Spider-Man Meets Obama in 'Amazing Spider-Man #583'

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Amazing Spider-Man #583's variant cover

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.

Related:

5 Things We Hope Obama Learned from Spider-Man

Marc Guggenheim on Spider-Man: "Character Assasination"

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