Oct 30, 2008 01:24 PM
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Tue Feb 9
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We've had months to listen to Barack Obama and John McCain explain how they plan to lead the United States of America, but they've been suspiciously quiet about their stance on the Superhero Registration Act and whether or not America should open diplomatic negotiations with Latveria. However, if a planned Marvel comic book had gotten off the ground, we would've had those questions answered... and more.
The planned comic book was to be called Executive Power, and was to feature whoever won next week's Presidential Election as the President of the Marvel Comics United States. Writer Joe Casey, who came up with the concept, explained it to Comic Book Resources:
Honestly, my original notion was for it to be a fictional President in the Marvel U, [b]ut, the more I thought about it, and in initially talking to [Executive Editor] Axel Alonso about it two years ago, it made much more sense — on several levels — to make it about the actual President — which, back in the summer of ’06, obviously no one had any idea who the candidates would be, although that didn’t really matter for the purposes of this pitch... I feel like I’m fairly aware politically, but 'Executive Power' was never going to be about real world politics... It was going to be about superhero politics, how the President does his job in a Marvel Universe filled with superpowered beings. Rule number one with anything of this nature is to entertain. And regardless of the outcome of the election, the story and the characterization of the President would’ve remained absolutely the same. "In other words, I would’ve been writing a forthright, striving-to-do-the-right-thing character whether his name was McCain or Obama.
The series stalled over concerns about basing a fictional series around a real-life President, but Casey remains convinced that it could've been a winner:
[F]rom my point of view, showing the office of the President in such a heroic, aspirational manner, I think either candidate would’ve been thrilled to be portrayed that way. To be drawn shaking hands on the page with Captain America; to be depicted as a capable, honest Commander-In-Chief, even in an obviously fictional landscape, that’s about the best [public relations] I could imagine if you wanted to connect with so-called 'geek culture' of the American populace... When you consider that the average audience age for Marvel and DC readers are probably around 30 — a readership that has seen it all — this election has become much bigger and much more prominent in the pop culture landscape than anyone expected, and I guess I’m just bummed that we’re missing a possible slam dunk on this one.
Maybe we'll see this superhero version of The West Wing in time for 2012's election.
McCain and Obama In The Marvel Universe? [Comic Book Resources]
Send an email to Graeme McMillan, the author of this post, at graeme@io9.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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