So I just finished Preacher (Alamo spoilers)

[Clayton James]

And its one of the most amazing runs I've completed. Right up there with just about anything.

One thing bugged me though:



Spoiler Space











When Jesse and Cassady are duking it out in Alamo, Jesse says that he is going to "show [Cassady] what its like to be helpless and beat on" and then proceeds to pummel him to a pulp before Cassady gets a good hit in a crushes his sternum.

Kay, so I know why Jesses says this and I get why and everything...

But Cassady has taken SOOOOO much punishment in this comic.

He's gotten his HEAD chopped off.

He's gotten shot through the chest into sunlight.

And lets not forget that when he was held prisoner by the Grail, he was kept in that arena for weeks, getting his groin, arm, and leg shot off, COMPLETELY HELPLESS.

So its a great sentiment, but even in the course of 3 years or so, Cassady HAS known what its like to be completely helpless.

And, furthermore, you'd think that he would be better at taking punishment seeing as he HAS taken much more punishment in this comic.

There are dozens of instances where he gets stabbed, shot, burnt, etc. and barely even acknowledges it. Hell, he stabbed himself through the neck voluntarily and didn't even make a sound.

From that one issue, from Jesse's speach AND from Cassady's reaction, you would think that he has never been hurt throughout the course of his life, let alone the 66 issue run of Preacher.

I loved everything else about the ending, but that part just seemed a little odd to me. The encounter itself isn't even the issue, its just the dialogue on both sides.



Other than that, beautiful, beautiful comic. Between this and Hitman, Ennis has blown me away this past year.

[DeluxeVoltron]

i think maybe it was the fact that the one person he had ever looked up to and believed in was striking him with true hatred and contempt. a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea. it wasnt just a physical beatdown.

[majorjoe23]

I think a big part of it was also that Jesse wanted to beat Cassidy in a fair fight. Yeah, all those thing sucked, but Cassidy had his healing factor to fall back on. Jesse wanted to give him an old fashioned beating.

[c. page]

i think maybe it was the fact that the one person he had ever looked up to and believed in was striking him with true hatred and contempt. a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea. it wasnt just a physical beatdown.


I think a big part of it was also that Jesse wanted to beat Cassidy in a fair fight. Yeah, all those thing sucked, but Cassidy had his healing factor to fall back on. Jesse wanted to give him an old fashioned beating.

agree with both of these. i don't think cassidy had been beaten in a fist fight over the course of the series, and jesse delivered on that one.

[thatguyfromsyracuse]

I agree with all of the above. And, getting the hell beaten out of you by your best friend definetly plays into being "helpless".

[Patrick King]

I agree with all the comments about being beaten down by your best friend. THAT is feeling helpless.

And yeah, Preacher is probably my favorite comic series of all time. I love how under all the grit and gore and obscenity is a TON of heart. I need to get my own copies and re-read it again sometime...

[DeluxeVoltron]

I agree with all the comments about being beaten down by your best friend. THAT is feeling helpless.

And yeah, Preacher is probably my favorite comic series of all time. I love how under all the grit and gore and obscenity is a TON of heart. I need to get my own copies and re-read it again sometime...

im kind of afraid to re-read it. the first time around i was in high school and going through my bible-belt rebellion and deep in my obsession with masculinity as a virtue. im afraid if i read it now it will have a juvenile feel to it, and i may be better off just remembering the joy of it through that youthful lens.

[Patrick King]

im kind of afraid to re-read it. the first time around i was in high school and going through my bible-belt rebellion and deep in my obsession with masculinity as a virtue. im afraid if i read it now it will have a juvenile feel to it, and i may be better off just remembering the joy of it through that youthful lens.
I dunno, I first read it two years ago (I was 21 at the time), and was blown away by it. It felt really mature at the time, and I'm sure would still hold up for me. The bit that made the whole series for me was the bit in volume 2 when Jesse's father tells him he "needs to be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad." That part really helped reinforce those sorts of life ideals to me.

[c. page]

im kind of afraid to re-read it. the first time around i was in high school and going through my bible-belt rebellion and deep in my obsession with masculinity as a virtue. im afraid if i read it now it will have a juvenile feel to it, and i may be better off just remembering the joy of it through that youthful lens.

i dunno. i was 18 or 19 when i started reading it. now, roughly 10 years later, it still holds up for me.

if it was just about the gore and obscenity and all that, i could totally see your point. but, like patrick said, under it all is a book with a lot of heart. plus, it made me love westerns again.

[NickKicksAssTomorrow]

man, i was 16 or 17 when this series ended and barely started to get into Vertigo and indie books at the time and man, I loved this series. I think I was at an impressionable age, but it really cemented my love for the sequential artform. Between this and Transmetropolitian, Vertigo was the pinnacle of the comic art form for me at that time.

[Blandy vs Terrorism]

i dunno. i was 18 or 19 when i started reading it. now, roughly 10 years later, it still holds up for me.

if it was just about the gore and obscenity and all that, i could totally see your point. but, like patrick said, under it all is a book with a lot of heart. plus, it made me love westerns again.

*bing*

[tim nixon]

i believe it holds up. i read the run about once a year, and the only thing that loses its impact for me is the tulip/cassidy bullshit. it feels tired in a reread for me, although the impact on jesse and cassidy's is important.