John Anderson

Other Comic-Con news, as the first full trailer for Outcast has been released! We didn’t see many new faces, since it’s mainly focused on the protagonist, but someone appeared nevertheless. The second main character can be glimpsed more then seen, for example, but he’s there: the guy with eyeglasses being punched away by the little kid is Reverend Anderson, portrayed by Philip Glenister, and he’ll be one of the protagonists of the show. He’s a priest, and he believes to be a soldier in the war between Heaven and Hell… and the rest will be revealed as soon as the first episode is aired. In the meanwhile, let’s see together what his story is in the comics!

Not much is known about Reverend Anderson’s early life, actually not even his first name. He was married for some time, and he had a son from the relationship, Matthew, but things went badly between him and his family, and eventually his wife left him along with Matthew. Anderson lived in Rome, West Virginia, and as a young man he felt the “calling”, and decided to become a pastor. During his studies, he arrived to the conclusion that the war between Heaven and Hell was taking place already, and wasn’t something “postponed” to the Judgment Day: he elected himself to be God‘s soldier, and specialized in serving his community through exorcisms. This kind of service proved to be more requested than expected, and Anderson became quite an expert with it, with so many parishioners needing him. The most difficult case of his youth was certainly the one of Sarah Barnes, a young mother who had become violent with her only child, Kyle, and who had suffered other major personality (and physical) changes. Recognizing in the symptoms signs of a possible demonic possession, Anderson visited the house of his lost sheep, and had confirmation that the illness that had befallen Sarah wasn’t of worldly origins: the exorcism that followed was pretty violent, and the demon within the woman’s body fought fiercely to maintain his power over her. Unexpectedly, when things were becoming desperate, Anderson was helped by Kyle, who was just a kid at the time: together, they managed to free Sarah Barnes from the demon possessing her, but as a result the woman fell into an irreversible coma. Reverend Anderson got interested in Kyle, and followed him during his growth: the kid was adopted and grew up in Rome, but eventually he decided to leave his hometown, ignoring Anderson’s pleads to further study and develop his natural talents in casting out demons. Anderson, however, knew that God was helping him in his crusade, and knew also that if Kyle Barnes was part of His great plan, he would have met him again sooner or later… and what followed proved him right.

Reverend Anderson spent the following fifteen years taking care of his community, and the cases of exorcism dropped significantly after Kyle’s departure, even if there were many nevertheless. He also started indulging in a number of small vices, like gambling and drinking, but he saw no contradiction in this, since he believed God had more important matters to care about. Things went on pretty much the same until the day Anderson was called for what appeared to be another possession: the Austin family was worried about their boy, Joshua, who had started hurting himself and speaking with strange voices. The pastor rushed to their house, and on his way there he met Kyle Barnes, who had just come back to town, and was hanging around with his step-sister, Megan Holt. Anderson recognized the Will of God in Kyle’s return in such a time, and somehow convinced the reluctant man to follow him to the Austins’ place. Once there, Anderson realized the boy was indeed possessed, and that “his” demon was even more powerful than the one who had possessed Sarah Barnes years before. Even this time, Kyle managed to cast the demon out, much to Anderson’s surprise. In order to show the man what kind of good he could do to people if he embraced and used his gift, the reverend decided to bring him to Mildred, an old woman whom he had exorcised years before. Something, however, didn’t go as planned: the woman reacted badly to Kyle’s touch, as if it burned her, and Anderson was forced to bring his friend out of her house to calm Mildred. After a failed exorcism in prison, Kyle had an intuition, and asked Anderson to bring him back to Mildred’s place: in here, they realized the woman was still possessed, and that Kyle’s touch hurt the demons, making him a natural possession-detector. Trying with other people “exorcised” by Anderson in the years before, Kyle found out they were all still possessed, everyone but young Joshua: on a side, Anderson was happy Kyle had finally answered his calling, on the other, he had just realized that his holy battle of the latest fifteen years had led to nothing, and that he had to start it all from the beginning…

Reverend Anderson is a man with a mission: he considers himself the Sword of God, tasked with fighting on Earth the everlasting battle between good and evil, putting himself and his abilities at the service of Heaven. Anderson is an experienced exorcist, with tens of solved cases behind him (apparently, he became interested in exorcisms after he himself was possessed once, but this has yet to be fully explored). Recent events concerning Kyle Barnes revealed to him that he actually never managed to cast out a single demon, thus shattering his self-esteem and his belief in being a fundamental asset in Heaven’s army. Despite this, he is still bent on fulfilling his mission, now driven by the will to mend his past failures.