Cassidy (DC Comics)
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- For other uses, see Cassidy (disambiguation).
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Proinsias Cassidy (more commonly referred to as simply Cassidy) is a character, an Irish vampire from the comic book Preacher. He was created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. He is featured prominently throughout the Preacher series as a major character, also starring in a one-issue special Preacher: Blood and Whisky.
Cassidy is an outwardly jovial and fun-loving rogue with a strong code of honour, only drinking blood from or killing those he perceives as deserving punishment. Inwardly, however, Cassidy is weak willed and irresponsible, often acting without forethought.
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[edit] Character history
Cassidy was born in Ireland in 1900. His father was Catholic and his mother Protestant. Cassidy remained unaware of this up until the last day of his human life, simply assuming that his family was Catholic.
Encouraged by a sense of patriotism, Cassidy joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and took part in the Easter Rising in 1916. Seeing that Cassidy was determined to join up, and correctly predicting that he would be an incompetent soldier Cassidy's older brother Billy signed up as well, ostensibly to keep an eye on him. Cassidy's older brother was a successful soldier (becoming a marksman/sniper), despite the fact that he did not believe in the politics of the conflict. He kept Cassidy close to him at all times, and when it became apparent that the Easter Rising would fail, and that Pearse was expending lives in the hope of producing martyrs for his cause, Billy deserted the army (kicking Michael Collins in the testicles in the process), and dragged the reluctant Proinsias away from the conflict, thus saving his life.
Shortly after this (a matter of hours in fact), as the two brothers walked along side a canal a "hag" leapt out of the water and sunk her teeth into Cassidy's neck, seemingly killing him. The hag was driven off after Cassidy's brother shot it but Cassidy's "corpse" fell into the canal and was not recovered.
In truth Cassidy awoke at dawn, still underwater but not having drowned or succumbed to his injuries he was understandably confused and afraid, several attempts to leave the water resulted in him catching fire in the sunlight and he waited until nightfall to leave the water. Cassidy soon realized his new vampiric nature, and after what his brother had seen and no doubt had told his family, Cassidy decided to "stay dead". After the conflict it was difficult for him to keep an anonymous profile, as he kept running into former soldiers. He decided after a few years to emigrate to America and spent most of the 20th century in New York.
What happened to Cassidy in the intervening period from 1916 to 1994 is not fully detailed, although it has been revealed that Cassidy had fathered at least two children; and also had been mistaken for dead, embalmed and fully stitched as a corpse and then buried "alive", so to speak. This latter episode mutilated his eyes, resulting in his decision to wear sunglasses, or some protective eyewear, for the remainder of his vampiric "lifetime."
Cassidy settled into early 20th-century life in New York City with a group of Irish immigrant drinking buddies, which is almostly certainly how he developed the drinking habit which persisted throughout the remainder of the century for him.
Cassidy eventually took to experimenting with stronger and stronger drugs becoming hopelessly addicted to Heroin, even resorting to prostituting himself for drugs. He dragged his then girlfriend into drug addiction as well and during a bout of withdrawal he beat her and, due to his super-human strength, her jaw was nearly torn off.
Cassidy has taken to spending long periods of time travelling through the United States and in New Orleans he met "Eccharius", the only other vampire he's even known (excusing the hag that bit him). Unlike Cassidy, who had no literary or pop-culture exposure to vampires when he was transformed, Eccharius was a poseur obsessed with Vampire literature and pseudo-Goth culture, revelling in his new status through gaudy clothing, long-winded colorful speeches, and a host of human followers called "Les Enfants Du Sang", whom Eccharius enticed with promises of immortality. Cassidy tried to convert him to his way of thinking, introducing him to alcohol and a more jovial take on life. Eccharius seemed to enjoy this for a time, but later revealed to Cassidy that he regularly feasted on human blood from live, unwilling subjects. Cassidy, disgusted by this attitude, subdued Eccharius and nailed him to the roof of a church at sunrise, killing him.
Many years later Cassidy ran into Tulip O'Hare as she was literally running away from a botched assassination. They subsequently came across Tulip's former boyfriend Jesse Custer. Jesse and Cassidy had a rocky start to their relationship, especially when Jesse was initially disgusted by Cassidy's vampirism. A mutual love of various American cultural icons and a shared sense of honour soon led to a strong friendship forming. Cassidy even posed as Jesse, allowing himself to be kidnapped by Herr Starr and the Grail. When the ruse was discovered Cassidy was horribly tortured, his ability to regenerate used against him. During his ordeal his was visited by God who gave him the second warning to pass along to Jesse. He was soon rescued by Jesse and the Grail's fortress in France was destroyed in the process.
Cassidy began to drink heavily again, and in such condition began to express his love to Tulip, repeatedly and without welcome, even in the face of her constant rejections. Tulip mercifully declined to reveal these expressions to Jesse, knowing that such information would destroy Jesse's fragile trust. Cassidy made an honest attempt to go cold turkey from alcohol without telling Jesse, but this attempt was ruined by Jesse's innocent gift of a bottle of bourbon to his vampire friend.
When Jesse apparently died after the events of "War In The Sun", Tulip and Cassidy fled together. Tulip was hopelessly mired in grief, which she drowned in drugs and alcohol. Cassidy struggled with his sexual desires for Tulip and his appreciation that she was in no condition to even think clearly, but then gave in totally to his lust for Tulip. He began to readily supply her with alcohol and drugs for months, essentially forcing himself on her but apparently fooling even himself that this was somehow a consentual relationship. She finally realized what had happened in a moment of clarity and shot Cassidy in the chest, blowing him through a door and into the sunlight. Cassidy survived by crawling under a truck.
Cassidy soon tried to meet up with Tulip and found out that she had been reunited with Jesse. Jesse had been looking into Cassidy's life and had discovered his history of drug abuse and beating women. He told Cassidy to leave and that they were no longer friends but agreed to meet him one last time in San Antonio, Texas.
When they met again for a drink Cassidy begged for forgiveness and admitted to more terrible things he had done during his life. Jesse was unmoved, stating that Cassidy was himself responsible for all the pain in his life and for much of the pain in the lives of people he knew. Jesse challenged him to a fist fight outside The Alamo. Cassidy was reluctant to fight Jesse, believing his vampiric endowments would allow him to best Jesse easily. However, determined to show Cassidy the error of his ways, Jesse blinded him so that his strength and speed were all but useless. Jesse expounded on the fact that much of the misery in Cassidy’s life was due to him relying on his vampiric endowments and thus never truly suffering the consequences of his actions or accepting responsibility for the things he had done. This was displayed in a powerful metaphor as Jesse thoroughly beat him with his bare fists; showing that although he had power he never bothered to learn how to use it, and with his power negated he had nothing.
Unbeknownst to Tulip and Cassidy, Jesse had set himself up to die at the hands of Herr Starr (part of an elaborate plan to finally succeed in his quest to hold God responsible for the wrongs he had committed). Jesse warned Cassidy to go inside as the sun rose. Cassidy refused and as Jesse was shot dead, Cassidy burst into flames, dying and covering Jesse's body in ash.
It was revealed shortly afterwards however that Cassidy too had a plan. Knowing that Jesse would probably sacrifice himself, or at least risk dying at the hands of Herr Starr, God or the Saint of Killers Cassidy had made a deal with God. He would ensure Jesse's death and subsequent release of the entity that made him a threat to The Almighty and in return God would ensure that both Jesse and Cassidy were resurrected.
In the final issue of Preacher, Cassidy attains some degree of redemption. In letters to Tulip and Jesse he makes amends and reveals things to Tulip that he had previously kept hidden. Namely that when it was thought Jesse was dead his last words had been, "Tell Tulip I love her." He is then shown watching the sunset, looking as he did in 1916 with fully healed eyes, and disposing of the sunglasses he had worn for decades. As part of his resurrection he had been cured of his vampirism and given a chance to lead a normal life.
[edit] Overview
Cassidy's character intrigues because in the course of Preacher's various story arcs, we come to know his two personas: one as a loyal, fun-loving, well-meaning Irish rogue, and one as a desperate, selfish, weak-willed addict with a violent streak. Cassidy reveals the first persona to Jesse, who then later learns of the second, competing persona from a homeless ex-friend of Cassidy's.
In hindsight, as Cassidy himself pointed out in writing his last note to his friend, Jesse's greatest accomplishment throughout the Preacher storyline might have been fostering Cassidy's redemption: forcing Cassidy to look hard at himself and the choices he made over his prolonged vampire life, and forcing Cassidy to choose the right way.
[edit] Origin
Cassidy has distinct similarities to Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan. In MacGowan's earlier years, he was built like Cassidy. Cassidy and MacGowan both sport similar earrings and sunglasses, and have similar hairstyles. Both Cassidy and MacGowan also have substance abuse problems, with MacGowan widely known to be a severe alcoholic. Not only would Garth Ennis know of MacGowan being Irish, he also makes direct reference to the Pogues by titling an issue of Preacher "Fairytale of New York" after the famous Pogues song.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Most of the standard vampire conventions are not followed in Preacher and any mystical or scientific explanation for vampirism is completely ignored. As a vampire, Cassidy could survive any physical wound (including decapitation, a stake through the heart and at one point standing on an exploding grenade), although he felt the pain associated with the injury as a normal human would. He could heal superhumanly fast and regenerate from any wound (his lifestyle/association with Jesse Custer ensured he suffers plenty of these), and drinking blood allowed him to accelerate the process. Although Cassidy does need blood to sustain himself, he does not need human or even fresh blood, as he states in a conversation with Eccarius "Nah, blood's blood, isn't it? Doesn't matter if yeh get it from a lamb chop, so long as yeh get yer fill. No need for killin' at all really." Cassidy's reaction to the goblet of blood presented to him by Eccarius suggest that he doesn't particularly like the taste of fresh blood at all preferring instead the taste of beer or whiskey generally choosing only to drink blood from live humans if they have tried to hurt him first. Cassidy was also superhumanly strong and fast and had greatly enhanced senses. As a vampire, Cassidy could burn up in direct sunlight. He could only be exposed to it for a short period of time before he started to disintegrate; he could survive indirect exposure to the sun, although it was highly uncomfortable. From the contents of the series it seems that sunlight (and given the effects of sunlight, possibly fire) are the only things capable of killing a vampire. Cassidy did not have explicit fangs or any other physical marks that distinguished him as undead other than being extremely pale.
