Obama in Spider-Man; Marvel E-I-C Joe Quesada on CNN

[GrnMarvl14]

Source 1 w/cover.

Source 2 w/additional images.

Mr. President-Elect, meet your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

He met Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon first, and President-Elect Barack Obama's tour of the comic book world continues next week with a just-announced 5-page story in Amazing Spider-Man #583 where he'll meet Spider-Man.

The issue, according to Marvel, will feature an exclusive commemorative variant cover of Spider-Man and President-Elect Obama.

From Marvel's press release for the issue:

"This all new story written by Zeb Wells and art by Todd Nauck and Frank D’Armata takes place in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day and finds one of Spider-Man’s oldest foes attempting to thwart the swearing in ceremony of the 44th President of the United States. The story will be featured as a bonus story in Marvel Comic’s Amazing Spider-Man #583, available in comic book shops nation-wide on January 14th, 2009. A special variant cover by artist Phil Jimenez featuring the President-Elect and Spider-Man will be available for this issue."

“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,” Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada said in the release. “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.”

Update: From USA Today's report on the issue's story: In the story by Zeb Wells, Todd Nauck and Frank D'Armata, Spider-Man stops the Chameleon from spoiling Obama's swearing-in. At one point, Spider-Man says he mistook Vice President-elect Joe Biden for the Vulture (a vintage Spider-Man villain).

Additionally, Quesada commented to the paper that, as he sees it, the appearance isn't an endoresement of any kind, rather, "a tip of the hat to having a Spider-Man fan in the White House."

The Editor-in-Chief added that, "If McCain was a Spider-Man fan, I'm sure he would."

As Newsarama has noted before, Obama has joined a small but notable group of American Presidents who have appeared in comics, including John F. Kennedy, FDR, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and others.

For collectors, the issue certainly will see increased demand, and retailers knew about the Obama appearance prior to the final order cutoff for the issue. That said, unless there is a significant overprint by Marvel, the issue will certainly sell out at comic book shops on Wednesday, with a second printing coming the following week or later.

Updated: Marvel has informed Newsarama that Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada will be talking about Spider-Man meeting Obama on CNN three times: Today between 4:30 and 5:30 on The Situation Room, tonight between 8 and 9pm on Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull, and Friday morning between 6 and 9 am on CNN American Morning.

Joe Quesada's officially become a publicity whore.

 

[ShadyWolf]

I felt that the Colbert (That's the first Quesada attention grab, right?) thing was wildly amusing, but perhaps it's become Pandora's box- one interesting novelty that will serve as a tributary to an endless river of publicity waste.

 

[Luxio2k8]

It's just a publicity stunt to increase sales. Nothing more.

Joe Quesada's officially become a publicity whore.

Funny, I thought Mr. Quesada has been publicity whore since he became Marvel's Editor-In-Chief in 2000, acting like the company's "savior" because he looked at himself as someone that didn't get involved in the gimmicks that trump sales in the 1990's, even though he does it too as Editor-In-Chief and it's not any better now then it was 15 years ago (my two cents anyway).

 

[GrnMarvl14]

Actually, he's seen as their savior because he pulled them out of bankruptcy and made them profitable. Though, yeah, that's likely because he's always been a publicity whore. He's just more mainstream now.

And I THINK the Colbert appearance, just before Civil War, was his first mainstream appearance. Though someone could EASILY prove me wrong.

 

[Silverwynde]

Mr. Obama will love this, I'm sure. He's a bit of a Spider-Man fan, iirc.
As to whether it'll be a good story or not... we could spend a while debating that. (Yeah, I'll probably skip this one. And Joey Q. needs to stop before he hurts himself.)

 

[GrnMarvl14]

We have video. If I thought this would be worth what they're saying, I'd pick up a few copies. But I have a feeling they'll be all over eBay.

 

[bell02+]

I think when there are so many people that will be holding on to this thinking it'll jump huge 10-50 years down the line in value that it probably won't be that much a collectible... that said, I'll probably get it anyways...

 

[Zeta]

I think it's cute. Yes, Quesada's a publicity whore making a huge deal of it, but I'm not opposed to it at all.