CSBG Archive
Amazing Spider-Man #583 Obama Story Review
- by Brian Cronin
- in Comic Reviews
Retailers certainly will not mind, as this was basically a license to print money by Marvel doing this Barack Obama back-up story, but for a reader, this slight five-page story is not exactly worth the extra buck (note – it’s not a “bonus back-up feature” if you’re charging an extra dollar for it – it’s just a back-up feature).
Writer Zeb Wells and artist Todd Nauck look like they produced the comic over a lunch break, and to that extent, they should be commended, as it’s good for such a rushed work. Of course, “good for such a rushed work” is still bad for a work, period, and this story is pretty bad.
Peter Parker is taking photos of the inauguration when the Chameleon shows up impersonating Barack Obama, and there is some confusion until Chameleon’s bizarre lack of any sort of knowledge about American sports gives him away.
By the way, the reference to Obama’s actual nickname as a high school basketball player was pretty cute.
Here is some footage of the future President playing ball (he wore #23 even before Jordan did!)…
(I wonder – and admittedly, so did at least one youtube commenter – if that one dude sees this footage and thinks, “Hey, I patted the future President of the United States on his ass!” )
In any event, the story had less plot than a standard Hostess ad, but there at least were a few good jokes (the best one is probably the one I believe Steve Wacker came up with, where Spider-Man laments the time he mistook Joe Biden for the Vulture).
The resolution does at least allow us to have Obama and Spider-Man fist bump, and that’s something, at least!

So yeah, admirable effort for such a quick deadline, but not so good.
- Posted on January 14, 2009 @ 05:58 PM






26 Comments
sgt rawk
January 14, 2009 at 6:12 pm
What’s wrong with Spider-Man’s face?
Chris Jones
January 14, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Yeah, it doesn’t really look like either of their hearts are in it.
T.
January 14, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Did we really need a review to tell us this would suck? I think most rational thinking people pretty much knew suckitude was a gaurantee the instant this pandering nonsensical idea was announced.
Jake
January 14, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I’d like to see a McCain issue of the Punisher. It’ll be The Punisher and The Maverick, together again for the first time!
Oz
January 14, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Strange that imediately Obama is being shown as a President who doesn’t support the laws of his own country.
Shouldn’t he have had he Secret Service rush in and take Spidey down as he is still an unregistered hero, and we know that ‘Bama was quite happy to put Green Goblin in place basically supporting the SHRA.
Ted
January 14, 2009 at 8:58 pm
It seems a bit of a bait-and-switch to put Obama on the cover and then only put him in five pages in the back.
Alan Coil
January 14, 2009 at 9:52 pm
This will be the best selling book of the year, probably selling 300,000 copies, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it sold 500,000 copies.
My LCS sold 3 times as many as the previous issue, and is trying to get more. 70,000 copies is the normal amount for this book. 3 times that would be 210,000 copies, and my LCS isn’t in a major city where it may sell in even higher percentages. I also think it may have to go to a fourth or fifth printing.
Dan Felty
January 14, 2009 at 10:44 pm
This made Nightline tonight.
Stefan
January 14, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Obama didn’t put Osborn in charge, that was before the inauguration. Right?
Frank Rook
January 15, 2009 at 1:07 am
It’s a little late to be trying to get the “Mephisto Wife Eraser” vote, there, Obie.
Oz
January 15, 2009 at 3:39 am
Stefan – Secret Invasion #8 showed the hand of the President making the announcement, with a quite obviously darker skin tone. The implication (I, and many others, believe) was that this was Obama
Sam
January 15, 2009 at 6:02 am
Hey, maybe Obama can reverse the Superhuman Registration Act. That’d be a pretty damn cool way to get out of it.
Ryan Day
January 15, 2009 at 9:08 am
I don’t believe the internet has ever required a review to establish that something sucks. It’s efficient that way.
Anthony Cheng
January 15, 2009 at 10:12 am
@Sam: That does make a lot of sense since the Obama team is looking to shut down Gitmo and the other detainee-prisons. Of course, since nobody seems to know what SHRA actually *says* there’s no way to tell what, if any, rights are being violated. But once Norman Osborn (inevitably) steps over the line, I’m sure we’ll get another issue with Obama swooping in to declare SHRA null and void.
Richard
January 15, 2009 at 11:46 am
“What’s wrong with Spider-Man’s face?”
It looks like the Geico Cave-Man is under that mask.
T. AKA Ricky Raw
January 15, 2009 at 11:50 am
yeah, but on the internet it’s usually done irrationally. this, however, is just common sense and has nothing to do with internet irrationality. whether you saw it on the news, were talking about it in person or in a coffeeshop or just read about it in the paper, no rational person should have expected this to be good.
Anthony Cheng
January 15, 2009 at 12:59 pm
What people might have been expecting was Obama’s appearance to be woven into the main story, which at least stood a chance of being good.
Mark Cook
January 15, 2009 at 2:23 pm
It was not Obama who appointed Norman Osbourne. An interview with Andy Diggle, Thunderbolts writer, at Marvel.com contains this quote: “The new president has just been inaugurated, and he’s a little concerned about the amount of power his predecessor has given to Norman Osborn.”
Presumably the next couple of issues of Thunderbolts cover how Osbourne convinces the new president that it would be a good idea to keep him on.
Mark Cook
January 15, 2009 at 2:31 pm
@me: The interview is discussing what happens in the next couple of issues (Thunderbolts 128 & 129), so I could still be proven wrong. Still, I like the odds that it was either:
A) a colouring mistake in Secret Invasion, or
B) a lame last-minute attempt at jumping on the fact that the President-elect is black without a clear understanding of the American electoral process.
Joe Rice
January 15, 2009 at 6:56 pm
“What’s wrong with Spider-Man’s face?”
Todd Nauck drew it.
Dan Bailey
January 15, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I love Nauck on YOUNG JUSTICE & the like. Putting him on anything “straighter” (for lack of a better adjective) is … ill-advised.
Joe Rice
January 15, 2009 at 8:19 pm
“Love” and “Young Justice” in a sentence together without “making fun of” in between BLOWS MY ANDROID CIRCUITS!
T.
January 16, 2009 at 10:29 am
No, that would have actually stood a chance of being worse, that’s about it. Under no circumstances was this being good a possibility. Rushing a book in a week’s time to hop onto the bandwagon of a candidate’s inauguration who is still basically an enigma that no one knows much about except he’s biracial, eloquent and likes to say “Hope” and “Change” a lot? A rushed editorially conceived book forced to be written around the guest appearance of a walking enigma, stretching that flimsy premise into a full-length story would only have made the weaknesses more transparent, not rectify them. The fact it was only 5 pages was the only thing that gave the story a chance.
Also, the Joe Biden joke is not really that good. It’s just better than the rest of the story, but still corny.
Joe Rice
January 16, 2009 at 11:23 am
People with the faculties to actually read things don’t find him to be an enigma.
Laura
January 18, 2009 at 11:49 am
I like how this going from a comic-art review to a political cat fight. Gotta love opinions.
Sean Whitmore
January 19, 2009 at 2:52 am
If this was produced over a lunch break, I’m guessing the creators had plenty of time left over to let their food digest.
And the Waid/Kitson story was so good, too. Dastardly.