pic taken from IDW's website
So the comic blogisphere (or is that “blogosphere”? I’m new) is all abuzz about the recent Obama sightings, most notably the variant cover of Amazing Spider-Man #583, which has a back-up story with the President being saved by Spider-Man. Now part of the reason behind this is the President-Elect mentioning that he’s collects Spider-Man comics. (He also collects Conan, and I’m wondering how Dark Horse is going to work that up. 🙂 ) This is big news!
However, this is not the first time Obama has shown up on the cover of a comic, not counting the Presidential Material comic above, which had the life stories of both canidates Obama and John McCain. (Sidebar: There was no way for IDW to win on this one. McCain has more history than Obama, which might have deserved two comics or a longer, more expensive comic. However, there would be those who understandably–not counting those making the argument for political reasons–annoyed that McCain had a bigger comic than Obama.) The Savage Dragon #137 had the main character (and one would assume writer/creator Erik Larsen) endorsing Obama for President.
taken from Comic Book Resources
And now Comic Book Resources has released the cover for another Image comics title, Youngblood #8, which features guess who on the cover. And apparently in #9 he is “a bit of an action hero”, which in a story titled “First Strike” you can guess what that means.
Naturally, any take on this will be based on political viewpoints. However, I’m of two minds myself. Yes, I am an conservative and stated so either in the very first post of this blog or the about page (unless I changed something before you read this in the archives). And while I keep my politics off this blog, I do have my own issues with Obama’s proposed actions and many of the people in his cabinet. I also do see a liberal bias in the media, and not just the news. So I can’t say I’m surprised that they’re making a big deal about Obama, and question Quesada’s claim in USA Today that had McCain won the election and claimed to be a Spidey fan that he would have received the same treatment. I think Bush’s treatment, from being attacked while drunk by the Punisher to the Civil War’s being Marvel’s stand on the Patriot Act, speaks for itself.
taken from Comic Book Resources
That being said, there is a certain bit of logic beyond political biases (and if you think there aren’t any, you missed this website, and I have yet to hear of one that was made for McCain) for the usage. Youngblood is a government-run superhero team, Savage Dragon takes place in Chicago (although I’m sure there were plenty of Chi-towners that didn’t vote for Obama), and if the incoming Commander-In-Chief is said to be a fan of your comic, why not try to build on that? (And overinflate your numbers–listen to this interview, thanks to Four Color Media Monitor for the heads up.)
So while I know as a conservative that it’s just more pandering to (and I do have to use it traditionally, and note I’m a Christian as well) “the Messiah” (because that’s how he’s treated, especially by guys like Chris “Obama Boy” Mathews, and I may have done this whole post just to use that line 🙂 ), I do have to admit there are some understandable uses.
However, I still would rather fictional Presidents be used rather than real ones. The whole pandering to one political viewpoint or another pisses off have your audience and right now comics need more readers. In the radio interview above the comic store owner says that sales of Amazing Spider-Man are down (note that he blames Brand New Day in part). This is why DC’s “Decisions” comic was also a bad idea, as they haven’t been all that favorable of conservative perspectives, either. (They’ve just been too busy with the whole Crises nonsense for us to care.) So your bogged down not only with the current President, but to portray him properly, not making “your” President look good or “their” President looking as bad as possible.
I’ve stated that I want to start writing my own comics. I plan to have a fictional President mostly because with an original character I don’t have to worry as much about dating the comic, although I plan to avoid the “sliding timeline” the big two prefer to use so that characters never evolve and can stay young and beautiful (and eventually boring) forever. I also can write the President I need for the story, rather than have to work around a real person. (Just as long as said President is the same character for the time I use him, I should be good.)
Oh, and one more thing:
Can we just stop with the fist bumping? Please?
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