Saint of Killers
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The Saint of Killers is a fictional character appearing in the Preacher comic book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and published by Vertigo (comics). He was also the subject of his own four-issue miniseries, which was later collected in Preacher Vol. 4: Ancient History.
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[edit] History
The Saint of Killers was at one time a soldier serving in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He was simultaneously respected and feared for being absolutely merciless on the battlefield -- his bloodlust verged on that of a berserker frenzy.
After the war, he made his living in the American West by collecting Native scalps and bounty hunting. His life changed when he found a young woman whom he had inadvertently rescued when he killed her Indian captors. As they were far from civilization when they met, the woman pleaded to be taken with him and, in spite of himself, her plea made it through his bitter and hardened exterior, to whatever tiny core of goodness rested within.
They fell in love and soon were married. They had a daughter, and the killer became a farmer.
However, his family fell ill and he left them to fetch a doctor from the nearest town. When he got there, his mission was delayed by a gang of outlaws who were preying on passers-by, killing them and selling their scalps as though they had belonged to Natives. Due to this delay, he found his family had died during his absence. Fueled by hatred and thinking only of vengeance, he tracked the gang of outlaws to the border-town of Ratwater, Texas and began to slaughter them. When he confronted the leader of the outlaws, he killed the innocent hostage the man had taken and damned himself to Hell. Before he could kill the outlaw, he ran out of bullets and was struck in the back of the head with a shovel. The leader then proceeded to impale his chest with the shovel.
Death took him, and, because of the innocent life he had taken, his soul was consigned to perdition. However, his hatred could not be contained and it caused Hell to literally freeze over. The weary Angel of Death, playing poker with the Devil, suggested a solution to this little problem: they could allow the man to return to Earth, in order to seek out the last of the outlaws and complete his mission of vengeance. He might then become the new Angel of Death, and finally give his predecessor the opportunity to step down. He would retire to a specially-prepared tomb at Boot Hill, and his shade could wander the earth and collect the souls of those who had died violently.
Accepting the offer, the man was dubbed the 'Saint of Killers' and took up the Angel's sword, (refashioned into a pair of Colt Walker revolvers).
As the Saint made his way out of Hell, the fires started to reignite. The Devil then made the mistake of slinging an insult at the Saint. The Saint killed the Devil for insulting him, and returned to the land of the living. He proceeded to slaughter everyone in Ratwater, including the man who had killed him.
When the entity known as 'Genesis' was born and escaped Heaven, it merged with the Preacher Jesse Custer. In order to retrieve Genesis, an angel was sent to awaken Saint once more, and he was sent after Custer. For the first time ever, he was outmanouvered -- Custer used the power granted to him by Genesis, the Word of God, to prevent the Saint from shooting him or his companions. However, the Saint kept tracking Custer, and it was only when Custer offered him information about exactly why his family died that the Saint stopped gunning for him.
Jesse informed the Saint that if the deaths were not accidental; they had been foreordained. God had arranged them in order to obtain the services of an efficient killer. Now the Saint had a new target - God himself.
Finally, Jesse Custer contacted the Saint and informed him of his own plan to take revenge against God. Jesse Custer arranged to die at the Hands of Herr Starr and the Grail, so that God would once again return to his throne in heaven, no longer afraid of what Genesis might do. However, when he returned, he found that the Saint had slaughtered every last Angel in Heaven and was waiting for him.
Before God could reclaim his throne and his omnipotence, the Saint killed him.
The Saint then went back to sleep, this time on the very throne of God -- presumably forever.
[edit] Powers and abilities
The Saint of Killers possessed a variety of powers.
- He is completely impervious to harm to an extent rarely seen even in comics - bullets bounced off him, missiles did him no harm, and he survived a nuclear explosion without a scratch to his body or clothing.
- He was an expert marksman, even before being made a saint. Now, however, he is able to draw his guns faster than a man can see.
- His hatred appears to be his greatest power. His hatred was cold enough to put out the fires of Hell and has been the driving force of his existence ever since.
[edit] Weapons
The Saint of Killers possesses a pair of Walker Colt revolvers, which were made from the Angel of Death's sword. Because of this, the guns are of divine nature. They:
- Possess unlimited ammunition, and never need to be reloaded.
- Any shot fired from these guns will always hit their mark, even piercing modern tank armor to reach the intended target.
- Any wound inflicted is always fatal regardless of circumstance. However, the vampire Cassidy survived being shot, due to his regenerative powers. (Ennis has later stated this happened before the details of the comic was worked out and if he could do it over, he would have played the confrontation out so that Cassidy wasn't shot.)
[edit] Other appearances
The Saint made a cameo appearance in issue #8 of Ennis' Hitman series, on which the main characters all retell the times they came closest to death. After the contract killer Ringo Chan dispatches his targets he is joined by an ethereal figure dressed as a cowboy who has come to collect those he has just killed. Protagonist Tommy Monaghan remarks that you would expect death to look like Clint Eastwood (one of the inspirations for the Saint). He has also been spotted on the street just outside of Noonan's pub, a bar notorious in Gotham City for being the hangout of many contract killers (and one chicken murdering sociopath).
