2007-09-26 Amazing potential, not quite fulfilled.

No spoilers.

I finished reading this series a short time ago, and after the initial excitement of the early volumes, I was so disappointed at the rest that I've finally decided to get it off my chest in a review.

The story gets off to a cracking start - I'd never seen a graphic novel like this before. The themes are awesome and cosmic. The violence is... violent and quite funny at times. It's shocking. If your jaw doesn't drop open a few times as you read it, you probably have tetanus. It has a few wonderful, memorable moments that you'll never forget.

But for me the whole thing has two major problems.

First - the pervy sex and cuss words,blasphemy, etc... I have no problem with these as such, but it's as if the writer got so excited about being able to do all that x-rated stuff in a comic book, that he just got carried away and *overdid* it. I mean to the point where it becomes a distraction from the story rather than something to carry it forward.

I kept thinking that it was like when a little kid discovers a cuss word, and keeps using it over and over - just because he can. It can be funny at first, but eventually it just gets intensely irritating. After the first few volumes, the Preacher series goes through a stage where it's almost a self-parody, putting the story on 'hold' and taking time out to be as shocking and offensive as possible, just for its own sake.

But my biggest beef with the series was how it all ended. Like I promised, there are no spoilers here - but I felt it just kinda fizzled out in a slightly-rushed, semi-resolved sort of way. Personally, I felt it was a far from satisfying ending, and haven't felt so cheated since I watched the final episode of the TV series 'Alias'.

If you're into graphic novels, you've probably GOT to read this. I don't regret the experience but didn't regard it as a keeper - I promptly sold all my copies, and it's VERY unusual for me to buy a graphic series and not keep it on my shelves.