So, it’s here, it’s been all over social media already and it’s whet a few appetites out there – my own included. This trailer did just enough for me as a Preacher fan to get me interested. It’s shown the main character, Jesse (played by Howard Star-umm, Dominic Cooper) and gives a teensy bit of information about his character. He’s, well, as the title suggests, a Preacher, but one with a muddy past. It shows us some flashes of action, snippets of another main character, Cassidy (played by Joe Gilgun) but some of you may have been sat there wondering “It looks good, but what is Preacher exactly?”
Well, I’m glad you asked!
Preacher was a serialised comic first published back in 1995, written by Garth Ennis who most of you will know for his work with Marvel as their best Punisher writer, but also from his stint writing Hellblazer, the Constantine comic. Ennis brings his buddy, Steve Dillon, along for the ride with his artwork, and Preacher also had painted issue covers by the very talented Glenn Fabry. It was published by Vertigo comics (now a part of the wider DC multiverse) and ran for 75 issues.
Our main character, Jesse Custer, is as I said earlier, a Preacher on the run from his dark past. Now, if you don’t want any spoilers before watching the upcoming TV series, stop reading now.
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Have they gone? Good.
Jesse is possessed. Inside him, there is an entity known as Genesis, the spawn of an Angel and a Demon doing the nasty which, subsequently, made God resign and vanish and when Genesis entered Jesse, his whole church exploded and it killed his entire congregation… They don’t teach you about that in Sunday school!
Jesse has “the Word of God”, which he can use occasionally, thanks to Genesis. This compels whoever he speaks to while using it to listen and carry out whatever command he gives, which does make for some very interesting scenarios (at one point, he tells someone to literally go f**k themselves; let’s see them do that in the show!).
Along the way, we meet Cassidy. Cassidy is a Vampire. No sparkles here, just a regular, tear your throat, drink your blood vampire… Oh, he’s also Irish, and an alcoholic. Cassidy’s fun! We don’t see a lot of Cassidy in the trailer, but knowing Joe Gilgun and his style of characterisation I genuinely think that this series will have a very faithful representation of the loveable Irish sucker.
This bundle of beauty is Tulip O’Hare. In the TV adaptation, Tulip is being played by Ruth Negga, who you will recognise as another Marvel regular from her portrayal of Raina in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Tulip is Jesse’s primary love interest and is an expert marksman. Markswoman? Marksperson? She shoots super good! Tulip is a very interesting character because, again, spoiler warning in the comics, she dies very early on. But it’s ok, she gets resurrected, by God no less. This adds more intrigue, seeing as He’s seemingly flown the coop.
Tulip brings a very human element to this tale of creatures and supernatural conflict; she is the woman with nothing left to lose, until her love for Jesse is rekindled and….well let’s just say there’s a very good story arc with Tulip that I don’t want to spoil for you just yet, if the TV show covers it.
Now, this chap did not appear in this new trailer but I am very interested to see how the show presents him as this is my favourite character, the Saint of Killers. No, that’s not a title. That’s his name; Saint of Killers. He is an immortal force of cosmic balance, the quickest draw and the finest shot on heaven and earth. He’s after Custer and will stop at nothing to put a bullet in the preacher man. (And technically, he’s not even one of the bad guys)
In short, I really enjoy Preacher as a comicbook series, and if you haven’t given it a look and you like gritty, mid-west, supernatural action stories with some very heavy religious satire then this is definitely one to check out. If the TV series takes even half of the source material from the comics then we as an audience are in for one hell of a ride, pun wholly intended.
I for one can’t wait.
Until next time!
