Happy
almost-George Washington’s birthday (even though Presidents Day was two days
ago and under
the Julian calendar his birthday was Feb. 11)!
In
honor of our first president – who recently came back from the dead to lead
an army of his fellow zombie presidents against humanity – here’s a short
sampling of classic characters who have run for or were appointed to American
political office.
PRESIDENT
LEX LUTHOR: A new millennium brought a new president to the D.C. universe in
the form of Superman’s most hated enemy, Lex Luthor. Luthor became president
mostly so he could mess with Superman and Batman, having masterminded the
earthquake that turned Gotham City into No Man’s
Land, framed Batman for murder, brought about the destruction of Clark
Kent’s hometown, divided the Justice League and attempted to blame Supes for a
kryptonite meteor headed toward Earth.
PRESIDENT
CAPTAIN AMERICA: In the early 1980s, Roger Stern and John Byrne (Hey, that
rhymes!) wrote a story in which Steve Rogers considered running for president
but ultimately turned it down as he considered his superheroics to be
apolitical. Roughly 30 years later, in 2012, Cap was elected in the 1610 “Ultimate”
universe, accepting the job in the pages of Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates in a
story by Sam Humphries and Luke Ross. He has since been killed by good old 616
Galactus.
PRESIDENT
GARY “THE SMILER” CALLAHAN: Spider Jerusalem, the bowel-disruptor wielding,
cranky journalist star of Warren Ellis’ brilliant Transmetropolitan, starts out
antagonizing a president he’d unaffectionately nicknamed The Beast. Enter the
devil he doesn’t know. The Smiler becomes Spider’s main nemesis for the run of
the series after admitting flat-out that he became president to oppress and
punish people and going so far as to have his political director and his own
wife and children killed to earn sympathy in the polls. Also, he
kinda looks like Paul Ryan.
PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL GRAYDON
CREED: Creed first appeared as one of the Upstarts, a 90s cabal of mutants
(and one mutant-hating human) who got points @midnight-style for assassinating
80s targets like the Hellfire Club, the New Mutants and the Hellions. Starting
in ’95, the X-writers put him on a path toward the White House, backed by head
Prime Sentinel Bastion. Proving that almost all the good X-ideas were Chris
Claremont’s, however, the writers get their Days of Future Past on and have
Mystique kill her own son. (P.S.: The DOFP reality was supposed to be last
year. And yet here we are: no sentinel overlords, no mutant hounds, no
hoverboards.)
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR MITCHELL
HUNDRED: In Ex-Machina, the superhero known as The Great Machine was elected
mayor of New York City after he saved one of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Some of
the best stories in the Brian K. Vaughn series weren't the ones where Hundred
uses his powers to talk to machines in green font, but when he deals with
everyday issues such as private school vouchers, gay marriage and the death
penalty. He makes you wish he was your mayor, you know until the end (no
spoilers).
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR J. JONAH
JAMESON: After years of lambasting Spider-Man in his rag, The Daily Bugle, JJJ
received an opportunity to kick his single-focus Spider-bashing into overdrive
as mayor of the greatest city on Earth. That said, the odds were stacked
against him, what with Spider-Man being an Avenger and all, and other city
officials resigning because of his over-dedication of city funds to hunting the
wall-crawler. And in the biggest sign that his decades-long quest is a fool’s
errand, he ends up giving him a key to the city.
DEFENSE
SECRETARY DELL RUSK: Long before he became DC’s Green Lantern guy (then Aquaman
guy, now Superman guy, maybe next
Plastic Man guy?), Geoff Johns had a stint writing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Part of his run involved a mysterious plague that turned people into crimson
corpses. The plague was ultimately linked to Defense Secretary Rusk, who turned
out to be the Red Skull in disguise (spoiler, schmoiler, he’s right there on the
trade cover). The late, great Disney XD cartoon “Avengers: Earth’s
Mightiest Heroes” adapted the storyline in the brilliantly condensed manner it
adopted most Avengers storylines, managing to work in the Falcon, the Winter
Soldier and the Red Hulk for good measure.
DEFENSE
SECRETARY TONY STARK: If a man who literally wraps himself in the flag can be
elected president, surely one of the nation’s top weapons manufacturers can run
defense. Tony took the job to keep an eye on how his products were being used
by the U.S. military but ended up being ridden out on a rail during Brian
Michael Bendis’ Disassembled
storyline when the power-overloaded Scarlet Witch made the recovering alcoholic
Stark appear drunk and belligerent during a press conference. Residents of the
Marvel Universe must have short memories, though, as just a few years later he
became director of SHIELD after Civil War. SHIELD continued its commitment to
questionable leadership after Secret Invasion, when Stark was ousted in favor
of a man who chases Spider-Man around in purple pajamas.
SEN. ROBERT KELLY: You know the
old saying: If at first you don’t assassinate, try, try again. Kelly’s death
was first foretold as part of Chris Claremont’s Days of Future Past storyline
in 1980. In that storyline, Kitty Pryde, possessed by a future version of
herself, saves the senator from taking an arrow through the neck from Destiny.
Kelly next almost died in 1989 at the hands of the Sentinel Master Mold but was
saved by his wife, former Hellfire Club waitress Sharon, who did die. In 1997,
Cyclops saved the senator from Bastion’s Prime Sentinels during Operation Zero
Tolerance. Not long after, Pyro, who was dying of the Legacy Virus, attempted
to redeem himself by preventing the senator from being killed by Mystique’s
Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But after all those attempts on his life by
pissed-off mutants and robots, who should kill him but some pissed-off flatscan
named Alan Lewis. FUN FACT: In the 1990s X-Men cartoon, Kelly is elected
president, replacing a woman who used
a treadmill in the Oval Office.
HONORARY
MENTION: KANG/KODOS: Yeah, I know I’m
getting off-medium, but who doesn’t love “Citizen Kang,” the 1996
Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror vignette in which Kang and Kodos run for
president as Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, dooming the human race to slavery
regardless of the outcome? “Don’t
blame me, I voted for Kodos!”
Dan Grote is the author of Of
Robots, God and Government and My Evil
Twin and I. He and Matt have been friends since every 25th issue
came with a foil-embossed cover, a hologram trading card and free pogs.
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