Prez #6 Review

Prez #6 marks the end.  The end of the series?  No, thankfully someone at DC is smart enough to let this one stick around, for now at least.  This is the end of the first “mini-series”, with a following six issue arc to come in a few months.  Hopefully.  For now, let’s get to the review!

PREZ #6
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Ben Caldwell
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Jeremy Lawson
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Marie Javins
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.99

Previously in Prez:  The Cat Flu is spreading,  the border patrol are robots controlled remotely by irresponsible video game players and neither political party want her in the White House.  Beth hasn’t had the best go as President, even if she wasn’t sixteen.  Plus, the murder death robot, War Beast, has escaped from its government facility containment center.

TYING UP SOME LOOSE ENDS

Mark Russell continues to make Prez one of the most biting and cynical mainstream comic books on the racks.  While this issue actually reins in some cynicism, the humor continues and is cranked to eleven.  I laughed five times within the first two pages and they weren’t little chuckles.  The Cat Flu epidemic is out of control and Beth is asked to sign a bill that will allow the major corporations to find a vaccine and “eventually” a cure.  It would also in turn allow them to patent the DNA of all organisms they study.  Even though Beth vows she’ll veto the bill, both parties have enough votes to override the veto.  There’s a great joke about the two sides never working together until a time like this.  War Beast is living by “herself” and refuses to be a war machine.  Russell has a lot of story threads dangling and he thankfully ties some up.  I was glad to see Beth find some confidence and by issue’s end she not only shows her opponents what she’s capable of, she proves that she just might have the chops for the job.  There’s a good cliffhanger that I’m really, really hoping gets followed up on with the next mini-series.  The biggest drawback to the issue is that there are so many story lines going on that a new reader will be completely lost.  Beth also finally gets the War Beast as her bodyguard, imagery we’ve been seeing since the beginning of the series.  I’ve been dying to see “the girl and her killer robot” so I’ll be devastated if DC cancels this title now.  Fingers crossed.

A HIGH FACEBOOK APPROVAL RATING

Ben Caldwell has really given this series a distinct look and style and it’d be difficult to confuse the art in Prez with another comic on the racks.  The book has a punk rock vibe about it, much like Beth’s style.  It’s loose with vibrant colors and I love the way Caldwell designs the clothing and hair of characters.  The logos covering the CEO’s of the corporations continues to look great and is one of my favorite things in the book.  Unfortunately the action in the beginning with War Beast is a bit confusing in the way it’s laid out and also due to War Beast’s design.  When the robot goes into attack mode, its arms and fingers split into multiple parts and it becomes difficult to tell what goes where.  Again, the colors are bright and make the book pop.  There are stylistic choices that make characters look weird and proportions extremely off.  Regardless, there aren’t enough Facebook likes I can give the art team that works on Prez.

BOTTOM LINE: THE SECOND MINI CAN’T COME SOON ENOUGH

Prez really should have been a Vertigo book.  I think it would have been a better fit for the series and might even have helped sales.  Granted, DC hasn’t said it’s being canceled, but the fact that it went from being a twelve issue mini-series to two six issue mini’s is a bit suspect.  It gives them an out and an easy way to cancel the book while maintaining an illusion of a conclusion.  Regardless, Prez #6 continues the title’s streak of quality entertainment.  It’s seriously one of funniest, cynical, wittiest, honest and best books DC has out now.  I actually think it is the best.  Keep Prez alive!

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