Digital News Report- Marvel Comics announced on Thursday that an upcoming issue of Spider-man would feature President-elect Barack Obama. The six page story in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 583, will be titled “Spidey Meets the President!” and will feature Peter Parker heading to D.C. on assignment to photograph the inauguration. Unfortunately, the Chameleon also shows up and super-hero antic ensue.
The issue will be released on January 14th, six days before the inauguration and will retail for $3.99. However, the price is expected to just to $20 or more on the collectors’ market. Demand for the issue is already high long before its release date. Half the print run will feature the variant cover depicting Obama giving a thumbs up while Spider-man snaps his picture.
President-elect Barack Obama hasn’t attempted to hide the fact that he’s a fan of comic books, especially Spider-man. Last month, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert tried to tempt Obama to come on his show with a signed copy of his own special Spider-man issue Amazing Spider-man #573 Colbert variant. Obama told Entertainment Weekly in August 2008 that Spider-man was one of his favorite superheroes because he has, “some inner turmoil.”
Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor-in-chief, said “it was really, really cool to see that we had a geek in the White House. We’re all thrilled with that.” He said that the issue was meant as a shout-out back to him for being a fan of the series.