Obama Meets Spider-Man (or Mr. Spider-Man Goes to Washington)
comic books, superheroes January 12th, 2009
If you’re a geek and haven’t heard about this already, then you live under a rock (probably a rock in your parents basement). On January 14, President-Elect Obama makes his nationwide comic book debut in the Marvel Universe in a special bonus story in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583.
From Marvel’s press release for the issue:
“This all new story written by Zeb Wells and art by Todd Nauck and Frank D’Armata takes place in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day and finds one of Spider-Man’s oldest foes attempting to thwart the swearing in ceremony of the 44th President of the United States. The story will be featured as a bonus story in Marvel Comic’s Amazing Spider-Man #583, available in comic book shops nation-wide on January 14th, 2009. A special variant cover by artist Phil Jimenez featuring the President-Elect and Spider-Man will be available for this issue.”
“When we heard that President-Elect Obama is a collector of Spider-Man comics, we knew that these two historic figures had to meet in our comics’ Marvel Universe,” Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada said in the release. “Historic moments such as this one can be reflected in our comics because the Marvel Universe is set in the real world. A Spider-Man fan moving into the Oval Office is an event that must be commemorated in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man.”
If you can’t read what Spider-Man is saying on the cover, here you go… “Hey, if you get to be on my cover, can I be on the dollar bill?”
Read more at Marvel Comics and Newsarama.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:32 am
I am SO glad you didn’t actually say anything about how Obama is our geek pres. I am getting sick of this. The fact that he is willing to sucker geeks into believing he is…and more so that some geeks are so starved to be cool that they are willing to believe that just because someone collected 2 comic titles WHEN THEY WERE A KID…well, it really saddens me.
BTW, gratz Marvel. You win whore of the year. And the year just started!
January 12th, 2009 at 9:13 am
I couldn’t disagree more. It’s not about the comic thing so much as Obama’s intellectual geekdom, which is quite a breath of fresh air. He’s an intense, cerebral guy, which appeals to a lot of people in the geek community. I hear the comic isn’t all that, but I think this is pretty cool. I don’t think it’s something to be taken quite so seriously.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:00 am
BTW, gratz Marvel. You win whore of the year. And the year just started!
Yes, Marvel, how DARE you try and produce a comic to appeal to the 66 million + minority that voted for Obama for President! Have you no commercial sense?!?
January 12th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
lulz – this comment thread took a fun turn didn’t it?
Chill out sghoul, it isn’t like “W” hasn’t appeared in plenty of Marvel comics too…or was that Red Skull? I get the two confused.
ZING!
January 12th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I’ve been living under a rock then cause I haven’t heard about this. But, not under a rock in my parents basement.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Chill out sghoul, it isn’t like “W” hasn’t appeared in plenty of Marvel comics too…or was that Red Skull? I get the two confused.
Bubba-
Easy way to tell the difference: the Red Skull is competent.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Erika, I ain’t knocking his brains. But being smart does not equal being a geek. There are plenty of geeks that aren’t all that bright (go to Dragon Con, you’ll meet them).
I think what it really is, is geeks have been caught up in the whirlwind just like everyone else. And they are trying to rationalize it but having something immediately identifiable that they can say “Hey, Obama’s just like me…he’s a geek.”
As for the whoring, yeah Bush was in comics. But I don’t recall any kind of special comic feturing him. Maybe 911? And that still wasn’t about him, that was about the tragedy. This comic is a blaitant attempt to sucker people into buying something they wouldn’t normally look twice at by putting a celebrity on the cover. And that is pretty much corporate whoring.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:26 pm
The Inauguration Day issue was sold out, so Red Skull bought Grant Morrison’s Doctor Who.
The Red Skull is pleased to draw a ‘competent’ rating, and adds “Where was a competent artist to draw Obama for the Spidey cover???”
Not bad, not bad… but not good either!