Customer Reviews

Preacher Vol. 7: Salvation

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simply astounding that some critics feel this the least of the Preacher story arcs to date! Writer Ennis is still perfectly comfortable writing this incredible character in fascinating, if decadent situations. This time out we get to meet Jesse's delightful and utterly enchanting mother, a creature inspired by the painting of Wyeth. Other new enticements include Cindy, the female deputy sheriff; Lorie, the cyclopean girl with an unexpected perspective on the world; Skeeter, the cuddly mongrel whose loyalty and obedience to Jesse proves to be more than merely a life enhancement; and the entirely despicable Odin Quincannon, whose personal perversion intrigues, while it disgusts. Writing such complex characters at this level of sophistication is no easy feat, but Mr. Ennis does so masterfully. Steve Dillon's art perfectly catches the nuances of the characters and their setting. This is truly a virtuoso performance and truly a grand reading experience. Preacher is not for everyone, certainly; but if you love a superb story well told and are not offended by the seamier side of life, there's little better.

Preacher is the flagship Vertigo book, and has been ever since the demise of Sandman and the general dropoff of interest in Hellblazer (another book which Ennis and Dillon are responsible for revitalizing. Salvation is no different from the last 6 graphic novels in terms of quality, but it does offer an interesting departure from the books main theological focus. The story of Rev. Jesse Custer taking over the reigns of the law in small town Texas is definetly new territory for Ennis and Dillon. Ennis' writing as usual is above par, as is the fabulous penciling of Mr. Dillon. The addition of Pamela Rambo as the regular colorist has lent a wonderful atmosphere to the art, each panel seeming all the more real for the wonderful color's and extures she lends to the already immaculate pencils of Dillon. In general, a wonderful read if you've been into the series from the start, and works wonderfully as a jumping in point, although I can't suggest enough reading the entire series. Wonderful job, all around.

Salvation is a detour from the main Preacher storyline. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that there is absolutely nothing new here at all. Custer goes to a small texas town and takes care of the bad guys. So what? In the process, Ennis espouses the same old predictable, tired themes...Be nice to misfits and people who look funny...Nazis are bad, bad bad... Black people should be treated as well as white people. Now there's nothing wrong with these ideas, but it's getting old.

Steve Dillon is a good artist, but his limitations in character drawing is really showing. He is utterly unable to draw unique character faces. The one-eyed woman, for example is just a Cycloped Tulip. Everyones' eyes look alike.

It's still one of the best books going, and definitely worth the read. The requisite weidness and violence is all there.

Out of all 8 of the Preacher collections I truly found this one to be the best. Ennis and Dillon have always been great and though they may have been hard pressed to top War In the Sun, somehow they managed to succeed with a story that brought Reverend Jesse Custer back to his routes. Sure we all love Tulip and Cassidy (well, maybe not so much Cassidy any more) and even though they were abscent from the book, (along with Arseface and Starr) the Salvation storyline was a nice break from main storyline. This book contained all the violence and black humor that Preacher is known for and probably the most twisted villian Ennis has ever come up with. If you are a Preacher fan, this is a must and though the first part of Salvation deviates from the main story line, by the end, you will finally get to find out what happened to Jesse's eye at the end of War in the Sun.

I think this volume is exactly what the series needed. A nice diversion of the things that were going on so far. A little break from the bombastic story it was turning into. But most of all, back to the typical bizarre-humor-action Ennis writing that hasn't been this good since volume 2 (the collection about Jesse's childhood in Angelville).

A little about the story:
After witnessing 'that nasty event' with Cassidy and Tulip (see previous volume "War in the Sun") Jesse turned around and split. He drove into this little in-the-middle-of-nowehere town called "Salvation" and became sherif of it.
There he went to live with Lorie, the sister of his childhood friend Billy-Bob (see volume 2 "Untill the end of the World"), and another woman called Jodie. A woman who will later on in the book turn out to be a lot more than 'just a woman'. Especially for Jesse. The red line in the story is Jesse having his own private war with the local redneck, bigmouthed meatcompany owner. His quest to find God is off for now.
Next to the mentioned things, the gap between 'now' and the moment he fell from the plane gets filled in as well.
There's also another meet-up between Jesse and 'Spaceman', the man who went to Vietnam with Jesse's father. This also makes for another great warstory, Garth Ennis' guilty pleasure.

Next to "Untill the end of the World" this is probably the best collection of the series. It's a little less forced than several of the trades that have gone (shortly) before and Ennis lets himself go to just tell an entertaining story. Some things are uncovered, but never forced. Ennis goes all out putting humor in the clash between Jesse and 'The Meatman'. If you haven't read a Preacher collection yet don't get this though ! Start with "Gone of Texas (volume 1), because with this series it's highly neccesary to read the collections in order.
I'm glad the series has fully restored itself with this collection and the slump only was one trade long (Dixie Fried).

I recently became interested in "Preacher" after reading "Gone to Texas," the first collection of issues. I thought it was a really interesting comic and I was retrospectively sad that I had missed out on it the first time around. After reading the second volume and becoming acquainted with the Grail and the inimitable Herr Starr, I was officially hooked. Garth Ennis's crisp, hilarious dialogue juxtaposed against (generally) serious subject matter in the context of a broader story arc made for a compelling combination of narrative elements that must come together in precisely the right way to work.

Unfortunately, in the seventh volume of "Preacher" graphic novels -- "Salvation" -- the combination is less precise and thus the overall work suffers. "Salvation" deviates from the main story arc of the Grail and Jesse Custer's quest to find God and make him answer for some less than stellar decisions. After the literally explosive events of the preceding collection (in which Starr detonates a nuclear bomb in the American desert in an attempt to kill the Saint of Killers, but succeeds only in separating Custer from Cassidy and Tulip) and Custer's shock and depression at seeing his girlfriend Tulip engaged romantically with his former best friend Cassidy, it was a good call on the part of Ennis to move the action of the story away from the main arc; to both build dramatic tension and to explore other sectors of the characters' personalities and motivations.

The problem is the manner in which Ennis went about this. Salvation, Texas, is a town where things fall into place all too conveniently in the context of the "Preacher" universe. Custer finds his long-lost mother as well as Lorrie, the sister of his one-eyed inbred childhood friend Billy Bob. Custer shakes the town up and quickly becomes sheriff, enraging Odin Quincannon, the more-than-slightly unhinged owner of a meat-processing plant in the neighboring town. The battle between Custer and Quincannon eventually envelops the entire town of Salvation and brings in the Ku Klux Klan, a sadomasochistic female neo-[...] lawyer (who, like every other woman in the "Preacher" saga, finds Jesse Custer irresistable), and sees Odin Quincannon repeatedly have sex with a statue made of meat. In other words, it's something of a jumble that goes on for entirely too long and introduces a ton of rather purposeless characters that we never see again in any meaningful sense (some of them reappear in an issue collected in the final "Preacher" volume called "Alamo"). I think a friend of mine summed it up really well when he said that "Salvation" read more like someone trying really, really hard to sound like Garth Ennis than Garth Ennis himself. Another non-writing complaint is that since this collection is the largest of the bunch, it was printed on stock paper instead of the better looking and more durable glossy paper of the other collections.

This collection isn't bad, but is vastly inferior to the ones that came before it. For the most part, it's skippable, but every "Preacher" completist probably already has it.

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon deliver the goods once again in Salvation, Volume 7 of the Preacher saga. While Salvation does share many of the traits of the previous books, including over-the-top violence, sexuality and language, this book adopts a different tone, as it title character Jesse Custer takes a break from the theologically-charged storyline to serve as Sherrif in the small Texas town that gives the book its title. Along the way, he reunites with a surprise character from his past, battles with one of Ennis' most bizarre villans yet, and dispenses old-fashioned Western justice. Ennis has professed that Preacher is his attempt at writing a modern-day Western, and Salvation is the truest example of that yet. As always, the dialogue and action and never less than entertaining--at times horrific, at times hilarious, at times both--and the art of Steve Dillon is simple but effective, a perfect fit. Salvation ends with a long-awaited confrontation and flashback sequence that set up the series well for what is apparently going to be its concluding storylines. If you are a Preacher fan, or just love good graphic (in all senses of the word) storytelling, don't miss this book! Thanks also to Amazon for shipping it so quickly--it made the effects of Hurricane Floyd a little more bearable!

Seems to be a mixed reaction to this story. Personly I enjoyed it a lot, the new charaters like Jesse's mom and Cindy are very good and Quincannon is a good bad guy so I'm giving it a 4 but I'm geting a very X-files feel to the series. It appears to move without ever going anywhere and if the next one is the same then I going to rate it much lower.

A while ago whilst I was reading reprints of Preacher in a British comic, I came across a letter that said that the latter part of Preacher was getting boring. Rubbish! Absolutely not! Salvation is an excellent read. Yeah like "Ancient History" and "Dixie Fried", it doesnt add much to the ongoing plot elements, but as a standalone story itself it is a cracking read. Those people who go on about Preacher going stale now need their heads testing. Preacher has never been better.

With the feel of a mini-series rather than being part of the on-going series, Salvation is one of the best storylines in the Preacher story. Writer Garth Ennis places his usual black humour, graphic violence and good versus evil themes in a more relaxed tale than regular Preacher readers are used to. The epic, grandiose scale of previous stories such as War In The Sun are replaced by several issues of the monthly comic centered around Jesse Custer's period as sheriff of a small backwoods town named Salvation. Jesse needs to reflect upon the cataclysmic events in his life and step back from the manic lifestyle he had shared with his girlfriend Tulip and best buddy Cassidy, both of whom are not featured directly in this volume. Jesse's influence on Salvation eventually sees the departure of the vile and corrupt local businessman Odin Quincannon and the return to law and order and a safer way of life for the town's citizens. Along the way, Jesse reunites unexpectedly with his mother. He also gives up the chance of a relationship with his attractive female deputy after the realisation that despite everything, he is still in love with Tulip. He shares another conversation with the ghost of John Wayne and, after leaving Salvation, has a drug-induced meeting with God, a truly momentous event that serves to drive forward the next chapter of the Preacher story (featured in the next Preacher graphic novel, All Hell Breaks Loose). The final tale in this volume concentrates on John Custer, Jesse's father, and how he won the Medal Of Honor during the Vietnam War. Although not connected directly to the main Preacher story, it also has the same reflective tone as the Salvation-set tale. Proving that Garth Ennis can write meaningful, less dramatic stories equally as well as his trademark sensationalism, and complimented by regular artist Steve Dillon's outstanding work, Salvation will please all fans of the series. Also included in this volume is my favourite Preacher cover (of issue 45) by cover artist Glen Farby, an outstanding piece of artwork in its own right.