This article is a list of story arcs in the Vertigo comic book series Preacher.
Main series
"Gone to Texas" (issues 1–7) Reverend Jesse Custer, a tough and principled Texan preacher who has lost his faith, is possessed by a mysterious entity called Genesis — a conscienceless offspring of an angel and a demon whose power may rival that of God Himself. Through insight granted him by Genesis, now lodged in Jesse's mind in a sort of supernatural symbiosis, Jesse learns that God has left Heaven and abandoned his responsibilities, and that he (Jesse) possesses the power of The Word Of God—depicted in the comic through the use of red text (a reference to the printing method often used for indicating Jesus' speech in the Bible)—allowing him to deliver irresistible commands to any being, whereupon the commanded cannot help but to comply fully. Armed with these newfound attributes, he sets out on a quest to find God (literally) and make Him answer for His dereliction of duty.
Accompanying Jesse on his journey are Tulip O'Hare, Jesse's former girlfriend who has long thought that he abandoned her, and Cassidy, a 100-year-old Irish vampire who prefers a pint in the pub to the blood of the innocent. Their first stop is New York City, where Cassidy introduces them to a freelance journalist friend, Sy, who claims to have insight into God's whereabouts.
Meanwhile, in Heaven, a quorum of angels, trying desperately to keep things from falling apart, decide to send the Saint of Killers—an immortal, unstoppable killing machine——to Earth with orders to recapture Genesis at any cost.
"Until the End of the World" (issues 8–17) In "All in the Family", Jesse's secret past is revealed as he is forced to confront his family, and the horrible childhood he's been running from his entire life, when he and Tulip are captured by his grandmother's henchmen, Jody and T.C., and taken to her manor in the Louisiana marshes. He tells Tulip of his past: how his mother ran away from home and met his father, John Custer, a Marine just returned from Vietnam; how her mother's henchmen tracked them down after Jesse was born and took them back; how they murdered both his father and mother; and how he was forced to become a preacher. Jody shoots Tulip through the head, but she is resurrected by God, who commands her to tell Jesse to abandon his quest. In "Hunters", Jesse and Tulip, now reconciled, travel west to San Francisco and reunite with Cassidy. Cassidy enlists Jesse's help in avenging his (Cassidy's) girlfriend's death by heroin overdose, which leads them to an armadillo-sodomizing, lifelong-partying aesthete by the name of Jesus de Sade. Following them is The Grail, an ancient and immensely powerful religious conspiracy dedicated to preserving the bloodline of Christ and facilitating the Second Coming. The Grail is personified by a ruthless, clever and ambitious German military expert known only as 'Herr Starr', leader of a conspiracy within the Grail to replace the real descendant of Jesus with Jesse for the Grail's planned orchestration of Armageddon (to occur in the then-future, A.D. 2000). After pretending to be Jesse to save Tulip's life, Cassidy is captured by Starr.
"Proud Americans" (issues 18–26) While waiting for his flight to France to rescue Cassidy, Jesse meets Billy Baker, a retired Vietnam veteran who was best friends with John Custer, Jesse's dad. Baker, nicknamed Spaceman, tells Jesse the story of how he and John fragged an obnoxious superior who caused the death of another soldier, and gives Jesse a photograph of John from his Vietnam days.
Cassidy, still believed by Starr to be Jesse, is brought to the Grail's heavily guarded secret fortress ('Masada'), but his cover is blown when he is unable to utilize Jesse's Word of God. He is subsequently imprisoned and tortured by a gelded, sadistic Mafioso named Frankie the Eunuch. Herr Starr, his conspiracy within the Grail uncovered by Jesse's arrival, shows Jesse an angel held captive in the dungeons, who is revealed to be the father of Genesis. The Saint of Killers arrives seeking vengeance, but promises to spare Jesse if he can use Genesis' memories to tell the Saint the story behind his family's death in the late 19th century. Starr initiates his coup against the All-Father of the Grail, resulting in the total destruction of Masada and most of the Grail infantry.
Upon their return to the States, a grateful Cassidy tells Jesse his life's story: how he fought in the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, how he was assaulted by a bog-hag outside of Dublin and turned into a vampire, and how he arrived penniless in America and began his long love affair with New York City.