Preacher Vol. 4: Ancient History

Holy crap! The Saint's story was even better than I imagined!

I mean, we're getting into some great ghost story stuff, but add a mountain of steroids and a man that both the Angel of Death and Satan, himself, is scared shitless of, and we've got Keyser Söze, or um, I mean, the Saint of Slaughter. :) Hell of a good story.

Someone in Supernatural has been cribbing from this comic. :)

And now that I know so much more about this guy, I can't believe that everyone got off so light, before. :)

The love triangle bull almost made me stop reading but the battle in Monument Valley was worth any trite tropery. Plus the continued unflinching looks at gender politics is applause-worthy. Hooray, Tulip!

Bueno, Preacher en su linea, y eso que no me suelen gustar estos tomos de "origin stories". Aquí tenemos la del Santo de los Asesinos, que es la que ocupa la mayor parte del volumen. Ninguna de las historias es particularmente novedosa: la del Santo es una historia de venganza más o menos corriente, salvo que tiene infiernos que se congelan y cosas así, y la de Caraculo es la del joven inadaptado e inútil que no sirve ni para suicidarse. La de los trabajadores de la abuelita de nuestro predicador es la más original por esa subversión del héroe y la heroína de acción, y por que revientan a palos a un gorila, que creo que no lo había visto nunca.

No es brillante, pero si algo demuestra Preacher es que es de una calidad show more consistente. Consistentemente buena, por suerte. show less

This is my least favorite book of the series so far. It was the back stories of the Saint of Killers, Arseface, Jody, and T.C. Enough with the killing for its own sake! Let’s get back to the story of Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy which was the hook for me in the beginning. I did feel sympathy for Arseface, but the other two stories were too gruesome for me.

We take a break from the regular storyline of the series to tell the backstory of some of the more colourful characters in the series.

First up is the SAint of Killers, who was apparently an American civil-war era man until he died during a vengeance-inspired massacre and wound up trading plcaes with the Angel of Death. Kind of a strange happenstance if you ask me, but it was entertaining none the less!

We also get backstory on the former-sherrif's son (the one with the mangled face). It sounds like he's going to get thrown back into the mix soon enough, since he's hunting the man who killed his father, and I highly doubt that the Saint will tolerate that.

The last story is about those psychotic rednecks Jody and T.C. Unfortunately, show more they're painted as the heroes of the story, which is infinitely annoying knowing what bad men they actually are... show less

We take a break from the regular storyline of the series to tell the backstory of some of the more colourful characters in the series.

First up is the SAint of Killers, who was apparently an American civil-war era man until he died during a vengeance-inspired massacre and wound up trading plcaes with the Angel of Death. Kind of a strange happenstance if you ask me, but it was entertaining none the less!

We also get backstory on the former-sherrif's son (the one with the mangled face). It sounds like he's going to get thrown back into the mix soon enough, since he's hunting the man who killed his father, and I highly doubt that the Saint will tolerate that.

The last story is about those psychotic rednecks Jody and T.C. Unfortunately, show more they're painted as the heroes of the story, which is infinitely annoying knowing what bad men they actually are... show less

"Preacher" is a graphic novel series that follows the footseps of the three very different characters - Jesse Custer (a former Reverend and vassal of the mysterious entity Genesis, which may be more powerful than God), Tulip (once a flame of Custer's), and Cassidy (a vampire), as they get into adventures in Jesse's search to find God.

Volume Four of this series is a compilation of back stories for several characters who have appeared in the series. We have The Saint of Killers, Arseface (does LibraryThing have a swear block or not?) and Jody and TC, who were bodyguards of Jesse Custer's mother. However, the preludes are best appreciated with the background knowledge of the first three stories.

The first two stories (the Saint of Killers show more and Arseface) are both quite well-done, and are well-worth reading. They both expand upon the characters of the series, they change our understanding of the characters. They also feature much of what is enjoyable of the previous books of Ennis's gaphic novel series - the dark humour, and the explicit violence. Both of these are worth five out of five stars.

However, the third story, "Good Old Boys" is something of an anomaly here. The two characters of the third story are dead, so their back story (particularly since it does not involve any other novel characters) is irrelevant to the current progression of the story. Another major contrast to the first two stories is that there is no character development - Jody is a cunning and vicious thug at the start of the book, T. C. is still a depraved sadist, and nothing has changed at the end of the book. And, although "Good Old Boys" seems to be a satire, it doesn't say anything particularly interesting or insightful about the type of story it satires, nor is a satire fitting with the rest of the stories that have occured in the series. The story that is told here is quite different to the rest of the stories in this series, but the difference is not of any interest.

Unfortunately, the third story in this comic brings down the rating of this book when the first two comics were both quite worthy reading. show less