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27: Gunchicks

Starr arrives in San Francisco, head neatly bandaged from his last run-in with Jesse, and in such a good mood that he shoots the radio in the taxi. Jesse and Cassidy are waiting for Tulip to arrive, Jesse fairly certain that he's a dead man, and Tulip surprises them both by appearing happy to see them. She drags Jesse back to the hotel, and seems to be heading for bondage when she pulls out the handcuffs. No, she just secures him to the bed and leaves. A bandaged Starr meets up with a bandaged Featherstone and he gives her a quick run-down of events in Masada, while Tulip meets her friend Amy and they have a girlie day out. Tulip tells Amy how upset she is about being abandoned and Amy tells her to forgive him, and also a lot of pointless rubbish about her last boyfriend. The two of them have a look through a few automatics and they take an Israeli .50 up onto the roof for a bit of target practice. Yep, just another girlie night out. Tulip then goes to the Irish pub that they were to meet Cassidy in, and sure enough he's sitting there rat-arsed. He tells her he loves her, and she gets pissed off and leaves, finally setting Jesse free. Not impressed. Lots of angst, not enough plot.

Comments by Cassandra Courtney

28: Rumors Of War

Okay, Cassidy wakes up outside a dustbin screaming 'I'm the biggest wanker in the entire world!!'. Short, but to the point. Jesse and Tulip are in bed, with Tulip having a go at him for leaving her while he goes off to play the hero. Again. But either way they make up, but when Jesse mentions Cassidy, Tulip gets kind of worked up. Time for a bit of comic relief (no pun intended) as we see Starr, rather sensitive about his head looking like a giant dick, so Featherstone gets him some wigs - It's brilliant, but he just doesn't look right with an Elvis wig! Jesse, meanwhile, puts his powers to good use, and instructs a museum curator to let him smoke (This I liked). Tulip meets her friend Amy while they wait for Jesse and Cassidy to turn up, and when they do Amy takes Jesse off to dance so Tulip can yell at Cassidy for making a pass at her, and consequently letting Jesse down. Just as things are getting really angst-ridden, Starr appears, this time with hats, and he picks himself a nice stylish fedora - I think he should have gone for the bobble hat personally. Back in the bar, Cassidy tries to start a brawl with a perfectly innocent kid, but Jesse stops him from killing the guy, and then gets scared when Cassidy hugs him - now there's an interesting plot we could wander onto... Maybe not. Didn't like this one too much. Our heroes were going in for far too much plot here, and by now Ennis should know that the comics always fail when he tries that. Starr was brilliant, as usual, and I liked his decision to continue his mater-plan of making Jesse the new messiah and then crucifying him, but needed more of him in it to save this one. On second thoughts, nothing could save this one.

Comments by Cassandra Courtney

29: Old Familiar Faces

In a nice little out-of-the-way diner a Red Neck tries to drag off a waitress to rape her, but is stopped by a black-clad biker who pulls out a gun. As the waitress sobs out her thanks, the biker pulls off his helmet, and wahey! It's Arseface! Our heroes are also in a diner, discussing how the whole search for God thing might seem a little odd, an argument that Tulip settles by pushing Cassidy's coffee into the sunlight (which I thought was a bit mean, but I think she's still pissed off at him). Cassidy suggests Voodoo to help Jesse find out more about Genesis, and they're off to New Orleans to find Cassidy's friend who apparently isn't a serial killer that will try and murder them all. How reassuring. Arseface bores a waitress to death with the story of his life, and scares all her customers away, but I love his memory of our heroes - Jesse burning an American flag, Tulip looking like a tart and Cassidy in a 'I Love Libya' T-shirt. Hmm. Meanwhile, our heroes are arguing about music to play, and hating each others taste, until Jesse finds that song from 'Flashdance' on the radio, which scared me, especially since they all seem to like it. They stop at another diner (they seem to live in them) and Jesse gives a long soliloquy about why he loves Texas, completely oblivious of the revenge-seeking biker that walked in. They go outside, and Arseface pulls a gun on them. Back to confusing the reader, and there's a woman shooting an empty gun at a picture of Cassidy, which is how it ends. Nice return to usual here as we're back to a road-trip, something that Ennis seems to excel at. Funny, fast moving and cracking dialogue, and that's what makes Preacher so much fun.

Comments by Cassandra Courtney

30: Good Times Rolling

Kick in the teeth straight away with this one. Mexican stand-off; Arseface has finally caught up with the people who killed his father and has pulled a gun on our heroes. Tulip reacts instantly, pulling out her hand cannon, but Jesse tells her to stop when he sees it's Arseface, and the three crack up laughing. Now, because this is Preacher we can't have too much fun in one episode, so a quick shot of Cassidy's one-eyed girlfriend, who seems to be up to no good. No, lets have the humour back, the three are still laughing, and Arseface starts crying, protesting that Jesse killed his Duh. Jesse and Tulip convince him he doesn't want to shoot them, while Cassidy just rolls about on the ground laughing. They take Arseface away and agree to help him by giving him a lift to New Orleans, something they regret as he starts singing in the truck. They go for a beer and to meet Cassidy's friend, and are spotted by someone, and wahey, its them pesky Enfants du Sang again. Cassidy's friend Xavier (a voodoo obeah) turns up and agrees to help Jesse in his search for God (am I the only one remembering what happened with Simon Coltrane?). With that settled, Jesse, Cassidy and Arseface head out into New Orleans, but Tulip is visited by a few less than friendly Enfants du Sang who she neatly disposes of and orders the only one left to take her to their bat cave. Back to the lads night out, and having discovered Arseface is a virgin, they take him to a brothel (after carefully covering his head in a bag) and go outside to listen to the grunts. It's great - you get more and more grunts, and then all of a sudden 'hey, your bags coming off' and the screaming starts. Hilarious. This is a good one. You got lots of plot, lots of action, and a thousand laughs at the expense of poor old Arseface. Nice one Ennis.

Comments by Cassandra Courtney

31: Underworld

Straight to Les Enfants du Sang, who are all pleased that they've got Tulip, until she takes out that automatic and blasts a few of them away. Jesse, Cassidy and Arseface are still wandering through the city, Arseface feeling great and the other two still smirking, when a live band invites him up to sing. A guy appears, interested in becoming an agent for Arseface, but Jesse and Cassidy are too busy on a long and frankly pointless discussion about Bill Hicks. Jesse is heading back, and finds Tulip waiting for him outside the hotel, seeing as its got a little bit crowded with all the dead bodies and cops that were filling their room. They find Cassidy, who is amazed to discover that Les Enfants du Sang are still around, but none of our heroes see that they are being followed by one of them, they meet up with Xavier and Janis (who for no reason now seems to be white) and learn a bit more about the voodoo ritual Jesse's about to go through - apparently involving a big snake. Cassidy is obviously not that interested and is still trying to get into Tulip's knickers, and Tulip seems less than receptive. Finally, they all head out to the cemetery for a bit of a ritual, still unaware of the tail they've picked up, and we get to meet Luther, Jesse's new scaly friend. Another good one. I have to admit, it's having Arseface in it that gives it the humour, which it really does need because I'm getting more than a little sick of the whole Tulip-Cassidy thing. Dying to know what he does with that there snake!

Comments by Cassandra Courtney

32: Snakes In The Grass

Great Fabry cover here - Jesse cuddling that there snake (although he does look a bit like those weird Preachers who dance around with snakes, but there you go). Xavier tells Jesse that the ritual is fairly simple, which shocks Jesse because his knowledge of Voodoo is based on 'Live And Let Die'. Just as Jesse goes into his trance, he looks at Xavier, and there he is, dressed like Baron Samedi. Elsewhere in the cemetery, Cassidy is getting drunk and Tulip and Janis are discussing how Voodoo seems to be helping her friend Dee fuck-up her ex-boyfriend. No prizes for guessing the link there. Jesse's trance seems to be going rather strangely as he is stuck in a cinema eating popcorn and watching a 'Minds Eye Production' of a film called 'Genesis', starring John Wayne. Les Enfants du Sang are also in the cemetery (busy place this), planning to force Cassidy to drink from them so that they can be real vampires. Jesse is still watching the film, and he learns all about the tragic tale of the Saint of Killers, and works out that God was behind it all. Quick cut to another Cassidy-Tulip argument. Again. Jesse then sees Deblanc and Fiore and realises that he has to let Genesis take control if he is to beat God. Elsewhere, its just a happy party as Janis, Tulip and Cassidy are drinking coffee, until Janis recognises Cassidy as the evil ex-boyfriend from the photo. She rushes off to tell Xavier, muttering 'Dee'. Cassidy hears the name, and chases after her, only to have one of Les Enfants Du Sang leap out and cut his head off. Hilarious bit this - Cassidy's head bounces off towards Tulip and a little voice saying 'help'! Another good one here - ongoing plot with God part, bit of revelation, and an exciting end. Aah, roll on number 33!

Comments by Cassandra Courtney

33: Price Of Night

Straight into it. Tulip dives for cover from mad gunmen, Dee gets shot, and Cassidy gets his head used as a football. Now, this ones got a lot of action, so the review has to get a bit sketchy and give the advice 'read it for yourselves you lazy bastards'. To cut a long story short, Jesse is woken from his trance (I love this guy - he wakes up in the middle of a gun battle, and the first thing he does is grab a fag), sticks the sword up the guys arse, hits Mako (who gets eaten by the angry python), puches another guy, blinds another, bashes someone else's head on a gravestone and retrieves Cassidy's head. It gets funny with Tulip wandering about with a disembodied head, but then Ennis seems to have remembered Janis and we get the whole 'cradling a dead body' scene. We move onto a diner some time later, with Cassidy now complete with a head. Arseface announces that he's going to be a singer thanks to his agent Gene Sergeant. Xavier talks to Tulip and tells her what a bastard Cassidy is because he screwed Xavier's girlfriend, but Cassidy has gone to see Dee. She confesses that she was trying to curse him, then he tells her Janis is dead and she throws him out. Tulip is about to tell Jesse all about Cassidy and what he's been up to, but changes her mind when she finds out that he's planning to stay with Arseface for the chance to make some money. Jesse and Cassidy have a heart-jerking farewell, but then he changes his mind and much to Tulip's disappointment decides to join them on their trip. Back to the cemetery, and there's Xavier, with an empty gun shooting at a picture of, yep, you guessed it, Cassidy. So, he's not really an arsehole, he's just cursed. Well, that's okay then. Neat little wrap-up of Les Enfants Du Sang problem, and ready for more ongoing plot...

Comments by Cassandra Courtney

Cassidy - Blood & Whiskey

I kind of got the impression with this one that they wanted to give a bit of depth to Cassidy's character with the nifty trick of hinting at his past. Nope. What you get is another chance to get the vampire wandering through life and generally enjoying it. It's not bad, actually, just as long as you don't try and take it seriously. Starts off as most things with Cassidy in do - running from the cops (this time due to screwing the local sheriff's wife), getting shot, and killing the 'bad' guys. You get a nifty shot of him without shades, which is quite weird - mainly on account of the fact he doesn't have any eyes. Still, after this introduction to another day in the life of this vampire, you get to meet another vampire, who's just the perfect image of every film vampire - drinking blood from wine glasses and sleeping in a coffin. The vampire - Eccarius, insists on Cassidy staying until he can meet 'Les Enfants du Sang', although Cassidy would rather just stay in the bar, but is dragged away to meet a group of very odd vampire wanna-bees. Cassidy, not impressed, neatly yells them down to size and drags Eccarius off and attempts to correct a few myths by taking him into a Church. Things seem to be going well, especially after a visit to the bar, and a quick spell of mooning at the Goths. However, Cassidy discovers Eccarius in the Church neatly snacking out on one of his followers, and decides enough is enough, crucifies him on the Church roof and waits for the sun to come up, before going back and spending the night with the barmaid. I'm sure Ennis had a point in all this, but I'm not quite sure what it is. Basically, he's saying 'he had a good time', and to be totally honest, we could have worked that out for ourselves. Still, you get the impression that this particular tale isn't ended quite yet (but that's only because I've read the ones later on!).

Comments by Cassandra Courtney