A review by papablues050164
Prez: The First Teen President by Ed Brubaker, Joe Simon

3.0

This embodies all the best and not so good traits of 1970's comics. This is a story that hasn't happened, but it could. The youth vote has just been given to 18-year-olds, the Constitution is amended so teenage Prez Rickard can be elected President. It tries to break out of the box of strictly superhero fare, while it struggles to come to grips with the changing times. Great, that we have a Teenage President; couldn't be worse than the Victorian-minded dinkoffs we have to deal with now. In fact the old fuddidudd Senators harassing Prez could have stepped out of a time machine from our own f-ed-up time period. Issue #3's take on Gun Control was ahead of its time, although we've obviously slipped a light year backwards on that issue. Great, that Golden Age comic maker Joe Simon was still at work. Not so great, that his simplistic style was too reminiscent of the 1950's. Bad, that despite its good intentions, Jerry Grandenetti's artwork portrays African Americans as 1940's-type Mongoloid figures that would have been offensive, even 40 years ago. Great, that the Vice President is a woman, in 1973! Why, though, did a potentially great character like Eagle Free have to be a stereotypical Native American, who even Pre initially labels a 'savage'? I give it a C, for good intentions.