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Saint of Killers

This one basically tries to show us that the Saint is a good guy, well, a good guy in Preacher terms. Long though, so bear with me - there's a lot of plot to get through. Starts off with your man heading into town across the Llano in a blizzard so as to fetch some medicine for his sick family. The guy (he never does get a name - No, we're not back onto them Clint Eastwood films where he just ends up as The Man With No Name in about 3 of them?! God, I really hate that), heads into town, and after a delay because the doctor in Ratwater (place with a name like that just spells trouble), he's heading back home. He comes across a group of pioneers that he met earlier and were kind to him, except they're being scalped by a posse of Indian-fighters trying to collect bounties on Indian scalps. The Man With No Name fights some of the posse, and they escape, having shot his horse and so stranded him on the Llano. So our hero is left with a 2-week walk back home, and by the time he arrives the crows are snacking out on his wife and daughter. His wife seems to be Cora Munroe from Last of The Mohicans, as when she is rescued from a bunch of Indians she decides to stay with the rough frontiersman who saves her, despite the warnings of the towns people that he is a killer. Still, we're keeping up with The Man With No Name thing as even she doesn't seem to address him as anything but 'husband'. They have a nice little daughter, and a dog, and are just your typical pioneer family in a log cabin (I just wished that Little House on The Prairie had turned out like this one!), until the day comes when the get The Fever. Having buried his family (back to Josey Wales again I'm afraid), The Man With No Name heads out to wreak revenge on those who delayed his return with the medicine. The guy arrives in Ratwater, and starts to kill off as many of them as possible. He's just about to kill MacReady, the leader of the posse, but MacReady takes a barmaid hostage and so when the The Man With No Name shoots her, he damns himself. With his enemy now in sight, the guy runs out of bullets, and is promptly killed by a spade through the ribcage, and he dies with the hope that he could live for just one moment longer so as to kill MacReady. Shot straight into hell, he's heading for damnation. The Devil and Saint of Killers, Azrael, are playing poker when suddenly Old Nick notices it's getting cold - and yes, the fires of hell have gone out, and it's snowing (but no, Satan doesn't go to work on a snow-mobile). Lucifer is furious, and goes to see our hero when he realises that the guy is still consumed by hate. Satan demands that he stops it, and when the guy says he can't, the Devil hangs him up and tries to whip the hate out of him. When the skin is hanging off the guy's bones, and he still can't stop hating, Old Nick realises he's defeated and hell is finished. Azrael, however, recognises that this could be useful, and asks if The Man With No Name would be willing to take over his job as the Saint of Killers, answerable only to God, which would also allow him to take his revenge. The guy agrees, and Azrael melts down his sword to make a pair of Colts, while Satan stitches the guy back together. As the Saint steps out of hell the fires return, and he turns right round and shoots Lucifer, before heading out for Ratwater. Back in the town, MacReady is dying from the wounds he got from the Saint, and things are falling apart. Then the Saint arrives, and kills him, only he doesn't stop there - he goes on to massacre every man, woman and child in the town. With his revenge complete, the Saint goes to the rattlesnake den where his coffin has been prepared. His soul wandered the earth collecting the souls of killers, while his body waited for the day when he would be needed again.

This one was absolutely fucking great. It answers some of the questions about the Saint, and shows he was a person, and a fairly decent one at that, once. I know it rips off a hell of a lot of other things, but since Josey Wales is one of my favourite films I didn't mind that too much. Stands to reason too; killers would need a patron saint more than anyone else, and what one hell of a saint - real change from those mealy mouthed bastards and their bloody miracles. I ever need a saint, I'd want me one that's 'rattlesnake mean' and carrying a pair of Colts.

Comments by Cassandra Courtney

The Good Old Boys

This is the story of just another event in the odd rather inbred lives of those 'Good Old Boys' Jody and TC. The thing about Preacher is that although you don't exactly relax into it, it becomes a bit like an old friend - you think you know what is likely to happen, and there's no way its gonna shock you, and I have a horrible suspicion that Ennis just wanted to put in whatever he knew would shock, scare or make you cringe. This comic goes for extremes, you have TC getting ready to screw a fish, and a reference that he did the same to Jesse's birthday cake - God did that make me squirm! You get the compulsory blood and guts as Jody beats a gorilla to death with a baseball bat then sticks the bat up someone's arse. Then you start to wonder if they've reformed when they save a woman and a macho guy from a group of international terrorists, but no, its just because Jody likes the look of the woman. There follows a rather odd night as Jody and the woman screw their time away, as does TC and the guy's dog. Ho hum. The terrorists appear, still trying to get the two and while they are captured and the guy tortured by the terrorist leader (who I think is supposed to be Saddam), but are neatly disposed of by them good ole boys. There follows a happy ending as Jody and the woman (and TC and the guys dog) go off happily into the swamp, leaving the guy to be eaten by Waylon the gator. Odd one this, having no real reason to exist other than to shock anyone reading, which considering the readers of this comic is no mean feat. Possibly the most noticeable feature of this comic is that Steve Dillon didn't do the artwork. You can really see this difference. The very nature of comics means that there has to be decent artwork, and Carlos Ezquerra just didn't live up to Dillon's standards. Dillon draws very simply, and uses a lot of colour but Ezquerra tries to go in for too much detail and shading, and it just doesn't work.

Comments by Cassandra Courtney