Yup, it's time for PREZ. Created in 1973 by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti, it's...wait. Let me repeat that. We have a concept that was created by the creator of Captain Freakin' America just laying around, and DC is doing nothing at all with it. Nothing. That's wasteful folks. And the Final Crisis is just to place to rectify this gross negligence.
Yes, you read it right. Published in the heady days after the XXVI Amendment, which guaranteed the vote to 18-year-olds, Simon imagined that such a change would lead to future amendments lowering the age requirements for Congress and the President. The end result:
It's a fascinating reflection of the times. I've only read the first issue (only 4 were published before cancellation), but Joe Simon, who was approaching 60 when this was published, tackles corruption, Big Business, pollution, police brutality, commercialization, campaign finance reform, the oppression of Native Americans, pork barrel projects, biased history books...all in the first issue!!! Sure, it comes across as a little too forced hip and naive, but at age 60, Simon was pushing a pretty radical agenda.
PREZ wasn't 100% forgotten. Neil Gaiman did a Sandman story featuring him, and Ed Brubaker did a Vertigo one-shot about PREZ (man, I have GOT to find that).
But PREZ, it seems to me, would particularly resonate in 2007/2008, as a lot of Americans seem thirsty for alternatives to the same old politics. So why not make him mainstream continuity? Or perhaps DC is too afraid of rocking corporate boats these days to print anything so overtly political...
Hell, if they expect us to believe that Lex Luthor could be president, or Pete Ross (Question: what are the odds of 2, count them 2 people from Smallville, Kansas, becoming President??), then we can suspend disbelief enough to believe Prez Rickard. Make Mine the Flower Party, brother!!
4 comments:
I'm going with the All Night Party.
Or Rom. I am totally voting for ROM.
Hasbro just charged you 2 bucks for saying that...
The Brubaker PREZ one-shot, subtitled "Smells Like Teen President," is pretty good, with some great art by Eric Shanower. The story is more about the myth of Prez Rickard, as a young man who may or may not be Prez's son embarks on a journey with a friend to find the reclusive celebrity. It's basically a meditation on the grunge generation and its relation to the radical political movements of the early 70s.
Now i especially have to find it...
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