Spider-Man Met President Obama

You probably already knew this but on January 14, 2009 Marvel Comics released a special issue in which Spider-man met President-Elect Obama and was present for his inauguration in Amazing Spider-man #583. I did not pick it up then. Fortunately, Wondercon 2009 was held last weekend and there were many opportunities to buy it and I did. What I wasn't prepared for was the fact that there have been 5 printings! You see sometimes a comic book (or any book for that matter) has a higher demand for more copies than the publisher published. The publisher will print more copies to keep up with the demand. What 5 printings mean is that this issue sold out 4 times! The only unfortunate thing is that later printings are not as valuable financially as earlier printing. This issue is a great example. At the convention, the first printing was being sold for $150.00 while the fifth printings were sold for $4.00! Adding to the collectability each printing has a different cover with Spider-man and Obama on them. The first printing has an alternate cover that does not have Spider-man on it. I bought a fourth printing of the issue and I am very pleased with it.

So what's in the book? Well, it contains 2 stories: a feature telling about Spider-man life's life in continuity and a back-up where Obama's involved. Both are interesting. In the first story it's about Spi-der-man relating to a good friend of his on her birthday. She doesn't know Peter Parker is Spider-man and the story is told from her point of view. Throughout the story she complains that Peter is flaky and undependable while simultaneously he is being a hero as Spider-man. At the end of the story Peter is the only one who shows up to her birthday celebration and he is there when she needs him. It's a great human story. As for the the shorter Obama story, Spider-man's arch-villain the Chameleon tries to impersonatee Obama so he will be sworn in instead as President. With Spider-man's help, Obama proves he's the real one and Chameleon goes to jail and Obama makes it to the Inauguration. It was a cute story.