by Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon (Illustrator)
Publisher: Vertigo
Format: Paperback
Genre: Horror Fantasy
Release Date: 1st January, 1996
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Jesse, Tulip and vampire Cassidy head to a seedy party. Cassidy ends up mistaken for Jesse and kidnapped by The Grail, resulting in Jesse and Tulip heading to France to rescue him. And we get the story of how Cass was turned into a vampire, along with some backstory for Jesse’s dad.
My biggest regret here is not rereading book 1 before diving into this. There’s a lot of characters to keep track of, and though the majority are memorable enough I didn’t need a refresher, some of the stuff that plays into various characters’ backstories would have been good to be reminded of.
Preacher is very much a) of its time and b) a Garth Ennis book. No dislike/shade to Ennis, but the guy goes very much in for shock for shock’s sake, demonstrated largely here with the party at the start and certain characters’ physical appearances. In 2026, it makes for…unpleasant reading at times, but thankfully the overall story and backgrounds we get here make up for that somewhat.
It is an intriguing tale, as Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy find themselves facing off against some pretty damn powerful people. Just to dip into another “of its time” element though, I really dislike Tulip’s character here. I get it, to a point – she’s strong, self-sufficient, more than capable of looking after herself, but her constantly trying to claim Jesse is sexist because he wants her to remain behind gets old fast. No, Tulip, it’s not because you’re a woman, it’s because for one, Jesse loves the shit out of her and doesn’t want to see her hurt, two, both Jesse and Cassidy have powers of some sort that make them more capable of handling the situation and three, I get so frustrated at this trope in general when the weaker party is going to do nothing more than hold the stronger ones back. Yes, Tulip needs to sit this one out, because otherwise Jesse (and likely Cassidy if they can free him) will be distracted trying to protect her, because, again, they are stronger. Not more capable, but Jesse has a very useful power up his sleeve and Cass is, well, a vampire. The other issue here is that Tulip isn’t really given much to do! Her character ends up feeling really flat throughout, which is a huge shame, especially compared to her TV counterpart.
Okay, moving on from the negativity. What I really liked here was Jesse bumping into an old army friend of his dad’s and finding out more about their time in Vietnam (I could go into a whole thing about the hold Vietnam has on American culture in general, and separately, I could talk for ages about how Ennis, as someone from outside the USA, seems incredibly skilled at tapping into American culture and both admiring and satirising it). We also get the story for how Cass got turned, which was an interesting if bit slow tale. I liked the way the book overall ended, though.
So, in summary, Preacher, Book 2 isn’t quite as good as Book 1 – too much trying to be edgy, Tulip becoming particularly annoying – but where it’s good, it’s really good. The overall story of The Grail is pretty interesting in parts, too, and we get more celestial action and deeper worldbuilding. If you read Book 1, I wouldn’t see any reason to not continue with the series with 2.
Unwrapping Words 