Beth Ross works at a fast-food restaurant and tries to pay her father's medical bills. Her life changed the day she was elected President of the United States. America, 2036. The country is mired in a war against half the world, a more than aggressive liberalism and an epidemic of feline fever. The presidential election is a week away, but the incumbent president cannot be re-elected. His mistake is to have put an ad by presenting himself as "the executioner of the asses". The opposition candidate is a politician in dire need of affection. It could be trivial, an election like any other, where citizens vote for the "least worst" candidate. But in the United States, the vote is not direct, and it is the states that must be won to be elected, it is not done by the number of votes cast. And Ohio chose the fried-haired girl, Beth Ross. 
An acid critique of the evolution of society
No candidate has enough votes to be directly elected, with votes taking place on Twitter to compensate for abstention. It will therefore be up to the House of Representatives to decide. The latter could not decide at the first vote, they began to be seduced by promises from both parties. Having NASA on its territory for one, a giant aquarium for the other, two NASA for a third. After that, everyone raises the stakes for their own state, voting for Ross to try to earn more. And now the fried-haired girl becomes president of the United States of America. This quick-witted teenager scares the old politicians in place. She is accountable to no one, knows what she wants and does not trust those who promise her mountains and wonders. She will know how to surround herself with honest and human people to help her in her presidency. This is not to everyone's taste, especially not the CEOs of the big companies who were counting on this election to make even more money. Between political shenanigans and powerful lobbies, the new president will have to face an old world that will put obstacles in her way. 
Humor and colors
Mark Russell signs here an innovative and critical comic. The above description of the universe might make one believe that the story is quite dark when it is not. Russell invents a technological and hyper-advertising future that he cheerfully criticizes. A world where CEOs of large corporations have holograms that hide their faces, where TV shows are more extreme than each other. We laugh a lot when reading this first volume of Prez, especially when we see the ingenuity of President Ross. Ben Caldwell, who we know for A-Force, draws this very colorful world brilliantly. He succeeds in making the ubiquitous advertisements real, whether for tacos, for concrete abdominals or to buy indispensable and useless products. We can see that he enjoys drawing and going into the extravagance of the fashion of the future. Like the hairstyles of the news presenter or the different presidential outfits. To conclude, the first volume of Prez available from Urban Comics is very pleasant to read and makes us wonder about our current society. It touches on current issues: arms sales, war, disease, but under the prism of humour. This is a future series that must absolutely be followed. And you, what would you do if you became president?
