Hellblazer versus Preacher

Fysh

I've recently bought "Rake at the gates of hell" and thereby finished reading the story arc that Garth Ennis introduced when he started writing the book forty odd issues previously. And, good as it is, I can't help but feel that some of the themes explored in this story arc bear too much of a resemblance to what he went on to do with Steve Dillon in Preacher to pass without at least commenting.

Annoyingly, because I read Preacher first, I'm now left thinking that hellblazer is a bit dull - although it should be the other way around. In any case, I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this, and whether they would agree with me?

I mean, we have (in no particular order):

• A vicious refutal of religion
• angels and demons being manipulated
• a view of the almighty thats unkind to say the least
• one man on an ongoing quest to defeat an inmensely powerful supernatural being
• social commentary by the bucketload
• a segment dealing with lost loves
• vampires (The Last Day Of The King Of The Vampires versus that Lestat wannabe in Preacher)
• another supernatural being who gains great power and deceives the supernatural enemy in order to then attack them with their guard down (in one case literally stabbing them in the back)

][cEMAN**

Apart from the vampire bit, that sounds like the story arc from 'Spawn'.

A lone man (supernatural being) trying to come to terms with the fact that he is dead, and has to leave behind the life he once knew to take up the role of the man who is to bring the start to armageddon.

Through this he struggles with trying to hold onto his previous life and his remarried wife to his best friend (neither at the beginning know that he has been ressurected).

He tries to break the chains of his enslavement and ultimately tries to defeat his own personal devil. Finding then that this doesn't free him but further enslaves him to his fate.

Through the time blending in aspects of heaven hell AND earth, it shows a war which isn't about good and evil, but which is merely about heaven and hell. Then to shake things up just a little, they throw in mother Earth's point of view on this.

The whole time we can't really look to Spawn as a hero, and in the end he becomes more just a presense, as with the perception of good and evil destroyed we can no longer see him as a hero or a villain, but more as a watcher....

the raven

spawn = crap. only decent thing about it ever was the art and all the storylines and characters he got from other writers; millar, moore, and many more.

preacher: as with all garth ennis stuff, he's just like marvel. he reproduces the same **** with every comic but with small differences every time, be it in war times, different countries, different artists, blaa blaa, you all know. and he steals stuff left right and center, the most obvious ones are just played off as homages, i mean i can't actually recall a decent and original storyline from him??
but he can tell a story damn well. when i first started readin him i read preacher. now that is some read, and by god is it gonna impress ya if you've not read much o his previous stuff or completely forgotten all the war movies and westerns ye saw.
he's popular caus he loves writin violence and bad language (one area where i must laud his efforts, as in the inventive insults he comes out with, they have ye on the floor) and he's funny as f*ck. but not original.

very very repetitive.
but at least he ends his books. not like some muppets.
and he's irish.

oh yeah all that above is just in my humble opinion