Spiderman Hanging With Barack

Barack Obama was the first African American elected President of the United States, he has given speeches to hundreds of thousands of people here at home and all over the globe, and makes decisions that impact millions of people each day. But did you know that Barack has graced the cover of a Marvel Comic Book? That’s right, Barack Obama appeared in Marvel Comic’s The Amazing Spider-Man #583. On January 14th 2009, Marvel printed a special Inauguration Day edition of The Amazing Spider-Man featuring President Barack Obama and the superhero Spider Man as they thwart the villainous Chameleon and his Inauguration Day scheme.

As the long-time fan of Marvel Comic Books, Obama, tells Entertainment Weekly: “I was always into the Spider-Man/Batman model. The guys who have too many powers, like Superman, that always made me think they were not really earning their superhero status. It is a little too easy. Whereas Spider-Man and Batman, they have some inner turmoil. They get knocked around a little bit.” Joe Quesada, Marvel Comic’s Editor-in-Chief caught wind of this and put together the special Inauguration Day edition of the Spiderman comic book. “When we heard that [President] Obama is a collector of Spider-Man comics, we knew that these two historic figures had to meet in our comics’ Marvel Universe,” he said in a press release and telling the Associated Press. “It was really, really cool to see that we had a geek in the White House. We’re all thrilled with that.”

In the special issue, Peter Parker notices multiple Obama’s hanging out while taking photos of the President’s Inauguration. He makes the decision to get Spidey on the case. Spiderman goes on to saving the day after weeding out the fake Obama’s and finding the real deal. He does a corny fist bump with the President after being recognized as the hero.

The Amazing Spider-Man #583, which was written by Zeb Wells with art by Todd Nauck and Frank D’Armata, sold out a record three printings in just three weeks and Marvel followed this with the printing of The Amazing Spider-Man #583 fourth printing variant.

President Obama’s appearance in this Marvel Comic Book episode made big news around the world as it has been written about by all the major media outlets including:

• The Los Angles Times
• The New York Daily News
• The Chicago Tribune
• The New York Times

This isn’t the 1st President to be characterized in the funny pages. Bill Clinton was featured in “Superman: The Man of Steel”. Ronald Reagan had a spot in “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”, Richard Nixon was in “Watchmen” and of course John F. Kennedy in “Action Comics”. In one of the stranger presidential appearances, Jimmy Carter appeared on the cover of “Superman vs. Muhammad Ali.” While all of these past Presidents have appeared in various comics, Obama has the honor of being the first to have a starring role in his appearance.