Presidents & Super Guys

In the news this week is the appearance of President-Elect Barack Obama in the new issue of The Amazing Spiderman. In the story, our hero, Spidey, saves the day at the inauguration by taking down an impostor Obama, and is thanked by the new President with an Obama fist bump.

Mr. Obama has said that he used to collect Spiderman comic books. So this tribute seems quite appropriate. A week from Tuesday, we will officially have a geek president. As a geek myself and former comic book collector, I must say this is a good thing.

As great as this is, Obama is not the first President of the United States to be paid homage in the comic books. Somewhere in my collection, I have an issue of Superman that contains a story that was planned for publication, but was put on hold after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The story finally saw the light of day when it was published in 1964 at the request of President Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedy Family as a tribute to the slain President. The story behind this issue, and the decision not to use Kennedy's image on the cover is documented very well on "Dial B for Blog".

There have been other instances of Presidents appearing in the comics as well, so this latest issue of Spiderman carries on the tradition. If I can find one, I will definitely have to pick up a copy.




President Kennedy was entrusted with Superman's Secret Identity