February 10, 2009

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583 (my own thoughts on this issue)

Why is Spider-Man holding this issue of his own comic book with President Barack Obama on it?

Everyone need a hero to look up to sometimes, and yes this also includes important new president's elects as well. Read on to find out how Marvel's number one super hero helped our first African American Prez boost his own ratings with the over all hoopla at the time of Barack Obama inauguration....


Weather you are one of many whom support the "Brand New Day" storyline that now after twenty years of Spider-Man being Married that's from 1987-2008 folks so I want you all to know in the "Brand New Day issues, Spider-Man is now single." All this "New direction" is totally wrong by Marvel in this fan's heart & soul for the character of Peter Parker. The editor in chief of the company a cretin "Mr. Queasda" thinks new readers can't & shouldn't see their hero inspired to do what he does because of what the character's motivation was through honor, respect, & most importantly through love the character was aging or at least he was because he was Married & we couldn't have that, could we?" Well you all know how I feel about the whole thing like I've said before in many other posts on the subject. This is about an issue of Amazing Spider-Man that came out when our country got it's first African American as President.
The story about the new President is really short but it's about him meeting his own hero that he grew up reading. The president no matter what saw himself in a small way like Peter Parker the little guy who tires his best to represent all the hard working people of this great nation of ours. He may not always have the right answers to everything he tries to pass into law as much as when he was a senator from Chicago Illinois, but he does try to make it better than whatever it was before as to what methods/tools he is strongest with: Debating. The thing he and the democrats are working with most a year and a half into his presidency is what this whole country is overly wanting for all a health care plan that will benefit all Americans from the poorest to the richest. Most Americans me included would rather be seeing Mister Obama working to constructing more jobs for everyone, perhaps his first year and half would've been better spent working a joint bill of Job creation/Health reform. I won't go any further into how I condone politicizing for that is not the point of this blog, rather it is about a comic book story short as it is. The Amazing Spider-Man issue number five hundred and eighty three had this as it's original cover with this binging a hopeful collectible on Marvel's part because of the new Prez appearing with their biggest iconic character they had planed at least two different alternate collector covers here is the first variant in each corresponding reprint Spidey had a word balloon with a funny quip in some relevance to the new president. Let me remind all of you most comics are shipped out to retailers two months in advance of the coming month that is printed on the cover so this very cover was dated March,2009 even though it really came out in January 2009 it was for the month of January not March as printed on the cover. Originally up till now (February, 2010) I had thought the back story to issue five hundred eighty three was only three pages long come to find out it is really five pages long, (So all I'm saying from in my post of "What is the meaning of this Spider-Man tease?" that I'm capable of mistakes as much as anyone) . As we talk about this story which is by writer Zeb Welles and artist Todd Nauck who is now finishing art on the true way the "CLONE SAGA" of the nineties was suppose to be resolved in "CLONE SAGA" issue six of six, I will include most of this back story of this issue that I've found on the internet. Before that though here is the second reprint of Amazing #583, which is really the third printing out of all together six printings. One quick side note here, when Stan Lee the writer half of Spider-Man had envisioned the character as he wears the mask can/could be anyone underneath it NOT just a Caucasian, but Spidey could be an Asian, or even an African American it doesn't matter that his characterization is always fraught with troubles. Spider-Man could be even you was the point that Stan was trying to make when he put on the mask. I myself think that as a boy that this was one of a "young Barack Obama's ways like it is for most children to aspire hope for everything he has done in his life and never letting other people just keep a person from achieving their hopes/dreams in his or her life. Marvel spared no expense in making sure everyone had a copy of this historic moment they had released a third print in February of two thousand and eight here is how Mr. Barrack Obama met his comic hero on the day of his inauguration according to Marvel comics anyway. Peter Parker happens to be on assignment for the Daily Bulge in Washington D.C. on the day of the newest President elect is taking place which as you can see here like Peter sees are there "two" Mister Barrack Obamas, hey what the heck was going on here? Spidey as you can see here joins in the foray and congratulates Barrack on his own endeavors at get to where he is at this point in his life. When the second Obama shows off some hostility towards himself Spider-Man may know who this fake Obama is, even though the real President elect would like to help his buddy the wall crawler in dealing with his phony self he relents and gives the web head fair go when it is revealed that the flexuous impostor is really the Chameleon. Spider-Man's first major foe was this guy after catching his uncle Ben's killer as seen in Amazing Spider-Man # 1. So the new president elect gives Spidey the go ahead to , after knocking the stuffing out of the Chameleon and he is carted off to prison Spidey hangs around to make sure nothing else will go amiss for the Obama as he is sworn in as our forty fourth president.
When Marvel saw the impact of this new president's inauguration and how much the ordinarily people wanted to wittiness it, but couldn't they put out a fifth copy of this collector's item with a fourth variant reprint logo in the right hand corner of the book. Now to shift gears a little bit early on when I was deciding how I was going put this whole blog together about a commander in chief who liked comics growing up and liking Spider-Man most all out of most of them. I had wanted to just focus on the special Spidey issue he was in at least at first I did. I got to thinking about who would support this new President during the time he campaigned against his running mate. It hit me like a ton of bricks while searching the internet back then and came across the thirty ninth San Diego comic con where one of the booths there had this upcoming presidential elections in a comic book project by a unknown publisher as I know/knew. Also when I found this image of the artist who'd
done the above promotion art I finally learned that most comic creators are Democratic in how they vote. His name is Joe Scott Campbell and he mostly does comic covers art, he's done a few Spider-Man ones as well. In fact before placing his vote Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen made his voting known by having Barrack Obama appear in Savage Dragon issue number one hundred and thirty seven here is a page from that very issue
Obama in fact while on the campaign was seen in front of another S related superhero. Where he explained in his own words why he could better relate to the Web Slinger (Spidey) or The Dark Knight (Batman) because of their more human qualities than the comic character behind him. In fact before Marvel started promoting issue five hundred and eighty three a prominent newspaper I believe it was in a Los Angeles or a New York paper this tease for the issue came out. I did happen to say that there were six covers to the Obama President issue of that issue of Amazing Spider-Man before I show you the last one which came out in February (2009) saw two prints of this the one above with the American flag and Spidey saying he'd like to go inside. The sixth reprint of Amazing Spider-Man five hundred and eighty three was very different in how it came out the first five prints came about celebrating our first ever African American President but this one came out to celebrating the one American president whom gave ALL African Americans a chance at FREEDOM from slavery Abraham Lincoln. If Lincoln were alive when this was released he'd be the oldest living human being at the age of two hundred years old in the year two thousand nine, so hence the reasoning of why the Lincoln memorable as the back ground on the cover. Marvel had a cover prepared for if John McCain won for the Republican party, boy I wonder if their would have been a back up story featuring the new President if McCain did win, most likely NOT. I'm supposing there would have been a back up story none the less but what would it have been we will never know. I did happen to find this McCain comic cover I'm talking about in my internet searches on the issue itself by accident , although to me for some reason the guy pictured isn't John McCain but the late Republican President Richard Nixon. Your all probability curios as to why this blog is in violet purple huh?, well I was thinking of all my nieces who love that very color is why I choose it. I know there is a lot of tension right now with how a lot of people see the direction of our government for the time being and this is the one thing I know I can say without taking heat for it being said. "We have been through our shares of hard times and at certain times so has our governing system as well, but what matters most is that we all stand for our each and own believe system in our hearts that will put everything right one day, because we are not all Rich or are we all Poor. We are all part of that governing system that we know is broken and picking sides to point a finger at just goes to show we need to respect ourselves more for hopefully we can reach that day where status in the ways of "WANTS" and NEEDS"or better yet "Wealth" vs "Poverty" is the last thing to really matter to us, or at least we can always hope for that!" I hope that whatever problems President Obama faces on a daily basis he can swing over them like his comic book hero: Spider-Man