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Prez (character)
View on Wikipediafrom Wikipedia
| Prez | |
|---|---|
 Prez #1 (August–September 1973), the first appearance of Prez Rickard, art by Jerry Grandenetti | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Prez: First Teen President of the U.S.A. #1 (August–September 1973) |
| Created by | Joe Simon, Jerry Grandenetti |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Prez Rickard |
| Youth rights |
|---|
 |
"Prez" is the name of several characters appearing in comics published by DC Comics. The original was Prez Rickard, the first teenage President of the United States, who appeared in a short-lived comic series by writer Joe Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti[1] in 1973 and 1974.[2] Similar characters have appeared since then, revisiting the concept or paying homage to the original character. In 2015, DC published a miniseries about a teenage girl named Beth Ross who is elected President via Twitter in the year 2036.[3]
Story
[edit]Following the real-world passage of the 26th Amendment in 1971, which lowered the minimum vote age to 18 nationwide, an amendment is passed allowing teenagers to also be elected to public office.[4] Teenage Prez Rickard – named by his mother with the dream of him someday becoming President – takes the initiative of fixing the clocks in his town of Steadfast to run on time, making him a local hero.[5] Shady businessman Boss Smiley (a political boss with a smiley face for a head) recruits him to run for the Senate, thinking that he can manipulate the boy. However, inspired after encountering Eagle Free, a young Native American, Prez campaigns on his own terms, and is instead elected president.[6]
He selects his mother to be Vice President, makes his sister his secretary, and appoints Eagle Free Director of the FBI. As president, Prez fights a legless vampire and his werewolf henchman, a right-wing militia led by the great-great-great-great-great-grandnephew of George Washington, evil chess players, and Boss Smiley. He is attacked for his stance on gun control and survives an assassination attempt during that controversy.
Publication history
[edit]The series was abruptly cancelled after four issues.[7] Several years later, issue #5 was included in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (though Prez itself predated the DC Implosion which prompted the production of that book). Prez also appeared in Supergirl #10 (Sept.-Oct. 1974).[8] Although the first issue of Prez specified that the series was an imaginary (non-continuity) story, this story by Cary Bates implies that Prez is President of the U.S. on Earth-One of the DC Multiverse. In the story, Supergirl saves Prez from two hoaxed assassination attempts, only to be entrapped into a third by a politician working with a witch. In this story, Prez's repair of clocks is presented as a personal hobby.
Other versions
[edit]- In 1993, Neil Gaiman featured the character in issue #54 of his Sandman (vol. 2) series, in a story called "The Golden Boy", wherein appear revised versions of real-life events from years that followed that in which the story is set, and the assassination attempt on Prez's life takes the life of his fiancé, which Prez forgives when he learns that the assassin is mentally unbalanced. Eventually, he is killed, and Boss Smiley confronts him with a day of reckoning. At this point, The Sandman's protagonist Dream offers him passage to various alternate Americas as a travelling philanthropist.[9]
- Prez was the indirect subject and appears briefly in the 1995 one-shot issue Vertigo Visions: Prez - Smells Like Teen President by Ed Brubaker and Eric Shanower. In this story, a Generation X teenager seeks out the vanished former president, whom he believes to be his father. The cause of Prez's death is here reported to be brain cancer, apparently caused by a metaphorical cancer growing in the collective soul of the country during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
- A character based on Prez appears in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Lex Luthor creates a computer program which takes on human form and assumes the role of Commander in Chief. Its name is "Rick Rickard" and it resembles a middle-aged Prez, acting as a satirical stand-in for George W. Bush.
- In The New 52 DC Multiverse, Prez is mentioned as having been a past President on Earth-23. Another version of Prez is also mentioned as being the current, immortal President of Earth-47. In that capacity, he funds the Love Syndicate of Dreamworld, Earth-47's core metahuman team.[citation needed]
- A new version of the character appears in a six-issue miniseries published in 2015, written by Mark Russell and drawn by Ben Caldwell with Dominike “Domo” Stanton.[10][11] She is a teenage girl named Beth Ross who is elected President via Twitter in the year 2036.[12] The original Prez, here named "Preston Rickard", becomes her Vice President to help her through the dangers of politics.[13]
In other media
[edit]- An adult version of Prez appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Triumvirate of Terror!", voiced by Jeff Bennett. This version is President 50 years in the future and is shown opening a time capsule created by Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman.
- Prez makes a cameo appearance on a poster in the Stargirl episode "Brainwave Jr.".
- Prez Rickard appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.
- Prez appears in the Audible adaptation of The Sandman, played by KJ Apa.
See also
[edit]- Wild in the Streets (1968), a film about teenagers controlling the U.S. Presidency
References
[edit]- ^ McAvennie, Michael (2010). "1970s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9.
Teenage President of the United States Prez Rickard didn't enjoy a long term in comics. However scripter Joe Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti gave him plenty to tackle in four issues.
- ^ Prez at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Mark Russell [@Manruss] (February 6, 2015). "@TheComicHunter @neilhimself I think I will have to. Though my Prez will be a 19 year-old girl who gets elected via Twitter" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Peterson, Matthew (May 23, 2010). "RETRO REVIEW: Prez #1 (Aug./Sept. 1973)". Major Spoilers. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
- ^ Markstein, Don. "Prez". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
- ^ Morris, Jon (2015). The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half Baked Heroes from Comic Book History. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Quirk Books. pp. 230–231. ISBN 978-1-59474-763-2.
- ^ Sacks, Jason; Dallas, Keith (2014). American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s. TwoMorrows Publishing. pp. 113–114. ISBN 978-1605490564.
- ^ Sacks, Jason; Dallas, Keith (2014). American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 978-1605490564.
- ^ Peterson, Matthew (August 11, 2013). "RETRO REVIEW: Sandman #54 (October 1993)". Major Spoilers. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
- ^ "New Books, New Creative Teams: The Complete List of New and Continuing DC Comics Titles". DC Comics. February 6, 2015. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
- ^ Dominguez, Noah (January 12, 2024). "DC to Re-Release Mark Russell's Prez as a YA Graphic Novel". Comic Book Movies and Superhero Movie News - SuperHeroHype. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
- ^ Mark Russell [@Manruss] (February 6, 2015). "@TheComicHunter @neilhimself I think I will have to. Though my Prez will be a 19 year-old girl who gets elected via Twitter" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 237. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
External links
[edit]- Shaw, Scott. "Prez Vol. 2 [sic], No. 4", Oddball Comics #1041, November 1, 2004, and archive of "Prez Vol. 1, No. 1", Oddball Comics #433, November 30, 2001
Prez (character)
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Prez Rickard is a fictional character in DC Comics, depicted as the first teenage president of the United States in a satirical series that critiques political corruption and social issues.[1]
Created by writer Joe Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti, the character debuted in Prez #1 in 1973, leading to a four-issue run published by DC Comics through 1974.[2][3]
In the stories, the 18-year-old Rickard, elected after the constitutional age requirement is lowered amid a youth-driven political wave, confronts challenges such as environmental degradation, organized crime, and supernatural threats including vampires, while advocating for reforms like anti-pollution measures and honest governance.[1][4]
The series' blend of idealism, absurdity, and commentary on 1970s America marked it as an unconventional entry in DC's lineup, with Rickard later appearing in cameo roles and inspiring revivals, notably the 2015 Prez miniseries by Mark Russell featuring Beth Ross as another teen president in a dystopian future dominated by corporate influence and social media.[5][6]
Creation and Development
Original Concept and Influences
The character Prez Rickard was conceived by writer Joe Simon in 1973 as a satirical depiction of a teenage outsider ascending to the U.S. presidency amid widespread disillusionment with established politics. Simon, co-creator of Captain America with Jack Kirby, collaborated with artist Jerry Grandenetti to introduce Prez in Prez #1 (cover-dated August–September 1973), portraying him as an 18-year-old rock musician elected after a fictional constitutional amendment reduced the presidential age minimum from 35 to 18 years. This premise highlighted the era's push for youth involvement in governance, building on the real 26th Amendment ratified on July 1, 1971, which lowered the voting age to 18 in response to Vietnam War-era demands for representation among draftees.[6][7] Simon's concept reflected anti-establishment sentiments fueled by the Vietnam War's prolongation and the emerging Watergate scandal, which eroded faith in political elites. Polls from the period documented this shift: by 1972, trust in the federal government to do what is right "just about always" or "most of the time" had fallen to 53% from 77% in 1964, with further declines accelerating through the decade to around 25% by 1979. Prez's narrative positioned the protagonist as a non-career politician challenging corruption, embodying a causal logic that fresh, untainted leadership could address systemic failures evident in empirical indicators of institutional distrust.[8][9] Influences included American counterculture, particularly rock music's role in youth rebellion, with Prez's guitar-playing persona evoking the era's fusion of pop culture and activism. The story drew partial inspiration from the 1968 film Wild in the Streets, produced by American International Pictures, which satirized youth electoral dominance leading to radical societal change. Third-party and outsider political currents, such as challenges to two-party dominance amid post-1968 election fragmentation, further shaped the character's appeal as a disruptor to entrenched power structures.[10]Evolution in Revivals
In the 2015 miniseries by writer Mark Russell and artist Ben Caldwell, the Prez archetype shifted from the 1970s depiction of a folk-heroic teenage president to a critique of viral digital fame propelling an unlikely candidate to power, with protagonist Beth Ross elected after a social media video of her eating a corndog goes viral on platforms like Twitter.[5] This adaptation incorporated anxieties over social media's capacity to bypass traditional gatekeepers, paralleling empirical evidence from the 2016 U.S. election where platforms amplified unfiltered messaging and fake news, with studies estimating that pro-Trump fake articles outnumbered pro-Clinton ones by 30 million shares on Facebook alone.[11] The narrative's focus on corporate candidates and commodified poverty underscored causal influences of digital populism, where outsider appeals via algorithms disrupted elite consensus, as seen in data showing Twitter's role in mobilizing independent voters through direct, sensational content.[12] Russell framed the story as a bipartisan satire targeting media-driven sensationalism and entrenched corruption across political lines, avoiding partisan favoritism by portraying systemic failures in both establishment figures and populist excesses.[13] Beth Ross, reimagined as a working-class teenager from a fast-food background, embodied disruption by nominally blue-collar outsiders against insulated elites, reflecting real-world patterns where economic precarity fuels anti-institutional sentiment rather than ideological purity.[14] The 2024 deluxe reprint edition, retitled Prez: Setting a Dangerous President, extended this evolution with a brand-new short story and updated dialogue, projecting scenarios into a dystopian 2046 election cycle amid heightened corporate and media dominance.[15] This update aligned with ongoing empirical trends of institutional distrust, as Gallup polls indicate U.S. trust in federal government remains near historic lows, with only 22% expressing confidence in 2024 per contemporaneous Pew data, driven by perceptions of elite detachment and policy inefficacy across administrations.[16][17] Such revisions preserved the series' core causal realism—youthful naivety clashing with entrenched power—while adapting to post-2016 realities of fragmented trust and algorithmic influence.Fictional Biographies
Prez Rickard
Prez Rickard, born to Martha Rickard in the town of Steadfast, Middle America, received his nickname from his mother's conviction that he was destined to become President of the United States.[18] This prophetic belief shaped his early identity, leading him to adopt "Prez" as his stage name while rising to fame as a teenage rock musician in the early 1970s.[18] His music career capitalized on the era's youth culture, amplified by the real-world lowering of the voting age to 18 via the 26th Amendment in 1971, which enabled narratives of generational political empowerment. Drawn into politics by the corrupt influence of Boss Smiley, Rickard initially served as a senator before a constitutional amendment reduced the presidential age requirement, allowing his candidacy.[19] Running on the Flower Power Party ticket in 1976, he won the presidency through a youth-driven electoral wave that dismantled Smiley's entrenched political machine.[20] As the youngest U.S. President at age 18, Rickard's administration focused on anti-corruption reforms, confronting mafia syndicates and challenging symbolic national controversies, such as disputes over the bald eagle as the emblematic bird amid plots involving trained eagles in criminal schemes.[3] [21] During his term, Rickard pursued idealistic policies aimed at rooting out governmental graft and promoting transparency, often clashing with entrenched interests like organized crime figures seeking to manipulate policy.[19] His efforts culminated in surviving a failed assassination attempt orchestrated by political adversaries, underscoring the perils of his reformist agenda.[20] Post-presidency, Rickard made sporadic appearances in the DC Universe, including alliances with characters like the Swamp Thing, reflecting his enduring status as a symbol of youthful integrity amid institutional decay.[6]Beth Ross
Beth Ross serves as the central protagonist in the 2015 Prez miniseries by DC Comics, portrayed as the first teenage president of the United States, elected in 2046 through a confluence of social media virality and electoral irregularities. A former employee at a Lil' Doggie fast-food outlet, Ross achieves fleeting fame as "Corndog Girl" via a viral video that exposes governmental corruption, propelling her into a write-in candidacy that exploits a loophole in the Electoral College process amid widespread voter disillusionment with establishment figures.[22][23] In this depicted future, America grapples with profound institutional decay, including corporations eligible to run for office and the economically disadvantaged reduced to human billboards, setting the stage for Ross's improbable ascent.[5] Her presidency unfolds against a backdrop of escalating national crises, notably the cat flu epidemic, characterized as the worst health disaster in U.S. history, alongside entrenched corporate overlordship and pervasive media manipulation that distorts public discourse. Ross assembles an eclectic cabinet comprising her ex-fast-food supervisor, a scandal-tainted congressman, and an eccentric anti-Smurf pundit, reflecting her outsider status and satirical thrust toward upending elite norms.[24][25] Efforts to enact reforms targeting monopolistic entities and the surveillance apparatus provoke backlash from entrenched powers, escalating to impeachment pressures that underscore the fragility of populist gains in a system rigged for perpetuation.[26] The narrative employs causal realism to illustrate social media's ambivalent role in democratic processes: while platforms enable Ross's anti-elite mobilization—mirroring empirical patterns in the 2016 U.S. election where Twitter amplified outsider campaigns and populist rhetoric, garnering over 1.2 billion tweets related to candidates— they simultaneously foster echo chambers, misinformation cascades, and elite countermeasures that undermine accountability.[22] This dynamic, predating real-world validations of social media's capacity for both disruption and co-optation, positions Ross as an archetype of grassroots insurgency confronting systemic inertia, where viral authenticity clashes with institutionalized resistance.Publication History
1973–1974 Series
The Prez comic series was published by DC Comics from August–September 1973 to February–March 1974, comprising four bimonthly issues.[27] Written by Joe Simon, known for co-creating Captain America, and illustrated by Jerry Grandenetti, the series launched amid the Watergate scandal, which unfolded from 1972 to 1974 and eroded public trust in government institutions.[28] It was cancelled after the fourth issue due to insufficient sales, typical for niche titles in an era when DC's average circulation hovered around 200,000–300,000 copies per issue for ongoing series, with lower performers quickly discontinued.[29][30] The debut run established the core premise of a constitutional amendment reducing the minimum age for the U.S. presidency to 18, inspired by the 26th Amendment's 1971 ratification lowering the voting age.[4] Subtle ties to the broader DC Universe were hinted at through minor references, foreshadowing potential crossovers that never materialized in the original run.[31]Post-1974 Appearances and Mini-Series
Following the cancellation of the original Prez series after four issues in early 1974, Prez Rickard made a brief cameo in Supergirl #10 (October 1974), written by Cary Bates with art by Art Saaf and Vince Colletta, in a story titled "Death of a Prez!" wherein Supergirl thwarts an assassination attempt on the teenage president during a public event. This one-off crossover marked the character's sole mainstream DC Universe appearance in the 1970s, limited by the publisher's shift toward superhero-centric titles amid declining sales for non-superhero books.[32] An unpublished fifth issue of the original series, scripted by Joe Simon and intended to conclude Prez's first term amid escalating political chaos, appeared in DC's internal Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (compiled 1978, with limited distribution in the 1980s), depicting Rickard's failed re-election bid and transition to the private sector.[6] This material underscored the series' abrupt end due to poor sales—averaging under 100,000 copies per issue in an era dominated by superhero revivals like those of Green Lantern and Aquaman—rather than any narrative resolution.[33] Prez resurfaced in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman #54 (August 1993), a Vertigo title where an aged Rickard, reflecting on his presidency's idealism amid personal decline, encounters Dream in a Florida retirement community; the issue portrays his death from natural causes, closing his original biography without altering DC continuity. Ed Brubaker's Vertigo Visions: Prez #1 (1995), illustrated by Eric Shanower, briefly features a sighting of the "long missing and presumed dead" Rickard in a dystopian 1996 election-year narrative focused on his fictional son P.J., exploring media cynicism but confining Prez to a peripheral, enigmatic role.[34] Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001–2002) includes minor background panels of Prez as a disgraced figure in a collapsed American polity, aligning with the story's alternate-future satire but without substantive dialogue or plot advancement.[32] Across these post-1974 outings—totaling roughly seven issues or fragments—Prez's appearances remained sparse, constrained by DC's superhero market emphasis, where political satires struggled post-Watergate as real-world outsider Jimmy Carter's 1976 victory diffused the era's anti-establishment appeal without necessitating fictional analogs.[20] This scarcity reflected broader industry dynamics, with non-superhero titles comprising under 10% of DC's output by the 1980s, prioritizing evergreen heroes over one-note political concepts.[1]2015 Miniseries
The 2015 Prez miniseries consisted of six issues published by DC Comics under its Vertigo imprint, written by Mark Russell and illustrated by Ben Caldwell, with covers also by Caldwell.[5][35] Issue #1 was released on June 17, 2015, as part of DC's "DC You" publishing initiative, which prioritized bold, creator-led narratives for mature audiences.[36] The series rollout aligned with anticipation for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, positioning it within Vertigo's focus on sophisticated, adult-oriented content unbound by mainstream superhero constraints.[36] Initial sales for issue #1 reached 28,309 copies ordered by retailers, reflecting launch interest.[37] Subsequent issues saw declining figures, with issue #3 at 10,360 copies and issue #5 at 8,098 copies, averaging 10,000 to 15,000 units per issue across the run.[38][39] These numbers underscored the series' niche appeal in Vertigo's lineup, where lower print runs were common for non-mainstream titles, leading to its completion after the planned six issues without extension despite favorable reviews.[40]2024 Reprint and Additions
In January 2024, DC Comics announced "Prez: Setting a Dangerous President", a young adult graphic novel edition collecting the entirety of the 2015 six-issue Prez miniseries by writer Mark Russell and artist Ben Caldwell.[15] The volume incorporates bonus material, including Beth Ross's backup story from Catwoman: Election Night #1 (2020), and introduces a brand-new short story arc set in 2046 that examines the enduring fallout from social media-fueled political phenomena.[41] Released on June 4, 2024, the 148-page trade paperback targets teen readers, building on the original series' prior recognition as a YALSA Top Ten Graphic Novel for Teens.[15][42] This repackaging reflects DC's strategy to capitalize on the expanding young adult comics segment, where graphic novels have seen sustained sales growth through library and educational channels since the mid-2010s. Timed for the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle, the edition leverages renewed interest in satirical takes on viral celebrity politics and institutional erosion, as evidenced by contemporaneous polling data showing trust in government at historic lows—around 22% approval for Congress per Gallup surveys conducted that year.[43] The added 2046 narrative specifically probes causal chains of meme-driven leadership, portraying scenarios of policy gridlock and cultural fragmentation as downstream effects of Beth Ross's improbable rise.[13]Themes and Political Satire
Core Themes Across Versions
![Prez #1 cover from 1973][float-right]Across versions of the Prez character, a central motif is the elevation of youthful outsiders to challenge entrenched political power structures, portraying their inexperience as a virtue that disrupts corruption and institutional inertia. In the 1973 series, Prez Rickard, a teenager elected amid lowered age requirements, confronts systemic issues like environmental neglect and political violence, exemplified by his administration's response to a brush fire ignited by a discarded cigar from a corrupt official's limousine.[19] This narrative arc posits non-career politicians as catalysts for reform, aligning with historical cases where outsider-led initiatives curbed graft, such as Singapore's post-1965 anti-corruption campaigns under Lee Kuan Yew, which transformed the nation from a high-corruption environment to one of the world's least corrupt by enforcing stringent penalties and independent oversight. The 2015 miniseries extends this by depicting Beth Ross's accidental presidency as a populist backlash against corporate dominance, where her naivety exposes the pitfalls of commodified governance but also enables disruptions like public reckonings with exploitative practices.[44] Satire targeting media manipulation and national symbols recurs, critiquing how superficial narratives obscure governance realities. The original series lampoons symbolic controversies, such as debates over national emblems and the appointment of figures like Eagle Free to key roles, highlighting absurd institutional rituals amid real threats like insurrections.[21] In the 2015 iteration, viral media fame propels Ross to power via a humiliating corndog incident, satirizing celebrity-driven politics and corporate branding, including ads for predatory loans and tobacco giants that normalize apolitical exploitation.[45] These elements debunk assumptions of neutral symbols and media, revealing causal links between spectacle and policy failures, as seen in exaggerated depictions of social media wars causing mass casualties.[44] Corruption is framed as a bipartisan, systemic affliction rather than partisan failing, with populism's disruptions weighed against its risks of inexperience. Both iterations target entrenched interests across aisles—original stories feature oblivious peace initiatives ignoring bipartisan violence, while the reboot critiques faceless conglomerates influencing all factions.[46] Pros include shaking complacency, as Rickard's and Ross's tenures force accountability on issues like gun control and inequality; cons manifest in naivety, such as Ross's struggles against coordinated corporate retaliation.[47] This balanced view underscores corruption's roots in institutional longevity, not ideology, echoing empirical patterns where short-term outsider mandates correlate with initial anti-graft momentum before potential co-optation.[48]