation, with just a directional pad and 2 buttons, there was quite a learning curve getting used to using two analog sticks at the same time. You might say, "Hey Lam, how bout the PS2? You have that machine, and that has analog sticks". True, but of the twenty or so games I have for that, all of them used either only 1 analog stick, or allowed the option to switch on to the directional pad. Using 2 sticks at the same time was at first just uncomfortable. This made for all sorts of trouble as I was playing Gears of War . Luckily for me, I had computer controlled teammates that watched my back. I love the Media Center capabilities...
6 comments
Read more