"Goddamn, you think bein' fucked over by the Lord makes you unique? Look at it! Look what He made! All them years filled with sufferin' an' slaughter, just like He knew they would be! 'Cause He wants us to choose Him, to love Him, an' how much more satisfyin' that'd be when the hell of this earth makes that choice so goddamn hard!"
— Jesse Custer on God, comic book
Throughout Jesse Custer's adventures in the dark world of Preacher, he has encountered many horrible individuals. While most are just products of God's ego-fueled agenda, there are those that go above and beyond (including God Himself).
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Comic Book
- God Himself is a callous narcissist. Responsible for the state of the world, God created Earth to see if mankind would love Him, despite knowing the suffering they would go through. This horrified the angels, a full half of whom broke out in rebellion against God, causing Him to start a bloody war and cast the surviving rebels out of Heaven. Engineering the death of a man's family, which led to him becoming the Saint of Killers, God used him to replace the disillusioned Angel of Death. Enchanting a demon and angel to mate, God persecuted the angel's father while secretly hoping for the birth of Genesis, just to see if a being more powerful than Himself would choose to love Him. Threatening hero Jesse Custer to abandon his search for him, God tries to manipulate him into loving Him and tries to damn Jesse for not worshipping Him.
- Issues #5-7—"Naked City" arc: Simon "Si" Coltrane is the Reaver Cleaver, a Serial Killer plaguing New York City. He is introduced having flayed a man's face off and showing it to him before nailing it back on upside down. Coltrane sends a victim's scrotum to his widow, before attempting to frame his friend Cassidy for his own crimes, at which point it is revealed that Coltrane has a victim's head in his fridge and a secret room in his apartment, filled with bloody butcher's tools and the still-living victim he flayed, who is begging Cassidy to kill him. Coltrane then attempts to murder Tulip and Jesse, stabbing Tulip through the hand and confessing to her that he has no reason to do what he does, other than finding it amusing.
- Issues #8-12—"Until the End of the World" arc (primarily):
- Marie L'Angelle, Jesse's zealous grandmother, views herself as an agent of God. Seeing her daughter Christina as nothing but a way to breed a strong male preacher, when Christina runs away and gives birth to Jesse, Marie forces the family to stay on her estate, under her abusive control. Having Christina's husband murdered and eventually trying the same with Christina herself, Marie locks Jesse in an airtight coffin under a lake for weeks at a time, hoping to break him and make him accept God. Capturing Jesse years later, Marie has her servants kill Jesse's girlfriend Tulip and once again tries to break him into worshipping her and her religion.
- Jody, Marie's enforcer, is a sadistic bully of a man. Murdering Jesse's father John Custer in front of him, Jody sneers when the young boy bursts into tears. Nailing Jesse's dog's head to a post for humping his leg, Jody savagely beats Jesse for attacking him, making him beg while twisting his arm so much the bone snaps out. When he recaptures Jesse and Tulip for Marie, Jody happily shoots and kills Tulip. In a rematch with Jesse, Jody tries to make Jesse suffer as much as possible, and when fatally wounded by Jesse, he feels nothing but pride as his abuses turned Jesse into a killer.
- Issues #42-48—"Salvation" arc: Odin Quincannon is a meat magnate who terrorizes the town of Salvation through his allegiance to the Ku Klux Klan. When Jesse becomes the sheriff, Odin makes a series of attempts on his life, even planting bombs throughout the town and threatening to destroy it all.
- God Himself is a primordial being who existed before all creation. Growing lonely, God created the universe, Heaven and Hell, and angels and demons to keep Him company, which led to the eternal bloody war between the two races. Unsatisfied with the love that the angels gave Him, God decided to create another species that would love Him more. First He created the dinosaurs, which he wiped out after He saw one of them eating its own excrement. Then He created humanity and started manipulating them into doing horrible things to see how much they loved Him, such as ordering Abraham to sacrifice his son, only stopping him at the last moment to make it look like a test of faith. At one point in time, after arranging the events that would take the lives of the Saint of Killers's family, God grew slowly bored with humanity. In the present day, escaping from Heaven, God leads the ancient Christian organization, the Grail, in preparing the Apocalypse, in order to destroy all of humanity and replace it with another species, which He created to love Him above all.
- Season 3: Marie L'Angelle bargained with Satan himself to make herself immortal by consuming the souls of others, collecting on those who do not pay for her voodoo services to do so. When her daughter Christina eloped with John Custer, Marie ordered her stomach cut open and for John's death, before forcing Jesse, her grandson, to suffer under her over the years. When Jesse returns seeking Marie's help to bring his Love Interest, Tulip O'Hare, back to life, Marie forces him into a blood contract wherein she holds Tulip's soul as leverage and later takes Jesse's soul to force him to follow her orders.
Unproduced Scripts
- Garth Ennis's script (link
): The Saint of Killers lacks his sympathetic backstory, leaving only a vicious maniac with a love for killing. Having damned himself with the number of innocent people he murdered, the Saint continued killing his way through Hell itself, destroying so many souls that God Himself intervened. Willingly taking the Angel of Death's place, the Saint willingly serves God's unholy mission, even killing an Angel and Demon simply for falling in love. Upon being ordered to track down Jesse Custer, the Saint massacres everyone in his way, both police and complete innocents, before burning the town of Annville to the ground when they try to stop him. - John August's script (link):
- Marie L'Angelle is Jesse's abusive grandmother who dedicates her life to God's cause. To ensure Jesse plays his role, Marie abuses him from birth, having her enforcer Jody murder his father in front of him before locking him in an underwater coffin for a week to teach him a lesson. When it comes time for Genesis to take him, Marie forces him to become a preacher to ensure it happens, leading to the deaths of 100 people when he's possessed. When he returns to her for answers, Marie has him ambushed and has Tulip killed in front of him, intending to lock him in the coffin once more for daring to defy her.
- Jody is Marie's right-hand man and willingly takes part in all of her horrific abuses. Only killing John Custer after briefly torturing him and ensuring that Jesse watches it happen, Jody tracks him down in adulthood, threatening to have Tulip cut into pieces if Jesse doesn't become a preacher as Marie has ordered. After ambushing him and Tulip and knocking them both unconscious, Jody takes great glee in executing Tulip in front of him and locking him in the coffin once more, later attacking him in a fight to the death when he escapes.
- Bear Mullens is the leader of a group of psychopaths who worships the Saint of Killers. Dedicating themselves to extinguishing all hope in the world in his name, Bear particularly despises cops and kills them on sight, having massacred a patrol by the time Cassidy and Arseface find him. Upon learning that the Saint is looking for Jesse, Bear has his gang attack Salvation to find him, leading to indiscriminate mass-killing and several fires being set, almost destroying the entire city. Even his own death isn't enough to stop the carnage, with Clown blowing up a police patrol sent to stop him before the riot is put down.
