With the U.S. election today, we’re focusing on the issues that matter–like what were the strangest appearances President Obama made in comic books in the four years since his election as President.The Amazing Spider-Man #583The first major comic featuring Barack Obama to be published following his election, the story saw Spider-Man swoop in to save the President from an impostor at his inauguration only to end up “teaming up” with Obama, who punches out the impostor himself.The massive commercial success of the issue spawned a wave of imitators, and pretty much was responsible for the rest of this list.Of course, it was in itself an imitator–after Erik Larsen announced Obama’s first post-election appearance in Savage Dragon #145 (the politician had already appeared in Dragon about six months earlier), Marvel saw the attention Larsen was getting from the mainstream press and, apparently, decided “We have a weekly comic and a deep well of talent. We can get out in front of this!”.There’s also been a lot of political backlash around this one–go to any political thread on any comic book message board and it’s only a matter of time before this issue is trotted out by conservatives as evidence that Marvel is part of a massive media-industrial complex that’s in Obama’s pocket.Youngblood #8Another installment in the “President Obama saves the day” series, the White House is attacked by terrorists and, after his Secret Service detail is out of the equation, the President took one of their guns and defended himself with deadly force.The issue was written and drawn by Rob Liefeld, so if using a sitting President as a hero rather than a bystander or “extra” wasn’t controversial enough, it had that going for it, too.Also, I made a lot of “Liefeld feet” jokes at the time. Some of which I regret.
