I love me some preacher. This is a great moment (though Blood and Whiskey is still my favorite Preacher story just because Cassidy calling the only other vampire he ever met a wanker is too perfect).
I have most of the graphic novels, except perhaps the last two. I haven't read the end yet. Preacher is awesome, and the first comic that ever made me go out and buy it. I think it was one in the first 20 issues where Starr is sitting in a car with his henchmen and blows one of their heads off. Starr is badass.
I think one of my other favorite sets of panels is where the Saint is walking out of the crater of nuclear fire after having an atomic bomb dropped on him. He stands at the edge of the crater, spits, and says "Not enough gun."
I think, at that point, I would've just killed myself.
Ennis really had the gritty Western speech down. I especially liked when John Wayne was talking to Jesse during the grandmother plotline and Jesse goes out to kick some ass.
Sodomy is, inherently, kind of funny. I mean, seriously, imagine what it looks like with a little dialog overdubbed - "Is there poop now? Let me check! What about now? Let me check! Is there poop now? Let me check!"
That's funny!
My problem is that Garth Ennis seems to think *rape* is funny. That's an entirely different kettle of fish.
Nextwave is Ellis taking the piss out of the entire Marvel universe. Everything in it is over-the-top silly. Preacher is over-all serious, and Starr started out as a serious character.
Nuking the Saint was not a rational act. Nothing anyone did even *slightly* made him *twitch*, up to and including a direct hit rom a 120mm sabot MBT round.
When you know what the Saint is, and then you see what happens as you escalate, you should know that nuking him isn't going to do *shit*.
The first time, he was going after Custer because he wanted to kill Jesse Custer, and Custer just happened to be in Masada. Since the grail tried to stop him, he killed them.
The first time the Grail fought the Saint, it was purely coincidence.
The themes and main plot of Preacher are serious. There's loads of tragi-comedy and plain comedy, because it's a 10-book arc, and it contributes to the feel, but the main thrust of the story is a serious one.
Nextwave, on the other hand, is all comedy.
(In the modern sense of comedy, meaning "humor," not the traditional one, meaning "everybody lives.")
I felt that it was a mixture of comedy and seriousness - and basically a grotesque from start to finish. Everyone in it is basically an archetype/stereotype of some sort. Starr himself is a seeker of total order continually foiled by the incompetence or excesses of those around him, slowly driven madder and madder by it - a figure that's very common in entertainment. He's thwarted in every plan he makes, a convention that is pretty much inevitable from the first moment we see him. He's the Elmer Fudd to Jesse's Bugs Bunny, destined to get redder and redder in the face until steam explodes from his ears.
Sure, some of the themes in Preacher are serious - but it's drawn very broadly, with masses of humour and violence to keep the reader entertained. I mean, just look at Arseface :->
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 12:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 12:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 12:58 pm (UTC)(or, conversely, that Warren Ellis is Sci-Fi Garth Ennis.)
Also, Herr Starr is Dirk Anger's father. It's the only thing that makes any sense.
(Arseface is both the son of Batman *and* Batman himself, depending on whether you're reading Frank Miller Batman or Real Batman at the time)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 01:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 01:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 01:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 02:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 02:38 pm (UTC)I think one of my other favorite sets of panels is where the Saint is walking out of the crater of nuclear fire after having an atomic bomb dropped on him. He stands at the edge of the crater, spits, and says "Not enough gun."
I think, at that point, I would've just killed myself.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 03:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 05:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 05:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 06:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 06:19 pm (UTC)That's funny!
My problem is that Garth Ennis seems to think *rape* is funny. That's an entirely different kettle of fish.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 06:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 06:25 pm (UTC)I still think Ennis's best is Hitman.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-11 08:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 02:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 02:22 am (UTC)When you know what the Saint is, and then you see what happens as you escalate, you should know that nuking him isn't going to do *shit*.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 03:54 am (UTC)I mean, other than eating a bullet from your own gun, what really could you do?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 04:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 04:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 10:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 10:59 am (UTC)What???
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 02:20 pm (UTC)The first time the Grail fought the Saint, it was purely coincidence.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 02:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 06:24 pm (UTC)Nextwave, on the other hand, is all comedy.
(In the modern sense of comedy, meaning "humor," not the traditional one, meaning "everybody lives.")
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-12 07:11 pm (UTC)Sure, some of the themes in Preacher are serious - but it's drawn very broadly, with masses of humour and violence to keep the reader entertained. I mean, just look at Arseface :->
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-17 03:57 am (UTC)