Panel Vision - Prez (2015) Review

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Edited by Robert Beach

This has been a strange year for politics. Mainly this election feels like the capstone on the long trend of social media growing to define the political arena rather than just reflect it. At the time of writing, the most recent bit of bizarre web memetics dominating the conversation about the national election came when the head of Latinos for Donald Trump threatened that “if Hillary wins, you’ll see Taco Trucks on every corner.” 

Naturally, this bit of bizarre posturing has drawn uproarious laughter from most corners, probably because “a taco truck on every corner” sounds like a god damn utopia. Even though the injection of tacos into the forefront of the presidential election seems ludicrous, it made me realize there had been on brilliant voice who saw this all coming, one spot-on genius comic: 2015’s Prez. 

Panel Vision - Prez '73

DC Comics recently concluded a 4-year long branding exercise entitled the New 52.  To do a proper autopsy of the New 52 would require several in depth essays over the course of a small eternity but suffice it to say it’s not really being viewed as a success.  So, as a result, DC is now launching a new branding initiative entitled DC You (puny.)  Probably the most suprising title to come out of the DC You is Prez, a comic set in a not to distant future that plays like a weird cross between Idiocracy and The Zero Theorem as directed by VEEP’s Armando Iannucci.  The books is basically a social satire, spoofing the entire 21^st century miasma of corporate interest, political gridlock, Internet distraction, and public exhaustion with a system that seems ever more absurd.

 It’s a good comic, one of the few books DC’s put out in 5 years to feel grounded in the realities of the now and the broadening reader demographic rather than drawing on the conventional wisdom of the ‘90s.  However, Prez isn’t a new comic, it’s actually a revival of a 1973 4-issue mini-series by Superman co-creator Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti, one of the most influential comic artists of all time.