It was the time of the Preacher. That is the series Preacher written by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. The same team that brought Frank Castle back into the hearts and minds of comic book fans everywhere. But what of their new creation? I am pleased to say that it is as edgy, violent, and entertaining as I expected. For those wondering Preacher is a, shall I say, more adult comic book. I will be going over Preacher #1 in this review.
The issue begins with the introduction of the main character a preacher by the name of Jesse Custer telling his two eclectic friends how his entire town came to be killed. Needless to say it was a supernatural being that did it. Where did this supernatural being come from? Why it escaped from heaven and found itself attached to our main protagonist Jesse. This break out of this supernatural being does not go unnoticed by the powers that be and the Angels are quick to make plans to capture or kill the unleashed threat.
I am generally not a fan of stories about angels and demons, so when I heard that this story has everything to do with angels and demons I was pretty skeptical. It usually takes a good writer to put an interesting spin on the story. It is even harder for a writer to keep such a story from feeling silly and ridiculous. With all this going through my head I was surprised to find that Garth Ennis sets up an intriguing story and this issue that leaves the reader anticipating the next issue. The dialogue is fantastically entertaining and down to earth, which is often hard in supernatural stories such as this one. The characters in a few short lines feel like real people who have experienced something incredible and are in for quite a ride ahead. Garth Ennis does a great job to me of giving characters emotion or in some cases lack of emotion. To some this would seem like a bad thing, but Ennis knows how to control and carefully craft his characters. The point I am trying to make is that this issue is quite well written just as much of Garth Ennis' issues are.
The art in the issue is interesting. Steve Dillon has a way of drawing the characters so all of them have an arrogant look about them. This would usually be a hindrance, but as the characters are all arrogant weasly people that Ennis has written it fits the story very well. My only problem is that some of the characters look very similar. The main characters have their own distinctive look, but the extras that only get a couple of panels all look the same. This can get confusing as the main character talks to different people all of whom look really similar. It is not a big negative on the art, just something that I noticed. Overall the art is very plain, but descriptive and there is a certain beauty to the plainness of the art that makes all the details stand out.
I must admit that I greatly enjoyed reading this story. It left me quite excited for the next issue. Sadly this series has been over for quite some time, but the graphic novels are available. After reading this issue I will definitely be checking these graphic novels out. If you are a fan of Garth Ennis or just more mature comics this is the book for you! |
