Jesse Custer was created during the ’90’s comic book boom, or to be more specific, April of 1995 in the first issue of Preacher. Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon and Glenn Fabry created this seminal character and world which really drew upon old Westerns. Jesse Custer starts off as a small town preacher who, during a sermon, is imbued with the Genesis, the bastard offspring of an angel and a demon. Jesse is the only one who survives the incident as his church is flattened and everyone in his congregation killed. This being that has bonded to Jesse may have made them even more powerful than God, so Jesse does what any man would do should this happen to them, he begins his search for God, who left Heaven the moment Genesis was born. Jesse does not take this undertaking all by himself as his girlfriend Tulip and old vampire friend Cassidy join him for the ride.
Along the way, Jesse meets some very colorful characters: The Saint of Killers, who only answers to “He who sits on the throne”; a young punk kid who failed in his suidide attempt and is now know as Arseface; and Jesse’s spiritual adviser who looks like the silhouette of John Wayne; just to name a few. Of course there has to be an antagonist for Jesse, Herr Starr, the leader of “The Grail” which is a secret organization set upon protecting the bloodline of Jesus, he is known as the Allfather of the Grail. Sarr has his quirks too—he loves prostitutes and he is hellbent on using Jesse to his own ends.
This whole world has Rockstar’s name written all over it. Imagine them throwing these characters and this world into the code for Red Dead Redemption or even Grand Theft Auto V? You’d start off at the destroyed Church and find yourself going through the comic book storylines as missions and quests. They could use these three characters to tell the comic book’s story from three different viewpoints and have them swappable during missions like in the upcoming GTA. Rockstar could even hire Ennis to pen the cut scenes and the course of the missions. It would be gold, and Rockstar is already used to controversy with the Manhunt and Hot Coffee debacles. They could easily cut through the possible controversy as this game cuts through the controversial storylines Ennis and Dillon tackled.
Telltale Games could also be prime to take this game on. They are already working on a fellow Vertigo title, Fables. This would make Preacher episodic, but that could work too. They could then work on each individual storyline and put some real time and effort into each one. They could take their time with Gone to Texas and really expand on the characters and tell the story properly. Rockstar may not be able to convey that in an action filled, timed GTA type mission.
Conceivably, since Warner Brothers owns DC Comics, who publishes the Vertigo titles, Rocksteady could take this license on really easily, for all we know that’s the secret non Batman game they’re working on. That’s wishful thinking on our part, but with the resurgence in comic book interest maybe it’s something they are looking at.
Regardless of who takes this character on should anyone take the character on, the game would be stellar if done correctly. Garth Ennis can weave a great tale for Jesse Custer in the comic book panels. I can only imagine how engaged a gamer could be while on the sticks. Instead of reading the world Ennis created, to be submerged in it would truly be astounding. Let’s hope someone pushes for this title and allows us gamers to have the Word of God, at least for a little bit.
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