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Honestly, if it hadn't been coming out through Vertigo when it was, I don't know if this kind of scrutiny would even occur to people...in a way I mean to be neither complimentary nor damning, it's a pretty moronic comic. Looking at it for what it's "saying" is sort of like trying to find the true meaning of Orgazmo -- it's not to say there isn't one, but the time could probably be better spent analyzing something with loftier goals than making you laugh at this month's ass joke
I have to disagree with this, I think the thing that makes Preacher much more than just a grossout comedy, say the Farrely brothers taken to the extreme, is that there is a lot of discussion of actual issues, along side the ass humor, and such. Things usually aren't played just for laughs, and that actually makes what laughs there are a lot funnier. Herr Starr getting raped is hilarious because to date he's been set up as a menacing villain, and over the course of the series, this entire facade is just destroyed. If you had your typical Sandler villain, it wouldn't be at all funny because you're expecting him to be humiliated.
In addition to this, Preacher has a lot of content that does invite analysis. Ennis puts forth an entire worldview, similar to GM's discussions in The Invisibles (not the view itself, just the act of communicating it through the comic). After reading it, you feel like you know Ennis, in the same way that you feel like you know Morrison.
I just finished rereading Salvation, and the closing issue of that storyline is quite worthy of analysis, to show the series dual nature. It opens with Jesse being used as a Nazi sex slave to Miss Oatlash, which is played for laughs, and Jesse easily triumphs. Then, Jesse tracks down Odin Quincannon, who is having sex with a woman made of meat. This played for laughs too, until Jesse steps on his neck, and kills him. Then, Jesse goes to Gunther's house, and reveals that Gunther used to be a Nazi soldier, who was involved in policing captured territory, at which point he gives the guy a rope, and Gunther hangs himself. Then, Jesse goes with his mom, and everything is closed off nicely.
The Nazi sex thing is clearly over the top, but then within the same issue, Ennis tries to treat the issue with seriousness in the Gunther storyline. The most notable thing about the issue is that Jesse just ties up Miss Oatlash, an actual "practicing" Nazi, and doesn't even turn her into the police. But, Gunther, who has reformed, and bought into the myth of America that so much of the series is about, Jesse orders him to kill himself. I understand that his acts were repulsive, but it's fifty years later, and he has shown no signs of being the person that he was. It's not a question of if he can change, he has changed, and has become everything that Jesse talks about throughout the series. And then to force him to kill himself, I think it's Ennis at his most hypocritical, and it's the most disgusting moment in the series.
I have no clue what Ennis was getting at, since he spent the entire storyline setting up Gunther as a great guy, and then in three pages kills him. Was anyone else disturbed by this turn of events? Or, do you think Ennis did the right thing by making Jesse do that?
Anyway, the point is this issue dealt with some really heavy moral issues, but then also had a man fucking a woman made of meat. It's that dichotomy that really makes Preacher unique. |
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