Barack Obama's First Comic Book Appearance was NOT Amazing Spider-Man 583

Six days before Barack Obama's inauguration as the forty-fourth President of the United States of America, comic book shops were the place to find him. Obama was featured on the cover and a six page back-up story of Amazing Spider-Man #583 from Marvel Comics, which is already going into its third printing. But that was not his first appearance.

The first comic to feature Barack Obama is from IDW Publishing entitled, Presidential Material: Barack Obama. This was part of a series of one-shots about presidential candidates; John McCain also received his own issue! Both of the comics were biographies of the men.

The first super hero who met with Obama is far from the well known web-slinger every kid knows. It was the super hero and former cop, the Savage Dragon, published by Image Comics. Creator Erik Larsen decided to use the cover of Savage Dragon #137 to proclaim not only Dragon's but also his backing for Barack Obama for president. Larsen received a lot of heat from fans for mixing politics with super heroes, which is ironic seeing the huge amount of press and attention Spider-Man has received doing a similar "stunt".

After Obama won the election, Larsen released a single issue exclusively to the Chicago Tribune blog, "Geek to Me" blog, that featured Dragon talking to President Obama (the page is set after Obama's inauguration) where they discuss Dragon's endorsement and his return to the police force of Chicago. Obama and Dragon will meet again, possibly a printing of the one page from the blog, in Savage Dragon #145 with a new cover of Obama and Dragon as well.

If that's not enough, there is at least one more comic book that will have Obama as a guest star. Another Image comic, Youngblood, will have a cover and brief appearance from the President.

This is all just the start. Many comics use the real world as a basis for setting and go from there. Obama is not the first political figure to appear in a comic, presidents ranging from Kennedy to Bush have had cameos and roles in comics. For the next four years, Obama will likely make many appearances and be referred to after New York is destroyed yet again by the big super villain. But unlike previous presidents, its likely Obama may actually read his adventures with the super heroes; it is public knowledge that he enjoys Spider-Man and Conan comics! And let's not forget something the President-Elect said while at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner as part of his very hilarious speech, "I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the Planet Earth." Can you say Superman crossover?