History ComicBook / Prez

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''Prez'' is a comic book series published by DC Comics.

The original ''Prez'' was created by writer Joe Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti, and debuted in 1973. It imagined a world in which the then-recent lowering of the minimum voting age results in a motivated population of youth voters who elect eighteen-year-old Prez Rickard the first teenaged President of the United States. He populates the Cabinet with his family and friends, appoints a NobleSavage to head the FBI, and combats a variety of menaces, including Boss Smiley, the corrupt political manipulator who got Prez into politics in the first place in an attempt to capture the youth vote, only for Prez to turn against him on realizing his true nature. It ran for four issues (and one crossover in ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' #10) before being cancelled.

The premise kept the series from being regarded as part of the main DC Universe (Supergirl crossover notwithstanding), which limited Prez's chance of a return appearance, but the series got a number of nods over subsequent years. The best-known -- probably more familiar to many readers than even the original series -- is "The Golden Boy", one of several issues of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' highlighting obscure older DC characters; it retells Prez's career, explicitly setting it in an alternate universe and providing the conclusion the series never got. The 1995 Vertigo Visions one-shot ''Prez: Smells Like Teen President'' uses a "whatever happened to" story to explore the failure of the 1970s ideals.

In 2015, a new version of ''Prez'' was launched as part of the DC YOU line. This version, by writer Mark Russell and artists Ben Caldwell and Mark Morales, is a satirical take set in a 2036 where America is dominated by vested corporate interests and shallow social media. Beth Ross is a teenager in a dead-end fast food job who inadvertantly gets made President on a wave of social media stardom ignited by a viral video. The first six-issue miniseries ran from 2015-2016, with a trade paperback collection titled ''Prez: Corndog in Chief''. A second miniseries is due to appear in late 2016.

Due to the attention attracted by the reboot, in 2016 DC published a trade paperback titled ''Prez: The First Teen President'', collecting all the appearances of the original Prez.

!!The 1973 series provides examples of:

* BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins: Eagle Free.
* AChildShallLeadThem: Prez.
* DestinationDefenestration: Boss Smiley pushes one of his own mooks out of a window for making a thoughtless comment. One of the remaining mooks calmly starts patching the window glass back together.
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep:
** Prez Rickard's first name is actually "Prez" (he explains that his mother had a premonition when he was born that he'd be President one day).
** Boss Smiley's first name is actually "Boss" (this is not explained).
* MisplacedWildlife: The forest creatures Eagle Free communes with in the first issue include a monkey, an elephant and a gorilla.
* NatureHero: Eagle Free lives at one with nature and understands the ways of animals to the extent that he can tell them what to do. When Prez first encounters him, he's leading a group of forest animals against Boss Smiley's construction machinery.
* NobleSavage: Eagle Free, a Native American who lives in the wild, is a FriendToAllLivingThings, and is the first to open Prez's eyes to the evil of Boss Smiley.
* OurPresidentsAreDifferent
* StevenUlyssesPerhero: Prez (short for "president") becomes the Prez.
* SurrealSymbolicHeads: Boss Smiley's head is a bald sphere with BlackBeadEyes, a tiny nose, a broad smiling mouth -- basically, a flesh-toned version of the classic yellow smiley face emblem.
* TakeThat: Boss Smiley's office décor includes autographed photographs of himself with UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and UsefulNotes/RichardNixon.
* TotallyRadical

!!The 2015 series provides examples of:
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* AuthorTract: Though TropesAreNotBad.
* AutomatedAutomobiles: The CEO of Pharmaduke is chauffeured around in a computer-controlled driverless car, which DrivesLikeCrazy.
* AdaptationExpansion: The new version goes into considerably more detail about ''how'', exactly, a teenager ends up President, and what kind of teenager might make a good job of it.
* BadJobWorseUniform: The costume at the House of Corndogs features wear a hat shaped like a cartoon puppy adorned with notices like "Ask About Today's Specials!". In a subversion, Beth later admits that the puppy hat was the one thing about the job she actually liked.
* BlackComedy
* BlandNameProduct: "Sickstarter", a crowdfunding site specifically for people who can't afford their sky-high medical bills.
* BurgerFool: Beth's job at the House of Corndogs, complete with humiliating hat shaped like a cartoon puppy.
* ChekhovsGag: The vending machine that can produce, almost instantly, any cut of meat you want from any animal it has the DNA for in its databank. [[spoiler:Beth uses it to save the day when one of her friends has a heart failure with no compatible donor hearts available.]]
* CrapsackWorld: Other than United States under [[OneNationUnderCopyRight corporations' control]] to the point where they can run for political office and turn poor people into billboards, half of the world is experiencing environmental collapse, conflicts (including [[WarForFunAndProfit United States' intervention]]), and having their refugees in United States turned into part of Human Zoo.
* ChekhovsLecture: In an early scene, Beth attends a history class at Paris Hilton Community College and makes some insightful comments about how the Roman Empire fell because of its own complacency, foreshadowing that as president she will be faced with a nation heading in the same direction.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Smiley.
* {{Eagleland}}: The entire nation becoming extreme Type 2 (CorruptCorporateExecutive, WarForFunAndProfit, and [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking Taco]] [[SinisterSurveillance Drones]]) with Beth trying to make it more idealistic Type 1.
* {{Fiction 500}}: How rich is reclusive trillionaire Fred Wayne? His corporate headquarters is Delaware. That's not a typo -- he owns the entire state outright, and the only people who live there now are him and his employees and their families.
* FunWithAcronyms: The American response to rising sea levels caused by global climate change is the Habitat Allowance for Lost Farmland And Sinking Shoreline -- HALFASS.
* GenderFlip: Male teenage president -> female teenage president.
* ImprobableHairstyle: TV anchor Amber Waves has a different bizarrely-high-maintenance hair style every time she appears.
* InSeriesNickname: Since the viral video didn't identify her, Beth becomes internet-famous as "Corndog Girl".
* InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube: Beth's first step into fame comes when one of her co-workers uploads an embarrassing video of her and it goes viral.
* IsntItIronic: Boss Smiley delivers a motivational speech to his employees rounded off with a burst of Music/NeilYoung's "Rockin' in the Free World". Afterward he turns to an aide and points out how inappropriate the music choice is.
-->'''Smiley:''' What's with the exit music? You ever listen to that song? It's all about death and crack-babies.
* KentBrockmanNews: Provided by news anchor/talk show host Amber Waves.
* MeaningfulName: "Amber Waves" is a phrase from "America the Beautiful".
* MythologyGag:
** Beth's vice president and political mentor is a congressman named Preston Rickard, who "was almost president once"; he's drawn to resemble an aged-up version of the original Prez.
** The headlines that scroll along the bottom of new broadcasts include numerous shout-outs to more famous DCU series.
** The bible Beth is sworn in on at her inauguration is clearly visible as a copy of Mark Russell's Bible-inspired graphic novel ''God Is Disappointed in You''.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Smiley heads a cabal called the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group Build-a-Burger Group]].
** The character Beth appoints as her science advisor is an {{expy}} to UsefulNotes/NeilDeGrasseTyson.
* NoodleIncident: Whatever it was that made Congressman Rickard such a political pariah.
* PlayfulHacker: A group of anonymous hackers who are partly responsible for getting Beth on the ballot in the first place and later save her from an assassination attempt while playing around with the White House's security systems.
* RewatchBonus: The strange behavior of the Delaware representative in issue 2 goes unexplained at the time, but gains a new signficance with the revelation a few issues later about Delaware's unique political situation.
* ShoutOut:
** A FunnyBackgroundEvent at Fred Wayne's research lab involves a device that resembles a Franchise/{{Stargate}}.
** A secret weapons research program seeking to remove the human error element from America's "Sentry" attack drones is called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century Project for a New American Sentry]].
* SignsOfDisrepair: A scene where a senator suffers the ill-effects of a dodgy law he helped pass prominently features an electronic sign that would say "Welcome to Hello Farms" if the light bulbs in the last half-dozen letters were working properly.
* SurrealSymbolicHeads: In this version, Smiley is the avatar of a corporation that has been granted legal personhood, a man whose individual identity is hidden behind a holographic mask representing the corporation's logo. Several other such avatars appear in the series as well.
* TakeThat: Makes criticism to American Political System, Society, and even Foreign Policies.

* BadJobWorseUniform: The costume at the House of Corndogs features wear a hat shaped like a cartoon puppy adorned with notices like "Ask About Today's Specials!". In a subversion, Beth later admits that the puppy hat was the one thing about the job she actuall liked.

* IsntItIronic: Boss Smiley gives a motivational speech to his employees backed by Music/NeilYoung's "Rockin' in the Free World". In a conversation with an aide afterward, he makes it clear that he knows what the song's really about and doesn't care beyond finding it amusing how few other people seem to.

* SignsOfDisrepair: A scene where a senator suffers the ill-effects of a dodgy law he helped pass prominently features an electronic sign that will say HELLO when all the lights are on but currently only has HELL illuminated.

* BurgerFool: Beth's awful job at the House of Corndogs, complete with humiliating hat.

* MythologyGag: Beth's vice president and political mentor is a man named Preston Rickard.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Smiley heads a cabal called the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group Build-a-Burger Group]].

* TakeThat: Makes criticism to American Political System, Society, and even Foreign Policies.

* CrapsackWorld: Other than United States under [[OneNationUnderCopyRight corporations' control]] to the point the point where they can run for political office and turn poor people into billboards, half of the world is experiencing environmental collapse, conflicts (including [[WarForFunAndProfit United States' intervention]]), and having their refugees in United States turned into part of Human Zoo.

* {{Eagleland}}: The entire nation becoming extreme Type 2 (CorruptCorporateExecutive, WarForFunAndProfits, and [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking Taco]] [[SinisterSurveillance Drones]]) with Beth trying to make it more idealistic Type 1.

* SurrealSymbolicHeads: In this version, Smiley is the avatar of a corporation that has been granted legal personhood, a man whose individual identity is hidden behind a holographic mask representing the corporation's logo. Several other such avatars appear in the series as well.

* Eagleland: The entire nation becoming extreme Type 2 (CorruptCorporateExecutive, WarForFunAndProfits, and [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking Taco]] [[SinisterSurveillance Drones]]) with Beth trying to make it more idealistic Type 1.

In 2015, a new version of ''Prez'' was launched as part of the DC YOU line. This version, by writer Mark Russell and artists Ben Caldwell and Mark Morales, is a satirical take set in a 2036 where America is dominated by vested corporate interests and shallow social media. Beth Ross is a teenager in a dead-end fast food job who inadvertantly gets made President on a wave of social media stardom ignited by a viral video. The first six-issue miniseries ran from 2015-2016, with a second due to appear in late 2016.

* TheBeastmaster: Eagle Free lives at one with nature and understands the ways of animals to the extent that he can tell them what to do. When Prez first encounters him, he's leading a group of forest animals against Boss Smiley's construction machinery.