Life is a journey and if Preacher does anything well it is to detail the spiritual culture all of us are assaulted by in a fallen world as we make our way through it. The crass vulgarity and casual cruelty of sin in and around us provokes an understandable reaction. All of us want answers for why things are so screwed up. This epic road comic is less in full of interested in giving out all the answers in easily identifiable bites than it is in articulating our hopes, frustrations etc. This is a book full of supernatural characters caught up in the human condition and confronting the big questions. I always knew I'd get around to reading it and now that I have I find I am genuinely wrapped up in the plight of Preacher's characters. Great stuff. Volume 3 collects issues #27-33, plus Saint of Killers #1-4 and the Preacher Special: Cassidy- Blood and Whiskey.
Rev. Jesse Custer has gone awol after a supernatural incident kills his congregation, destroys the church, and bonds him to a being called Genesis whose unearthly power gradually reveals itself as Jesse sets out to find, and hold accountable, the God who abandoned him and the rest of the world to fate. As he, his old girlfriend Tulip and an Irish Vampire named Cassidy float through the modern world they are beset upon by religious zealots, perverts and every manner of innocence and evil.
Some people have complained that these hardbacks are too cheap to bother with, especially for something that bears the title Deluxe. Deluxe does seem to be a little of an overstatement here as there are precious few extras, and the book is printed on a thinner paper stock. But the price on this thing is anything but deluxe. For those of us who just want to read through the entire run of Preacher this is a cost effective alternative to picking up back issues. Ultimately this is liable to be a few more hardcovers in length as the original run included 66 issues, 5 specials and a four issue miniseries.
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