Saturday, December 4, 2021

Absolute Preacher Vol. 2

Absolute Preacher Vol. 2Absolute Preacher Vol. 2 by Garth Ennis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolute Preacher Volume 2 collects Preacher #27-40 plus the Cassidy miniseries, the Saint of Killers miniseries and the specials featuring Starr, Arseface, and Jody & TC.

For a few lean years, Preacher was one of the only comics I read. I've made a few trips to Half Price Books lately in my effort to decrapify the house and somehow ended up with this.

Jesse Custer's quest to find the almighty and take him to task for the sorry state of humanity continues in this volume. Jesse and the gang go up against Starr and the Grail, the Saint of Killers, a vampire cult, and worst of all, a serpent in their midst.

It's been at least fifteen years since I've read these stories and I have to say this volume holds up better than the last one. The first volume relied on shock value a bit too much. This one has better writing and all of the groundwork has already been lain. This one is all meat.

The characters continue to develop. I actually feel a little sorry for Starr on this go-round. He's trying to make order out of chaos and the shit keeps on hitting the fan. Certain aspects hit differently as an adult rather than being twenty-something as I was originally reading it. Cassidy seems like even more of a sleaze now, for instance. Is Preacher Garth Ennis' examination of two American obsessions, namely guns and Jesus? Possibly. It still feels like a majestic modern Western more than anything else.

The Absolute edition makes this seem like seeing a well loved movie on the big screen for the first time after years of only seeing it on television. Steve Dillon's art is more impressive in this format. I wish he'd also drawn all the specials but the man could only do so much, although Carlos Esquierza did a great job and Steven Pugh is always good.

Absolute Preacher volume 2 is absolutely great. Five out of five stars.


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