Hillary Clinton is making a campaign stop in the Valiant Comics universe. The presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee will appear in the fifth issue of Valiant Comics’Faith, which will be an “Election 2016 Special” releasing Nov. 2. Clinton will appear on the issue’s cover, by Paolo Rivera, alongside the titular hero, and will be a part of one of the 48-page issue’s three stories
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Pairing Faith, Valiant’s most popular female hero, and Clinton, the first female presidential nominee of a major American political party, seemed like a natural fit for Valiant’s editorial staff.
“Voting is important. Society picking a new leader is something to celebrate,” Faith editor Tom Brennan said when the book was announced. “This is a historic candidacy with Clinton and we just thought, [this is] something comics [have] done many times before and with [Valiant] starting to come into our own as a company, we wanted to join that proud tradition.”
The tradition Brennan refers to can be tracked back almost as far as superhero comics themselves. President Richard Nixon appeared as a villain — while he was in office — in a controversial Captain America story; years later, Captain America would also be at odds with Bill Clinton. George W. Bush ran afoul of everyone from The Punisher to The Savage Dragon. Most recently, President Barack Obama appeared in both Savage Dragon and Amazing Spider-Man, with a torrent of publicity that followed, leading to a bunch of opportunistic Obama cameos and even some bizarre books like Barack the Barbarian.
Interestingly, Louise Simonson — who will write the Hillary Clinton story in Faith — wrote the issue of Superman: The Man of Steel in which Bill and Hillary Clinton appeared and spoke at Superman’s funeral. The pair had been elected, but not yet inaugurated, meaning that they actually appeared as President and First Lady in Superman before they did in real life. Years later, Simonson compares Faith to Superman.
“[Faith] is so positive and she’s very much what I think a hero should be,” Simonson said. “I wrote Superman for a while and — she’s almost in her soul, she is like the female Superman. [Writer] Jody’s work is wonderful on this book, but I was glad they would let me play just a little bit in this particular sandbox.”
The creative teams for Faith #5’s three stories will include Jody Houser and Meghan Hetrick on the issue’s main story, which continuesFaith‘s ongoing story. Rafer Roberts will tell a backup story leading into the debut of Valiant’s Harbinger Renegades. The Clinton story will feature art by Pere Perez and will be written by industry veteran Louise Simonson, whose career includes creating the villain Apocalypse at Marvel Comics and her long run on Superman: The Man of Steel.
Faith #5 hits stands and digital devices on Nov. 2.
