It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's . . . Obama

JONATHAN V. LAST

You can't get away from him. Nearly 18 months after Obamania swept the nation following the Iowa caucuses, our president is everywhere -- from Us Weekly to the nightly news. He's been rendered into an action figure and his likeness gazes out upon the world from T-shirts everywhere. He's the subject of guerrilla art campaigns and formal art installations. Washington's P&D Souvenir Factory, which specializes in snowglobes and collectible spoons commemorating our nation's capital, recently changed its name to "Obama Biden Collectible Merchandises."

And then there are the comic books.

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Marvel Comics

It started innocently enough. In September 2008, the independent publisher IDW put out comic-book biographies of the two presidential candidates. They were handsome and told in a straightforward manner. The issue about Mr. Obama was friendly toward the senator, but also clear-eyed. It described his use of marijuana and cocaine in high school and even included a section on the racialist musings of Jeremiah Wright and Mr. Obama's consequent decision to join Trinity United Church of Christ. And since there was a companion book about Sen. John McCain, IDW wasn't taking sides in the election.

A month later, another independent publisher, Image Comics, did take sides. In issue #137 of Savage Dragon, the titular character, a green-skinned, super-powered Chicago policeman, appears on the cover with a grinning Obama, proclaiming, "I'm Savage Dragon and I endorse Barack Obama for President of the United States!" Normally an obscure title, that issue of Savage Dragon sold out through four printings.

After the election, the new president put in a guest appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #583. The cover of the venerable series featured Obama in the foreground giving a big thumbs-up to Spidey. Released the week before the inauguration, the issue centered on Spider-Man defeating a plot to destroy Mr. Obama's swearing in. After Spider-Man saves the day, the buffed-up president says, "Thanks partner" and favors him with a fist-bump. Amazing Spider-Man usually sells about 70,000 copies a month. The Obama issue went to five printings and sold over 350,000 copies, making it the best-selling regular series book in a decade.

People noticed those numbers. Wizard, the lifestyle magazine for the comic-book/sci-fi crowd, put Mr. Obama on its cover the next month. The image, an oil painting by Alex Ross, depicts Mr. Obama ripping off his suit and tie to reveal a big red "O" emblazoned on his chest. He stares purposefully into the middle-distance, ready to fight evil and raise the capital-gains tax.

With brisk sales of that issue, Wizard ventured into Newsweek territory, putting Mr. Obama on the next issue's cover, too. This time he appeared with Michelle, the couple fist-bumping next to a headline blaring "Obama Power! Barack and Michelle Rule the World of Comic Books, Toys and More!" It was an act of pure merchandising -- the First Lady appears nowhere in the magazine.

By then, the floodgates had opened. There was another biography titled, simply enough, Obama, the Comic Book, published by Antarctic Press. Encouraged by the Savage Dragon sales, Image put Mr. Obama on the cover of two issues of Youngblood with a story about the new president riding herd over a team of superheroes and beating up the occasional bad guy himself. There was a second Obama appearance (and cover) in Savage Dragon. He showed up on the cover of The Greatest American Hero #3. Another comic-book trade publication, Tripwire, ran a cover featuring a Marvel character, the African-American version of Nick Fury, in the now-famous red-blue-and-cream Shepard Fairey "Hope" poster.

Sitting presidents have appeared in comic books before. In 1980, Jimmy Carter made a brief cameo in Uncanny X-Men #135. George W. Bush appeared momentarily in Ultimates #3 in 2002. Issue #309 of Action Comics saw President Kennedy play a prominent role pretending to be Clark Kent for a day in order to help Superman preserve his secret identity. (Unfortunately, the issue hit stands the week after Kennedy's assassination.)

But on the whole, when presidents have been part of comic-book plots, they have been figures of scorn. Alan Moore made Richard Nixon a despotic president-for-life in Watchmen. Ronald Reagan appeared in a number of '80s comics as a bumbling, warmongering fool -- though his presence was never important enough to be featured on a cover.

What's different about Mr. Obama's triumphant march through comics is (1) the sheer volume of his appearances, month after month; and (2) the worshipful attitude toward him. The main characters gape and stutter in his presence, overwhelmed by his magnificence. He's even drawn iconically. Where other presidents have been penciled either realistically or satirically, Mr. Obama mostly gets the superhero treatment with bulging muscles and jutting jaw line.

More Obama is on the way. In Drafted: 100 Days (published by DDP), he fights evil aliens as part of an intergalactic war. Dynamite Entertainment is putting out a four-issue series called Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama. Chicago-based publisher DDP has just begun a series titled Barack the Barbarian, in which our president, now a shirtless, ax-toting, he-man, is the protagonist. Bluewater Comics is scheduled to release yet another Obama biography this September, titled Political Power: Barack Obama.

Recently, Bluewater published a comic-biography about Michelle Obama, which is remarkable in its own way. There's been a long tradition in comics of earnest, fair-minded nonfiction. Over the years comics writers have crafted sober renderings of subjects ranging from the Lindbergh kidnapping to The 9/11 Commission Report. Even though they're overwhelmingly liberal as a group, comic-book writers have kept their politics out of these stories.

The Michelle Obama comic book is less a biography and more of a valedictory attack on Republicans. Bill O'Reilly is portrayed as a racist. Robert Bork is rendered as a ghoulish specter supposedly animating Mrs. Obama's professional life. Sarah Palin is depicted -- seriously -- snarling and holding aloft a bloody knife.

It would be nice to believe that the cult of comic-book Obama is just publishers cashing in on a fad. In an interview with a fan site about the glut of Obama comics, Chris Ward, who wrote the forthcoming Bluewater biography, (sort of) jokingly referred to the phenomenon as "a free ride on the Obama comic cash-in train."

The alternative is that the comic-book establishment finally feels liberated to let loose its political fantasies. Let's hope it's just commercialism. The last thing we need is comic books descending to the level of respectable mainstream journalism.