Obama and Spider man
January 14th, 2009 by AriIn the name of full disclosure, an admission is necessary. When I applied for a scholarship to go to grad school, I mentioned in my essay that I wanted to be spider man. When I did the phone interview one of the professors started off the interview by saying “so you’re the guy who wanted to be spider-man, eh?” Apparently it worked though, because I got in. It turns out a certain president elect feels similarly.
During an Entertainment Weekly pop culture survey, Obama said Batman and Spider-Man were his top superheroes because of their “inner turmoil.”
Obama once collected Spider-Man comics. [Said Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada] “Fantastic! We have a comic-book geek in the White House.”
So just how much of a comic book geek is he? They ain’t saying:
The White House transition team did not respond to a question about the extent of Obama’s comic-book geekiness.
Marvel though has decided to take this story and run with it – the special Obama/Spider-Man crossover is out today and the lines are long. There are two comic shops on 123 which I pass on my way home. I’m hoping one of them still has it in stock by the time I get out of work today. If they are I may just have to turn to ebay. (Seriously – I’m an Obama fanboy, a Spider-man fanboy, and I collect political paraphernalia – how could I not get this?)
update: I tried 2 comic stores in Vienna, 2 in Georgetown, 1 in DuPont, and 1 in McLean. I was absolutely sure that the ones in Vienna, being away from an urban area and in a red state would still have them in stock when I called at 4:30PM. No such luck. Most stores were sold out around 1PM. (Argghhhh – why didn’t I go during my lunch break?!?). Copies on ebay are selling for obscene prices. At this point I’m going to wait for the second printing – that should drive down the prices of the first printing by increasing the supply. If the price for the first edition remains absurdly high, then I’ll just have to make do with the second.