Fans of Garth Ennis’ work are more than familiar with the excessive violence he brings to practically each and every one of his stories, and Preacher is no exception. From Garth Ennis’ Hitman to The Boys, Ennis never fails to add over the top moments filled with the most gruesome brutality fans have ever seen. In fact, Preacher is arguably the greatest example of this being true, as it’s filled with hellish scenes of demonic slaughter, truly evil humans committing heinous atrocities, and even the series’ protagonists regularly committing murder when it suits them.
Preacher (by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon) follows Jesse Custer, a preacher in a small Texas town, who gets possessed by the offspring of an angel and a demon named Genesis. Genesis is arguably more powerful than even God, meaning Custer has become potentially the most powerful being in the universe, and he uses that power to find God after He abandoned heaven following Genesis’ birth – and Jesse Custer’s path is littered with blood and violence every step of the way. Out of them all, here are 10 of the most over the top moments from Garth Ennis’ Preacher!
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10 The Moment Genesis & Jesse Custer Bonded was Absolutely Horrific
Preacher #1 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
During one of his sermons, Jesse Custer is suddenly hit with a rush of otherworldly energy, and the resulting reaction created a surge of power that proved too much for this church full of regular people. As Jesse was bonding with Genesis, his entire congregation was instantaneously vaporized, as they were unfortunate witnesses to a power far beyond what their mortal forms could handle.
Not only was the scene itself absolutely horrific to see, it’s made even worse by the fact that these people died for no other reason than because they stood too close to a cosmic power arguably stronger than even that of God Himself, and they paid an absolutely brutal (and decidedly over the top) price for it.
9 The Saint of Killers Blows an Angel’s Brains Out – & the Angel Keeps Talking
Preacher #1 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
Before Jesse accidentally murders practically the entire town within his church upon merging with Genesis, the angels of heaven were trying to capture Genesis before such a union could occur. To do that, an angel awakens the Saint of Killers, a supernatural murderer with the power to take out Genesis. However, before he was assigned this task, the Saint of Killers shot this angel right in the face upon being awakened.
The bullet went through the angel’s eye and blew out the back of his skull, blood and brain matter all over the Saint of Killers’ resting place. And the most brutal part about it was that the angel didn’t die right away, he just kept talking with half his head blown to bloody pieces.
8 The Debut of Preacher’s Vampire Ally is as Brutal as it Sounds
Preacher #2 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
In this world filled with angels, demons, and undead murderers, there are other supernatural entities – including vampires. In fact, Cassidy – one of the earliest allies of Preacher – is a vampire himself, and the way it’s revealed is incredibly gory. During a bar fight, things go a bit too far and Cassidy gets stabbed in the eye with a knife. While everyone around him looks at his injury with horror, they quickly become even more horrified by the fact that Cassidy wasn’t hurt at all – and by what he did to the man who tried to kill him.
Sighing with more annoyance than anything else, Cassidy removes the knife from his eye, and then proceeds to rip out the throat of the man who stabbed him – with his teeth. The issue ends before Cassidy is actually named as a vampire, but the brutal evidence is clear enough for anyone to see.
7 Preacher’s Sickest Serial Killer Peals the Faces Off His Victims – & Hammers Them Back On
Preacher #5-7 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
While the main goal of Preacher and the gang is to find God, they still find themselves caught up in increasingly horrific adventures along the way, including a run-in with a serial killer named Si Coltrane. While the identity of Si as the serial killer was withheld for an issue for the sake of a ‘big reveal’, readers are first introduced to his disgusting killing methods. Si kidnapped a random, innocent man, cut off his face, and then hammered his face back on his head before leaving him tied to a chair inside a motel room for days.
The twisted nature of this murder is beyond heinous, and it’s made even worse by the fact that Preacher doesn’t neglect to show every detail of this gruesome scene.
6 Preacher’s Ultimate Vengeance is as Satisfying as it is Violent
Preacher # 8-12 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
These issues are dedicated to Jesse Custer’s origin story, which is told in tandem with the story of Preacher’s ultimate vengeance. Jesse was born into a family of religious radicals who represent the utter corruption of everything they claim to believe in. Jesse’s father (who married into the family) was murdered in front of him when Jesse was just a boy after trying to escape. Jesse was then raised by his grandmother and her sadistic henchmen, suffering nearly endless abuse by their hands.
In the present day, Jesse is taken back to this life that he was able to escape, and rather than being corrupted by it, he kills every last one of those sick individuals. It was as brutal and over the top as anything, but more than that, the ending of this storyline was incredibly satisfying.
5 The Grail is Obliterated One Gruesome Kill After Another
Preacher #24 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
The Grail is a secret society dedicated to protecting the bloodline of Jesus Christ after he had a child. For two thousand years, that bloodline was kept ‘pure’ through inbreeding, and every member of the family was under the most secure protection in the world. At least, until Preacher got involved. After the Grail kidnapped Cassidy (as they wanted their very own vampire to study), Preacher all but kicked the organization’s door down. At that point, Jesse also met an angel the Grail held captive, who was the father of the entity that possessed him, Genesis.
By the end of this storyline, Preacher frees Cassidy while the entire Grail organization burned in the chaos. Each high-ranking member of the Grail (and the last living blood relative of Jesus Christ) was murdered in increasingly brutal ways, including the angel, who was murdered by God Himself.
4 Preacher’s Most Hilarious Over the Top Moment Has Nothing to do with Violence
Preacher #28 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
There was only one survivor of the Grail massacre: Herr Starr – the main antagonist of that multi-issue storyline. While Preacher left him alive, Jesse sliced the top of his head with a knife. Now, Starr has become the new leader of what remains of the Grail, though he wants to keep the scar Preacher gave him out of sight. So, Starr goes through a series of wigs to cover up the scar, with each one being more absurd than the last, until the final one is literally a Princess Leia wig – complete with the iconic space buns.
This sequence is purely comical and utterly over the top, not in the way this series normally does with hyper-violence, but because of the sheer absurdity of seeing someone as hardcore as Starr wearing a Princess Leia wig.
3 Garth Ennis Made an Unprecedented (& Awesome) Preacher/The Boys Crossover
The Boys #27 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson
In The Boys #27, Butcher is sitting inside a bar called the Grassy Knoll, talking to the bartender/owner named Proinsias, and the two are speaking to each other as if they’re old friends. While incredibly understated, this moment is an official crossover between The Boys and Preacher, as this Proinsias with Butcher is Preacher’s Proinsias Cassidy. All throughout Preacher, Cassidy talked about wanting to open a bar called the Grassy Knoll, and at the end of Preacher, Cassidy became human, and committed himself to living the life he always wanted. And The Boys confirmed that he made it.
The moment itself clearly isn’t over the top (far from it), but what is decidedly ‘over the top’ are the implications of this crossover. There’s an entire storyline featuring Cassidy and Butcher that is teased in this issue, not to mention the fact that every supernatural element in Preacher is also canon in The Boys, which totally redefines that established universe. The unprecedented nature of this crossover makes it a standout moment in both Preacher and The Boys.
2 Preacher’s Saint of Killers Murders the Devil
Preacher Special – Saint of Killers #4 by Garth Ennis and Steve Pugh
In the Saint of Killers limited series, readers are given the full backstory of this iconic villain, as the series explains exactly how he became the Saint of Killers. While the four-part storyline is riddled with over-the-top violence of every sort, the absolute craziest thing that happened was when the Saint of Killers actually killed Satan. This happened immediately after he became the Saint of Killers, and was given his supernatural pistols that could literally kill anyone. So, when the devil insulted him, the Saint of Killers shot him in the head, killing him on the spot.
This was absolutely wild to see. Satan is more than a character in a comic book, but an actual figure in modern theology many people across a number of denominations actively believe in. And this supernatural cowboy just shoots him in the head.
1 Preacher’s Saint of Killers Murders GOD
Preacher #66 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
If fans thought Saint of Killers murdering Satan was bad, then they may not be prepared to learn that the devil was far from the only Judeo/Christian figure murdered in Preacher, as the Saint of Killers ends the entire series by literally killing God. Not just God, either, but an entire legion of angels that tried to prevent him from entering the gates of heaven. The Saint of Killers guns all of them down, waits for God by His throne, and shoots Him dead right then and there.
The whole point of the series when it started was to find God and confront Him about Genesis. Well, God was found, and the Saint of Killers murdered Him like it was nothing. This moment is easily the most over the top in Garth Ennis’ Preacher, and perhaps even in all of comic book fiction.
