Prez: A DC President in continuity? Options

[Darkglobe]

I was talking today about famously entangled continuity and we got on the subject of Prez and if he's in continuity as a real President of the United States according to DC Comics history... or not. Personally, I think Prez has to be in continuity because it happened pre-Crisis, but I also thinbk it's possible since he appeared in Vertigo, that he may have been president only in the Vertigo-verse.

It also got me to thinking, in DC (and Marvel, if anybody is interested) which real-world Presidents have been shown, and what non-our earth presidents (like Prez, the Teen President) have held the highest office in America?

All me & my brother could think of:

Prez at DC (a 70's era president)
John F Kennedy (in DC, famously removed from a Teen Titans story, but eventually appeared in the Swinging Special of a few years back)
U.S. Grant (in old Western comics)

[Mark Ellis]

All me & my brother could think of:

Prez at DC (a 70's era president)
John F Kennedy (in DC, famously removed from a Teen Titans story, but eventually appeared in the Swinging Special of a few years back)
U.S. Grant (in old Western comics)

You and your brother missed the legendary "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy" which was nearly shelved because of JFK's assassination.



President Kennedy showed up in almost all Superman titles during his administration, since editor Mort Weisinger was a big supporter.



Superboy went back in time to stop the assassination of President Lincoln, only be stopped himself by none other than Lex Luthor.



President Nixon was all over Marvel continuity in the 70s, particularly Captain America, wherein he committed suicide in the Oval Office rather than be exposed as the leader of the Secret Empire.



Current and past presidents show up all through Marvel and DC continuity.

[Darkglobe]

Great stuff with many a fine illustration! Darn that Luthor too! I think that somewhere down the line that I had heard that about Nixon, but I didn't remember it while posting. Any idea about if Prez's presidency is in DC continuity though?

[tbrotomo]

Great info. It's hard to not think of politics ramming their way into comics as a modern phenomena. I guess this has been going on for generations now.

I've always had a goal to write something positive about President Nixon at some point, not being a fan of when 100% of people harp on someone. I like to champion against that sort of thing. I'm not sure what to write, but it's going to require a lot of research because I have a hard time finding anything on the man except for Watergate stuff. No person in recent history I think has been as villified as much as him, a man who history pretty much only records as having stepped down because people on his campaign broke into another campaign's office to try to steal documents and was accused of lying about it. I don't think anyone would have the honor to step down after being caught in that these days, and I'm damn sure that act is common occurance in politics.

A little off topic, sorry about that. I thought one of the neatest uses of presidents in comics was in Supreme Power a few years back. Though that series never really went anywhere, it started off pretty cool with nearly every president working with Hyperion over the years. Was really interesting.

This post has been edited by tbrotomo: May 18 2011, 09:36 AM

[Mark Ellis]

Well, to give Luthor a bit of credit...he wasn't exactly thrilled when he figured out he had stopped Superboy from saving President Lincolon.

I don't think anyone would have the honor to step down after being caught in that these days, and I'm damn sure that act is common occurance in politics.

Dude, you need to do a lot more research.

Nixon's office was equipped with a secret tape recording system and those tapes implicated him in trying to cover up the break-in.

He was given what amounted to an ultimatum...face impeachment in the House of Representatives and a very strong possibillty of conviction in the Senate and even criminal charges, or step down.

He agreed to resign, only after ensuring that his successor, Gerald Ford (who had been appointed his VP after Nixon's first VP, Spiro Agnew was indicted on various criminal charges), would issue a complete pardon.

Honor had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Quite the opposite.

This post has been edited by Mark Ellis: May 18 2011, 11:24 AM

[Glen Davis]

Nixon gets a lot of flak, and deserves it. That said, LBJ did everything Nixon did, and more, like faking the Gulf of Tonkin incident, was never impeached, indeed was never charged.

Nixon's real crime was taking down soviet spy Alger Hiss, and the press never forgave him for that.

When he lost the 1960 election, for which there was a whole lot more evidence of fixing than the 2000 election, he stepped down instead of having a hissy fit, suing, and dragging the country through a process that weakened the entire nation.

He opened up China, and had a good post presidency where he didn't betray the country like Carter does all the time..

This topic reminds me of a "relevant" story I once wrote, where a senator killed a woman in a car accident, left the scene of the crime, and tried to arrange an alibi. He gets off because he's a big important politician but Superman gets Vartox to use the aging machine on him.

I found it strange that Chappaquiddick was never referenced during the "relevant" period

[Mark Ellis]

I found it strange that Chappaquiddick was never referenced during the "relevant" period

Mainly because Ted Kennedy was a Senator in 1969, not even a presidential hopeful....and the "relevant" period in comics didn't really get started until 1971 and thereabouts, two or more years after Chappaquiddick.

Except for visuals in one panel of Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 in 1970, I don't recall any comic directly referencing the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, either.

But other than that...Nixon was a lying sack of shit whose verifiable record as a lying sack of shit went back decades. He got a free pass plenty of times.

This post has been edited by Mark Ellis: May 20 2011, 12:26 PM

[Glen Davis]

As did JFK, who actually edited many of the news stories written about him.

If you're offended by a politician lying, there's a long line.

As to the notable absence of Chappaquiddick, I'll simply say that for many years, Chuck Dixon was the only conservative that the people working in DC actually knew. This was during the Reagan administration, and leave it at that.