My wife watches Preacher, but I don't, other than watching the occasional scene while it's on, so forgive me if the answer to this question is obvious for any reason.
At the end of the first season,
the town blows up because of a gas leak.
Is that just speaking to the "nothing matters" vibe because
God is missing?
Does it ever really come up in any significant fashion? Or is it handled differently in the graphic novel?
Essentialy, the whole of Season 1 is not covered by the graphic novels.
It's just a stage setting / character introduction device.
So yes, you could argue that what happens in the town doesn't actually matter to the rest of the show.
In comics it's "only" church exploding when Genesis merges with the preacher. It's told in retrospective and kinda overshadowed with the Saint slaughtering cops ;)
I don't agree with Paulie that the season 1 isn't covered in original version, it's just that in series events are told in quite different way and the story about meat business is moved to Annville. Backstory of the Saint was covered much later, in separate miniseries, for example. Still, indeed many things weren't present in comics at all, and the town was introduced, just to be decimated in spectacular way ;)
