After Independence Day brought us Bill Pullman as the inspirational President Whitmore, Emmerich didn't feel the spirit of the film was compatible with the times of the Bush administration:

"In Independence Day, it was about a king who leads his country into a fight against an outside invader. I didn't want to make that movie during the Bush years. It was not thought that George W. Bush would have made a great king. Now with Obama, it's another story."

The sequel would, in fact, focus on the US President, but it's still plagued by funding woes and disagreements between Emmerich and Fox as to whether to bring back Will Smith. But Emmerich seems determined to return to the universe of what he calls his "defining film."

Roland Emmerich Wants To Make Independence Day 2 Because Of Obama [Cinema Blend]

A Duke University study, conducted on November 4th, 2008, measured voters' testosterone levels before and after the winner was announced. Participants were asked to chew a piece of gum at 8pm, when the polls in North Carolina closed, and then again at 11:30pm after Obama's election was announced. By analyzing the spit samples in the gum, the researchers were able to analyze the testosterone levels of the participants.

Men generally experienced a slight drop in testosterone over the course of the night, but the participants who voted for Obama did not experience a drop in testosterone. Male voters who voted for McCain or Libertarian candidate Robert Barr, however, experienced a significantly greater drop in testosterone than would be expected. Female voters did not show a significant change in testosterone, regardless of whom they voted for.

Duke neuroscientist Kevin LaBar was excited by the indication that voters are physiologically so affected by election outcomes, and plans to perform a similar experiment involving sports instead of politics. He figures studying Duke basketball fans is a good place to start.

[Physorg]

We all know that Barack Obama has become one of comics' hottest properties, what with his smash-hit team-up with Spider-Man, or his fighting aliens and becoming a politican barbarian, or even just grappling with a much-too-large gun. But, despite the surprising amount of appearances he makes in comics, comic appearances from US Presidents are nothing special; it was George W. Bush that watched Iron Man and Captain America start a superhero Civil War, after all.

But what is unusual is the attention now being given to the Obama family. If you don't want to read about "Tasha Tasker" in Keenspot's First Daughter, you'll soon be able to read Liquid Comics' First Family, about "the teen children of a newly elected American president who try to survive in a most ruthless political arena — high school," pick up Michelle Obama's comic-book biography or even stand by, amazed, as the Obama's dog, Bo, saves the world in Marvel's Pet Avengers. Turning Presidents into comic book heroes is one thing, but we never read Caroline Kennedy Vs. The Martians back in the '60s. So what's changed?
There's probably an argument to be made for cultural shift. I'm not just talking about the cultural shift of Obama's presidency and the wave of euphoric (and somewhat hysterical) optimism that followed his win, although that's certainly part of it - If Obama became the figurehead of a new era for America, it stands to reason that his family would be caught up in that and share in the adoration in some sense, after all - nor am I really referring to the cultural implications of the Obamas being the first black family in the White House (As hard as it is to separate that from the excitement and furor surrounding them, I think the... "novelty value," for want of a better way of putting it, is not what motivates people to look at them as such figureheads and icons). Instead, the Obamas enter the White House in a culture not only of reality shows but superhero stories, where we deify regular people and their problems and watch them overcome the odds at the same time as bringing irregular people overcoming massive odds - and saving the day - down to "our level," all the while working through our issues about whether we're Jon and Kate with less kids or Tony Stark without the armor or somewhere in between. With that mindset at work, who wouldn't want to know as much about the Leader Of The Free World And Those Whom He Loves The Most? It's perfect synergy!

(And, because of that, too, it's not enough for Obama's family to be normal - they have to be flawed icons striving to save the day as well that we can sympathize with and dream of being, hence First Daughter and Bo Obama fighting alongside Lockheed, Lockjaw and Frog Thor. Otherwise, then where's the glamor? What's the point?)

Also, let's face it: Obama sells. Who knows if it's the "First Black President" historical aspect, the "He's Not George Bush" aspect, or genuine appreciation and belief in the message he was selling, but people want Obama, and with comics feeding into the pop cultural zeitgeist properly for the first time in years, it's no surprise that they've joined in the feeding frenzy, or been so successful doing so (All credit to Marvel and their Amazing Spider-Man cover for breaking into the mainstream and facilitating it in the way that they did; without that media coverage and that high-profile character match, Obama's comic presence would've been much more minor). For an industry that knows how to exploit success until it's dead, and how to turn everything into a franchise (More than one Hulk series? More than one Hulk? Really?), it shouldn't come as a surprise that someone realized that there was potential in exploiting more than one Obama at a time.

The question, perhaps, is whether this is all too much. The new comics have all been announced, but none have been released (Save the Michelle bio, which was a moderate success); no-one knows if there is genuine consumer interest to match the headlines, and - to be honest - I doubt that there is. We've had years of The West Wing to give us more mundane (but, arguably, better written) versions of behind the scenes at the White House storylines, after all, and Ex Machina has pretty successfully taken the role of Fictional Superpowered Political Book for a few years now. For someone to really work hard to exploit Sasha and Malia, they'd have to actually feature Sasha and Malia themselves, not Tasha and another fictionsuit analog; otherwise, we're being sold another Chasing Liberty.

I wonder if I can convince DC to let Sasha join the Teen Titans and start up a romance with Static...?

Perhaps the most damning part of the decision document was the revelation that executives at Warners shared fans' cynicism about Superman's potential (Remember, Warners and DC were the defendants in this case):

Defendants' film industry expert witness, Mr. [John] Gumpert, termed Superman as "damaged goods," a character so "uncool" as to be considered passe, an opinion echoed by Warner Bros. business affairs executive, Steven Spira... Indeed, Mr. [Alan] Horn [Warner Bros. President] admitted to being "daunted" by the fact that the 1987 theatrical release of Superman IV had generated around $15 million domestic box office, raising the specter of the "franchise [having] played out."

Almost as surreally, DC and Warners apparently argued to the court that

Superman was equivalent [in terms of public recognition and financial value] to a low-tier comic book character that appeared mostly on radio during the 1930s and 1940s and that has not been seen since a brief television show in the mid-1960s (the Green Hornet); an early 20th century series of books (Tarzan) or a 1930s series of pulp stories (Conan) later intermittently made into comic books and films; or a television, radio, and comic book character from the 1940s and 1950s, much beloved by my father, that long ago rode off into the proverbial sunset with little-to-no exploitation in film or television for decades (The Lone Ranger).

And these are the people in charge of the character?!?

There was, of course, legal value in downplaying Superman's status for WB and DC. But it's hard to shake the sense that even the character's owners don't understand the value and potential of Clark Kent's alter ego, or who (and what) he is and could be. But should we really be surprised, considering that these are the same people behind the pedestrian Smallville and almost-there-but-what-the-hell-is-with-the-stalker-thing Superman Returns?

Superman should, by rights, be up there with Batman. Certainly, he has the longevity and the high-concept, if not the moral ambiguity - and maybe that's one of the problems, that Superman's "goodness," his moral character and status as a reminder of our own potential, puts people off - to match Gotham's broodiest citizen. But what he lacks, and not necessarily for want of trying, is the pop cultural impact that Batman has had; it's not that Batman is necessarily a better character, but he's definitely one who has, at four specific points in the last decades (and, for the most part, in different ways), perfectly synched with the cultural zeitgeist to gain a weird standing as some kind of cultural avatar with a cape.

(Those points, for me, in case you're wondering: The 1960s TV show, which was less to do with Batman as a character as comic books as a medium, taking the "low art" trappings of the character and milking them for all their worth as pop art was doing the same. 1986's The Dark Knight Returns and 2008's The Dark Knight, which both used the character to embody and express paranoia and fear about politics and society in the real world, and 1989's Batman movie, which showed the power of branding, making the movie and the character foremost in everyone's minds by sheer force of making sure that no-one could turn anywhere without seeing a reminder of it.)

Superman, by comparison, is almost never allowed that level of contemporaneous value by the people telling his (mass media) stories, instead finding himself portrayed as either an anachronism due to his values or a naive outsider who doesn't fully understand the darker side of human nature (I have to separate comics from this; many comic creators such as Geoff Johns, Kurt Busiek and Grant Morrison have tried to demonstrate how Superman can and should work in modern, cynical society); I don't know whether it's that those making the stories think that that's how everyone else views Superman and that they should match that, or whether they see the character as someone out of step with modern times, but simply by taking that approach, they limit the impact Superman can have, and prevent him from becoming the success he should be.

(There's also a third route, as Bryan Singer's Superman Returns demonstrated: Superman as Jesus. But the problem with that is that, in order for the story to work as a superhero story, he has to stop turning the other cheek at some point. If you dropped a couple of "I am floating outside your window" scenes and added some more scenes of derring-do, Returns would've been a much better movie.)

Here's the thing: I firmly believe that now should be Superman's time. As The Dark Knight took all of our Bush-era worries and concerns and made them into an action movie, so should Superman be around right now to embody Obama's (still-resonant, even a year after campaigning) message of hope and positive change and being the best we can be. Instead of using Superman's inherent positivity against him, or thinking that it pushes him out of step with today's world, focus on the way in which he personifies that which we want to believe in, and the people that we want to be. If we elected a president because we believed in the ideals of Yes We Can and Hope and Change and all those buzzwords, I refuse to believe that we wouldn't want to see a movie that sold us the same message but with added punching, flying and action.

(I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Star Trek's success comes as much from it being positive and colorful and optimistic escapism as it being a good movie, this time around. Superman has those qualities in spades.)

Is Superman damaged goods? To an extent, yes, but he shouldn't be; there's nothing wrong with the character, or the concept, when done right, and I think that the audience is more ready for what he's selling now than they have been in years. What damages him most, perhaps, is the attitude from his owners that he's a problem that they don't know how to solve. The first step to stopping him being damaged goods is to stop treating him that way.

Here are five pieces of wisdom that we've gleaned from the last six months (and handful of days):

President Obama Is The Greatest Hero Of All
As his many comic book appearances have demonstrated, there's no end to our current president's ability to save the world from any genre of threat. Amazing Spider-Man has him fighting supervillains, Youngblood shows him carrying massive laserguns to shoot renegade soldiers taking over the White House, Drafted gives us an alien-invasion-battlin' Barack and Barack The Barbarian brings everything back down to sword and sorcery basics. He's like a modern-day Arnold Schwarzenegger - and enough to make us wonder just how the comic industry would've dealt with John McCain winning the election instead.

Threats To Humanity Are Getting Weaker
Last year, it was the Large Hadron Collider and the possibility that it would rip existence apart when someone flipped the switch, and this year, it was... Swine Flu. It can't just be me, can it? I mean, Swine Flu... Doesn't that seem like a step down from the technological "Our Quest For Knowledge May Destroy Us All" conceptual genius that threatened us last year? Even calling it "the H1N1 Influenza Virus" still sounds kind of shit. Okay, so there's no chance of "hardon" spoonerisms, but still: Pandemics? Haven't we done that already? I'm holding out hope that sewer monsters will brighten the remaining months of the year, however.

The BBC Should Stop Making Us Feel Old
Yes, we know that it's just one of those aimless homilies that you know that you're getting old when the policemen and doctors start looking younger, but selecting a twelve year old to be the new Doctor Who really doesn't make us feel very good about ourselves nonetheless. I know that we started with the oldest of the Doctors and have progressively gotten younger since then - well, roughly - but between David Tennant and Matt Smith, I'm convinced that we'll have our first pre-teen Timelord by 2015. And then, the next one will be a little baby, just like in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Joss Whedon Can Defy The Laws Of Nature
If nothing else, the renewal of Dollhouse proves that he can defy the laws of television. I wouldn't put money on him being unable to fly if he really wanted to.

Fuck Dystopia
Terminator Salvation and Watchmen - two downbeat movies offering popcorn versions of pessimistic views of humanity ("Ultimately, man's greed and laziness will lead us to become disconnected from our fellow man and controlled by the machines and mechanisms that we created to ease our daily existences - but doesn't this slow-motion action sequence look hot?") - both failed to meet expectation at the box office, while Star Trek's hopeful, colorful version of a future that may be too lens-flarey to be cuddly but is nonetheless positive surpassed expectations. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles also died a slow death on television. The obvious conclusion? No-one wants to their entertainment to end with the lesson "We're all screwed." The Dark Knight's glossy hopelessness was so last year, people. We hadn't experienced so much of the economic downturn and/or the hopetrain of Obama back then. We were all so much more innocent and desperate to be mistreated by our movies. (Along the same lines - Size Matters: Terminator, featuring human-sized robots, fails to become a hit. Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, featuring giant robots, breaks box office records. I think you can see what I'm saying here. See also: Robot On Robot Action Is More Acceptable Than Robot On Batman Action and Megan Fox Is Hotter Than Moon Bloodgood. Sorry, But There It Is.)

Bolstered with this new knowledge, we look forward to what the rest of the year can teach us - presuming, of course, that the sewer monsters don't decide to team up with Joss Whedon and end the world before then. Pray for us.

Admittedly, they're talking about the new animatronic Obama that provides the news hook for their revamped Hall of Presidents attraction in Florida's Walt Disney World. His selling point? Apparently, that you can't tell the difference between this Obama and the real one, even down to muscle dominance:

Imagineers traveled to the Washington, D.C., to record Obama's voice for the show. They also worked with White House staffers to make sure his wardrobe, hair and mannerisms were portrayed as accurately as possible. "He's very tailored and very well-dressed all the time so that's what we were trying to achieve, and I think we did," said Janice Jones, a costumer at Walt Disney World.

Disney sculptor Valerie Edwards created the Obama figure's likeness. "Well, it's a great pressure of course to completely do an accurate job of somebody that's in the media so often," Edwards said. She used an array of pictures and video of the president to capture even the slightest facial expression. "I can watch the different speeches and I can watch his cadence as he speaks, I can watch his muscles as they move, I can see how his face changes as he speaks to see if there's any dominance in muscle," Edwards said.

Disney call Robot Obama "the most dynamic figure Disney has ever created," which makes me convinced that - midway through his speech - he's going to suddenly leap into action and punch Robot Lincoln in the jaw or something.

The revamped Hall of Presidents opens today.

Disney adds robotic Obama to attraction [CNN]

The $5.99 special issue is described by the publisher like this:

Humanity has repulsed the first wave of alien invaders—but the battle has left much of America in shambles. As the coldest winter in a century assaults the starving, shell-shocked populace, it falls to a former US Senator to rally a small construction unit in the frozen, haunted remains of Chicago. A man whose own destiny has been changed by the war: Barack Hussein Obama...

Drafted: One Hundred Days is released next month.

The UK Guardian newspaper reports that NASA staff are currently breathing in "an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty" as they move into their third month without a chief administrator, following January's resignation of Michael Griffin. The administration's first choice of replacement, former fighter pilot Scott Gration, was blocked by opponents on Capitol Hill (He became the US Special Envoy for Sudan instead, because there are so many similarities between the two positions), and the position has remained open even as President Obama increased NASA's budget by $1billion and talked publicly about the need for a "new mission that is appropriate for the 21st century" for the space program.

According to the newspaper, an announcement of a new NASA administrator may be made as soon as the President returns from his current European trip.

Anxious Nasa awaits Barack Obama's decision on new chief [Guardian.co.uk]

The late twentieth century had a bit of a rough time when it came to fictional presidents, what with Richard Nixon's controversial five-term administration, the suspected impersonation of a comatose president by some two-bit lookalike, and the short-lived Rigelian takeover of the White House in order to build a giant ray gun for an interstellar war (and feel free to blame me – I'd sooner be blasted into space than vote for Kodos). But with all that behind us, the future looks bright for a brave new twenty-first century of honest, inspiring fictional presidents who could restore honor and dignity to the White House…

42*. Lex Luthor (2001-2004)
43. Pete Ross (2004)
44. Jonathan Vincent Horne (2004-2009), from DC Comics

Well, that didn't last long, did it? Sure, Lex Luthor seemed like such a refreshingly different choice - a successful industrialist, an inventive genius, and a man so wealthy there was no danger he'd ever have to bow to special interests. He was like Ross Perot without all the crazy except, as it turned out, he was just a little too obsessed with killing Superman. He did have an early success when he led the successful defeat of the cosmic destroyer Imperiex, but his naturally criminal inclinations soon got the better of him. His attempt to frame the Man of Steel for launching a kryptonite asteroid at Earth was foiled by Superman and Batman, leading to his removal from the presidency. Vice President Pete Ross took over briefly, but then it really, really looked like he was the supervillain Ruin, so he had to go. After all this turmoil, Jonathan Vincent Horne rather quietly led the US through two crises, World War III, and an entire year without the world's most powerful superheroes, without once suspected of being a supervillain (although there was that evil robot...).

45. Barack Obama (2009-2017), from pretty much every other comic ever

He teamed up with Spider-Man, shook hands with the Savage Dragon, helped fight back an alien invasion, handed the Avengers over to noted psychopath and goblin enthusiast Norman Osborn (although that might not technically have been him)...and that was just the first three months.

46. Arnold Schwarzenegger (2017-2021), from Doctor Who, Demolition Man, The Simpsons Movie

After accidentally electing a space monster back in '96, I guess a non-natural-born citizen wasn't quite as big a deal for the American electorate (or the Constitution, for that matter). His decision to encase Springfield, the country's most polluted city, inside a massive bubble proved controversial, although this was ultimately revealed to be the work of his villainous head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Russ Cargill. More politically damaging was the secession of Los Angeles, which had never recovered from the earthquake of 2011, to found the new city-state of San Angeles. His sense of fashion was still known and honored in the year 200100, when two homicidally fashion-conscious androids complimented Captain Jack Harkness on his presidential dress sense before trying to forcibly rearrange his face.

47. Henry Kolladner (2021-2024)
48. Charles Haskell (2024-2029), from Moonfall by Jack McDevitt

Both administrations were inextricably tied to the massive comet that destroyed the Moon in 2024. This cataclysmic event caused a great deal of damage down on Earth, including killing President Kolladner when his helicopter is struck by lightning as he tries to flee a tsunami-destroyed Washington, DC. It then fell to Haskell, who had been on the moon shortly before its destruction to open a new lunar base, to keep the country together in the aftermath of such carnage. He moved the capital back to Philadelphia and was successful enough to win reelection at the end of 2024.

49. Oprah Winfrey (2029-2033), from Century City

The short-lived CBS scifi legal series presented a world of fifty-two states, lunar colonies, increased life expectancies, and, most shockingly, universal healthcare. The legendary talk-show host and philanthropist served as America's first female president (she also was one of the oldest presidents ever elected), and her vice president was an openly gay, retired four-star general.

50. Malia Obama (2033-2041), from Life on Mars

From one of the oldest to one of the youngest presidents, the second President Obama oversaw the first manned mission to Mars. Unfortunately, she wasn't there to personally see the first white loafer set foot on Mars, as she had returned to Chicago with her sister to care for their ailing father.

51. Robert McCallister (2041-2049), from Jack & Bobby

WB's impossibly high-concept show was about two brothers growing up in 2004, one of whom went on to be the 51st president of the United States. Robert McCallister, known as "The Great Believer", weathered no end of crises, including wars, scandals within his administration, questions regarding his own integrity, personal tragedy, and terrorists detonating a nuclear bomb in Chicago. Oh, and he had an affair with his Vice President, Karen Carmichael. Keep in mind that none of this was actually ever shown but merely described in interviews - the meat of the show was a teen drama. It was on the WB, after all.

52. Chelsea Clinton (2049-2053), from Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century

It's been either predicted or joked about roughly a million times, but it took a trilogy of Disney Channel movies to make it a reality. The Zenon movies, set in 2049, referenced but never showed the younger Clinton as the Commander-in-Chief.

53. President Nguyen (2053-2057), from Old Twentieth by Joe Haldeman

President Nguyen, likely named for South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu, was mentioned as being president in 2054. I would say more, but the 2050s have not been a particularly good time for presidential science fiction, for whatever reason.

54. Graveney Westwood (2057-2065), from the Spy High series

President Graveney Westwood, bringing back a traditional of somewhat silly-sounding presidential names not seen since the days of Millard Fillmore and Rutherford B. Hayes, found himself the target of an assassination attempt. He survived thanks to the help of the kids from the titular training academy for secret agents.

55. President Roberts (2065-2069), from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons

During the world's war of nerves with the alien Mysterons, American President Roberts was also targeted for assassination. Or was he? As it turned out, those wacky all-powerful aliens were really out to destroy an ocean liner that was being christened the "President Roberts" in his honor (one can only assume "President" was also his first name). Which, for the record, they totally failed to do, because humans are awesome.

56. Robert L. Booth (2069-2073), from 2000 AD

He rigged the election of 2068, and then he manipulated public opinion by telling the American people that the rest of the world was freeloading. He started seizing foreign oil, killed anyone who got in his way, and ultimately initiated a nuclear war that devastated the entire planet. He then fled to the Rocky Mountains, where he fought his last stand along with his army of murderous robots against the Judges that now ruled the country. He was finally captured, put on trial for war crimes, and sentenced to a century in suspended animation. He's not generally considered one our better presidents.

57. Hugo Allen Winkler (2073-2081), from The Tercentenary Incident by Isaac Asimov

The world patched itself back together after the disastrous Booth presidency, reforming as a federation in which the United States was only one constituent member. President Winkler was not terribly well respected, seen more as a mediocre career politician than as a capable leader. This all magically changed in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on July 4, 2076, when he dramatically took to the stage and gave an inspiring speech that provided a new plan for the country and set him on a path towards a landslide reelection and soaring approval ratings. Wild, unfounded rumors that he had actually been killed and replaced by a robot duplicate circulated around the political fringe, but these were dismissed as the ramblings of those unable to accept he had simply finally become the man he was always supposed to be.

58. Jim Briskin (2081-2088), from The Crack in Space by Philip K. Dick

Campaigning as America's first black president (I guess the nuclear war wiped out all records of the Obama, Winfrey, and Obama administrations) Briskin came into office at a time of rising racial tensions, as severe overpopulation had forced millions of people, many of them minorities, into cryopreservation until such time as space could be found for them. The sudden arrival of a seemingly empty alternate Earth through a transdimensional warp provides a possible solution for this problem, but things rather quickly go wrong. Indigenous populations of Homo erectus are discovered on the planet, a time distortion meant to speed up colonization causes a 100 years to instantly elapse on the alternate Earth, and one of the colonists (who, in typical Dick fashion, happens to be conjoined twins) has set himself up as a god in the ensuing century and launches a war against Earth. Oh, and then Briskin gets elected, leaving him his two terms in which to deal with these problems, although he ran into trouble towards the end, as we're about to find out.

59. Andrew Harrison (2088-2093), from The Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams

This cyberpunk thriller mentions that a military state was declared in 2088, where only soldiers and veterans could vote and the country was run by the president and an inner cabinet made up of the heads of the armed forces. President Harrison, a 41-year-old retired admiral, served out the duration of the crisis.

60. FXJKHR (2093-2097), from Futurama

Like the first robot president, John Quincy Adding Machine, the question of whether this alien would go on a murderous killing spree was a key issue in his campaign. Unlike President Adding Machine, he made no promises he couldn't keep, following through on his pledge to devour as many humans as he possibly could. He declined to run for reelection, feeling he had accomplished everything he set out to do.

61. A President (2097-2099)
62. Victor Von Doom (2099)
63. Steve Rogers (2099-), from Marvel: 2099

History has not bothered to record who precisely the time-displaced Victor Von Doom deposed to become president, so completely had the office been taken over by corporate interests. The Latverian ruler's time in the White House was brief, however, as Steve Rogers, the legendary Captain America, reappeared to take back the country and ultimately became president himself. Whether or not this President Rogers was in fact an evil nanotech creation of the mega-corporations is still a matter of lively scholarly debate.

*For the record, I realize that Lex Luthor should be the 43rd president, assuming all previous presidents were the real ones. For the purposes of this list, however, I'm assuming that isn't the case, as my description of fictional 20th century suggests. By my reckoning, assuming everything is the same until Richard Nixon has five straight terms, followed by the chain of events I described, then Luthor would be the 42nd president, following Bill Mitchell and Gary Nance from Dave, Bill Clinton from real life, and Kang from The Simpsons.

Apparently, it's never too late to jump on a bandwagon, as publisher Devil's Due is eager to point out by declaring June "Obama Month," and featuring the president in two new comics.

The more straightforward of the two is Drafted: One Hundred Days, which places Obama into its regular alien-invasion setting and watches as he fights the extra-terrestrial bastards to the best of his ability. The second comic, however, is just plain odd:

BARACK THE BARBARIAN: QUEST FOR THE TREASURE OF STIMULI: Devil's Due and Larry Hama (G.I. Joe, Wolverine) take political satire to a whole new level. Hama, a surprise hire to some, but not to those who truly know his tastes, will take a look at the current state of politics both past and present and isn't afraid to point fun at Washinton's sacred cows. In the distant future the story of Barack Obama has become a little... distorted. According to THE MADDOWIAN CHRONICLES he was the one destined to save the great republic of America and dethrone the overpaid despots of the time. Join Barack, Sorceress Hilaria, her demi-god trickster husband Biil, Overlord Boosh and Chainknee of the Elephant Kingdom. Who can the lone barbarian trust, if anyone?

What that press release doesn't mention is Barack the Barbarian's nemesis, "Red Sarah." Yes, really, they're making Sarah Palin into Red Sonja. This is supposed to be an ongoing monthly series, people. Be very afraid.

Talking about whether President Barack Obama's televised addresses to the nation affect viewing figures for the network, Silverman told the Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed blog:

Barack Obama knows how to market himself better than anybody in the history of marketing. And he's using the media the way we use and advertisers use the media, and its effect is impressive. It's not helping us get any normal rhythm this year. It hurt the fall. I think it hurt "Chuck" — we had the huge 3-D episode, its highest rating in the year, then it was pre-empted the next Monday with no notice. But he's our president, and whatever he needs we are going to do.

Chuck's ratings this season have been uneven to say the least, and the next episode following the pre-emption showed no bump from the 3D episode at all; in fact, the audience was below that of the episode preceding that one. Whether that can truly be blamed on the pre-emption or just a weird, unpredictable audience who like 3D but not Chuck is less than obvious, but it has to be said: If Chuck doesn't get renewed, there are worse excuses than "I blame the President."

Ben Silverman on Obama, Leno and 'Kings' [THR Live Feed]

A paper posted to the blog of the National Space Society and written by former NASA employees Aldrin, Feng Hsu and Ken Cox, suggests that America's space program has been stalled since the Apollo missions, and needs to find new targets as opposed to the 2004-announced Vision for Space Exploration, which aimed to get people back on the moon.

Instead, they say, NASA should focus on asteroid exploration as a short-term goal en route to missions to Mars and its moons, with consideration to be made for permanent space stations to act as midway service stations for the astronauts. Our own moon, they say, shouldn't be ignored altogether, but any future lunar missions should be part of an international task force allowing other countries to join in our astro-glories.

This paper won't only be available to those bored enough to read it online; a shortened version will be released shortly and sent to President Obama for consideration. Whether he'll decide that the future of space exploration is high enough on his list of priorities to act on it right now, however, is known only to the stars.

Astronaut-authored report says NASA needs new direction [New Scientist]

It is, in actuality, another relatively quiet week for new launches this week, oddly enough. San Francisco's Wondercon convention is this weekend, after all, so you'd think publishers attending would want to have something new to show off... but then, they may have used up all their big books at the start of the month for New York Comic Con.

DC Comics are almost entirely quiet, and Marvel's books of note are pretty much confined to New Avengers #50 — in which the New Avengers meet the newer Dark Avengers, for an Avengeroff — and an oversized hardcover collection of the first twelve issues of Mighty Avengers, Marvel's third Avengers title. I'd make a joke here about there being too many Avengers comics, but in May, they're launching two more, including (no joke), Lockheed and the Pet Avengers. Just think about that one for a second.

Also hitting the oversaturation point: Barack Obama. Sure, the gleam is beginning to tarnish a little bit already, but that's not stopping him appearing on the cover of three different publications this week: Wizard magazine has a cover featuring Alex Ross' Superman-inspired pose from last year's San Diego Comic-Con, Youngblood sees him front and center, picking a new team of superheroes to star in the book, and the Savage Dragon has him either shaking hands with the eponymous superhero or, in a Wondercon-exclusive, punching Osama Bin Laden — I promise you, I'm not making that up. That alone is a reason to get to San Francisco this weekend.

Book of the week, then, is almost unique by being a relatively big-name project in an otherwise dead-aside-from-Obama week: Doctor Who: The Whispering Gallery is something that we've mentioned before, but that doesn't mean that Ben Templesmith's art has gotten any less impressive in the meantime. Even if the story is terrible — and that's unlikely, given Leah Moore and John Reppion's history — it's got to be worth picking up for that art alone.

If you voted for John McCain, don't worry (Well, about comics, at least); the complete list of this week's new comic releases will still be able to offer you all manner of possibilities for you to spend your money on. Go and check it out, and then use the Comic Shop Locator Service to find out where that money should be spent. Yes, you can.

The surprising announcement came at the end of an interesting article on comics site Newsarama.com, which was investigating the legality of President Obama's likeness being used in so many comic books recently. After establishing that Marvel's use of the President in their much-publicized and astoundingly popular issue of Amazing Spider-Man may be "less protected" under the law due to its commercial (as opposed to satirical or editorial) intent, a Marvel spokesman gave the following statement about the President who appeared in Thunderbolts:

[T]he character wasn’t intended to be President Obama and merely representative of the current president in the Marvel Universe, not necessarily Obama himself.

"Wasn't intended to be President Obama"? Really? So the character's similarity to Obama (see images right and above) is... coincidence? Thunderbolts writer Andy Diggle's pre-release Twitter comment to fans and retailers (since deleted; Google-cached version linked) that "Barack Obama also appears in next week's THUNDERBOLTS #128" was just misinformed? Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada's comment on Marvel's own website that "Historic moments such as this one can be reflected in our comics because the Marvel Universe is set in the real world" (not to mention, you know, a story where Barack Obama is seen being sworn in as President in the Marvel Universe) just so happens to be, what, a slip of many tongues?

Hey, it's possible, I guess. So, we contacted Marvel ourselves to clear up any confusion and asked who the President of the United States in the Marvel Universe was... and were given a polite refusal to comment. It'll be interesting to see whether this apparent backtracking of Obama-usage will be reflected in future printings of the Spider-Man issue, which is now in its fourth printing, and continuing to sell out. Perhaps we'll see a "Generic Black Irish President Called Barack O'Mara" variant next time around.

The black Superman - coincidentally, the President of the United States - appears in the opening pages of DC Comics' final issue of Final Crisis, alongside a black Wonder Woman, as various parallel Earths cross over before the universe is destroyed. The character may never be seen again, but that's not to say that comics are entirely devoid of black superheroes.
Admittedly, mainstream superhero comics do lack high-profile black heroes, and even they are usually relegated to supporting roles (DC Comics have only two black characters headlining their own books this month, both of which are spin-offs of their successful Justice League of America title, and both of which are mini-series; Marvel have three, one of which is a spin-off from X-Men, and two of which are mini-series). Both Marvel and DC are trying to address this, in an admittedly low-key way; DC by bringing back the characters from the 1990s Milestone line - a line focused on ethnic diversity - and Marvel with recent (re)launches of the War Machine and Black Panther titles. We asked friend of io9 - and blogger for comic site 4th Letter - David Brothers, who's written extensively about race in superhero comics, about the companies' current efforts:

The problem with both companies, and one which DC will fix if they can stick the landing of the Milestone relaunch, is that 99% of their black characters fit into a certain character type. There's not really a range of black characters. They have really generic hero motivations. There is some variation (Blade is like the Punisher, but more reasonable because he's killing vampires, Firestorm is a stone-cold newbie, Jakeem Thunder is a horny teenager), but the variation tends to be surface-level stuff. They don't really have the range of differences between say, Superman and Batman, or Cap and Hawkeye, or Wonder Woman and Black Canary. Instead, they're working from that Robbie Robertson archetype — good people in a bad world trying to make better. Sometimes they get a little extra sauce (like John Stewart and that corny "stay black" line from Sinestro Corps War, or any time a black character gets to go "There's no justice here, just us"), but what's the difference between Mr Terrific's personality and John Henry? The Falcon and Goliath? Luke Cage and Jakeem Thunder? Not all that much, I don't think. Both companies may be trying, but they're still coming up fairly short. Sometimes, particularly in the JSA, which has four black characters (none of which did anything of note in the mega-arc of the last two years, save for punching a fake god in the ankle or talking about being atheist after meeting a god), it feels more like lip service.

Of course, even lip service may be better that this:

Ah, the '70s.

Captain Obama ... Is It Time for a Black Comic Book Superhero? [Fox News]

New Scientist has a nice gallery up featuring some of the machines the F.B.I. is deploying to Washington, D.C. According to Subtopia's Bryan Finoki, "DC officials fessed to dolling out roughly $50m, while Maryland and Virginia both have pitched in another $12-16m each."

While the robot waits patiently above, another bomb squad vehicle carries this explosion containment device. Stick the bomb inside, and hopefully it will go off without doing as much damage. Check out more mobile defense labs in this gallery.

The idea that Obama's (very successful) appearance in this week's issue of Amazing Spider-Man was less a shameless publicity stunt on behalf of Marvel than it was an attempt to ride on the coattails of the originality of Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon jumped from online fanboy slapfight when Larsen himself joined the conversation:

I can't help but feel very betrayed. They duplicated the incentive cover—and preempted my upcoming one—and even used the "terrorist fist jab." Clearly those in the "house of ideas" looked at what I did and found inspiration.

I hear that they're even doing a story similar to the one I did four years back, where an image-altering villain disguises himself as the President (in my story the Impostor replaced President Bush and took his place for a speech—in theirs the Chameleon, the shape-shifting villain, is going to spoil a speech being given by President-Elect Obama). The whole mess just feels really underhanded. I feel betrayed and, frankly, ripped off and in the real world—the one outside our funnybook bubble—Marvel will spin themselves as these great innovators who came up with this terrific publicity stunt—instead of the thieves they are.

And I know what they're saying when they're called on it—"Presidents have appeared in comics before" and "Erik didn't create Barack Obama" and blah, blah, blah.

The thing that Marvel is attempting to do is to frame the argument. To say "we've featured presidents in the past—this is what we do—it's part of a pattern." But that's a false argument. The "stunt" was an alternate cover featuring Obama— which was something no publisher had done with any president in the past and one that received a lot of press when I did it. If Marvel had done alternate covers with Bush and Clinton or any of the others— they could legitimately claim that they were following a pattern and doing what they've done in the past— but that wasn't the case. And theirs is not simply the appearance of a president in a comic book but one on an alternate cover— and one concocted to try and get some of the same attention that got. I did not create Obama— I did, however, have a character endorse him, long before he was elected while Marvel played footsie with Stephen Colbert— a joke candidate.

"House of ideas" my ass.

Larsen's obvious ire drew out a response from Spider-Man editor, Steve Wacker:

Marvel DOES regularly show politicians and we have for years. That’s the whole point. In fact, Marvel has spent the past year putting a fake presidential candidate in most of our books. The idea that we’d follow that up by putting a Spidey-fan-made-good on our cover can’t really come as a huge surprise to anyone smart enough to be a publisher... And Eric’s notion we stole the idea of the fist bump from him is also absurd. We actually stole it from reality. Like he did. Duh!

...The idea that this was off-limits because the President-Elect had appeared on another comic cover (or that we wouldn’t have had this idea without Erik Larsen) is beyond preposterous. I suspect this is more of an overall “Marvel would be better if I were in charge!” bone to pick that Erik seems to carry around — which, if you get me on the right day, I completely share. But that bone doesn’t mean that anyone at Marvel’s “betraying” him as Erik dramatically puts it.

I’m a company stooge, so I don’t expect Erik’s going to care too much about what I think, but at the very least the writers and artists who are busy not stealing from him don’t deserve his mewling accusations.

Putting aside the facts that, well, real-life Presidents have appeared in comic books for decades, as have villains that take the place of upstanding members of society (Hell, not always villains; a Teen Titans story had JFK replaced by a well-meaning alien so that the real JFK could go and broker peace in outer space), the comic fan community wasn't convinced by Wacker's defense, with comments ranging from "This is ridiculous. Where did Obama bump fist with the star of a comic book in reality? This argument is missing the point so far I can’t even belive Wacker really means it" to "ttaboy, Wacker! You’re sure to get promoted after that response. Why, it practically read as if Brevoort wrote it. Same avoidance of the subject, same sarcastic tone, same disregard for anything non-Marvel. The parallels between the 2 stories are just too many to be chance. Larsen should sue."

We here at io9 approve of that last suggestion; please, let this argument go to court. That way, not only will Larsen have the (ridiculous) day in the sun that he so clearly wants, but also, maybe it'll stop so many comics using Obama for a cheap PR stunt.

Nonetheless, if this is the kind of behavior we can expect from an Obama-run America... it's going to be a long four years.

The latest comic to jump onboard the Obama wagon (Obamagon?) is Image Comics' Youngblood which, like Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man, will feature Obama himself in a second story in addition to the regular storyline:

President Obama picks new Youngblood team! A new day has dawned in America and for Youngblood that means a brand new direction under the executive direction of the new Commander-In -Chief! Who stays, who goes? Only Obama knows for sure! Rob Liefeld returns to the helm on story and art as Youngblood prepares for an all new direction in 09!

This news was announced on the same day that Marvel's Spider-Man issue with Obama was released, prompting lines at many comic book stores, and quick sell-outs throughout the country (If you missed it, don't worry; a second printing should be in stores next week), perhaps showing the business reasons behind the Youngblood decision, but nonetheless, between Savage Dragon, Spider-Man and Thunderbolts over at Marvel, and now Youngblood, the novelty of seeing our new President in comic book form has not only worn off by now, he's in danger out wearing out his welcome before he's even taken office.

At least we know that we're relatively safe from Obama popping up next to Superman or Wonder Woman; none of the presidential candidates in DC's DC Universe: Decisions series last year shared his name, so unless there was a hell of a write-in vote, he's not the president on DC Earth.

Youngblood #8 Obama Cover [Comic Book Resources]

(OK, yes—way, way back, back when George W. Bush was still the president, I confessed to giving up on BSG after only a season and a half. And no, nothing has changed since then. So why, given my admittedly limited knowledge, should you even want to listen to my guesses?

For one thing, as Sir Francis Bacon said—and I think the guy who invented bacon knew what he was talking about—knowledge is power. And we all know that power corrupts. In fact, what sort of person is best suited to wield power? The person who doesn’t want it. Because you can trust them. Ergo, because I lack knowledge of BSG, and don’t really want it, you can trust me. Wow, why am I not a billionaire yet?)

Ahem. On to the guessing.

Excellent Guess #1: The final Cylon is my wife. What do we know about the final Cylon, you guys from actually watching the show and me from looking at the Internet? We know he or she isn’t in the Colonial fleet (probably). And my wife is definitely not in the fleet! I’m pretty sure I would notice if she ever traveled light-years away. Further, all of the lady Cylons so far have proven to be very attractive women, and my wife is a very attractive woman. Furtherer, why would she brush off my persistent attempts to consummate our marriage if not to hide the fact that her back glows red during lovemaking? And furtherest of all, why have I repeatedly come home to find Ramón, the Venezuelan repairman from downstairs, in our apartment, if he isn’t there to perform covert maintenance on her robot body? So, honey, Ramón—I’m on to you guys! Guess I’m a little sharper than you thought!

On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that Ramón is simply helping my wife plan the grandest surprise party ever for my birthday in August. In that case, it’s quite likely that the final Cylon is my wife’s best friend. She, too, is not in the fleet. More important, back in season one, Leoben Conoy, or Number Two, tells President Roslin that “Adama is a Cylon.” Well, most folks agree that if that wasn’t an outright lie, then it’s still misleading in some way, like maybe he meant an Adama other than the commander. Or maybe (and I think you’ll agree that this makes a lot more sense) he meant that the Cylon was “Ada ma”—in other words, the mother of Ada. And my wife’s best friend’s daughter is indeed named Ada. Ada is a baby, and what do Cylons love to do? Have babies. Q.E.D.

But oh, you brainos whine, Number Two wouldn’t have known who any of the Final Five were. Nyeeeeah. Nyeeeeah. That’s what you sound like, and it hurts my ears. You probably want Barack Obama to be the last Cylon! Well, sorry—he’s in this picture, right smack-dab in the middle:

...and the last thing we know about the final Cylon is that she or he isn’t in that picture, according to series creator Ron Moore. Sorry, hopefaces!

But I think you’re close. Because Battlestar Galactica has aimed since its inception to be more than a boilerplate spaceship show about lasers and robots. It wants to tell us something about who we are; it wants to show us there are no easy answers, no black-and-white divisions of right and wrong, no heroes who are wholly good and no villains who are wholly despicable.

And so I am confident that when the final Cylon is revealed, a hush will fall over the characters who are present, somber music will play, and the camera will pan slowly across the gathered faces, until it comes to rest on...

A mirror. Yes, because you are the final Cylon. (Time’s Person of the Year for 2006, not 2008.) You are the final Cylon, and I am the final Cylon, and my wife is the final Cylon, and her best friend is the final Cylon, and Ramón is the final Cylon. We are all the final Cylon. Except for Barack Obama and the other people in that picture with him.

Commenter Moff’s real name is Josh Wimmer, and he can usually be found at scribblescribblescribble.com/blog.

Variety's Peter Bart is the one who wants to see the President-Elect in tights:

Everything Obama unveils carries the message: Transformative. Well, almost everything. Insiders point to the dominance of the Clinton fraternity among Obama appointees. To gain a Bush appointment you had to be a campaign contributor, but to gain the Obama inner circle you have to be either a Clintonite — or a Clinton.

Of course, the new president has told us not to focus on the appointees themselves, but on the man who's running things: The Last Action Hero.

If Barack Obama is going to bring this off, perhaps he should take note of a few of the traits of the superhero fraternity.

Amongst the advice Bart thinks that Obama should take from superheroes is an ability to swing from problem to problem like Spider-Man, and have a strong moral compass like Iron Man (which really leads me to wonder what Iron Man movie Bart watched last year). But most interestingly of all is this snippet:

We can skip "Superman." His outfit is a bit embarrassing and his ambiguities toward women keep getting in the way.

Superman has ambiguities towards women, but Iron Man has a strong moral compass? It's like Bart took a vacation in Wrong and can't quite shake it all out've his system.

Image from Captain Obama.

Obama: America's Last Action Hero [Variety]