The day that Barack Obama has waited his entire life for is almost here. I'm not talking about his inauguration, however; a week before that, Obama will guest-star in an issue of Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man.
Marvel announced the cash-in - Wait, I mean "special issue" - yesterday, with a statement from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada:
When we heard that President-Elect Obama is a collector of Spider-Man comics, we knew that these two historic figures had to meet in our comics’ Marvel Universe... Historic moments such as this one can be reflected in our comics because the Marvel Universe is set in the real world. A Spider-Man fan moving into the Oval Office is an event that must be commemorated in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man.
Of course, the publicity that comes with such a commemoration is just an unforeseen side-effect, right...?
Not only is this not Obama's first appearance in a comic book (Besides starring in his own biographical comic during the campaign, he's appeared in Image's Savage Dragon), it's also not even his first appearance in a Marvel comic - he made a cameo appearance as an evil shape-changing alien in their Secret Invasion series last summer. It's also not going to be his last Marvel appearance; he's going to be the subject of an assassination attempt in next month's issue of the Thunderbolts series.
Amazing Spider-Man #583, the Obama-centric "piece of American history" according to the press release, goes on sale next Wednesday.